The mystery of humanity is reflected in our physical condition, which contrasts with the true image of God. No misinformation affects humanity more than the promotion of the antithesis of humanity. Rejecting the truth of this information denies the only key that can free humanity from the bondage of sinfulness. The mystery lies in our failure to properly define the meaning of God. Understanding begins with accepting every word uttered by God as authentic, without allowing for imagination. Who and what is God?
The answer to this question dispels the unbelief, clogging humanity. All those who witnessed Jesus’ miraculous activities were led to recognize that Jesus was the Christ. Nothing is mysterious about that revelation, except redefining the meaning of humanity. He often told His followers that those with faith as small as a mustard seed had no limitations in this life. Jesus said unto him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23). But, what was the significance of the belief that Jesus was talking about? The answer is that the condition of belief was sustained by the identity of Jesus as Christ.
We must first clarify the term “Christ” to fully comprehend the significance of believing, which leads to the ability to access the state of Godliness. The term Christ means “the anointed one.” This implies daily surrender, daily filling, and daily obedience to His plans and purpose—not just once, but every day, all day. To be anointed by God is to be filled with all the fullness of God so that you can faithfully perform His work in this world. Nothing enables that except through the promised Holy Spirit. In the context of the term Messiah, the Israelites understood the Messiah as one who would deliver Israel from their enemies. They expected a king of the Davidic line who would free Israel from foreign bondage and restore the glories of its golden age.
The opportunity for anointment is available to anyone in this world, provided they believe in Jesus (Mark 9:23). The key is that the person who believes is not limited by anything. Who else would be unlimited except God? Confusion arises when one assumes that believing in Jesus is about deifying His personality, rather than appreciating being at His level of understanding. However, believing in Jesus implies understanding that Jesus is the standard of what humanity entails. Believing in Jesus guarantees access to what was lost in the Garden of Eden. Failure to believe keeps a person in the opposite of godliness.
Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing! But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marvelled, saying, “Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” (Matthew 8:23-27 NKJV)
The astonishment displayed by those who witnessed the calming of the tempestuous sea reveals their deficiency in faith. Not one of them sought to question Jesus’ statement: “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” The faith that Jesus referred to was not that of merely relying on Him, but understanding the significance of their origin. This implied possessing a power similar to that of God. In other words, their lack of belief stemmed from the assumption that their power was limited to what sustains the physical universe.
The lament of Jesus reveals His frustration with their failure to believe. They were stuck in believing that the physical universe was of greater significance than themselves. This misconception arose from their lack of appreciation for a particular Scripture concerning their origin. Their full understanding of that Scripture would have alleviated their timidity, which began with their tendency to demean one another. Unbeknownst to them, the more they invalidated others, the more they invalidated themselves. Consequently, they sought to refute the fact that Jesus was the Son of God, assuming Jesus was unfit to be God’s Son.
“I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.” They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.”
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me” (John 8:37-45 NKJV).
The aforementioned conversation between Jesus and the Jews is marked by their rejection of Jesus claiming to be the Son of God. Their belief in being Abraham’s descendants led them to assume a special status. They exhibited the opposite of Abraham’s humble nature before God. Despite this, they dared to call Abraham their Father, without considering Abraham’s attitude in his relationship with God. They were angry at Jesus for calling God His Father, yet failed to verify if what Jesus had said violated Scripture.
The story would have been different if they regarded each of their fellow men as God’s Child. However, they had grown accustomed to labelling individuals as either superior or inferior. What particularly incensed them about Jesus was that He appeared to portray Himself as more informed than they were. There was truth in that, but the critical point was their failure to appreciate that divine knowledge came from God. They were accustomed to judging humans based on appearance and background. Emerging from the despised city of Nazareth, Jesus could not meet the standard that deserved their honour.
“My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and My Father Father are one.” Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods” ’? If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him.” Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand” (John 10:29-39NKJV).
