Have been imagining a perfect human being the past few days. It's so interesting what the world teaches us a perfect human being is, and on the contrary what kind of person Christ was.
It is the hope of many to be, and many strive to be, intelligent, beautiful, personable with all (whether with the persons of prestige or the laity), have all the honor in the sphere of one's influence (whether it be local or the whole world), talented (physically, musically, artistically, linguistically), live to succeed and to win, and even be religious above all.
But that's not what the Scriptures teach us about the person of Jesus Christ. He had no education, having been raised afar from Jerusalem. He was poor to the point of being homeless. He was not, contrary to what many people believe, friends with all. He seldom won the respect of certain elites, many a time He even rebuked them harshly. He had little honor even in his hometown. The Scriptures do not speak of a talented person, but a nameless Nazarene who seemed to have little authority over the matter of interpreting Torah. He certainly did not succeed as a messiah whom Jews were anticipating. In fact, He was as failed as a messiah could be: He did not overthrow Rome and all her social injustices. Instead, He was crucified by the very thing He was supposed to conquer. He did not win the hearts of His own people. According to the wisest, holiest (and I almost mean that in a good way) religious teachers He was a heretic and a blasphemer.
I've mentioned this earlier this year, but so often we think that we somehow "possess" or "benefit from" Christianity by abiding by its "codes" or even agreeing with her "theology", and that's all there is to it. We must realize that, Christianity exists not for our own self-enhancement or even our betterment! Sure; sanctification is certainly a natural by-product that should take place if one lives in Christ. But Christianity's ultimate purpose, or Christ's ultimate purpose (His death on the cross and His resurrection and the gift of the Spirit) is so that He may glorify the Father God in all... and we so often forget that.
We often say that there is a hole in every man that only God can fill. Well, that might be true, but when a person commits himself to Christ, the deal is to empty all that is to me within, so that Christ might come and live in this chunk of dead flesh.
The only reason why I still fail and lose the divine peace from time to time, is because I forget that, in all honesty, I can't do anything for God. What can I do? I'm but a helpless, weak daughter of man who cannot possibly measure up to anything the Creator of the universe expects... let alone bring glory to Him. In the end, there's nothing that I can do for Him, except allow His grace to empty all of me, that He might do all things through me for His glory, if He wills. The interesting thing is that it is not as simple as the notion of "shunyata", or emptiness that Buddhists speak of. The emptying comes with overwhelming pain that crucifies this self afresh so that it may rise again in the Son's glory.
Indeed, He has glorified all things and recreated all things, so that He may be glorified in all.
My prayer is that Your Grace will come and live in me.
"... who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." - Phil 4:6-8
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