“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.”
“Therefore for the future we know no one simply as a man. Even if we have known Christ as a man, yet now we do so no longer.” 2 Cor 5:16 (King James, Weymouth)
The above scripture was spoken from the mouth of one who knew followers of the living, natural Jesus of Nazareth. Paul had not met Jesus in that form, but his powerful conversion and personal growth INTO the Christ had emblazoned the message in his heart. We were not to assess a person by their flesh appearance anymore! To say the least, for even the Son of God was not to be remembered in the temporary form he had been manifested as. Any and all of the pictures we see depicting Jesus offer no assurance of accuracy, because there were no artists on the scene to capture His likeness. And that is the way Father wanted it, as I shall explain. A picture is a remembrance, and a target of worship. But these “portraits” are just imagined likenesses. So many possibilities of how he could have looked, but we, ourselves, will never know; yet we cherish anything that portrays that face of God we so long to sit before. Indeed, we have a need to touch and identify with that human who stood on this earth as our Savior. It is a longing, a comfort, a passion. And grief, sorrow, and disappointment come when we discover that the physical Jesus who walked the shores of Galilee will never be seen as such again. Mourning is in order. Yet healing and hope are sure to follow as we are enlightened and encouraged by the superior expression of Father’s love in this outcome.
Just last week I crossed paths with a man whom I’ve known for decades. He still awaits a literal return of the Lord in the sky. Over the years, whenever I’ve encountered him, he speaks the same rhetorical words, sincere as they may be. And he has a hope that should have been dashed to the ground and trodden on by now. Dead men’s words that resound from centuries past with no fruit bearing. “He’s coming soon” is the phrase used. I gently confront those like him and say “He’s here now”, which always brings silence and hesitation. “If he isn’t here now, he has forsaken me”, I say, “...and how could he hear my prayers?” After they regroup, they defend their stand: “He must return in the natural”. To me, this is an assent to his spirit omnipresence aside from a physical manifestation. Not that I don’t understand this reasoning.
I used to think like that. I didn’t doubt Jesus was with me (invisibly), but I believed in an eventual appearing of Jesus as the Head of his many-membered body. I believed this long after I got over “the rapture”. Having not been brought up in religion, I didn’t know anything about doctrinal beliefs. But when I was awakened by the Christ, I was quickly snatched into a group of believers who laid it all out for me on this “2nd coming” of Jesus (to be discussed later). I listened and was amazed, but also suspicious. Because I had not been influenced by any denominational Christian concepts, I had a very open spirit, and this rapture story didn’t hold water with me. It was sensational, and it was cruel! I boldly approached the throne of God and asked about it, questioning how he could turn his back on multitudes who didn’t know him yet. I even asked if I could stay here to encourage those who would be afraid when so many people disappeared. (To God be the glory for that desire.) But, you see, I trusted and believed these sincere, loving church-goers who pulled me into their care. I respected their view, because they were more experienced in understanding things of God. Or so I thought. Thankfully, after many months, I saw the light--from within--as the “brightness of His coming” overtook my carnal, religious reasoning. (2 Thess 2:8) By His abiding Holy Spirit within, I had been shown the truth. (John 14:26) It has never been God’s plan to separate his people from happenings on the planet!
However, I continued to believe (for quite a while) that Jesus would give us a peek of himself at sometime as the person who walked on the water. Someday, when the Son had delivered the Kingdom back to Father (1 Cor 15:24), the Son would dwell among us a man. Oh, and he would, but not as I believed it would happen. I still had a hope to see Jesus face-to-face. After all, Jesus had appeared to his disciples during the days after his resurrection from the dead. They spoke to him, they could touch him; he was real! But he also could make himself look different than they had remembered him. Here was the key. It was a showing of a coming reality where Jesus would not look like a specific human being any more. These “appearings” of the Lord were just before Pentecost, after which Jesus would be seen no more as a flesh and blood solitary man. And He hasn’t been to this day, even though there is a passionate hope for it.
