Two Ways of Seeing

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever--the Spirit of truth.  The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  If you really have known me, you will know him, for he lives with you and will be in you (Jn. 14:16-17).

 

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...the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth.  The one who comes from heaven is above all.  He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony.  The man who has accepted it has certified that God is truthful (Jn. 3:31-33).

 

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You do not know me or my Father....if you knew me, you would know my Father also (Jn.8:19)

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Who do men say that I am?....Blessed are you, Simon BarJonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven (Matt.16:13-17).

 

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In all of the Scriptures quoted above, there are implied two ways of seeing Jesus Christ -- the way of the 'flesh,' or the natural man, the 'world,' ---and the way revealed through the Spirit.  And the two ways are very different. 

 

If we look at the history of the church (any church, for that matter), we will clearly see both ways of seeing Jesus Christ -- through the eyes of flesh and through the revelation from God, given through the Holy Spirit.  In every age, there are individuals who constantly call the formal church back to the vision given through the Spirit.  In every individual, it also seems that we move from one way of seeing Jesus to the other, if we are, like Simon Peter, "blessed."

 

When I was growing up, even though we always made the sign of the cross and included the Holy Spirit in our doxology, the third Person of the Trinity always seemed somewhat of an accessory, something or Someone "added on" to the key players: the Father and the Son.  If you were clothed in the Father (baptism) and with the Son (Eucharist), you were well-dressed and could appear in public decently dressed, even though you had left your hat or jewelry at home.  Of course, we were confirmed, but who knew that sacrament had anything to do with the "Baptism of the Holy Spirit"?  He was barely mentioned, if at all.

 

The formal church seemed to say, "Oh yes, we do have the Holy Spirit; He's over there in the corner."  That is why again and again since Pentecost, God has had to renew His church by a new outpouring of the Spirit.  If it were not necessary for us to have, know, live in, be guided and taught by the Holy Spirit, Jesus would not have made such a point of speaking about the Spirit the night before He died.  It seemed to be the uppermost thing on His mind to say to the Apostles.

 

Why do we absolutely need the Holy Spirit, as a church and as individuals?  Because, without Him, we still see Jesus with the eyes of the world, with the eyes of the flesh:  Who do men say that I am?  If we don't see Jesus as revealed to us by the Spirit, we don't know who He is.  And if we don't know who He is, neither do we know the Father. 

 

So here's our choice -- both as church and as individuals:  We can study, teach, and learn Jesus from the outside, through natural means  --  or we can be taught from within, by the Spirit.  If we would be taught by the Spirit, we must "...wait daily at His door, and be filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.  Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway" (Prov. 8:30&34).

 

Or, we can go on seeing Jesus as the world sees Him.  The choice is ours.