For Me to Live is Christ
When the Lord Jesus answered Philip's request to show them the Father, He was revealing the primary purpose of the ministry of Jesus Christ--to bring revelation of God to the world. In the next few verses, the Lord re-affirms the unity between He and the Father; and later on, in subsequent verses, the Lord confirms the unity of all in Christ with God.
As the ministry of Jesus was to bring revelation of God to the world (John 18:37), our purpose in life on earth is to bring revelation of Jesus Christ to the world. In other words, when people see you, they should see Christ. This is what being a witness to His resurrection is all about. It's also a vivid illustration of what salt and light are--and how we should be those things. We are salt and light because Jesus is salt and light. We should not aspire, in and of ourselves, to reveal love to the world; rather, we are to yield to the leadership of the Holy Spirit and allow Him to use us to accomplish this purpose.
Answer this question: Is Jesus so magnified in your body that you can confidently say, "He that has seen me has seen Jesus"? Many Christians are currently walking around and shuffling through the pages of books, trying to find their "purpose" in life. As many of these books focus on personal development and character building, they don't accurately reveal God's true purpose for His children. Why? Because our purpose isn't about us. The familiar verses in Romans 8:28-29 reveals God's true purpose for us: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Simply put, we are, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, to be Jesus to the world. Because as he is so are we in this world. [1 John 4:17]
As you go through life today, remember that the world views Jesus through His followers (that's us). Our lives either glorify the Lord or bring shame to Him. Do the people of the world see the typical religious person, or do they see a revelation of the living Christ manifested in your body? Are you salt and light, or acid and darkness? The Christian life is this simple, friends. Simple, but not easy. In order for Christ to be magnified in our bodies, we must do as He did, and deny ourselves, bear the cross and do the works of God by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This was the apostle Paul's prayer to the Philippian church: According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. [Philippians 1: 20-21]
Prayer: Dear Father in Heaven. In the name of Jesus, I ask for you to help me deny myself and surrender to the Holy Spirit so I can do the works of Christ. I want to walk as Jesus walked; to talk as Jesus talked. To love as Jesus loved. To prove to a dying and unbelieving world that you love them through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Today, I repeat my commitment to pursuing the works of Christ and to glorify the Father in Heaven. Amen.
