Know Christ By His Spirit
If you know Christ through observation of other people, you have not come to know him aright.If you know His fullness through the creation, know it will be destroyed with burning fire.
If you know Christ through cleverly crafted theology books and in depth study of the bible. Your knowledge is but a spec in comparison to the knowledge of Satan and his demons who tremble. (Jonathan Edwards)
If you know Christ through prayer. Alas, what dull work it is unless the Spirit makes intercession for you!
If you know Christ for you are conquering sin. Would you be holy?
Do you know Christ because you preach him and minister the gospel. Ho
w can you unless the Holy Ghost touches your tongue?---------------------------------------------------------
This fire is a blessing Christ did not bring us in person, but one that He now gives through His Spirit to the church. Prince of Preachers
You must know Christ by His Spirit.
"Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." John 14:23
Further Reading
The Superlative Excellence of the Holy Spirit - Charles Spurgeon
How To Know If You Are A Real Christian - Jonathan Edwards
Add Your Comment(17)
Know Christ By His SpiritPosted by Correy Saturday, January 28, 2006
After reading many creeds and belief statements
I decided to stick to my own
17 Comments:
That is truly the work of the Holy Spirit. "When He is come..."
Great reminder!
Very encouraging post, brother! His Spirit bears witness with ours that we are the sons of God.
I always enjoy your thoughts.
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"If you know Christ through observation of other people, you have not come to know him aright."
But it is the Spirit of God which dwells in Christians that allows their life to be 'salty'. It is true that only a divine revelation will allow one to come to Christ and know Him. But the 'sowing' must be done before the 'harvest' can be reaped. So a Christian should allow Chist to be seen through them and in the words of St Francis of Assisi "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words." We should live a life bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit so that our lives can bear witness to the Glory and Magesty of Jesus so that the pre-saved can see Him in us.
Unfortunately you missed the crux of this Post and the words of a catholic saint has tickled your ears away from the true gospel.
Give me Men filled with the Spirit proclaiming the truth of Christ and Him Crucified. Not the gospel according to St Francis of Assisi's life or Mother Theresa's Life.
Spurgeon's testimony makes this clear when the small time preacher in a little chapel proclaimed the text 'Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.'
The preacher of course then proclaimed Christ and Him Crucified.
'Look unto Me: I am sweating great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hanging on the Cross. Look: I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend; I am sitting at the Father's right hand. O, look to Me! Look to Me!'
"the true gospel' how can living our lives as Christ did, allowing Him to work in us and obeying his greatest comandment 'to love God and others' be not the true gospel! Give me a life changed by Christ loving others over words anyday!
Katie: I know you intentions to be honourable.
How many of us can tell a story of a wonderful pastor caught in the act of some terrible sin?
Therefore I say look unto Christ not your fellow man.
"In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God" John 1:1
Jesus is the gospel. Looking elsewhere is a false gospel. Many people will die boasting
"Look at my good works, Look how I lead my life, Look how I allowed God to make my life great, Look at my many wonders I did in your name, everyone looked at my life and saw God"
To be told
"I never knew you. Depart from me you who practice lawlessness."
May the gospel be Jesus and nothing else.
The bible makes it clear that the Gospel must be lived out and it must be preached. To ignore the former is to be a hypocrite. To ignore the latter is to not love your neighbor.
In Christ alone,
mike
Salvation is by Faith alone, and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
How will they be saved if they have not heard, how will they hear without a preacher.
Great post!
Doug
Mike Garner:
I am not saying NOT to live a holy life or to hate your neighbour.
This post points out that if you know Christ through the observations of others then you do not know Him.
You MUST KNOW HIM BY THE SPIRIT.
My next problem here is when the gospel becomes St Francis of Assisi's life who advocates our lives being the gospel rather then Christ and using words to preach him is only sometimes necessary. I strongly disagree to this. (Great Verse Doug)
How often do you hear people saying "The biggest cause of Atheism in the world today is Christians."
By this they put the law on the Christian to be well behaved put on a smile and do the right thing all the time. This is cleverly crafted Law which binds them up. If only I would have done this and that....
The freedom comes only from another.
Those being saved love to hear about Christ. Jesus exalted and a mighty Savior who can save to the uttermost. How can you compromise on this and try and lead people to Christ by saying there is another gospel in people who live wonderful lives.
Have you done more "Good Works" then Mother Theresa who herself says that All religions lead to God.?
Then if not by works it is by Grace and Grace alone. Like the wonderful name of your blog and your encouraging salutations (In Christ alone)
My point is this:
The gospel is Christ and Him alone for the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus.
Who is God?
Many say we all have the same God, although everyone calls him by different names like, God, Allah, Jehovah and even The father.
However these are all false names or positions of deity/family.
The only way anyone can know the creator of heaven & earth is when he makes himself abode in them.
This is when your eyes are made open to know that Jesus is fully God & there is no other than him.
Unfortunately Mother Teresa did not have this spirit & encouraged others to keep their own faith in what ever God they had & she did not know that Jesus was the ONLY way.
With out the spirit of Christ all her good works condemed her to Hell.
Because her spirit is at emnity with Christs spirit, she would hate every moment of heaven. God was not who she thought he was & she never knew Him.
As for the saved, all their worst deeds will be to the glory of Christ who has forgiven them.
This is a truely amazing grace.
Great Blog! Very Encouraging and strengthening.
"Administrator has helped save time by displaying bible reference rather then whole verses"
James 2: 14 -26
I interpret this passage to hignlight the importance of Faith and Deeds working in cooperation. One cannot be without the other. A person hinging their salvation on preaching Jesus alone, is in the same boat as someone trying to earn their salvation through works. We need Jesus to save us, let Him save others and to live a life that bears witness to Him to be affective preachers.
PB no where have I said that one can know Christ through works, but rather ,for people to see Christ in christians there must be fruit on display.
John 14:6-7
John 8:12
Talking about the light doesn't make it any less dark, turning the light on and allowing it to shine does.
"A person hinging their salvation on preaching Jesus alone,"
This is an argument you have made up. The original post and title says.
"We Must know Christ by His Spirit"
"for people to see Christ in christians there must be fruit on display."
At the end of the day the fruit of the Spirit is the Holy Spirit Himself, manifesting in the christian producing Love, Joy.... Again please read the post.
"Talking about the light doesn't make it any less dark"
The gospel Christ and Him Crucified is the Light.
Please read the Post again and it would certainly do you good to read the further readings from Spurgeon and Edwards. Edwards especially addresses these verses from James.
Excellent reminder and a great post.
Showing the fruit of the spirit and living in a way that delights the Savior is all great.
However this lifestyle or actions will not save anyone! (so much for Saint Francis of Assisi's Doctrine on works)
The majority of Churches spend countless sermons dressing up the outside of a person telling him how he should act and live, while ALL these lovely proselytes are Sons of Hell.
I guess this is the distinction that Puritain Belief is making.
A point to ponder in regard to seeing Christ in others:
I John 1:3That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you,that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
Perhaps this verse indicates that it is possible to experience Christ in the fellowship of other believers as well as by His Spirit?
Gordan:
You are pointing out the meat behind this post which I thought no one would bring up.
This verse is a promise and you are right in saying we as belivers have fellowship with Christ through other believers.
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them"
This is Jesus who is in us always, especially when we are in fellowship with other believers.
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