This Jesus, whom I did not know

In 1975 after listening to a message entitled: "The signs of the times and the return of Jesus Christ," I burst into tears during the singing at the end. In tears I said, Lord if I blasphemed 26 years is that I've never known, today I come to know you." I did not understand what had happened to me, but a few weeks later I understood by reading the passage from 2 Corinthians 5: 16 and 17 where it is written:

16 Why from now on know we no man after the flesh: yes, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now from now on know we him no more. 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

I had to experience the new birth (born again) without knowing it. I came to know the real Jesus. All my life I was made to know another Jesus, a Jesus made in the image of the philosophy of those men who do not know.

Know Christ according to the flesh is to know historically. The apostle Paul knew Jesus as a prominent figure of his time, nothing more. He knew only the intellect and his life was not changed. Paul was a very religious man and convinced to walk in the ways of the Lord, until he had an encounter on the road to Damascus, and a voice said to him: «Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And he said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting»
(Acts of the Apostles 9 : 4 - 5)

Later the apostle will declare in Galatians 1: 13 and 16:

13 For you have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: 14 and profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, 16 to reveal his Son in me…»

Every born again believer does not know Jesus by high theological studies that involve the intellect, but rather the sovereign work of God is to make us know the person of Christ through his Spirit who comes to live in us.

Jesus warned us of the danger of believing in another Jesus saying in Matthew 7: 21-23:

21 Not every one that said to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that does the will of my Father which is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name? And in your name have cast out devils? And in your name done many wonderful works? 23 And then will I profess to them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.

Notice that they have done everything in the name of Jesus, they prophesied in the name of Jesus, they cast out demons in Jesus' name, they did many miracles in the name of Jesus, and Jesus their reply: "I did ever known " Why? Because they served another Jesus and they have never had the experience to know the real Jesus.

You can use the name of God and the name of Jesus to show that we are of God, but it is not these supposedly miraculous experiences that make us true believers.

God says through the mouth of David in Psalm 139: 20-22:

20 For they speak against you wickedly, and your enemies take your name in vain. (Another version says: "They take your name to lie")

21 Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate you? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against you?

22 I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them my enemies.

God warned us of the danger of being seduced by another Jesus. From the beginning of the Christian era the time of the Apostle Paul, it is said in 2 Corinthians 11: 3 and 4:

3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 4 For if he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him»

So the days of the Apostle Paul in the Corinthian church was in danger of moving to another Jesus. But how can we abandon the real Jesus to move on to another Jesus? God tells us through the apostle John in his epistle to the 2 verses 7-11:

7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have worked, but that we receive a full reward. 9 Whoever transgresses, and stays not in the doctrine of Christ, has not God. He that stays in the doctrine of Christ, he has both the Father and the Son. 10 If there come any to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: 11 For he that bids him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

To remain in the true, it is essential to remain in any doctrine that surrounds the person of Christ. Now we must ask the question. Is that I am in the real Jesus or is it that I went to another Jesus?

The Lord tells us through the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15: 1 and 2:

1 Moreover, brothers, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand; 2 By which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached to you, unless you have believed in vain»

I invite you to read another of my documents on my website by clicking on the title below.

Rationalism and indifference