Ass-backwards
By John Gavazzoni

In the New Testament, when we find such statements from Jesus such as, "and this is life eonian, that they might know Thee, only the true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou have sent," and from St. John, "and we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true, even His Son, Jesus Christ." The knowledge spoken of in those verses, in the Greek, conveys knowing someone intimately and experientially, not merely the kind of knowledge that amounts to being acquainted with, or simply giving mental assent to, or being convinced intellectually re: certain facts about that person. It's not of an intellectual conceptualizing sort.

Many years ago I fellowshipped among some brethren who often spoke of, and strongly emphasized, the need to experience Christ. "Experiencing Christ," and/or "the subjective experience of Christ," were phrases that appeared regularly in our fellowship, in sermons, in testimonies, and in books we were encouraged to read. That's a way to describe knowing Christ in the New Testament sense. Even in the early days of the mentoring I received among fundamentalist brethren, it was made clear to me that faith in Christ was not a matter of giving mental assent to facts presented in the Bible about the Lord, but rather possessing a vital, living, Spirit-imparted trusting of one's self to Him.

About this matter of how faith...yes, the vital kind that is intrinsic to knowing God....is related to experiencing Christ: We've had it ass-backward. (Sorry if I offend you using such a colloquialism). The great mass of professing Christians believe that having faith, choosing to believe in Christ, exercising faith, making a decision for Christ, etc., leads to knowing Him in that vital way that is intrinsic to the New Testament kind of knowing. Not so! That's ass-backward...there I go again. (But I'm in good company to speak in that manner, in the company of none other than the apostle Paul, who wrote about his righteousness, compared to God's righteousness, was dung. Folks, that's oxen, or sheep, or goat crap. Also, he wrote of our own righteousness being filthy rags [KJV]. The rags he referred to were the cloths used by a menstruating women. So, don't get on my case.)

Experiencing Christ doesn't come by faith. Faith comes by experiencing Christ. When you meet Jesus, really meet Him as He is, revealing Himself to you as He really is, you find yourself sinking into His arms trustingly. We're always inventing ways to the Way. There's no way to the Way, there's the Way Who comes to you putting you on the Way. Christ makes Himself experiential to you, intimately experiential, and sharing His faith, the faith OF Christ, becomes your faith. Read the account in the Book of Acts of Saul of Tarsus' conversion. Jesus appeared to him as a bright shining light, so bright it blinded Saul, and threw him to the ground. A voice came out of heaven, and it DIDN"T say, "Saul, I'm giving you your chance to use your free will to choose to believe in Me." No, no!

Jesus confronted Saul in a manner that most Christians, if they'd stop to think about it, would consider it to be a most un-gentlemanly way. He was intrusive. Whatever conversation might have been going on among those with whom Saul was traveling, Jesus interrupted it all. Whatever thoughts were running through Saul's mind, were intrusively interrupted by Jesus manifesting Himself as Saul's Lord. Saul's recognition that it was the Lord who appeared to him, didn't "make Jesus his Lord." Jesus came to Saul as his already, pre-conversion, Lord. What nonsense is in the common conventional evangelistic admonition: "You need to make Jesus your Lord." Peter had it right: "God hath made Him both Lord and Christ" God did that, whether we agree, and whether we believe or not.

Here's my testimony: Jesus interrupted me 66 plus years ago. He was intrusive. He stopped me dead in my tracks. Confrontational, to be sure, was His way with me. He came to me from within me, claiming what was His. Things with me were to no longer be as they'd been, and they weren't from that moment on..... Oct. 10, 1953, at 1:00 A.M., on my knees at my bedside, a former teen-age gang-member tough, humbled before the mighty hand of God. We get so many things about God ass-backwards, and especially this: you don't get Christ by faith, you get faith by Christ. Jesus comes, He speaks to ears He, Himself, has opened, and we're delivered from the darkness of unbelief into the light of faith. .

One sat alone beside the highway begging;
His eyes were blind, the light he could not see.
He clutched his rags and shivered in the shadows,
Then Jesus came, and bade his darkness flee.

When Jesus comes, the tempter's power is broken.
When Jesus comes, the tears are wiped away.
He takes the gloom, and fills the life with glory.
For all is changed when Jesus comes to stay.