"THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST JESUS MY LORD"

“^[p. 101] THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST JESUS MY LORD”

Evidently the meaning here is to know Him as He is. We cannot properly speak of knowing a person as he was at some former time; you do not know him if you are not intimate with him at the present time. It is necessary to say this because many think that they know Christ from the gospels. It is quite true that in the gospels, as you are spiritual, you see His manner of life in the days of his flesh, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps. But though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. This is a very definite statement and of the deepest importance: He does not return to the order of man to which He died....

Often it is a long time before we are severed from the man after the flesh. Even after your heart has owned that the man after the flesh has gone from the eye of God in the cross, you still cling to it in the life of Jesus on the earth where it was in perfection; but though it was in perfection there, and though He left us an example that we should follow His steps, we know Him no more after the flesh. Nor is it possible for any one to follow His steps here on earth but by the Spirit in the life of the risen Christ....