JACOB'S LADDER

CHRIST AFTER THE FLESH

For some that “know” Christ after the flesh this essay may come as quite a surprise. For others that “know” Christ after the flesh perhaps this is an essay you may not yet be ready to read. However, for all those who dare to enter in, and dare to understand the truth of who they are, this essay will be as a precious stone.

I have briefly touched on this title in the past. However, for months now I have had this title on my heart. I don’t know why. I just knew that this verse below was something I needed to expound upon.

2 Corinthians 5:16
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.

Let me explain why I have not written it until now. For, within my explanation lies a great treasure indeed.

If you know me you know I have a full life. So to carve time out to write an essay like this can be difficult. When an idea for a paper comes to me I usually allow the idea to germinate within… Mainly because I don’t really feel like writing it in the beginning.

I have learned after many years that one cannot force such things. These essays come when they are meant to come. Much like a child into this world. The seed is planted, the womb embraces the (seed) of an idea and together a bright new life is created. There is a timing for everything under the sun.

There is a time for the idea to make itself known, a time for that idea to grow and a perfect time for that idea to be birthed into this world for all to see.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-3
3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

My desire to write these papers is usually outweighed by my circumstances and state of mind at the time. For example, if I am too tired, too busy, too invested in other things to write such an important paper, I don’t. This is why you will notice that sometimes I share one essay after another, while others times it can be up to six months in between.

And while I know “after the flesh” that it is important to offer new content regularly to grow a larger audience, “after the spirit” I know not to care.

I have learned to take no thought for such things.

Matthew 6:25
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

LIFE IS MUCH MORE THAN WE HAVE BEEN TOLD… And we can only do what we are meant to do, when we are meant to do it.

There is great peace in that.

So, I will not write for the sake of writing. I will not write what everyone wants to hear. I will write what I am inspired to write, when I am inspired to do so… and guess what?

I have found those who are meant to read such, will read such regardless.

It doesn’t matter if I post once a day, once a week, or once a year. If I share these essays in Righteousness (right thinking), when the time is right, not of my own selfish effort, but by the will of the one who brought “the idea of me” into this world, as opposed to the will of the person I believe myself to be, then it will not return void.

Isaiah 55:11
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

So, I don’t beat myself up for not sharing immediately, and I don’t stay up real late or sacrifice time with my family to make it happen. No, I don’t try to make it happen on my own. I understand that what I write is not a work of the FLESH, it is a work of the SPIRIT.

This essay is going to explain what that means.

So instead of stopping everything and forcing my self to write something uninspired, following the “MY WILL BE DONE” principal… I wait.

I don’t worry that I might forget the idea to write such, I don’t worry if it takes months, or even years before I write such, I wait with the knowledge that if I am meant to write such I will write such. If I am meant to do this or that, I will do this or that. I cannot force a thing. I wait until the moment arrives and then the floodgates open and within a short period of time, without any true direction… I WRITE!

And today, I am excited because this morning I KNEW THE TIME WAS NOW to write “CHRIST AFTER THE FLESH”.

I would like to first point out a couple of cool things that you may not have seen before about this passage. Then it is my hope that this essay will provide many more such insights.

Let’s read that passage again with an open heart, inviting what will follow.

2 Corinthians 5:16
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.

I would like to put this passage in modern vernacular for you…

What Paul is saying in 2nd Corinthians is…

“From now on, we no longer judge people the way we used to. We no longer know people the way we once knew them. We don’t judge them by the things they do or say, what they have said or done, or how they look and behave. From here on out, Paul is saying, we know everyone as we know ourselves in SPIRIT and TRUTH.

They are us and we are them. We are IN their experience, and they are IN our experience, called life.

We understand we are no better than they and they are no better than we. For we are all one!”

That right there IS a great salvation people!

If you see everyone as yourself, and you do unto others as only you would want done to yourself, you and everyone else would be at peace.

Paul is saying we can’t look at people and say we know them by their actions, by the way they dress or by the company they keep, (AS MANY DO TODAY)…. No, we only know them through CHRIST which is the power and wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1:24

We can no longer see others as enemies or friends, we can only see them through the eyes of LOVE (SPIRIT OF TRUTH) within.

