"Looking unto Jesus..." -- How do we look unto Jesus?

 

Believers, see Hebrews 12:1-2 for the context of verse 2-

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne."

The verses above tell us that we "strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up" and also "run with endurance the race God has set before us" by looking unto Jesus; by keeping our eyes on Jesus. Notice it is not by doing our best to be good (be like God) by human striving but by looking unto Jesus.

But what does "looking unto Jesus" mean? How do we keep our eyes on Him? There's no One better to interpret the Word than the Word Himself- Jesus Christ. He says in one of the most popular Bible passages- John 3:14-16:

"14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."

Christ draws a parallel between the way that the Israelites who kept their eyes fixed on the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness got to escape the sting of the fiery serpent and its deathly effects and the way that we get to “not perish but have eternal life.” His typology here is the key to understanding what looking unto Jesus is all about: what believing in Jesus is all about.

In Christ's words in John 3, we see how it is only utterly helpless sinners who put absolutely zero confidence in human strength or their ability to produce good that are eligible to partake and can continue to partake in this activity of looking unto Jesus.

The Israelites that had been bitten by fiery serpents only had to look at the bronze serpent on the pole - for us, Christ lifted up on the cross to free us from the power, pleasure and penalty of sin, grant us everlasting righteousness apart from the law and to give us eternal life. Believing this way is what looking unto Jesus is all about. And it is utterly free for all mankind.

Imagine the Israelites trying to remove the snake venom/sting out of their wounds, rushing off to do burnt offerings/give gifts to God, sowing seed, paying tithe or doing their best to keep the law in order to be healed and to escape certain death instead of looking unto the bronze snake on the pole for salvation from their ills. They would have been DISTRACTED from looking with all of their futile efforts at doing what the law commands in order to be made whole. The effect of the snake sting within isn't stalled by these futile activities. Rather, it gets worse. Death is the result.

But this is exactly what many in the church today are being led to do with that antichrist “Yes we are saved by Grace but we still have to obey the Ten Commandments and do good things in order to be godly, made whole, escape God's wrath and make it to heaven” doctrine.

Consider Jeremiah 17:5-

"The Lord says, “Those who trust in human beings are under My curse. They depend on human strength. Their hearts turn away from Me.""

Also consider God's counsel to us in Isaiah 30:

"God , the Master, The Holy of Israel, has this solemn counsel: “Your salvation requires you to turn back to Me and stop your silly efforts to save yourselves. Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on Me—"

Trusting in human beings includes trusting in our own ability or strength to produce good, because we are human. To trust even the tiniest bit on human strength for salvation (from sins, lack, sickness, depression, death in hell, whatever) is to turn away from the Lord. Also consider Psalm 34:5-6:

"They looked to Him and were radiant, And their faces were not ashamed. 6 This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles."

"Salvation" above is not just being saved to go to heaven; it encompasses deliverance from the molestation of enemies and redemption from all earthly ills including lack, sickness, demonic oppression, making stupid mistakes, etc. It is being saved from the power, pleasure and penalty of sin. The word used in the original Greek text of the New Testament is Swthria (pronounced soteria) and it encompasses all these meanings.

Christ says "There is none good but God." But evil pastors flatter the flock into contradicting God's word by preaching dependence on human strength at being good like God aka "be like God." This is the same false doctrine that Satan preached to Eve in Eden. Believer, beware of such whose preaching turns people away from the Lord. No looking unto Jesus here. The arm of flesh (human strength) will fail. Of ourselves, there is no good in man (Romans 7:18.)

The more one tries to be good like God or do the right/godly thing by human effort (keep the Law) in order to be godly (be like God) and saved from poverty, lack, all earthly ills and death in hell, the more sins will multiply — the same way the Israelites would have died if they had opted to run around looking for how to be free from the snake sting (sin nature) and its symptoms (acts of sin and their deathly consequences) that lead to death, giving the snake sting time to spread and wreak havoc. The Law that many try so hard to keep (and thus have turned away from Christ who is Grace-personified) has this effect: Romans 7:5—

“When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death.”

Looking unto Jesus means utterly trusting and depending on Him for salvation from acts of sin and their deathly effects of earthly ills as well as death in hell- just as the snake-bitten Israelites looked to the bronze serpent and were made whole. This is what God's word says. But man just want to add more terms and conditions to be met by human strength/arm of flesh that will fail to the only condition for our salvation: looking unto Jesus for salvation from sin and death the same way that the Israelites that were bitten by snakes in the wilderness looked expectantly to the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up and were made whole.

