Do You Believe In the Real Jesus? | Who Jesus Really Is

God tells us in His word who He is, but we often make Him into who we want Him to be instead. Jesus isn't our puppet and we can't craft Him to fit our own agendas and wishes. Are you believing in a false Jesus, or do you believe in who He has revealed Himself to be?

I've noticed a trend. A trend in which Christians pick one subject that they are passionate about when it comes to Jesus, and they make Him out to be "The God of whatever subject they are passionate about". Jesus, the social justice warrior. Jesus, the socialist. Jesus, the republican. Jesus, the king of feminism. Jesus, the king of anti-feminism. Jesus, the God of America. And the list goes on and on.

But the problem with this is that it degrades Jesus into whatever each individual wants Him to be, instead of believing in who He has already shown us that He is- in His word.

God isn't just the God of one thing. He is the God many things. So when we reduce Him to our own ideas of who God is, we are sinning in a huge way. We are saying "what I want God to be is a better version of Him than the Bible says He is". And friends, if there is any part of you that believes that, then the pride in your heart is going to be the spiritual death of you if you don't get it in check.

I understand such pride. I fight against it everyday. "But why didn't God do it this way?", I ask myself. Or, "why did God let this go on in the Old Testament? Is He really good?" I wonder. But when I start to believe those thoughts, I am not only saying that I know better than God, but I also start to create things about God in my head so that God will fit my mold better.

Do you do that? I think that most of us do in one way or another. So today, I am sharing examples of who Jesus is, as well as some thoughts on who He is not.

Jesus Is the Savior

First and foremost, Jesus came to rescue us from ourselves. He came to reunite us to God (2 Cor. 5:18), to absorb the wrath of God that we deserved (John 3:18,36), and to give us eternal life (John 3:16). If our sin were not an issue, Jesus would not have had to come. All hurt in this world would be non-existent. It is sin that causes all other issues- racial tensions, political corruption, death, betrayal, etc. So when there is an issue in the world, the remedy can't be brought about by political laws changing, protests, counseling, boycotts, etc. Those things may be helpful in some cases, but they can't fix sin and sin is the ultimate culprit. Only Jesus can fix sin. So looking elsewhere first is a guaranteed failure.

Jesus Came to Divide

Most people like to focus on Jesus's reconciliation. And He does reconcile, and we will get to that shortly. But it's important to note that Jesus also refers to himself as someone who came to divide. How can He be both? Who did He come to divide?

Jesus came to divide those who do follow Him from those who don't. He came to make sure that those who follow Him look vastly different from those who don't. He knew that to those who do not follow Him, the message of truth that God gave Him to deliver would be both offensive and divisive.

Jesus had no problem with being offensive. He was a very politically incorrect person. He offended those in the government. He offended those who were religious leaders. He offended men and women, rich and poor. He was offensive because His message was (and still is) offensive. So trust me when I say that Jesus isn't afraid to divide people or offend people.

Don't be fooled into thinking that Jesus was only about peace, love, and harmony. He was about those things, and He calls all of us to love well, but sometimes love speaks hard truths that will end up dividing people.

Jesus Came to Reconcile

Though Jesus came to separate the sheep from goats, and to divide those who follow Him from those who don't, He also came to reconcile those who belong to Him. Even for those who know Jesus, this world will never be perfect until Jesus comes back and destroys Satan for good. But, for those who are in Christ Jesus, we have been given the ability to love with a godly love, and to see people through the eyes of God instead of through the eyes of a hurting world.

Gender, race, and background don't have to play a role anymore. In fact, God says that they don't play a role:

So as Christians, be reconciled to one another. Don't stereo-type people based on outward traits, and don't assume that people are stereo-typing you, either. Give your brothers and sisters in Christ the benefit of the doubt when you can, grace when they fall, and support when they succeed. Jesus wants us to be unified in Him, instead of making our race, gender, or background our point of unity or disunity. He, and He alone is our unity.

Jesus is Love

Jesus, the Savior, the Divider, and the Reconciler, is also the God of Love. And all of these things that He does- the saving, the dividing, and the reconciling- all of them are done with great love. We may not always like the way Jesus chooses to do things. Most of us probably wish that the division part wasn't really a thing. But God is way better, way smarter, and way more capable than we are.

This is why we must reject the urge to make Jesus into our own personal idea of who He "should" be. He loves us, He has what's best for us in mind, and He has told us clearly who He is in His word.