From now on “WE KNOW NO MAN AFTER THE FLESH”

Now this word Flesh in this passage above holds a couple of meanings.

To me, the FLESH is a man’s ignorance and the works of such ignorance are manifest indeed…

Galatians 5
19 Now the works of the FLESH (ignorance/lies) are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

But to know others after the SPIRIT is a different experience indeed.

Galatians 5:
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts

To know people after the flesh, is to know them carnally. “That guy is a jerk, What a clown he is, She is a drug addict, That lady is cheating on her man, etc” – this produces nothing but suffering.

But to know people after the SPIRIT OF TRUTH, is to look at others through the eyes of love.

And love is patient, kind, gentle, meek, ling suffering, love does not condemn, or hold account of past wrongs, love never fails.

So when Paul says, from here on out we know no man after the flesh… he is speaking on a couple of levels.

Let me explain,

One way of looking at this verse is as follows.

Paul is saying, from here on out we won’t see “Christ” as a single man from years ago, as we had in the past, and as many still do. Paul means to say, from here on out we will see the hope of Glory IS CHRIST IN EVERYONE.

From here on out we understand that CHRIST (the power and wisdom of God/love) IS OUR LIFE. From here on out WE ONLY SEE CHRIST IN EVERYONE, AS EVERYONE.

With this understanding no one can return to their ignorant carnal fleshly ways of judging by outward appearance. Instead, we judge inwardly. We see the Love and Spirit within everyone, even within those who do not see it themselves. We understand that even those that harm us are there for us, because they are a part of us and we a part of them.

FROM HERE ON OUT WE MUST JUDGE INWARDLY, not outwardly as most Flesh Minded people do.

Romans 2:28-29
28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

A person is not a just person because they wear the badge of justice. A person is not a mother or father because they simply physically gave birth. A person is not a godly person because they adorn themselves with religious clothes and titles… A person is known by their fruit, and that fruit comes from within… whether that be a product of the flesh (ignorance) or the spirit (truth).

In addition, when Paul states that we have known Christ after the Flesh, he is not just stating that he, or we, knew Jesus the man personally.
Obviously we do not, nor did he. But we understand that Paul ALSO means to say that we knew Christ in our IGNORANCE (after the flesh).

Meaning, we ignorantly believed him to be Jesus, the only SON OF GOD from thousands of years ago. We ignorantly believed that we were different and in so doing we forgot the truth that can set us free.

We ARE more than FLESH indeed.

It is also important to understand that the word “FLESH” we read about in scripture means so much more than the literal flesh body we have believed ourselves to be.

The flesh is a man’s ignorance. All that is IN this temporal world is the lusts of the flesh, the cravings of our temporal senses and ideas.

The FLESH (our carnal ways of thinking/ignorance) is in direct opposition of the SPIRIT within man. The Flesh is a lie while the Spirit is truth.

YIN YANG, DARKNESS LIGHT, HATE LOVE – DUALITY

The FLESH is a word that describes our carnal, ignorant, limited view of life and each other.

The WORKS of the flesh are manifest.

Many today ONLY put their faith in what they can temporally understand. LIKE A PHYSICAL RETURN OF JESUS, which many ignorantly believe will bring them into the Kingdom of God.

And yet….

1 Corinthians 15:50
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

A man’s FLESH is his CARNAL MIND AND WAYS. We have been eating of this FLESH (lies/fear/ignorance) since coming into this world.

Ecclesiastes 4:5
The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.

The fool is the one who begins to eat of this flesh (man’s carnal ways of thinking) and in so doing becomes ignorant of who they really are, and who everyone else is around them.

Like our parents before us, we began to believe we were humans who then went on a quest for a spiritual experience as opposed to remembering we are spirits having a human one.

We limited ourselves by limiting our thinking, as well as limiting our experience to a purely sensual one.

We began to see ourselves as mere human beings, with names, identities, insecurities, etc. And we began to see God as we would our carnal selves, believing we and “he” were somehow separate.

