Being Saved and Seeing Jesus Are Not the Same
Is it enough to “be saved?” Is there something deeper we are all called to? Do you only see what Jesus has done for you; what He can do for you? How big is your God? Is He big enough; bigger than your circumstances?
John 15:1 “I AM the True Vine…”
Vine in the Greek is “amphoteroi” which means “both the one and the other; both of the two.” How mind blowing is that? Mark 16:12 “After that He appeared in another form to two of them…” Oswald Chambers says the following: Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same….You should always recognize the difference between what you see Jesus to be and what He has done for you. If you see only what He has done for you, your God is not big enough…. Have you seen Jesus? If so, you will want others to see Him too. “And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either” (Mark 16:13). When you see Him, you must tell, even if they don’t believe.”
Seeing Jesus drives you to promote Him to be first, foremost and pre-eniment. Your life becomes intertwined with His because He is your life. But there’s more. “Both of the two.” We are both of the Father and the Son. We are both of the Spirit and the Word. He is the True Vine and we are simply extensions of Him – we are His branches.
The root words of the Greek word “Vine” reveal more: “amph” = “around.” As we are around Jesus we are changed and transformed. What’s entirely mind blowing is that He grows as He is around us – we are His Body. Paul states: [Even] now I rejoice in the midst of my sufferings on your behalf. And in my own person I am making up whatever is still lacking and remains to be completed [on our part] of Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church. Colossians 1:24
“Alon” = refers to a “ground plot or threshing floor.” We meet Jesus on the threshing floor as he cleanses us from the soil of Adam (Adamah = Hebrew for “dirt”). Within the “soil” of our hearts the Seed of His Spirit and Word are planted and He becomes the Rock of our planting. The Spirit and the Word working in unison to break us free from the packed, road ways of this world system, the blackbirds of the prince of the power of the air, and the thorns, weeds, and briars of the cares of this life. What is totally amazing is that God’s Temple in Jerusalem was built on a threshing floor: Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared to David his father, in the place that David had appointed, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2 Chronicles 3:1
According to the Apostle Paul you are the temple of the Lord: 1 Cor. 6:19-20 Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own, you were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.
And what’s entirely amazing is that the Apostle Paul referred his reader to another aspect of the foundations of God’s Temple: 1 Chronicles 21:18-24 Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David that David should go up and set up an altar to the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. So David went up at Gad’s word, which he spoke in the name of the Lord. Now Ornan was threshing wheat, and he turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons hid themselves. And as David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw him, and went out from the threshing floor and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground. Then David said to Ornan, Grant me the site of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar on it to the Lord. You shall charge me the full price for it, that the plague may be averted from the people. Ornan said to David, Take it; and let my lord the king do what is good in his eyes. I give you the oxen also for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for wood and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all. And King David said to Ornan, No, but I will pay the full price. I will not take what is yours for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings which cost me nothing.
Lastly there is the root word “Helisso” = “to coil; to wrap together.” Our dirt mixed with chaff and straw is crushed by the weight of His love, and the glory of seeing Him. We go beyond being saved to being wrapped in Him as He wraps His life around ours and we wrap our lives around Him. Through this intertwining and intermingling He pulls us up from the threshing floor – from the chaff, the straw, and the hard, packed soil. We are lifted from the soil into the Son, and watered by His Spirit. WE grow into the Vine as we see Him. Moving from simply being saved to knowing His resurrection and transformation.
