Focus 40: Day 9 - March 18, 2011

Christ is Real

"For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible... everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him." -Colossians 1:16 MSG

Not everyone has the same understanding of Jesus Christ.

When Paul wrote these words he was reacting to a group of people called the Gnostics. These people believed that all matter (flesh, things of this world) was evil and only the Spirit (soul, God's Spirit) was good. These folks called themselves Christians and were trying to change the way people understood Jesus Christ.

William Barclay describes it this way; "If matter was altogether evil, it followed that the body was altogether evil. It followed further that he who was the revelation of God, could not have had a real body. He could have been nothing more than a spiritual phantom in bodily form. The Gnostics completely denied the real manhood of Jesus. In their own writings they, for instance, set it down that when Jesus walked, he left no footprints on the ground."

In other words, Jesus wasn't a real human being.

If Jesus wasn't a real human being then he could not have suffered and died on the cross. Salvation to them was just knowledge. I know about God therefore I am saved. In this there is no interest in the forgiveness of sins or the idea of redemption (living another way as Christ lived).

This idea still exists today.

Being Christian is about more than just knowing about Jesus. It is more than just saying that there is a God. Jesus is real. He was real. He really will return. Through Jesus everything came into existence. That includes all matter. It includes our human bodies and all the stuff we do.

Therefore, Jesus has an interest in what we do with all that we have been given. Following Christ is living as he lived. It is seeking redemption in all areas of life. It is the returning of God's creation to God's way. Do you know this way? Do you know the real Jesus who really saves?

Jesus had footprints. Jesus was and is real. His desire is that we live the life he created and saved us to live. Today, spend some time in prayer and self-examination. Is Jesus more than knowledge to you? Are you allowing him to change your life? If not, what is stopping you?

Pastor John Mattern, First Church of God, Greensburg, Indiana.

1 The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, ed. William Barclay, lecturer in the University of Glasgow, The Daily study Bible series, Rev. ed. (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 2000, c1975), 115.