Now, of course, I totally understand that Father didn’t want us to visualize a skin tone, nationality, ethnic background or culture, or even gender as being associated with--and limited to--THE face of deity. All mankind came out of him, and are OF him, so he doesn’t have favorites. He doesn’t love Israel more than China, and he doesn’t love them any less either! He doesn’t appear as an inferior expression in women (although I have heard that taught), for that would be a contradiction and attack on His own heart! His female nature, El Shaddai, is the beauty found in all of nature, in all fruit bearing and all giving of Love. Yes, God represents all peoples, so no single “make and model” can adequately manifest our multi-faceted Creator. Embracing this, though, does kind of take the enchantment and fascination out of the whole story of the Son of God walking the earth. But representing us initially, he could only appear as one of us.
Speaking of his appearings, Jesus may show himself to us in different ways, so that we recognize it is “him”. These visions and visitations have purpose in preludes to our conversions (awakenings) or at times when we need him to touch us personally. We “see” him according to our religious beliefs (pictures), according to the history of where he walked as a man, or according to our own concepts that only God would know about. The mental image that we are in agreement with can many times be the image that God uses to get our attention. He may also appear totally different than we imagined but will make his identity evident! My own awakening was by a cloud of fire coming down around me. I knew it was God, I knew His name was Jesus, but no man stood before me. In his unique visitation to me, he was indeed showing Himself as he IS: spirit.
When Jesus was born to Mary, he was not of her human heritage even though he grew inside of her. He wasn’t the product of her ovum and the seed of God. That would have made him half man and half God, kind of like Hercules (a myth). No, Father wasn’t going for a freak show, but an all-out 100% supernatural attainment. Jesus was Father manifesting HIMSELF into our realm to conquer it and plug it back in to the Tree of Life (divine life). That outward countenance of Jesus of Nazareth was just a body suit provided by Mary, showing forth the human being that He would gain victory through. Father became the Son, hidden behind a veil of flesh and blood. Mary provided a secret place for the transfer of God’s divine life, materializing from spirit as a complete embryo from God's composite self of male/female (El Elyon and El Shaddai). The miracle was made possible by Mary’s soul (the womb of God) accepting and receiving this gift! The concept of anything less than this is short of validity. If Jesus had been only part God and half human, he would not have qualified to be our sacrificial lamb without spot and blemish. Any ratio of the old Adamic human nature would have tainted the sin offering.
However, Jesus was still influenced by human nature, for as in all happenings in the womb of a pregnant woman, a natural flesh body was forming, a representative of a carnal nature in a natural, material world. But before a baby is born, it has an individuality that no one can see yet, a soul inherited from somewhere in the lineage of its’ natural parents. The child also has an un-enlivened spirit (God’s domain) attached to its soul. Jesus, however, had his Heavenly Father’s soul, and his spirit connection was totally different than any human had ever had. The channel was open, awaiting the ascension of his understanding through all the death and darkness of hell (separation from God). Then he would receive a revelation of who he was, drawing strength continually from his Father to rule and reign in his humanity as a spiritual man. The first ever.
But he did enter this very hostile environment as we all do--as a baby. He walked out the role of human and became shrouded and abused by the spirit of the world that all have to deal with. He was “one” with the lowered soul content of man and all the grief and pain that went with it. The good news is that he was not overtaken as mortals had been, and he died victoriously. Therefore, immersed in the flesh and blood nature of Adam, he went to the cross and accomplished two things: 1) he overcame the beast nature and sin consciousness (religion) of mankind to become the perfect and final sacrifice; 2) he ended the life of the 1st Adam (soul man) on the cross, and established the 2nd Adam (spirit man) through resurrection. He restored the broken communication between man and God.
God, the Father, had accomplished the first part of his mission. Now this new seed of man, alive in the form of Jesus, needed to be planted back into the field of humanity that they, too, may have life after death. Thus, the second part of the mission--to be unveiled and manifested, starting with the feast of Pentecost (harvest). Before Jesus suffered crucifixion, he told his followers he must go away, but he would not leave them orphans and would come back to them--sent from the Father--as the Comforter. (John 14-16). He was speaking about ascending back into spirit, and offering all men the gift of Himself as the Holy Spirit. This would be accomplished on Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given. After that event, Jesus was not seen as a man again. And, if he had been seen as a man again, how would that benefit the multitudes? Can one man serve all?