1 Corinthians 15:56-57 says: “56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The snake sting in the Israelites that got bit is a picture of Sin in man. Trying to obey the law in order to get rid of the snake sting (sin nature) and its effects (acts of sin and their deathly effect) only makes sin stronger and able to wreak more havoc in the lives of all who try. Our victory is found only in utter dependence on Jesus Christ.

The more one tries to be good like God or do the right/godly thing by human effort (keep the Law) in order to be godly (be like God) and saved from poverty, lack, all earthly ills and death in hell, the more sins will multiply — same way the Israelites would have died if they had opted to run around looking for how to be free from the snake sting (sin nature) and its symptoms (acts of sin and their deathly consequences) that lead to death, giving the snake sting time to spread and wreak havoc. Paul makes reference to this scenario in Romans 7—

"5 When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death. 6 But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit."

Notice that the one with the "old nature" is the one who is still under the power of the law. He is yet to be "released from the law." He is trying to serve God by "obeying the letter of the law," just like the unbelieving and antichrist Pharisees. But false doctrine teachers interpret “When we were controlled by our old nature” as desiring to commit sins with reckless abandon. Not so. Like the Pharisees who rejected Christ, the one with the old nature strives to get right with God and escape His wrath by keeping the law thus rejecting God's gift of righteousness that Christ died that we might freely have.

Many churchgoers are still experiencing the effects of the sting of death (like the snake sting/poison that killed some of the Israelites) in the form of proliferation of acts of sin, depression, sickness, lack, oppression, stress, everything that is as a result of the sin nature (sting of death) inherited from Adam because they are not looking to Christ alone for salvation, even salvation from sins and addictions. Just as rushing off to do things in order to be healed would have made the snake venom wreak more havoc, the Law (human strength/effort at obedience) that many churchgoers are trying to keep in order to be godly/saved gives sin power over them. Romans 6:14 says:

"For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."

The Israelites who got bitten by snakes and looked expectantly at the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up are a picture of believers in Christ today. For we who believe, Christ has rid us of the snake sting that is the sin nature inherited from Adam: Colossians 2:11-

"When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature."

In Christ, we no longer have the root of Sin (snake sting) that causes man to produce acts of sins that lead to death (symptoms of snake bite that lead to death.) Like the Israelites who suffered the effects of snakebite but looked and continued to look at the bronze serpent until they were made perfectly whole, all of us who are looking unto/believing in Jesus no longer have the "virus" of the snake sting (sin nature) so our path grows brighter and brighter like the morning sun; but we still have symptoms of sin in us- only people whose physical walk is not yet perfect can improve. Our entire life is spent looking unto Jesus. In fact, this side of eternal life and until we have our new bodies at the Rapture, no one is entirely free from these symptoms by himself. This is what Christ said is doing until He returns for us at the End: John 6:43-46-

"Jesus said, “Don’t bicker among yourselves over Me. You’re not in charge here. The Father who sent Me is in charge. He draws people to Me—that’s the only way you’ll ever come. Only then do I do My work, putting people together, setting them on their feet, ready for the End...."

The one who believes that he can be "ready for the End" aka free from acts of sin even the tiniest bit by his human strength at keeping the law has no need for our Saviour Jesus Christ. The one who thinks he is good by himself cannot be a believer. He disagrees with Christ's word - "There is none good but God." This brings to mind the question that is asked in Amos 3:

"Can two walk together unless they are agreed?"

Beloved, this is why Christ came: to free us from every kind of sin- "He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds." Titus 2:14.

Our wholeness and godly walk here on earth comes from utterly and constantly looking unto Christ for salvation, without the distractions of human effort at obeying the law and doing other stuff in order to be made godly and whole.

Beware of false doctrine and antichrist pastors who try to flatter the flock into doing the horrid thing of contradicting God's word by teaching that man can produce even an iota of good by the arm of flesh/human effort that will fail. Beware of those who distract you from looking to Jesus by telling you to rush off to trust in your ability to keep the law, sow seed, prove your faith with your human effort-driven works and generally depend on what you can do with your useless human strength in order to be free from your sins and earthly ills like sickness, lack, demonic oppression, making stupid mistakes and generally be good like God; any snake-bitten Israelite that attempted this would have died. Their teaching seems good, just as trying to be godly (be like God) by human strength seemed good to Eve. But this is the way that seems right to man but the end is death-

"There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." Proverbs 14:12.

