How Should I See Myself? (“What I Have Written, I Have Written”)

If you are unsaved, your estimation of yourself is (most likely or often) higher than God’s estimation of you.

If you are born-again, God’s estimation of you is (most likely or often) higher than your estimation of yourself.

 

John 19: 14-22, “Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha.  There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”  Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek.  So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’”  Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

• God Almighty ESTABLISHED Jesus’ identity: “(This is) Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews”
• It was made plain for ALL TO SEE: Pilate wrote an inscription and put it on the Cross. Many of the Jews read this inscription for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city
• God Almighty made sure EVERYONE KNEW Jesus’ identity: It was written in Aramaic/ Hebrew (all the common people knew, spoke and understood it), in Latin (all of the occupying Romans—from the soldiers to the Emperor, Caesar—knew it), and in Greek (all the Hellenists; the Greek-speaking and educated Jews knew it)
• Others DIDN’T WANT TO RECOGNIZE Him for what He was: The chief priests told Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ only write this man said, ‘I am King of the Jews”
• His identity was FIRM and FOREVER, and could not, would NOT BE CHANGED: Pilate answered them, “What I have written, I have written.”

Before we can understand and appreciate our transformation (if it has yet occurred) and glorify Him, we must know and be reminded of who we really are, who we are without Him.

1. We are not anything beautiful, handsome or wonderful of ourselves. Isaiah 53: 2 even speaks of the MAN Jesus this way, “He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.”
2. We are a MIST that appears for a LITTLE WHILE and VANISHES (James 4: 14)
3. Our days ARE LIKE GRASS; we flourish like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and IT IS GONE, and its place knows it NO MORE (Psalm 103: 15-16)
4. We were not only born in sin, but conceived in sin as well (Psalm 51: 5)

We only find our worth, value and beauty in Him, when we are CLEANSED, REBORN and TRANSFORMED!

1. “And He who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new” (This includes us if we have been regenerated) (Revelation 21: 5)
2. “If anyone is IN CHRIST, He is a NEW CREATION. The old has passed away; behold the NEW HAS COME…for our sake He made Him who knew no sin to be sin, so that IN HIM, we might BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD” (2 Corinthians 5: 17,21)
3. Jesus said, “Take away the stone!’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to Him, ‘Lord, by this time there will be an odor (stench), for he has been DEAD four days.” We are or were DEAD IN OUR SINS. (John 11: 39)
4. But, once we have been transformed to new life in Christ Jesus, “We are to God the SWEET AROMA of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing!” (2 Corinthians 2: 15)
5. God Almighty, in and through death to ourselves, in and through new life in the LORD JESUS CHRIST, can bring us out of the tomb, get rid of the stench of our old selves and our old lives, and make us a sweet and pleasing aroma to Himself and to those around us!

NO MATTER WHAT OTHERS MIGHT THINK OR SAY ABOUT US, OR WHAT WE MAY THINK OR SAY ABOUT OURSELVES, GOD CAN AND WILL ESTABLISH US

1. Psalm 139: 14, “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works (me); my soul knows it very well.”
2. 1 Samuel 16: 7, “…for the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
3. Proverbs 31: 30 (man and woman), “Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman (or man) who fears the Lord is to be praised.”
4. Proverbs 11: 22, “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman (or handsome man) who lacks discretion.” [A man or woman without good judgment, without good reason, without right perception, sound advice and speech and behavior, is not appealing no matter how good they look on the outside]
5. Luke 22: 19-20, “… this is MY BODY, which is GIVEN FOR YOU…this cup is the new covenant in MY BLOOD, which is SHED FOR YOU.”
6. Isaiah 43: 3-4, “For I am the Lord Your God, the Holy One of Israel, Your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba IN EXCHANGE FOR YOU. Because YOU ARE PRECIOUS IN MY EYES, and HONORED, and I LOVE YOU, I give men IN EXCHANGE FOR YOU, peoples IN EXCHANGE FOR YOUR LIFE.” [This is for the saved, surrendered, committed, transformed believer in Jesus Christ. If you are not saved, you are still dead in the tomb– in your sins., but this CAN be you!]