We began to believe this “God” outside of us, was as petty, and hateful as us IN THE FLESH.

It is a work of the FLESH that also led us all to believe Christ is a literal man named Jesus from thousands of years ago, as opposed to the LIFE within us all.

And our limited FLESHY/CARNAL views of such things would attack and tear down the thought that CHRIST IS EVERYONE AND EVERYONE IS CHRIST.

There was a time that I knew Christ after the flesh (ignorantly thinking he was a single man) too… But no longer.

Our Fleshy IDEAS about everything and everyone keeps us ignorant slaves in this world.

This is the enemy that can even come as an angel of light, man’s carnal ego. And so when we live after the flesh, we believe the lies we are told. If the truth is spoken, while in the flesh (our ignorance) we will reject it.

“darkness hates the light, for it shows them their ways (ideas) are evil (wrong and foolish).”

We see the FLESH OF MAN trying to destroy the SPIRIT within man, again and again in scripture. We see this pictured in many parables. The story of the crucifixion is perhaps the greatest allegory of them all. Jesus (the way, truth and life) put to death at the place of the skull by the FLESH OF RELIGIOUS MEN.

Yet, the TRUTH of who we really are is buried within the TOMB of who we have believed ourselves to be, and today is the day it rises again.

The FLESH is indeed at enmity with the SPIRIT. But Paul, got to a place where he understood it was ALL ABOUT THE SPIRIT.

The struggle between the FLESHY IDEA OF WHO WE, AND OTHERS ARE, and the TRUTH OF WHO WE ALL REALLY ARE is pictured again and again in the many stories surrounding older and younger brothers at war, like Jacob and Esau, Abel and Cane. Two brothers, two nations, two fighting in the womb of humanity for control… one a creation of the flesh, of the earth, and the other from heaven above.

The Flesh IS also known to be the Natural man, the 1st man… which cannot receive the TRUTH.

1 Corinthians 2:14
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

This natural, flesh man, is an EGO born of ignorance. This ego becomes an “identity” itself. It is the first man (Adam) cursed to walk the earth in death (flesh thinking) and it will fight to remain on that ANTI-CHRIST throne (THE OPPOSITE OF THE POWER AND WISDOM OF LOVE) as long as it can.

Galatians 4:29
But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.

We see the natural persecuting the spirit in the parable of the crucifixion. It IS in fact the religious that killed Jesus (the way, the truth, and life). The scriptures say THEY DID THIS IN THEIR IGNORANCE….

1 Corinthians 2:8
Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

THE CHILDREN OF FLESH (IGNORANCE) cannot know the truth, which is why the TRUTH was put to death by their carnal (ignorant) hand.

This my friends is more than just a literal story, you must learn to read things after the SPIRIT from here on out, not after the FLESH.

So, YOU SEE, to know anything after the FLESH, is to know it CARNALLY. And of course we know this produces DEATH.

Romans 8:6
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

In ADAM (our first idea of who we are) ALL DIE (suffer in the flesh/ignorance)… but in CHRIST (power and wisdom of love) ALL ARE MADE ALIVE.

Which brings us to yet another eye opener… We can only KNOW Christ AFTER we know the Flesh!

Paul was also saying, if you can receive it… AT FIRST we know things in this world by the flesh (OUR carnal mind, LIMITED VIEW OF THINGS) and THEN AFTER THAT we know things SPIRITUALLY (CHRIST)…

This is how we KNOW CHRIST… AFTER the flesh (our first carnal idea of CHRIST as a man named Jesus only)

First we are ignorant and then AFTER our time of ignorance (after the Flesh) WE KNOW CHRIST (power and wisdom of Love).

Paul is saying when we HAVE MOVED PAST THE FLESH (our ignorant carnal ways/thoughts) we understand everyone is where they are at and that it is not for the worse, it is always for the better.

When we are past our ignorance when we embrace wisdom and let our carnal ideas go. We understand that ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR THE GOOD.

Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

And just as we would not judge one to be godly simply because outwardly they seem such, we begin to know our brothers and sisters after the spirit/their heart/thoughts.

