So few of today's Christians know Jesus as He really is. Jesus' disciples only knew Him after the flesh and not the Spirit, before His death and Resurrection. They could only know Him as a Man, by their five senses. After His Resurrection, they could truly know Him as He is. Jesus' flesh was a veil that covered His Spirit and prevented them from seeing Him as He truly was, until after His Resurrection.
From the beginning, Jesus was and still is, the Word of God. Gen.1 says that until God spoke the Word, nothing "became." John1:1-3,14(Amp) says, "In the beginning (before all time), was the Word, Christ, and the Word was with God and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being." Verse14 continues, saying, "And the Word, Christ, became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled, fixed His tent of flesh and lived awhile among us; and we actually saw His Glory, His Honor, His Majesty, such Glory as an only begotten Son receives from His Father, full of Grace, favor, Loving Kindness and Truth."
We don't read about Paul meeting Jesus, until his encounter on the Road to Damascus. Acts9:3-6(Amp) tells us that, "Saul, had an encounter with Jesus that changed his entire life and mission in life." This encounter wasn't just a physical one, but one by the Light and Spirit of Jesus Himself. Paul wrote about this experience in 2Cor.12;3-5, where he met Jesus in the "third heaven." Paul wrote to the Church, about the Revelation he received from Jesus Himself. Peter referred to Paul's letters in 2Peter3:15-16(Amp), saying, "And consider the long suffering of our Lord (His slowness in avenging wrongs and judging the world), is salvation (that which is conducive to the soul's safety), even as our beloved Paul also wrote to you according to the Spiritual insight given him Speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in those Epistles of Paul that are difficult to understand which the ignorant and unstable twist and misconstrue to their own utter destruction, just as they distort and misinterpret the rest of the scriptures."
Paul wrote to the Church in Galatia in Gal.1:11-12(Amp), saying, "For I want you to know brethren, that the Gospel which was proclaimed and made known by me is not man's gospel (a human invention, according to or patterned after any human standard) For indeed I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through a Divine Revelation given by Jesus Christ (the Messiah)."
Paul wrote to the Church in Corinth in 2Cor.5:18(Amp), saying, "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a purely human point of view, in terms of natural standards of value. No, even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a Man, yet now, we have such knowledge of Him that we know Him no longer in terms of the flesh." This is a radical statement to make, unless Paul knew Jesus now in His Spirit, more than as a Man. Most of us still see Jesus more after the four Gospels and as a Man, than we do after the Spirit. We fail to see the total fulfillment of our salvation and the Glory of the Gospel of Christ, by doing this.
Peter had trouble receiving the messages Paul preached, because they were so different from what they knew of Jesus. They only knew Jesus by the flesh, knowing the flesh was still under the Law and was confined to one place at a time. Through Jesus' Resurrection and the Holy Spirit, we can be in this world having Revelation knowledge, along with the Power and Authority in and by Jesus' Name.
The twelve disciples could only deal with Jesus in the flesh, by what they could see, hear, feel, taste and smell. Paul knew Him only in the Spirit. Jesus asked Peter in Matt.16:16(Amp), "Who do you think I am and Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Peter went onto deny Christ in Matt.26:72(Amp), which says, "And again he denied it and disowned Him with an oath, saying, I do not know the Man." Peter still only knew Jesus by the five senses.
We mostly refer to the four Gospels, when thinking about Jesus' Words, when Paul's Epistles are also His Words now in the fullness of Who Jesus is now, instead of before the cross. Before the cross, Jesus spoke to people who were under the Law and not born-again yet. He couldn't disclose the fullness of God's Plan, lest satan should hear and try stopping the Plan. Jesus spoke in Parables and "Hidden Truths." They followed Jesus only in the five senses and couldn't see Him beyond the veil of His flesh. Jesus repeatedly said, "It is the Father in me that does the work." They couldn't see into His Spirit and His True Identity, but we can now do this.
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