How High is Jesus?

While studying for Bible class last week I read this passage, "That you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen." (1 Tim. 6:14-16).

While much could be said about this text, on this occasion one thing stood out to me. Notice within Paul's lengthy statement about the majesty of Jesus, this phrase, "dwelling in unapproachable light." I have read this verse dozens of times, but for the first time I thought of the Damascus road, the call of Saul of Tarsus, and the voice of Jesus coming down from heaven. This was the moment that changed Saul's (Paul's) life forever. This was the day he literally "saw the light."

Paul later commented, "And since I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus" (Acts 22:11). No wonder why Paul had such a high view of Jesus! The Man he once blasphemed, the Jesus whom he once persecuted, was now shining as brightly in his mind and heart as He was when He appeared to him on the road. This was the Jesus that Paul chose to glorify in his own life by dying for His cause. This was the Jesus that Paul held in such high esteem that the holiness of His name, the headship of the church, and the hope of His promise could never and would never be compromised for any reason as long as Paul lived.

With the coming of the holiday season, I am reminded about how many people will be speaking of Jesus in the next few months. More than any other time of year, attention is drawn to our Savior - to His birth, to His life, to His purpose. Within this annual focus there often seems to be an improper view of Jesus. He sometimes even becomes trivialized as a part of our culture. I know over the next two months I will probably hear and see several things concerning Jesus that will be troubling to me, because people will not be holding Him up as high as He deserves.

It is my prayer, that every person will examine the Jesus that God's word has revealed for the world which now exists in a time when Jesus is not walking on it. Read about His eternal nature and His creation. Read about the promise of His first appearance on earth, His birth, His life, and His death. Read about His burial, His resurrection and His ascension. Read about His church and the promise of His judgment and the place He is preparing. Read about His love, His mercy, His majesty, His teachings, and His compassion for every human being, which led Him humbly to the cross.

An examination of the true Jesus, and not the Jesus our culture is presenting will be a life-changing experience. It will be our Damascus road, and it will exalt Jesus in our hearts and minds and lives to the place where He belongs to begin with.

How high is Jesus? He remains forever far above our feeble capacity to imagine. God help us understand.

"Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." - Philippians 2:9-11