Lesson 2What is Christ Like? |
As we look deeper into what Jesus is like, we start asking ourselves some questions about our own character. Does whatever I do reflect my Savior and Lord? Does whatever I do reflect God? Sometimes I think we as Christians would like to be ignorant of what Jesus is like. Then we can say “I did not know that” and not be responsible for reflecting Him in our lives.
We often spend much time studying other people and things, like our spouses, jobs, children, and hobbies. Usually the reason for this is that we want to do the very best we can in the things that we do, and for the people with whom we are involved. Yet when it comes to our relationships with God, we think that all we have to do is go to church once or twice per week. Well, it is my prayer that this lesson will cause you to start thinking about who Jesus is and how He acted. Prayerfully, this will cause you to start acting the same as Jesus. One of the benefits of this is when people see you, they will also see me and they will see Jesus (I Corinthians 1:10, John 17:21).
In the last lesson we looked at seven characteristics of God and then we looked to see if Jesus showed these characteristics. When you were reading the Gospels, I pray that you read it with a different viewpoint. As we learn more about Jesus and what He is like, you will see Him with the characteristics of the Father. Then as you read and study the rest of the New Testament you will see the disciples demonstrating the characteristics of Jesus.
The next name of God that we will study occurs over six thousand times in the Old Testament. Each time you read the word LORD in capital letters, you are really reading JEHOVAH. Before we talk about what this name means, I would like to give you the other spellings of this name: YEHOVAH, JAHWEH, and YAHWEH. The first time this name is used is in Genesis 2:4 and the last time it is used is Malachi 4:5. JEHOVAH is the personal name for God and it means unchangeable, self-existent, and possessing essential life. God allows His name be used in Old Testament scriptures to better define Himself for us. Let us examine some of these scriptures to see what we can learn about JEHOVAH: Exodus 3:2, 4, 7, 15; 4:6, 11; 6:1-8; Psalm 32:5, 10-11; 33:5,10; 11:7; Leviticus 11:44-45, 19:2, 20:26; Isaiah 6:3.
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