I also marvel at the image, and think that it *might* be Him. I don’t need to to believe in Him, though.
“I don’t need to to believe in Him, though.”
Well.... maybe you feel no such “need” at the moment, but the disparity in benefits for those who do believe vs those who don’t is so vast that it projects back upon the word “need” and imbues it with fresh gravity.
You may be perfectly well-off economically; not in “need” of additional income. Yet, presented with a legitimate avenue to a substantial additional fortune, you may be led to re-cast your usage of “need” in such a way as to support you acting to secure this additional wealth.
TECHNICALLY, you didn’t “need” it, but once you had a clear view of it, and a sure avenue of access, then there came the “need” to go get it.
If, for some reason, you thought the purported fortune wasn’t there to be had, that doubt would throttle any nascent sense of “need” to go get it, no matter how direct the means.
In the same way you have no “need” of Christ.
You sense neither the gravity of the personal doom He has averted in your behalf, nor have you any sense of his magnanimity toward you, nor do you perceive your peril in persistent unbelief, hence you feel no “need” of him.
Nonetheless, you have been spared from a judicial penalty that would have meant your personal execution by God; Christ interposed Himself to be executed in your stead.
The judicial penalty having been paid in Him, you now stand exonerated. Of the judicial penalty, that is.
For your problem — something the Bible calls “sin” — is in two aspects not merely one:
It bears not only a penalty, but consequences, also.
Likewise, forgiveness from sin is two-fold; having both a remedy for the penalty, and for the consequences.
Forgiveness of the penalty of sin was complete in Christ upon His Cross, by the grace and mercy of God. It is done; done for all, and done for all time.
What remains to you now is simply to believe this good news of Divine kindness toward you a priori, repent of your past unbelief, wrong acts and attitudes; and subscribe irrevocably to the reality of the Person and Work of Jesus Christ so you can be forgiven (and your soul healed) of the consequences of sin, and really LIVE.
“God had a dream, and He wrapped your body around it.”
— Lou Engle
There is a transcendent, Divine purpose for your existence that outshines all you’ve known, and it’s “THIS CLOSE.”
There’s a fortune there, and a direct avenue to it.
Christ’s love compels me to tell you.
So, do re-evaluate your “need.”