3.3 Jesus as Light and Incense
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
All the writers of the New Testament used the same framework or picture from the Old Testament as the structure of New Testament truth, of God’s intentions for us in the gospel. That structure or pattern is the Tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness, as described in Exodus Chapters 25-40.
That Tabernacle and how the writers of the New Testament used it to order the truths of the sacrifice of Jesus and our walk into the knowledge of God is something you must learn, though we will not describe it now. Yet this book is written partly in the arrangement of our walk “through the Tabernacle” into the knowledge of God.
Receiving full immersion into the Holy Spirit is entering through Jesus as the Door into the Holy Place of the Tabernacle.
You Are Light. It is by the Holy Spirit flooding into your soul that you are able to know Jesus as Living Bread, that is as the Word, not just written upon your heart, but also the story of your soul. This is the first and most important part of living inside of Jesus as our Holy Place.
But there are two other things found in this Holy Place that are also part of knowing Jesus as He is. You must also know Jesus as the Light of the Lampstand and as the Aroma arising from the Altar of Incense.
Let’s talk about light, first. Jesus said, “I am the light of the cosmos.” Then He said, “You are the light of the cosmos.” (Matthew 5). What is light?
Light Is Honesty. Paul gave us a definition of light. Everything being proven wrong by the light is indeed made visible. Light is that which makes visible (Ephesians 5:13). Let me shorten that definition just a bit. – Light is honesty. And conversely, darkness is dishonesty, that is, hiding behind falseness.
Here is the most honest human ever to walk this earth. I can of Myself do nothing (Jesus – in John 5:30). Here is the most dishonest expression in the Bible. – All that the Lord has spoken we will do (Exodus 19:8). Here is another form which these dishonest words take. – “We must seek the will of God so that we can do His will and not our own.”
The Honesty of Jesus. Light is honesty. Light embraces fully the weakness God made us to be and trusts utterly in the immediate presence of God causing us to be what God Himself intends for us in the present moment.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we looked upon His glory, glory as the One-Seed alongside of Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). Truth is another word for light. When John wrote that he saw a Man filled with truth, he was referring to the fact that Jesus KNEW that He was incapable of ever pleasing God. And when John saw a Man filled with grace, he was seeing a Man who trusted utterly in the Father directing His every step.
John also said that we are to walk just as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6).
Walk in Honesty. We walk in the light as Jesus is in the light (1 John 1:7). That is, we walk in full honesty just as Jesus walked in full honesty. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide inside of Me. …for without Me you can do nothing (John 15:4-5).
Now, the evil one will tempt you to “try really hard” to “abide in Jesus.” Do you see the disconnect? If you can do nothing apart from Jesus, then you most certainly are incapable of abiding in Him. Be honest; be real.
Yet light and truth are always coupled with grace, that is, the immediate presence of God with you, Jesus alive in your heart. Jesus directs your every step, and He does all things well.
By My Spirit. Here is another expression of this same light in which we walk. “Not by might {inward fortitude} nor by power {outward ability}, but by My Spirit,” Says the Lord of hosts. …And he shall bring forth the capstone {the completion} with shouts of “Grace, grace” to it” (Zechariah 4:6-7 – reduced).
You have neither the inward fortitude nor the outward ability to “do the will of God.” God gave you no such thing. In complete contrast, God gave you Himself, that is, “grace” or “gift,” that is, God in Christ alive in you.
Accomplish your salvation in fear and trembling {honesty}, for God is the Energeia inside of you, both to desire and to energeo for the sake of good pleasure, of satisfaction and delight (Philippians 2:12b-13).
You Are a Mess. You undoubtedly think of yourself as a mess, and you are completely correct. But you are Jesus’ mess, and all that you are, including your sin and your shame, are found only inside of Him.
Never walk in dishonesty; be honest about your inability to “live the Christian life.” And know that the Energeia of God in you, the Lord Jesus, is directing your every step by God’s desire and intention. It is for this reason that we give thanks in and for all things, every circumstance and reality of our lives (Ephesians 5:20). Giving thanks in and for all is the one thing we do that is part of our believing in Jesus. Giving thanks is the light of the Spirit.
You Are Fragrance. Jesus, the One who dwells in Person at home in your heart is also the Aroma of the incense that enters into the presence of God, and you inside of Him. Now thanks be to God who always leads us in the triumphal procession inside of Christ, and the aroma of His knowledge being made visible through us in every place. For of Christ we are a fragrance to God… (2 Corinthians 2:14-15a).
You see how every word that is speaking of Christ is also speaking of you. Just as you are the same honesty in this cosmos that Jesus is, so you are also the same fragrance to God that Jesus is. This “fragrance” is the celebration of an already completed victory.
Let God Be True. To understand this fragrance that you are to God, we must look back again to the nonsense spoken by the serpent and believed by humans. When the serpent said, “Did God indeed say,” and when he contradicted God’s “You are,” with his own fake, “You can be, if you try,” the serpent was delivering his mighty attack against the Lord Jesus Christ. In essence, what he was really saying was, “God, You lie. Jesus, every Word You speak, is faithless and false.” And humans have been agreeing with the serpent ever since.
Here is God’s response. – Let God be true and every man a liar [a fake], as it has been written, “That You may be justified inside Your words, and will overcome inside Your being judged” (Romans 3:4).
Absolute Confidence. God’s triumph is Jesus, every Word that He speaks, proven faithful and true. And when you walk in utter confidence that Jesus inside of you fulfills in and through you all that God means by what He says, the full victory over all that opposes, you are the sweetest fragrance that could ever arise inside of God.
This is why you give thanks in and for all things, for Jesus IS already faithful and true in your life regardless of how you see with your eyes or judge with your emotions. It is your absolute confidence in Jesus, the One who fills your heart with His glory, accomplishing all God intends in your life, that absolutely pleases God (Hebrews 11:6).
Changing Your Mind. But our confidence in Jesus expressed as a celebration of victory already won, foes already defeated, an inheritance already ours, must work its way into all the words of the story we tell ourselves about ourselves.
And do not share the same outward pattern of expression with this age, but be transformed {as a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly} by the renewing of the mind, into proving out what is the desire of God, that which is good, well-pleasing, and complete (Romans 12:2).
It is your thinking about yourself that God wants to change, the thinking of your mind. Put every part of yourself into the Lord Jesus, especially your sin and your shame, and put Jesus upon every part of yourself in the story of your own mind.
Three More Parts of Knowing Jesus. Let’s delineate three more parts of knowing Jesus as He is, a knowing given to us inside the fullness of the Holy Spirit, inside the Holy Place.
7. As you are immersed into the Holy Spirit, you know the Words written upon your heart as Spirit and Life. Word and Spirit are always entwined together and Personal inside of you.
8. You eat of Jesus as Bread as you ask God to fulfill in you all that He means by what He speaks and then believe you have received all you ask. Then, having asked and believed, you speak Christ as your own soul, your own story of self.
9. As you walk in honesty, knowing you are incapable of pleasing God, so you walk in confidence that God Himself is performing all He desires in you. You give thanks in and for all things; Jesus Himself directs your every step, regardless.