We look within. Because where a person’s heart is their treasure will be.

And again, there is yet another way of looking at this scripture….

2 Corinthians 5:16
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.

For many, there was a time for knowing Jesus after the Flesh (knowing him as a literal person), like most do today. HOWEVER, Paul says…NO LONGER!

There was a time we knew Jesus to be a literal man from thousands of years ago. There was a time when we had a picture of what this Jesus looked liked in our carnal fleshy mind’s eye. We knew Jesus as a man from two thousands years ago. Just as Paul knew Jesus as a man who had started a revolution and who was put to death, during his time… we believed this literal man named Jesus lived literally, died literally, and will come again literally in physical form as stated early.

And yet the scriptures teach us… the literal interpretation of these things kills. (keep us in the flesh/ignorance)

However, people today STILL focus on JESUS THE LITERAL FLESH AND BLOOD MAN. They see this Jesus as special and very different from themselves. Sadder still, is most believe they cannot even consider themselves worthy enough to be “like him”… WHEN THEY ARE HIM!

THIS MY FRIENDS, is also what it means to know CHRIST AFTER THE FLESH. To know Christ ignorantly and temporally.

Sure there was a time we all knew Christ this way…. Which truly means to know Christ CARNALLY… There was a time we did not see the bigger picture. Just as Paul.

But NOW WE SEE and UNDERSTAND that we are to know NO MAN AFTER THE FLESH…

2 Corinthians 5:16
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.

IT IS SO LIMITING TO SEE JESUS AS A SINGLE MAN, OR TO PUT YOUR FAITH IN THE LITERAL FLESH OF MANKIND.

We know this physical Flesh profits nothing. What really matters is who we are within and where our heart is.

We are more than literal flesh and bone.

2 Corinthians 5
5 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

And so the idea of JESUS, being a single temporal literal man, had to be CRUCIFIED!

Do you see?

Just as the physical man named Jesus said, “it is needful that I go” – which means, YOU THINK I (THE FLESH MAN JESUS) am the answer, YOU DON’T GET THAT WE ARE ONE so “I” (the flesh man Jesus) HAS TO GO!

If the IDEA that “I” (the flesh man Jesus) doesn’t go away THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH (the spirit of THE REAL YOU) will not COME (be revealed within).

You can’t know GOD if you think you can literally see God. “No one has SEEN God at anytime” – GOD IS NOT A MAN. God is IN man. This is what the spirit of truth reveals, when one no longer knows things after the flesh.

John 14:
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Jesus understood that when the FLESH LITERAL representation of who everyone thought he was, was gone, they would begin to see that who he truly was, was no different then they themselves. “AS HE IS SO ARE WE” – This means the CHRIST OF GOD is in everyone. EVERYONE IS CHRIST. EVERYONE MUST TAKE UP THEIR CROSS AND DO AS JESUS DID. Because his journey is ours, and our journey is his.

To know Jesus after the flesh, is to ignorantly believe him to be a single historical man… Jesus himself made it clear… “whatever you do to anyone, anywhere, YOU DO TO ME!”

Matthew 25
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

Jesus knew the IDEA that HE ALONE WAS THE CHRIST had to go….

John 14:
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Jesus was saying when you don’t LITERALLY “see me” as a literal single man you will begin to see the truth of the spirit that is who I truly AM, the spirit of “I AM” which IS IN EVERY MAN. And when you see this, you will SEE (SPIRITUALLY UNDERSTAND) that I am in you, and you in me, and God IN us all…. WE ARE ONE!

John 14:
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

HOWEVER, for that to happen… WE CAN NO LONGER KNOW CHRIST AFTER THE FLESH!

And so the CARNAL IDEA I had, Paul had, and YOU HAD about JESUS had to be CRUCIFIED! And for many others the IDEA HAS TO BE CRUCIFIED AS WELL!

The carnal limited view of what, and who, CHRIST is has TO GO, so the truth within that IDEA may be resurrected within us all.

After SEEING THE IDEA OF CHRIST (as a single man) CRUCIFIED in our mind, we also see the IDEA we have about ourselves must go.

