THE DIFFERENCE

Of all the things and people to believe in today, Christ Jesus is The Difference. So, many faiths require you to work toward your salvation, if it is truly obtainable in the end. Jesus Christ only asks you to accept His love gift - His very life, death, and lifestyle to be a part of His family.

Jesus is The Difference among other gods and He made The Difference to those who would believe in Him. Christ could have just lived the perfect, Godly obedient life while displaying God's power of miracles through Him and teach God's Word only to die a martyr's death. History would not have a Savior if this were the case. 

When John recorded Christ's last moments on the Cross, he stated, "When He [Christ] had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished.' With that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit." (John 19:30). The phrase "It is finished" in the original language is teleo (tel-eh'-o) meaning paid or to discharge a debt.  The saving, redeeming or paying part of Christ's visitation was complete but His whole mission was not yet concluded. If Jesus had stopped here, at paying our debt at The Cross and did not rise from death, Hell and the grave, there would not have been any Victory.

The cart before the horse is a challenge in this situation normally. However, what if Jesus had gone straight to the afterlife and conquered death, Hell and the grave supernaturally? Then the decision to skip all the suffering, pain and agony of the whole trial and crucifixion would not have fulfilled His prophetic Word, would not make our Savior relatable to all the hardships we experience and would not be The Difference. No other faith has their main figure, deity or not, dying for the fallen relationship with God Almighty.  

Although Christ prayed three times for another way, Jesus did not skip out on any part of the suffering. This should tell you about the severity of the situation for even The Son of God. In fact, Isaiah many years before Christ's arrival would prophesy the cruelty done to Jesus and grimness of His visage - "Just as there were many who were appalled at him— his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness—" (Isaiah 52:14).

Christ's birth, life, death, burial, resurrection and ascension were all part of His mission. I don't believe you can pick out one of these and claim it as the sole mission of The Lord. He was not born to be just a man, but fully man and fully God. He did not come here merely to live life, but live it perfectly, so we may fail and find mercy and grace in Him. He not only visited the first time to pay our sin-debt, but to secure our victory over the payment of sin which is death. He did this by taking back His life from death and walking out of the tomb. 

This necessary appearing all started a long time ago with the fallen angel named Lucifer, known also as the devil. John describes Christ's mandated first coming like this - "The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work." (1 John 3:8).

If Christ had not come when He did and did what He did and how He did it - several things would undermine Christianity. His messianic prophetic Word would be in jeopardy due to all the prophesies and foreshadows of Christ's first visitation. 

Next, if Jesus had not followed through with Father God's Plan as The Son of God knew it, Jesus would not make The Difference with the Christian faith; Jesus would would be a non-relatable Savior and our relationship with God would not be mended. But praise God Hebrews 4:15 declares - "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin."

Lastly, if Jesus had not followed through on every syllable He heard Father God utter in His ear, there would be no difference to other faiths in our world. Other faiths have a deeds or works related scheme to be accepted into their paradise, we call these religions. Father God reached down to humanity with the life of His Son as the redeeming love gift - we call that relationship. We only have to accept by confessing with our mouth that Jesus is Lord or Master and believe in His resurrection (Romans 10:9). This is The Difference. 

OUR BLESSED HOPE

In John 5:44-47, Jesus said to the Jewish religious leaders of the day - 

"How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?"

Between the time that The Law and all the prophecies about The Messiah were written and the time Jesus arrived, many individuals in history claimed to be The Anointed One of God; The Messiah; The Savior. Every one of these claims failed to be supported.

However, Jesus Christ of Nazareth not only backed up His own words as He spoke them, but fulfilled His prophetic Word spoken years earlier through the prophets by fulfilling everything written about The Christ.

Here in this confrontation with the Pharisees, Jesus attempts to hold a mirror up to them physically, mentally, socially, culturally and spiritually. 

Christ's question from the start - "How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?  - speaks directly to their issue - pride. Belief or the lack thereof in The Messiah was not the only deficit in view for these religious leaders. They held what was considered a socially, culturally, and spiritually lofty position in society in order to obtain praise and glory from humanity. This is what mattered - since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God.

With this in mind, Jesus points out - that which you place your hope in has the right to accuse you also. Thank the Lord, Christ is not our accuser. Jesus is our Savior. The Accuser for every believer in Christ is Satan.

The accuser for the Pharisees and Jewish leaders was the very person that brought Israel the Law and regulations of life - Moses. Because Moses spoke of The Christ, Jesus re-emphasized the point that their condition was not only a lack of belief in Him concerning the Messianic Prophesies, but the deceptive manipulation of the priestly role which was driven by pride. 

But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?"

The Pharisees willfully designed a scheme that would benefit their position in life without the real essence of God involved. They "corrupted [their] wisdom because of [their] splendor" (Eze. 28:17). 

My plea to us all today is not make this mistake. Do not overlook the Promises of God and possibly miss a visitation by Him in order to receive the glorification of men for your position in life. 

Believe in Christ Jesus only, because He was the one who claimed - "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) - and He proved this claim by His life, teachings, miracles, death, resurrection and ascension. Not only put your belief in the right person, Christ Jesus, but place your trust, faith-walk, praise and position in life in The Savior because He is our supreme happy expectation everyday, Our Blessed Hope (Titus 2:13).