For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached ... ye might well bear with him," (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4).
Everyone thinks of someone when they think of Jesus, whether some characterization, movie personification, caricature, or even image we invent, or even the one of conventional or historical reference--the historical Jesus, as if this one is not the one the apostles believed in but somehow they were deceived and got it all wrong and even latter deified Him when Jesus never really claimed to be God. We don't have the prerogative or right to think of Jesus any way we choose or in some invention of our liking or as whom we personally prefer to think of! We must receive Christ for who is He is in all reality, or not at all! He is Lord of all (cf. Romans 10:12; Acts 10:36).
Paul said, "I know in whom I have believed..." and "I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection." Jesus said that to know Him is eternal life. We must be anchored in reality for our image of God or our interpretation and what we think of Jesus is the most important thing about us, it may not matter in the long term what you think of the president, but your conception of Jesus is the criterion of your judgment. this is what determines your destiny! It can have consequences, personally speaking, because it may affect our testimony and how we live our lives, and what our goals are.
To see Jesus as some all-encompassing and accepting all no matter what, or as some sentimental, maudlin, non-judgmental, politically-correct, unoffending, loving Jesus, as some Jesus Christ Superstar or celebrity, or as some impotent but friendy man upstairs we envision or a flexible man that can fit into our stereotypes or boxes of definitions makes Him one-dimensional and not who He meant to be as the Almighty. Some may sincerely say, "I like to think of Jesus as my friend" or "as my buddy" or as my "Advocate," or brother" but we must realize He is "Lord of all" and must submit all things to Him and make Him the number one priority; He owns us because we are slaves whom He has redeemed! The more submitted we are to His lordship, the freer we are. But we live in a pluralistic society where people deny absolute truth and think no religion can be right or has the right to claim it, so we must not be dogmatic in order to get along. In this reality, contradictions are a-okay and there's no absolute truth or values!
To accept Jesus or to receive Him as Lord and Savior is not an option. We must recognize Him as the only begotten Son of God, God the Son manifest in the flesh coequal to the Father in every way. He is not one of many ways, nor even the best way, but the only way according to A. W. Tozer. Even some evangelicals don't realize the necessity of receiving Him as Lord of our lives or to make a lordship decision in our salvation.
For instance, Jesus is not the surrogate of God, a form of lesser deity or creation of God as a god, not God Himself, or as a deified man or even humanized God or demigod. Jesus must be received and recognized as the God-man or as fully and truly God as well as fully and truly man: two natures not to be mixed but to remain in their completeness and integrity, and in one person fully united without compromise of either nature and not to be confounded or diminished. The mystery of this union of two natures into one Person is known as the hypostatic union and the process of when God became a man is known as the incarnation; both vital doctrines to true Christian orthodoxy.
We must believe in Him for who He claimed to be and He did claim and assert His deity as well as show it by divers miracles, signs, and wonders. He was like us in every manner except that He never sinned He also suffered as a human without any special treatment from the Father. All this so He could relate to us and intercede faithfully. Soli Deo Gloria!
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