The Jews were offended by Jesus calling God His Father. Jesus made this claim because He knew God as the Father of all humanity, as all humans originated from God. One of the pivotal scriptures that the Jews held was that God created humans in His image. Using common sense, if God was not the Father of humanity, who else qualified for that position? They could not accept Jesus’ assertion that Satan was their father. However, Jesus’ point was based on the viewpoint that Satan was a liar, holding to the belief that humans were not God’s children. They therefore held to the falsehood that humans were not God’s children.
Their intense hatred of Jesus originated from Satan, whose sustenance is pride rather than humility. The interesting manifestation of those Jews was their agitation over Jesus’ assertion that He was the Son of God. Where did this idea of stoning Him, without first verifying the veracity of His claim, come from? This demonstrates the human condition of being too quick to pull the trigger. It was their murderous minds, not realizing that it came from the devil. We have reached a stage where most people appreciate being God’s children. But this was an assertion that could have caused Jesus’ premature murder.
Jesus spoke from a position of knowledge, but they argued from a position of assumption. They even questioned the decency of Jesus’ biological origin, exposing themselves as people of this world. Those of this world believe in categorizing humans, invalidating the truth that all humans were created in God’s image. The most interesting thing about strict observance of God’s laws is that a person can be zealous about those laws and yet be found wanting. The reason is that of failure to appreciate the significance of the fundamentals of life. One of the experts in those laws came to Jesus, attempting to test Him, to prove His incredibility:
And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbour as yourself.’ ” And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”
Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance, a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion.
So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ So which of these three do you think was neighbour to him who fell among the thieves?” And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:25-37 NKJV)
The lawyer was well-versed in the law, but it seems he had a problem with the significance of neighbourliness. By delivering the Good Samaritan parable, Jesus sought to show that another fellow human is not different from oneself. This principle affirms that humans, as created in God’s image, cannot be invalidated. Their conditions of disadvantage apply to the person who assumes to be at an advantage. In other words, if I am at an advantage, I am more at a disadvantage, as long as the other person is disadvantaged.
The notion of assuming superiority over others reveals a condition of aberration. There is no doubt that Jesus was at an advantage, more than any other person who has ever existed in this world. Godliness was identified with Him, making Him the sole standard to which those of this world ought to have aspired. However, He refused to accept the honour that would have resembled that of His physical reality. Physically, Jesus lost everything, revealing a standard toward attaining God’s glory. The esteemed accolades in the secular world are an abomination that should not be entertained by those who recognize themselves as God’s children.
“Let each of you look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 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 2:4-11 NKJV).
Paul discusses the issue of godliness in the aforementioned Scripture. One’s interests should encompass the interests of others. Jesus was equal to God, an advantage never accessed by anyone in this world. However, believers in Jesus should enjoy a similar advantage when aware of having been created in God’s image. The stigma lies in not knowing what believing in Jesus implies. Believing in Jesus places a person in the position of Jesus, thereby requiring them to behave like Jesus in principle. Renouncing the Adamic condition before adopting the Jesus condition is what believing in Jesus entails.
The term “God” represents a principle that, when adopted by anyone, grants freedom. Godliness should not be considered from an idolatrous viewpoint. It is a pristine principle that grants the ability to assume the status of God. Human beings were created to resemble God, rather than striving to resemble their earthly fathers. Jesus said that with faith as small as a mustard seed, nothing would be impossible for that person. This aligns with the undeniable truth that God cannot be limited by anything. Believing in Jesus entails adopting the culture of Jesus, which invalidates all worldly aspects except the mind of God, to become part of God.
Andrew Masuku is the author of Dimensions of a New Civilization, laying down standards for uplifting Zimbabwe from the current state of economic depression into a model for other nations worldwide. A decaying tree provides an opportunity for a blossoming sprout. Written from a Christian perspective, the book is a product of inspiration, bringing relief to those having witnessed the strings of unworkable solutions––leading to the current economic and social decay. Most Zimbabweans should find the book as a long-awaited providential oasis of hope, in a simple conversational tone.
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