What does it look like to confess Jesus has come in the flesh?

Do you have the Bible app on your phone? Just the other day this was the verse of the day:

‘But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.’ (I John 4:4).  And so, I wondered, what people?

 I looked back in the chapter and read this: ‘Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. for there are many false prophets in the world. This is how we know if they have the spirit of God: if a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.’ (I John 4:1-3).

As I was thinking about this, I think we can apply it to all of us. Maybe I am not claiming to be a prophet, but I am claiming that I know Jesus.  I can freely say that I believe that Jesus came in the flesh. I think a lot of people would say they believe that. I was stuck there for a while, because for a lot of us, our actions don’t show that we believe that! I know there was a time in my life when I had walked away from God because of the painful things that were going on in my marriage. I would still say that I believed that Jesus came and died on the cross for my sins, but you would never know that I was a Christian by the way I was living!

I was living just to please myself. To ease the pain. To not have to think about my life. Is that confessing that Jesus came in the flesh? I don’t think so. And then I had this revelation from the book of Jude: ‘For some people, who were designated for this judgement long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into sensuality and denying Jesus Christ, our only master and Lord.’ (Jude 4).  As I was driving down the street one day, I thought I’m confused. I know people who are cruel and devious and deceitful, but they don’t deny Jesus, they acknowledge Him! And then this thought hit me: they don’t deny Him by their words, they deny Him by their actions. That’s it! If we are real followers of Jesus, we will not only acknowledge Him with our lips, but our lives will show it!  We will be like Him! At least, we should be looking more and more like Jesus as the days go by.

So today, in my reading from my ‘Pray for the Family Bible’ I read this: ‘Once when he was in the synagogue, a man possessed by a demon- an evil spirit- cried out, shouting, “Go away! Why are you interfering with us Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God!”’ (Luke 4:34)

And then a little later in the same chapter, I read this: ‘Many were possessed by demons; and the demons came out at His command, shouting, ‘You are the Son of God! But because they knew he was the Messiah, he rebuked them and refused to let them speak.’ (Luke 4:41).

Did you see that? The demons confessed freely that Jesus was here in the flesh and at the same time the Son of God. They knew. They said it out loud! But they didn’t take it to heart and let it change their lives. They remain His enemy. And what were demons known for? They torment the individuals they possess. That’s the opposite of what Jesus did! He healed everyone who came to him for healing! He came to give us life and to give it to us abundantly. He fills us with joy, and the only way that we can look more and more like Jesus, is to turn from our sin, acknowledge it before Him, accept His forgiveness, and then begin the adventure of getting to know Him. And when you do that, you will find yourself living with purpose, not complacency, looking for opportunities to show love to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

‘His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these, he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.’  (II Peter 1:3-9).

That was me once. I forgot that I was cleansed from my past sins. I put my Bible away and proceeded to live life on my own. But on that day, back in 2018 He came and got me, I started reading my Bible again, almost reluctantly, as a last resort. And that’s when the miracle happened, and I couldn’t get enough of God’s word! That’s when my adventure of getting to know God and His Son Jesus began.

And do you know what His very great and precious promises are? I haven’t explored them all, but here’s one from the book of Isaiah: ‘The result of righteousness will be peace, the effect of righteousness will be confidence forever. Then my people will dwell in a peaceful place, in safe and secure dwellings.’ (Isaiah 32:17,18). that’s just one passage that reveals God’s heart toward us. It’s good, and generous and abundant. I want peace and confidence and a safe and secure dwelling! and that’s just the tip of the iceberg!

To confess Jesus has come in the flesh, then, means to confess everything that Jesus said and did! And He said to walk as He walked. That means get to know Him and let Him change you. And here’s the counter-intuitive part: once you stop living life to please yourself, and decide to get to know Jesus, you will find a joy you didn’t know was possible.