 (The Lord led me to this)

Question: What is an “epitaph” and what is its purpose?

Answer: An epitaph is “a phrase or form of words written in memory of a person who has died, especially as an inscription on a tombstone.” (Question: When we say in America that something is carved in stone, what do we mean?) “Something by which a person…will be remembered.” “Some epitaphs are specified by the people themselves before their death, while others are CHOSEN BY THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BURIAL.”

The Lord helped me to understand that the inscription Pilate put on the Cross, “JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS,” is His son’s EPITAPH: a permanent and established reminder TO EVERYONE, chosen by God Himself—the One responsible for the burial—of the TRUE and LASTING IDENTITY of His Son. It is Almighty God saying the same words HE put in Pilate’s mouth in response to the Jews who were saying other, false things about Jesus, when it says, “WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN, I HAVE WRITTEN.” In other words, these words are the TRUTH and they WILL NOT BE CHANGED to fit what you think about Him! Hallelujah! And once we are His re-born sons and daughters, the same can be applied to us! How wonderful our God is and how blessed we are!

{Another very interesting thing the Lord revealed to me—no coincidences with Him—is that when you take the epitaph of our Lord and write it in Hebrew: Yeshua, Hanazarei, W melech, Hayehudi m… the first letters, written as an acrostic, form YHWH and prove that JESUS IS LORD AND GOD, because that is the unspeakable and unpronounceable Name by which the Creator revealed Himself to His people! WOW! Another PROOF of Jesus’ true identity as God Himself!}

 Let me stop here and remind us that WE ALL WANT TO HEAR GOOD THINGS about ourselves. WE ALL WANT TO BE ENCOURAGED. NONE OF US WANTS TO HEAR ANYTHING BAD about ourselves, even if it’s the truth. That’s why Joel Osteen and false prophets are so popular and why kings in the Bible surrounded themselves with these types of men, and why the real prophets who spoke God’s words were hated and punished and jailed and killed. We want to and should SEE OURSELVES AS GOD SEES US. But, in order to not just be petted and stroked, and for us to APPRECIATE and be HUMBLY GRATEFUL for what JESUS HAS DONE FOR US, we need to know what we are and were before HE SAVED and TRANSFORMED us and MADE US NEW. Think back to the words in our worship song by Casting Crowns. Here are some verses that will help us think about WHAT WE ARE VS. WHAT WE CAN BE or WHAT WE WERE VS. WHAT WE HAVE BECOME!

 

James 4: 14, “…for YOU ARE A MIST that appears for a little while and then VANISHES.”

1 Peter 1: 24-25, “All FLESH IS LIKE GRASS, and all its glory like the flower of the grass. The GRASS WITHERS, and the flower falls, but THE WORD OF THE LORD REMAINS FOREVER. And this Word is the Good News that was preached to you.”

Psalm 14: 3, “They have ALL TURNED ASIDE; together THEY HAVE BECOME CORRUPT; there is NONE WHO DOES GOOD, not even one.”

Isaiah 64: 6, “We have ALL BECOME LIKE ONE WHO IS UNCLEAN, and ALL OUR RIGHTEOUS DEEDS ARE LIKE a polluted garment (FILTHY RAGS). We ALL FADE like a leaf, and OUR INIQUITIES, like the wind, TAKE US AWAY.”