Imagine this time frame with my simple calculations. Suppose 1,000,000 (one million) people are followers of Jesus Christ. I am using a low count to make a point, because many more lovers of God in Christ exist even now, and the numbers will get higher (for Jesus is Savior of the world). Anyway, suppose Jesus appears on the earth as one man. With 1440 minutes in a day and 525,600 minutes in a year, we each would only get one half of a minute (30 seconds!) of private time with him in a year’s time. Now if we increase the number of people by millions, we would have to wait over a year to have any personal time with him. This is surely an impossible situation and not for practical application. However, the problem is solved even though the solution is beyond our natural vision. Father descended into mankind as his own son, perfected the human condition in the soul of that son, died to a natural existence, and translated himself back into spirit, giving himself (again) as the Holy spirit to truly reside with each of us 24 hours a day. Jesus’ resurrection energized the whole soul realm with Divine life. His abiding IS no longer in buildings made with hands (in Jerusalem or anywhere else), for WE are living stones of the temple he now abides in, and each man will have his own day of being made alive to this reality. (1 Cor 15:23)
The truth spoken of here is contrary to the belief in a literal “2nd coming” of Jesus, for that train of thought is reckless. No scriptures talk of THE 2nd coming and there is no witness in the Bible of such an event. (God gives witness of himself, in duplicate and triplicate. Deu 17:6, 19:15; 2 Cor 13:1; Matt 18:16) There is, however, the following scripture that has been taken out of context:
“so the Christ also, having been once offered in sacrifice in order that He might bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, separated from sin, to those who are eagerly expecting Him, to make their salvation complete.” Heb 9:28 (Weymouth)
The writer of Hebrews was making a direct reference to Jesus as our new High Priest, and also comparing that status to the old Levitical sacrificial system of worship. It started with the tabernacle of Moses. Once a year, the high priest took a special blood offering behind the veil into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. The whole camp stood outside of the tabernacle awaiting the sight of that high priest appearing--a second time. He appeared before he went in and appeared a second time when he came out. This meant that God had accepted the sacrifice. Jesus has, indeed, done this for us. And the proof that he appeared a second time is that we who believe on him know that our sins are forgiven. Had we not “seen” him appear, we wouldn’t know him as Savior; this is when Christ appears a second time. Paul (I believe) was pointing out this fact to the Hebrew Christians who wouldn’t quit participating in the old sacrificial system. (A reason for the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.)
While it can be hard to accept that we will never see Jesus as he looked to James, Peter, and John, it is all part of an ascending of our understanding to what God had in mind in that visitation. When we understand that Jesus and the Father are one and the same, and that this was his plan to populate all of mankind with His own Divine nature, we can be amazed at the love of our Creator who has never left us or forsaken us. Indeed, He has produced an open door for us to draw near to him. My own walking out of this truth has lead me to a deeper appreciation for where he truly dwells. It is sometimes surreal that he has re-appeared in me, but his abiding presence proves this fact; I have constant fellowship with Him. There is also great comfort knowing that he lives in every man and will appear that 2nd time to them. But that is not the end of his comings (visitations of enlightenment), which are continual.
Jesus as the head of his Body of mankind is there for each of us and for all of us . Each time I touch an awakened one, the Christ in them bears witness with the Christ in me, and Jesus appears. There He is: in us, with us, and between us. Two or more living stones have united to form the Temple of the Living God. No need to “have” church, or “go to” church; we ARE the Church, appearing in spontaneity--whenever, wherever. Such an amazing and glorious reality! My mourning has turned to joy as I embrace a daily intimacy with my God that I would not have been able to experience any other way. While the man Jesus of Nazareth is no more, Christ Jesus is forever-more with me, for me, and in me. Such good news! And how breathtaking is the reality that God would put the burden of rescuing us from death and darkness on no innocent mortal, but would undertake the impossible mission Himself! How could there be a greater love?!!
