Seeing Jesus

March 16, 2016

Devotions:       

        A daily habit of reading the word of God is essential. Jesus quoted from the book of Deuteronomy that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.  Matthew 4:4 How we approach the word of God makes a difference what we receive from it. The disciples declared that Jesus had the words of life.  But when some people read their Bible, all they see is death.  Some see it as a book of rules and regulations to live by and they try their hardest to live by these rules and regulations, but they fail. 

        “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”  ‭Romans‬ ‭8:3-8‬ ‭NASB‬‬

        Our flesh cannot perform what is required by God, it cannot even get close.  That is why Jesus came to fulfill the law perfectly for us and in and through us.  So when we read the Bible what are we to be looking for if not rules and regulations. The law and the prophets are good, we just cannot do them successfully.

        “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me;” ‭John‬ ‭5:39‬ ‭NASB‬‬

        “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”  ‭Luke‬ ‭24:27‬ ‭NASB‬‬

        We then look to see Jesus in the scriptures and when we see Him we see ourselves reflected back at us.  Walking by the Spirit is walking by the completed works of Jesus and based on that work, the indwelling Spirit of God within us.  The Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead and will overcome all our weaknesses as we yield to Him.  As we read our Bibles we need to see Jesus in what we read and His finished work on our behalf that we did not earn or deserve but it is ours as a gift from God.