Psalm 51: 5, “Behold, I WAS BROUGHT FORTH IN INIQUITY, and IN SIN DID MY MOTHER CONCEIVE ME.” (Our sin is CONGENITAL—A DISEASE or physical and spiritual abnormality PRESENT FROM BIRTH

 

Now let’s read about and hear how the Lord sees us when we have been re-born. Let’s read and hear what He writes as OUR EPITAPH. Let’s see how HE HAS ESTABLISHED US, how OUR IDENTITY IN HIM is SET FIRMLY forever, if we are convicted towards our sin, if we have godly sorrow over it, if we have confessed it, if we have made Him our Lord, if we have surrendered our lives to Him, if we by faith have received His grace…

 

1 Peter 2: 9, “But you are (now) a CHOSEN PEOPLE, a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, a HOLY NATION, a people for HIS OWN POSSESSION, that you may PROCLAIM the EXCELLENCIES OF HIM who CALLED YOU OUT OF DARKNESS and into His marvelous light!”

1 John 1: 7, “The BLOOD OF JESUS CLEANSES US FROM ALL SIN.”

2 Corinthians 5: 18, “…He GAVE US the MINISTRY of RECONCILIATION.”

2 Corinthians 5: 19, “He has ENTRUSTED TO US the MESSAGE of RECONCILIATION.” (Is that message rightly placed? Are we doing it?)

2 Corinthians 5: 20, “Therefore, WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST, as though God is MAKING HIS APPEAL THROUGH US.”

2 Corinthians 5: 21, “He made Him to BE sin (not just to carry them or take them as a burden upon Himself) who knew no sin, so that IN HIM WE MIGHT BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD.”

Revelation 19: 8, “She (the church, the bride of Christ) was GIVEN CLOTHING OF LINEN, BRIGHT and PURE.”

John 17: 22, “The GLORY that You have given Me I HAVE GIVEN TO THEM…”

1 Corinthians 2: 16, “For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him? But WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST.”

Isaiah 43: 1, “But now thus says the Lord, HE who CREATED YOU, O Jacob, HE who FORMED YOU, O Israel: ‘ Fear not, for I HAVE REDEEMED YOU; I have CALLED YOU BY NAME, YOU ARE MINE.’ “

Isaiah 61: 3, “To grant those who mourn in Zion—to GIVE them a  BEAUTIFUL HEADDRESS INSTEAD OF ASHES, the oil of GLADNESS INSTEAD OF MOURNING (crying, sorrow), the garment of PRAISE INSTEAD OF A FAINT SPIRIT; that they may BE CALLED OAKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, the PLANTING OF THE LORD, that He may be glorified.”

Ezekiel 36: 25-26, “I will sprinkle CLEAN WATER on you, and you SHALL BE CLEAN from all your uncleanness, and from all your sins I WILL CLEANSE YOU. And I will GIVE YOU A NEW HEART, and A NEW SPIRIT I WILL PUT WITHIN YOU. And I WILL REMOVE THE HEART OF STONE from your flesh and GIVE YOU A HEART OF FLESH” (a soft and tender heart).

2 Timothy 1: 7, “For God DID NOT GIVE us a spirit of FEAR, but of POWER AND LOVE AND A SOUND MIND/ SELF-CONTROL.”

 

So, if you want to know and to have the RIGHT PERSPECTIVE and see yourself as Almighty God sees you, if you think you are fine the way you are and basically a good person and do not KNOW the LORD GOD, you are deceived. You think too highly of yourself and too lowly of your Creator. You are a sinner in need of salvation, in need of being rescued. He is willing to do that, but you must ASK HIM to reveal your true state and nature before Him, so that you can SEE AND ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR SIN. READ ISAIAH 6: 1-5.

If, however, you think too lowly of yourself and you have been made whole, have been redeemed, are a new creature IN CHRIST JESUS, do confess your TRUST IN HIM ALONE for the forgiveness of your sins, and do believe that God has raised Him from the dead (Romans 10: 8-9), then YOU NEED TO READ and BECOME FAMILIAR WITH the EPITAPH HE HAS WRITTEN AND FIRMLY ESTABLISHED FOR YOU, read it to yourself often, believe it, let others see it by your speech, actions and countenance because WHAT HE HAS WRITTEN, HE HAS WRITTEN about you! Glory to the One true God, the Most High God, the Name above all names, JESUS CHRIST the MESSIAH!

Amen, and again I say Amen.