Seeing Our Fairest Lord Jesus, the Person

I’ve spent a good amount of time studying the Bible in college and seminary. And through these times, I’ve come to be devoted to the Scriptures — and that’s a good thing. Yet, I’ve been missing much in my daily perspective, to my shame, detriment, and disappointment: the reality of the connection of my mind, heart, and will to the Person, Jesus Christ. He has been taming me, wrangling me, harnessing me, and holding me from every direction until I sit, pause, reflect, and desire Him. Man and God. Very God of very God. True Man — Son of Man. True God — Son of God. Our Jesus.

With this relatively simple concept for my daily faith and orientation — that I relate with not the Scriptures but the Person — my life has changed.

I think it’s not so much that I failed to believe Jesus is a Person, but that I have been failing to see Jesus as a Person relating daily with me. There’s a difference between seeking Him as a Person “in here” — with me, and to me — versus only seeing Him as a Person “out there” somewhere through and beyond the Scriptures, somehow less than accessible by me. Now, in my own life and heart, I believe I relate with the God-man directly, His Word telling me who He is and what He desires from me.

I think about what the apostle John wrote — that apostle to whom Jesus gave the honor and pleasure of writing the book of Revelation. He wrote his gospel account that people might know Jesus (John 17:3), and that is what Jesus wants for us — to know Him, the only Son of God. As we do, we see how dependent we are on grace, and on His mercy. We see how intrinsic grace and mercy are to every single day with Him, as we are still sinners. This is the way He chooses to draw near to us in every single day: grace and mercy. I believe it!

So, can we consider together that it honors Jesus highly to trust His grace and mercy enough to draw near to Him — even as the sinners we are — every day? I believe this kind of faith makes the very angels rejoice. I think about how they longed to look into these things, into the nature and plan of salvation. It is glorious indeed, what God has planned and intentioned for us — at initial faith for justification and in daily faith as we demonstrate His power in being saved continually from the world and its evil.

This salvation is once and daily. We “are being” saved, as the Scriptures put it (1 Corinthians 15:2). And I believe God highly honors our daily drawing near to Him by faith — and, too, our crying out to Him for help with our faith. “I believe, help my unbelief” is a prayer that He honors (Mark 9:24). Isn’t He infinitely kind?

The Perfect Man, of course, completed His mission on earth to seek and save the lost. He had the great power to raise Himself from the grave. So, can we simply trust — with simple faith — that Jesus honors our coming near through Him, especially as we come in need and with our pleading for Him to walk us through each day.

I believe we all need to know that there is a Head of the Church, and we can truly ask Him for guidance. We need to know that the Scriptures connect us to the Person so that we are pulled along by Him in a love relationship. And, I believe we need to know it’s all for the glorious purpose of having become His own people — called out of the world to congregate as His body, in our local areas, while knowing that where two or more are gathered in His name, there He truly is.

Here’s the point: I believe that if you’re held as a Christian by Scripture, that’s both essential and lacking for your daily walk with Him. There’s always a way to bend Scripture to your own desires. I confess to having done this even recently and needing the correction of Jesus.

Listen, I have to be connected to the Head Himself, and push past any fear of Him and any doubt regarding my personal ability of exercising faith. These can creep into the daily Christian life. But when I believe that God has made me for Himself, and that I commune with Him, I have peace. Imperfect faith. Imperfect honor of him. Imperfect understanding of the mercy and grace I need. But He is still near to me, the person, because He is that good. Period.

I must live for His pleasure and receive His joy. I must trust in His love, and I must bring my sins, my many sins, to Him and believe that God welcomes me near yet again by the cross. For, that is both in His nature and in the nature of the salvation I’ve been breathtakingly given.

We must hear the psalmist who cries “take not your Holy Spirit from Me!” (Psalm 51:11) in His truly humble confession and hear God’s answer that He won’t. The Spirit remains. Christ remains in the darkest, bleakest, and most sinful times because those who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And He cannot deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13). They shall. This is the truth, and this is good. Can we together go to the cross — to choose over and over and over to believe Jesus Christ?

He is with us. And that’s true even when we have simple faith, and not the intensity of faith Jesus deserves. We shall not be afraid (Psalm 56:4). When we are tediously wondering whether or not He will draw near again today, we need not look at our sins as self-accusers but consider Jesus faithful to keep us. He is faithful to hold us. He is faithful to welcome us. The Lord is my keeper (Psalm 121:5), as the blessed psalmist says.

Love the Scriptures. Yes. Love them.

Love the Person the Scriptures reveal to us — our Fairest Lord Jesus. Yes, do this, as Jesus made us and saved us for Himself. He wants us. Never forget it!

To know, to be known. This is great love that He has for us, that we should become children of God and this is what we are (John 1:12). Jesus is praised by our relational faith in Him; in Him, through Him, and for Him are all things. So we are, and so we shall be.

More from this author
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What Is Prayer, Really?
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Photo credit: Unsplash/Radu Florin

Lianna Davis is author of Keeping the Faith: A Study in Jude and Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss. She is also a contributor to We Evangelicals and Our Mission with Cascade Books. Lianna is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She lives in Illinois with her husband and daughter. You can learn more about her writing at her website.