Two Men part 3
I mean, realistically, there's only the One man. The Son of man. Jesus. I've said a couple of times in this Rant series that the only two men who have ever lived (Jesus and Adam) both died on the cross. Jesus drew all men into Himself when He was lifted up from the earth on the cross. And then He died. Now people will say, "Jesus died so you can live." And I guess that's not the worst thing I've ever heard in my life. But the truth is: Jesus died so you could DIE. We needed the second death before we could have the new birth. The first death, of course, was when Adam ate from the tree of death and died. The second death was Jesus giving His life for us, and giving His life to us. So, in reality, Jesus did so we could die... and He rose again so we could live. Because it is Jesus who lives in us. It is Jesus' everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life that we get to experience as He lives it in us, and through us, and as us. Nobody can live Jesus' life except Jesus. Certainly not Adam. And I think that's the trouble we get into so often--we try to be someone we're not. We try to follow in Jesus' foot steps instead of letting Him make His own foot steps with our feet. We try to be someone we're not so that we can get something we think we haven't got. And all we end up getting is frustrated. We bang our head against the wall and only end up with a headache. We try to fit a square peg into a round hole and we knock our edges off. We lose what makes us... us. Because God doesn't want religious robots. God wants you to be... you. The best you that you can be. The you that does those things that light your heart on fire... in service to Him. I'll go ahead and use myself as my usual example. I'm a writer. When I'm writing... I know I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. It just feels right. As hard as it is sometimes, writing gives me a sense of peace. But it wasn't until I started writing "Jesus books" or doing my daily Rants that my writing started to accomplish something. So, see, God didn't want to be someone I'm not. He made me exactly the way He wanted me to be. What God wanted was for me to be me... in Him. To do what I was made to do... in love. With love. For love. That's the biggest difference between the Two Men. The blood, right? One that cried out for vengeance, and One that brought forgiveness. One that tried to get, get, get... and One that only knows how to give, give, give. Because love IS giving. For God so loved the world He GAVE His only begotten Son. God showed His love for us by GIVING His life for us when we were yet sinners. When we had nothing to offer Him, He gave us everything He had. Everything we would (or could) ever need. Simply because He loved us. Simply because He wanted us to have it. God wanted us to experience His (again) abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life. So He gave it to us. He got rid of everything else so that only love remains. Because only love matters. Letting God love us and loving each other with that same love. Receiving and releasing (and in that way experiencing) the gift that we've been given. That's what the cross was all about. That's what this life is all about. That's what Jesus (God, love) is all about!