Our faith is proven and can be seen by the world the same way the affected Israelites experienced salvation from the snake sting (sin nature) and its effects (acts of sin/ungodliness and its deathly effects.)

As it was with Peter who thought he could keep the 9th Commandment of not bearing false witness but ended up denying Christ three times, one will only end up falling flat on his face if he depends on his own strength for godliness. As it was with Judas who tried to restore himself into God's good books after he sinned, only depression and even suicidal thoughts await those who try to right themselves with God by their human strength.

Never trust yourself. Trust Christ. Like Peter, many churchgoers do not realise that the reason why we are not committing particular sins is because God did not allow us to get tempted beyond what we can bear. (1 Corinthians 10:12-13.) Apart from God's saving Grace, the potential to commit heinous crimes is in everybody. God sees this potential and how favourable circumstances make some think that some sins are beneath them or that they can obey the law and do works to "prove their faith."

By God's Grace, let's keep our eyes and expectation of salvation from sin and death on Jesus Christ. Only this way do we get to live in triumph over sin and death and be strong and do exploits, yet not us but Christ in us. This is why you will NEVER hear a true believer boasting about how "God gave me a jet because I sowed my car and did not sin." Such who boast in this manner have no idea that God's mercy is the "skeleton" that keeps them standing and restrains them from devolving into committing the most heinous of crimes. Paul addressed this truth in Romans 1 where a group who “suppress the truth” of righteousness by faith (verses 16-19) devolved into sin after “God lifted off His restraining hand…” —

“24 This is why God lifted off His restraining hand and let them have full expression of their sinful and shameful desires…”

If God lifted off His restraining hand that restrains us from devolving into committing heinous sins and let us rely on our human strength and will-power at keeping the law in order to be saved, godly or for whatever reason, we would all devolve into sin and see how utterly lacking in good works we are of ourselves.

For the many good works that we who believe get to do and which the world can see, God gets all the glory. His gift of righteousness to us in Christ is the "skeleton" that holds and keeps us upright and makes us able to do exploits. Without His Grace, all of us would crumple into the helpless mass of sins-ridden flesh that man is of himself. In Christ who is Grace-personified, our life in Christ is like that of Paul who worked harder than all the other apostles. See 1 Corinthians 15:10-

"But because of God’s grace I am what I am. And His grace was not wasted on me. No, I have worked harder than all the other apostles. But I didn’t do the work. God’s grace was with me."

How is God's grace wasted on a person? See this in Galatians 2:20-

"I do not get rid of the grace of God. What if a person could become right with God by obeying the law? Then Christ died for nothing!"

When your believing (looking unto Jesus without the distractions of dependence on human effort at obedience) is right, right living will follow. Just as the Israelites looked at the bronze snake on the pole and got to be rid of the snake sting (sin nature) and its effects (acts of sin and their deathly consequences,) believing or looking unto Jesus (Grace) through whose obedience we have everlasting righteousness is the only way to escape the grip of sin and live the abundant life in Christ - a godly life. This is the only way to live in triumph over sin and death (the snake sting and its effects of earthly ills that kill.) See Romans 5:16-17-

“"And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ.”

Beloved of God, consider Jeremiah 17:5- "The Lord says, “Those who trust in human beings are under My curse. They depend on human strength. Their hearts turn away from Me.""

Also see Proverbs 29:26- "Everyone curries favor with leaders. But God is the Judge, and justice comes from Him."

By God's Grace, don't let any “man of God" cause your heart to turn away from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ with their horrid false doctrines that promote the seemingly good practice of dependence on even the tiniest bit of human strength for the attainment of godliness (be like God.) Adam and Eve believed this same false doctrine and look where it got them. You can't meet Christ halfway. He is Saviour to the uttermost. Here's something I learned from my pastor:

• Look around you for help (from "people of influence") and be distressed.

• Look within your human self for salvation from sins, sickness, lack, not meeting particular standards, any earthly ill or guilt/sorrow for your imperfections (as Judas did) and be depressed, even suicidal. Non-believers are not left out of experiencing the effect this deceit of trusting in human strength (arm of flesh) for the attainment of good/success.

• But keep on looking unto Jesus Christ for salvation, (helplessly and expectantly, just as the Israelites did with the bronze serpent,) and be at rest.

He says in Matthew 11:28- "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Only believe.