Jesus’ statement is profound. He suggests that there is much more to knowing him as “the Christ” than a mere intellectual grasp of the matter. Beyond the ability of human, fleshly intelligence, we require divine assistance to enable our eyes to grasp by faith the full meaning of what Jesus Christ is to us and what he does for us.

Further, to know him, to truly know him, was not merely our grasp of the fact that he is Christ when we accepted him as our Savior. It is not only the seasoned spirituality of a life spent as his devoted disciple. To know him, to fully know him, will be the work of eternity: “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

Jesus said, “Who so ever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it” (Mat thew 7:24-27).

Paul echoes our Lord’s teaching: “Each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s

Jesus is Come in the Flesh

These early corruptions and overreactions to them have taken hold of many believers and, over the centuries, have become the root of erroneous “doctrines of men” and a great falling away from the faith. “For … the Greeks seek after wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:22,23; see also 2 Thessalonians 2:3).

Greek philosophy disdained the physical realm and taught that what really mattered was the “spiritual ideal of perfection of forms”— the material world being merely a flawed representation of truth. Under the influence of such thought, Greek-influenced converts began to rise to prominence in the Christian church. In time intellectual views dominated and became the accepted understanding of the nature of Christ.

The cross, the sacrifice of the man Christ Jesus, was foolishness to them. What appealed to their minds was the spiritualized “ideal” of Christ’s sacrifice. It was foolish to them that any man’s death, shed blood, or sacrificed flesh could obtain forgiveness for the sins of the whole world. Therefore, they incorporated into Christian doctrine a rehashed philosophy of the Neo-Platonist Superman as the world’s redeemer. They introduced the idea that only a “God-Man” could effectively redeem the human race.

Their efforts performed a great disservice. These teachers turned the church away from the clear statements of Scripture that it was the blood Jesus shed and his flesh that he sacrificed that had the power to make atonement between God and man. Though many today testify of and sing about “The Power of the Blood,” those errors introduced early in the Christian age rob the blood of its true power. The truth is simple and powerful. A topical study of the New Testament provides over whelming testimony to the true efficacy of Jesus’ sacrifice. Here are just a few:

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:51).

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood” (Romans 3:24,25).

“God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Romans 5:8,9).

“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

“And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto him self; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were some time alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight” (Colossians 1:20-22).

Antichrist—Instead of Christ

“Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world” (1 John 4:3).

Christ’s shed blood and sacrificed flesh. They were presenting a theory which stood instead of the Christ we find in the Bible. He redeemed us with his blood. So we see, as John observed, that the spirit of antichrist (“instead of Christ”) was already at work in the world in his day.

The moment church leaders embraced the idea that a God-man must stand in the sinner’s place, that the efficacy of the cross lies in divinity and not actually in the value of the shed blood, the noble teaching of Christ’s ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:5,6; Hosea 13:14) was virtually lost to believers: “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” (2 John 7).

The Bible view of Christ’s ransoming work is that of universal atone ment, based in God’s justice, as Jesus died for Adamic sin: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). The Bible’s teaching on the ransom is that its benefit will be received by every man, woman, and child descended from Adam: “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life” (Romans 5:18).

Because the new doctrine taught that the value of the sacriice was “philosophical,” the application of the benefit of that sacrifice became arbitrary. It was arbitrary in the sense that they could then apply Christ’s sacrifice only to those who accepted it, rather than to the ALL for whom he died. Not a single verse of Scripture tells us that the Cross was efficacious because Jehovah God died on it. (God can not die.) Rather than giving a helpful, “scientific” understanding of the atonement, the new theory weakened and debased it. Nowhere does any Scripture limit the application of Christ’s sacrifice, but several clearly state that he died for “all” and “every” one (see 2 Corinthians 5:15; 1 Timothy 2:4-6; Hebrews 2:9).

Human creeds progressively fell farther and farther away from the truth and, while so doing, became increasingly severe in their threats to those who did not fully accept them. The vile threatenings of the Athenasian Creed against those who can not agree, on the basis of Scripture, that Jesus is a third part of Jehovah God, and is “co-equal” and “co-eternal” with a holy “ghost” and the Father, are the evil consequences of gross error.

The creedal prerequisites for acceptability as a Christian, as well as the threats, have no true basis in Scripture. “You must join us to be saved!” and “You must believe things exactly as we tell you!” are both motivated by the unholy spirit of antichrist.

The Son Of God

Jesus is the son of God, not God him self. The gesture of capitalizing the word “son” in many translations of the Bible is meant to imply that being a son means more than that, that it means Jesus is God. But if being the son of David does not make Jesus David, how would being the son of God make him God? There are no upper or lower case letters in the original manuscripts of the New Testament. Capitalizing any word is a purely human invention. Thankfully newer editions show more honesty as they acknowledge that Jesus is the “son” of God.

If “son of God” is meant to infer that one is God, then the genealogy of Luke’s gospel presents a problem. Last on the list, as Jesus’ lineage is retraced, is Adam: “Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God” (Luke 3:38). If being called “the son of God” means that one is God, then father Adam was also God. Clearly, this is not the case.

Confessing that Jesus Is the Son of God

“We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the son to be the saviour of the world. Who soever shall confess that Jesus is the son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God” (1 John 4:14,15).

Our faith is rooted in the universal atonement Jesus made when he offered up him self (even if not universal reconciliation). This Scriptural fact enables us to testify with a depth, peace, and joy unmatched by the influence of Christendom’s creeds. We do testify that the Father sent the son to be the saviour of the world. We do believe in a very special sense that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that who so ever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16,17).

The philosophical “God-man” of the creeds would so far, by most generous estimates, have benefitted perhaps one-tenth of the human race. We see that Jesus’ ransom will benefit ALL, either presently by the high calling of God in Christ, or in the future, in God’s kingdom, as a highway of holiness is there opened for the remainder of mankind, that they may come to God (see Isa iah 35:8 and Acts 15:17).

We testify that Jesus is the Saviour of the world—not a small fraction of it. The prospects of future blessings for the remainder of mankind (those not called to the heavenly calling) lighten our hearts and nurture the love of God in us. It draws us so close to him that we may dwell in him and he in us by our faith!

Further Confessing Christ

“Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world” (1 John 4:2,3).

In addition to the intellectual understanding of Christ’s sacrifice, there is also a duty of faith associated with it. We must confess Christ before men. This is for our own benefit. When we confess his holy name before men we are letting our allegiance to him be known. We are associating ourselves with his cause. We are denying iniquity and attesting that we love righteousness. Our fallen flesh, our sinful humanity, may blush to speak his name. This is all the more reason to make public confession of our faith in Christ Jesus who did actually come to this world in the flesh.

We are well aware of the consequences if we do or do not confess Jesus since he told us what they are: “Who so ever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But who so ever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 10:32,33). On another occasion, an even stronger statement: “Who so ever there fore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38).

How joyful it would be to have Jesus, on our behalf, confess our faithfulness to the Father—how sorrowful if he would have cause to be ashamed of us. The apostle Paul understood the principle of confessing Christ. He knew what Jesus meant: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9,10). Faith needs to be expressed to be alive, because faith with out works is dead (see James 2:14-20).