The Face of Christ

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”              

                                                                    2 Corinthians 4:6

        Some studies in Scripture are straightforward and comparatively easy. For instance, think of the geography and history of the city of Shechem, or the plans and construction of the tabernacle—difficult studies, perhaps, but do-able. But some studies are too high for us—we can barely touch the spiritual edges, so to speak. One such holy place is “the face of Christ.”

        We should begin with a little bit of background, though. Think of Moses—the Scriptures tell us of his meeting with God on Mount Sinai. (Exodus 34:29-35) The Apostle Paul tells us that after that meeting, “the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, transitory though it was.” (2 Corinthians 3:7) “His face was radiant.”

        Leaving Moses for the moment, let’s look at a few verses about Jesus. Matthew tells us (17:2) about His transfiguration—“His face shone like the sun.” Later, in the garden, He fell in prayer, “with his face to the ground.” (26:39) And later that same day (26:67), “they spit in his face.” John tells us (John 18:22), “one of the officials nearby slapped him in the face.”

        Later, Peter warns us that “the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” (1 Peter 3:12) Then we move on to
Revelation, where all things culminate. Once again “his face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.” (1:16) But now His forbearance has come to an end—the unbelievers cry to the mountains, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him.” (6:16).

        This pretty much covers all of the Scriptures, but here we might want to speculate a bit. What did the shepherds and the wise men see in that infant face? What did the teachers see in that 12-year-old face in the temple? What did that young man see in His face when, beholding him, Jesus loved him? And what, especially, did Peter see in that face when Jesus turned and looked straight at him across that courtyard? (Luke 22:61).

        Above all, what do we see in that face? Is He loving and encouraging us, is He rebuking us, is He calling us to Him, or does He terrify us? Are we going to call for the mountains to fall on us? Please, God, may that never happen! Lord, have mercy on me the sinner! Amen.

How to tell if someone is re-born (including yourself!)

        Jesus was in the centre of a crowd packed into and around a house in Capernaum. [I often wonder whose house, but someone has suggested that when He moved from Nazareth, Jesus may have even rented the house Himself.  He was still a carpenter and possibly still supporting Himself with His trade. See Luke 5:17-26.]

        In any case, when four men brought their paralyzed friend to Jesus for healing, they couldn’t get near Him. They could, however, get up onto the roof and from there they proceeded to break up the tile and make a hole through the ceiling. [Did Jesus later fix the hole in the roof Himself?]  As the dust and dirt fell through onto Jesus and His audience of Pharisees and teachers of the law, the friends lowered their buddy on his stretcher, right in front of Jesus.

        When Jesus saw their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

        The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

        But Jesus is God and He can forgive sins, and to prove it, He healed the man and sent him home. The proof is in the order of events. First, He forgave the man’s sins. When the audience doubted, He said basically, “Not only can I forgive sins, I can heal disability.”

        At one stroke, Jesus proved on one hand that He could forgive sins and on the other hand, by the healing and complete recovery, that the man was indeed forgiven. A complete change in his life was proof of his conversion.

        To enlarge a little on this, I recently heard a sermon by Paul deJong, on “assurance of salvation”, and the preacher made a number of vital points:

1)      We are “led by the Spirit”

a)      In our minds when we believe and are happy with and can accept the facts of Jesus’ birth, death, burial, and resurrection,

b)      In our emotions (we love Him and His people), and

c)      In our wills (we want to please Him and do what He wants and follow Him).

2)      Inwardly we call out “Abba, Father”, in the heartfelt way of a child saying, “Daddy”.

3)      We sense the presence of the Holy Spirit, especially in prayers answered.

4)      We participate in Christ’s sufferings; suffering comes to Christians. “Christian growth comes from working through the problem, not taking it away.”

        Finally, a word of caution—most of these outward details can be faked by a determined hypocrite but, praise the Lord, we can’t fool ourselves or God!

The fruit of the Spirit is...forbearance

     The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Galatians 5:22, 23. NIV

        Right from the start, a definition is in order. We may be more familiar with the King James Version, which talks about “patience”, but the word is “forbearance” in the NIV and both lean toward the idea of “long-suffering”. And this leads us to Webster’s definition, “the quality of someone who is patient and able to deal with a difficult person or situation without becoming angry.”

        Once again, we look for patience and forbearance in the life of the Lord. One example would be when the Samaritans didn’t welcome them—James and John wanted to “call fire down from heaven to destroy them. But Jesus…rebuked them.” (Luke 9:52-56). He did not retaliate, He walked away! Another striking example would be His dealings with Saul of Tarsus. Recounting this experience many years later to Timothy, the Apostle Paul said, “I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display His immense patience as an example for those who would believe in Him and receive eternal life.” (1 Timothy 1:16).

        Remember what Paul had done— he had helped at the murder of Stephen; he had imprisoned men and women (Acts 8:3); perhaps he had killed others who were on the Way (Acts 9:1,2).

        But how does “forbearance” or “long-suffering” show up in my life today? What evidence would there be of this fruit? The first might be like Jesus and the Samaritans—there was no resolution coming so He just walked away. There has been a quotation floating around the internet, that bears this out:-

Walk away from people who put you down,

Walk away from fights that will never be resolved…

Jesus didn’t stay and fight, He forbore.

        The other evidence of forbearance shines out when the cause of the trouble repents—Saul the Persecutor is the prime example, but what about those Samaritans? Acts 8:14 tells us “that Samaria had accepted the word of God.” Then Peter and John “returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.” (v.25) So they had changed.

        Forbearance is still a great evidence of Christian growth. A similar case came up when the Lord told Peter to forgive seventy-seven times (Matthew 18:22), but He didn’t say to stay in the situation. A constantly abused wife or child—should forgive, but walk away. If their life or morals are threatened, they should seek help. So, a decision is still needed—remain or walk away—only the Lord can guide us, but forbearance comes first.