Knowing Christ
Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 5:16, that if we did once know Christ in the flesh, now, that is not how we should know Him.
."Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more."
What a beautiful transition Paul presents here. Jesus of Nazareth was so prominent in the early Church that those who had seen and talked with Jesus were very prominent believers.
This was wonderful, just to hear first-hand about the Savior, but this Jesus, the Jesus who lived in the body given to Him by Mary of Nazareth, was not the Lord who was to be the life of every man born again. The Holy Spirit had formed a new and greater body at Pentecost, and Christ was to be and is the life of that body, sharing that incorruptible life with every member.
This is why Paul taught that we are no longer to know Jesus in the flesh, meaning Jesus of Nazareth.
But let us pay special attention to the “now” here.
This now is the essence of what the Father is doing today. Now, right now, the Spirit is revealing the Son in the believers as never before. The “now generation” is alive and well. Jesus is alive in believers who are seeing Christ as their only life.
What a glorious move of the Spirit this is. Perhaps the most popular "now" is the now in Galatians, 2:20
"I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
Paul says that the life he now lived was Christ. It was a life that he lived in the flesh, his flesh, and he lived it by the faith of the Son of God. Oh, the glories found in this now. While so many misled believers are attempting to perfect their flesh by their own self-effort, Paul says that Jesus, God’s gift of life to the believer, has elected to live in the believer’s flesh (body) now, no waiting, no self-effort to perfect the body, but now. This idea does not fit with religion.
Religion would actually deny the believer this now Christ, awaiting some sort of probationary process to fit its own creeds. Religion would say that if the believer had Christ in him as simply as this, the believer could not possibly live the life.
But Paul goes on to say that this life is not lived by his faith, but by the faith of the in-dwelling Christ. This little line could be the salvation of all the weary believers wrapped up in the hyper-faith movement. They are becoming so weary of exercising their own faith and keeping it alive that sooner or later they will welcome a revelation of Christ as their life and begin to use and glory in His faith. This is in-deed the rest for the weary, His rest.
Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 5:16, that if we did once know Christ in the flesh, now, that is not how we should know Him.
."Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more."
What a beautiful transition Paul presents here. Jesus of Nazareth was so prominent in the early Church that those who had seen and talked with Jesus were very prominent believers.
This was wonderful, just to hear first-hand about the Savior, but this Jesus, the Jesus who lived in the body given to Him by Mary of Nazareth, was not the Lord who was to be the life of every man born again. The Holy Spirit had formed a new and greater body at Pentecost, and Christ was to be and is the life of that body, sharing that incorruptible life with every member.
This is why Paul taught that we are no longer to know Jesus in the flesh, meaning Jesus of Nazareth.
But let us pay special attention to the “now” here.
This now is the essence of what the Father is doing today. Now, right now, the Spirit is revealing the Son in the believers as never before. The “now generation” is alive and well. Jesus is alive in believers who are seeing Christ as their only life.
What a glorious move of the Spirit this is. Perhaps the most popular "now" is the now in Galatians, 2:20
"I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
Paul says that the life he now lived was Christ. It was a life that he lived in the flesh, his flesh, and he lived it by the faith of the Son of God. Oh, the glories found in this now. While so many misled believers are attempting to perfect their flesh by their own self-effort, Paul says that Jesus, God’s gift of life to the believer, has elected to live in the believer’s flesh (body) now, no waiting, no self-effort to perfect the body, but now. This idea does not fit with religion.
Religion would actually deny the believer this now Christ, awaiting some sort of probationary process to fit its own creeds. Religion would say that if the believer had Christ in him as simply as this, the believer could not possibly live the life.
But Paul goes on to say that this life is not lived by his faith, but by the faith of the in-dwelling Christ. This little line could be the salvation of all the weary believers wrapped up in the hyper-faith movement. They are becoming so weary of exercising their own faith and keeping it alive that sooner or later they will welcome a revelation of Christ as their life and begin to use and glory in His faith. This is in-deed the rest for the weary, His rest.
