A short time back, I wrote briefly about how we perceive God the Father. God exists in three uniquely bound instances as Father, Son, and Spirit. This attribute of His nature is hard to comprehend because our emphasis on the differences of each individual means that our own perspective on His attributes fall short.
I have always thought that the perceptions of Jesus Christ never lived up to my own. Most people picture a gentle-looking man, a bit skinny, and in some cases somewhat effeminate.
I think this “gentle Christ” persona is based in Scripture, but again, as I said before, it fails to live up to what I picture in my mind. Christ is gentle, compassionate, and loves us.
The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
This is good and please God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
But what is always left aside is the other aspect to Christ. Christ is The conquering King. He is The Warrior. He is The Commander in Chief. He is the Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the universe.
I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:
king of kings and lord of lords.
And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”
Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.
This passage in Revelation fulfilled one of the first statements about Christ’s role from Genesis.
I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
So we have a dual image of Christ. One is compassionate and gentle, overflowing with love. The other is of a Conqueror and Champion. Is this a paradox? Not at all, He is both.
“Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
he will come to save you.”
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
My lovely wife and I were talking the other day about the dichotomy and how C.S. Lewis managed to really nail it with Aslan in his Chronicles of Narnia series. Aslan was both caring and conquering.
freedomsbrushfire 
CDP
/ October 31, 2012C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite writers, if you have never read Mere Christianity, read it. Lewis gives such a down to earth picture of what true Christianity is. And I agree Aslan is a tremendous image of Jesus the Christ.
A.W. Tozer gives a very good description of Jesus on this earth. I will have to paraphrase it because I do not remember it verbatim. Jesus would have had the hands of a working man, a carpenter, callused and scared from using hand tools for years. The muscles in his upper body would have been lean and strong from his labor. His skin tanned and tough from years spent laboring out in the exposure of the elements. His hair and bread long and untrimmed because he had taken the vow of a Nazarite. He would have been seen as quite common to look at, except for His eyes, eyes that could pierce the souls of men.
Then there is John’s description from Revelations 1:12-17
12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands; 13 and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. 14 His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. 15 His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. 16 In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.
17 When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.
I would have fell like a dead man too. What a sight to behold!!
CDP