When The Light Spoke

When Paul had his life changing experience with the Light on his way to Damascus this is how he relates it:

And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?

And I replied, Who are You Lord?

And He said to me, I AM JESUS, the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.

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I thought for sure that perhaps in another translation it would have said "I am Christ" since Paul's experience was after Jesus' ascension. So I diligently looked in several other translations and every one of them said, "I am Jesus".

So Paul's very first experience with the Christ, Christ introduced himself as Jesus....Jesus, in his blazing glorified light form...now, not Jesus the man, but Jesus as Christ and Lord.

Now Paul was killing believers and having both men and women put in prison and because Jesus so identifies with his Body that he, in essence, was telling Paul that to persecute them was to be persecuting him.

Since Jesus was made BOTH Christ and Lord in his glorification, that moved him into a universal position in scope and ability - "all power both in heaven and earth has been given unto me"....."As the Father has life in Himself, so it has been given to the son to have Life in himself." That says to me, that the son has matured to a place to step into the shoes of his father and act as him.

In his ascension he was restored to his glorious equality and privilege with the Father that he had forfeited to be made flesh. That qualifies him to actually impart Life or to father a generation which exceeds just being a pretty picture or pattern about it.

Now, the reason that I am always eager to lift up Christ Jesus is because that defines for us the kind of glory that we are called to. To me that is what the high calling of God in Christ Jesus is...."to have all power both in heaven and in earth".... to know as God knows, and to be empowered to do as God does.....power to love all creation, power to bless and deliver and bring heaven into our earth and establish the kingdom of God in this earth. Thank you our Father!