THE IDEA of who we believe ourselves to be is crucified as well.

Galatians 2:20
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me

Jesus said, that YOU must DENY YOURSELF — In other words, REJECT THE IDEA that you are a mere egotistical human being.

Jesus alone is NOT GOD… we alone are NOT GOD… but EVERYTHING IS GOD, and this flesh image we know OURSELVES TO BE is an image, nothing more.

We must see past the FLESH into the SPIRIT OF ALL THINGS.

To KNOW CHRIST AFTER THE FLESH means more than just knowing Jesus in the flesh, meaning in this temporal world as a man who walked among US. Of course it MUST mean SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT when one considers Paul never met Jesus the man IN PERSON (after the flesh as SOME say) LITERALLY.

No, Paul SAW A LIGHT and understood that it was NO LONGER “PAUL” THAT LIVED BUT CHRIST… Paul, understood THAT IN HIS persecution of others he was was in fact persecuting HIMSELF, who is also part of everything and everyone in God/Christ/Love/Truth.

Acts 22:6-8
6 And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.
7 And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

Paul, didn’t know Jesus in person (which is what most are taught “after the flesh” means). On his way to persecuting and killing “christians/other human beings/etc” a VOICE from HEAVEN (which means a HIGHER THOUGHT within) came to him. Much like your thoughts come to you to correct you when you are about to do wrong/harm.

Today, you would consider this VOICE FROM HEAVEN to be your CONSCIENCE (defined as: an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one’s behavior.) Regardless of what you want to call this, Paul realized JESUS was NOT ONE SINGLE FLESHY LITERAL MAN.

He NO LONGER KNEW CHRIST after the Flesh (the ignorant way we see Jesus today, as a literal man, the way it is taught etc), he knew CHRIST AS SPIRIT.

I use the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf to make the meaning of this clear. It doesn’t matter if there was a literal boy or wolf. The FLESHY interpretation of this story, limits this story, but the SPIRIT of this STORY is what gives life. If people focused on THE BOY and the WOLF as opposed to the SPIRIT of the story, no one would learn that there are consequences to lying and exaggerating.

Paul, from that moment on knew it didn’t matter if CHRIST was a literal single man or not… he understood JESUS was a SYMBOL, a WAY to finding the truth within… Sort of like the Boy in the story above, the SPIRIT of Jesus’ story, not the letter of it, is where LIFE IS FOUND.

He is NOT to be seen as a historical figure… he is a PICTURE OF YOU, ME AND EVERYONE.

Jesus explained, “I am” IS the way, the truth, and the LIFE” of all men.

Paul realized Jesus stood for a collective Christ, one that is hiding within us all. Killed at the place of the SKULL (our thinking).

Paul understood that he (Paul) was NO BETTER than anyone else, that every religious thing he learned was comparable to dung, and that HUMBLED HIM, depicted in him falling to the ground (from his high horse) ON HIS WAY TO DAMASCUS (which literally translates into “silent is the sackcloth weaver”).

At the time of Paul’s quest to force his religion on those who saw differently Jesus was already dead. So he wasn’t on his way to persecute JESUS, as the voice from heaven stated…. Unless of course, JESUS IS A SYMBOL FOR ALL MEN in their ENLIGHTENED STATE!

In understanding this (that WE ALL ARE ONE) OUR LOVE IS PERFECTED.

1 John 4:17
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Not only from this passage do we realize, as Jesus is so are we, but we realize AS WE ARE SO IS EVERYONE ELSE! This is why we have BOLDNESS in the day of JUDGMENT not to JUDGE, BUT TO LOVE!

Paul, understood that if anyone be in CHRIST, and all ARE, they are NEW CREATURES…. Old things pass away, and all things become new. ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD!

So join me, from here on out, in knowing no man after the FLESH and that goes for JESUS as well. Stop putting your faith in a literal man who you have never met, and start putting your faith in the CHRIST IN YOU, which died TO BECOME the you, you think you are. So you may once again know life everlasting.

I hope you enjoyed this essay. Please do subscribe, share, and let the world know what you think of this essay and the others posted here. I love you all, Jacob