In the introduction to her newest book, Incomparable, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth writes,
Everyone has an opinion about Jesus. That became clear when Jesus Himself, while here on the earth, asked His closest followers what they had heard the crowds say about Him. They came up with an assortment of answers, just as people do today. Many nonbelievers will grant that Jesus was a good man, a wise philosopher, a moral example, a great teacher. Others, of course, insist He was a fraud, a fanatic. Some believe His words and influence are a menace to modern society. The majority, it seems, just clump Him together with various characters identified by history and tradition as founders of our world’s religions.
“But you,” Jesus said to His disciples, asking an even more pointed, more personal question, “Who do you say that I am?” That’s what He really wanted to hear.
It’s a question every one of us must eventually answer: Who do you say Jesus is? There is simply no escaping it. And whatever your answer, it carries serious implications for your life and future. So it needs to be based on more than mere conjecture or common knowledge. It needs to contain more than just Christian-sounding vocabulary. Your answer needs to be based in truth. Truth that has been revealed to us. Truth that has stood the test of time and hate and derision and all the troubles endured by humankind, yet has continued to point to only one reasonable conclusion: Jesus is incomparable.1
The Question You Must Answer
Who do you say that Jesus is? Your heart’s answer not only determines where you will spend eternity, but it should also determine the way that you live your life in the here and now.
If you believe that Jesus is the Son of the Living God, who, as Nancy writes, “alone is able to sanctify us, to change us, to make us holy and blameless before God,” then here’s another question: do you live your life in a way that displays that reality? Or do you live as what Nancy calls a “practical atheist”—someone who says they believe that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, gracious, merciful, incomparable even, but lives from day to day, hour to hour as if He doesn’t exist.2
When we are not displaying the truth of who God is in our lives, the problem is usually that we aren’t beholding God enough in our lives.
- We aren’t spending time in His Word, getting to know who He says He is (Psalm 119:15–18).
- We aren’t marveling at His well-tested promises (Psalm 119:140).
- We aren’t delighting ourselves in His Word (Psalm 1:2).
Instead, we find ourselves focusing our gaze inward, fixated on our own circumstances rather than looking outward and upward to the Lord for wisdom, guidance, strength, and peace.
Behold Him
So if you find yourself struggling to live out your answer to the question, “Who is Jesus?,” what can you do?
Fix your eyes on Him.
Set your faith in Him.
Set your heart on Him.
Place your faith in Him.
Rest in Him.
Wait patiently for Him.
Make Him your preoccupation.
Make Him your focus.
Dwell on His name.
Dwell on His character.
Dwell on His power.
Dwell on His greatness.3
Take a few minutes today to behold Christ for who He has revealed Himself to be in Scripture. Because as Nancy says to conclude her introduction to Incomparable,
While learning more about Jesus is always valuable and important, . . . our real reason for needing to know Him is to love Him, worship Him, trust Him, and obey Him,
as well as to make Him known to others, spreading “the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere” (2 Cor. 2:14 ESV).One thing is for sure: the more you know Him, the more you will come to find that He is
indeed . . .Incomparable.4
And that changes everything.
1 Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, Incomparable: 50 Days with Jesus (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2024), 11.
2 Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, “Don’t Be a Practical Atheist,” Revive Our Hearts, May 20, 2022, https://www.reviveourhearts.com/podcast/revive-our-hearts/don-t-be-a-practical-atheist/?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=roh+podcast?se=RZZDEE1AA1.
3 Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, “Don’t Be a Practical Atheist.”
4 Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, Incomparable, 14.
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