Do You Really Know Jesus Christ?

By James Quansah, Pastor

…because I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day (2 Timothy 1:12

True Christianity is all about Christ Jesus and nothing and no one else. A true Christian is someone who knows Jesus Christ personally and keeps an intimate relationship with Him. It is impossible to be a born again disciple of Christ Jesus without knowing Him. It is, however, sad that, today, most Christians do not know Jesus Christ. They have just heard about God’s Son, but they do not sincerely know Him.

In this teaching, we wish to use Paul as our case study. In the scriptural verse above, the Apostle says that he knew whom he had believed. Christ Jesus is the one Paul believed as his Lord and Saviour. Like Paul, the early disciples also knew Jesus Christ personally and, therefore, confessed, preached and taught about Him from the depth of their hearts without fearing the consequences.

You reader, do you really know Jesus, the world’s Saviour?’ Do you know and understand His deity, attributes, graces and riches? Are you in Him, and He in you? Jesus Christ is knowable because He lived yesterday, lives today and shall live forevermore. He is the beginning and the end. He is the Creator Son of God and His God.

Do you really Know Jesus? Knowing Christ Jesus goes beyond hearing about Him or reading about Him in books, newspapers or magazines. Of course, the Lord stands tall, huge and impeccably magnificent full of majestic glory in the Holy Book of books. But knowing Jesus Christ is not necessarily knowing facts about Him. A person who just hears and reads about Jesus Christ of Nazareth may become a philosopher and not a true Christian.

Do you really know Jesus Christ? Even though Paul did not personally walk with Him on the streets of Palestine as one of the 12 Apostles, he confessed to knowing the Lord. What happened in the life of Paul for him to boldly declare that he knew whom he had believed?
If Paul could know Jesus Christ after His death, burial, resurrection and ascension, then, true believers today must be men and women who know Jesus Christ.

No one becomes a disciple of Christ without being called first by God. And a person cannot confess to have been called by Christ without knowing Him with convincing proves. To know Christ Jesus is to encounter Him supernaturally often through dreams, visions, trances and commonly through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s heart.

Paul did not tell a lie in saying that he knew Christ because he had several divine encounters with Him and heard His voice. The first of such encounters between them perhaps happened on the road of Damascus as narrated by Luke in Acts chapter nine during the call of Paul. In a number of his writings, Paul testified of Jesus appearing to him on a number of occasions.

One that gladdens my heart is recorded in Acts chapter 18. Here, it seemed Paul was overwhelmed by the persistent persecution and arrest he was being subjected to. Thus, he was gripped with fear and decided to stop testifying about Jesus. The Lord, then, appeared to him.

“One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision and told him, “Don’t be afraid! Speak out! Don’t be silent! For I am with you, and no one will attack and harm you, many people in this city belong to me,” (Acts 18:9-10).

Then, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul talks about seeing Jesus Christ after His resurrection. “He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day…He was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time…Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I ALSO SAW HIM.”

Paul saw Jesus in visions, trances and dreams and heard Him speak to him. So, he could say, “I know whom I have believed…” Do you really know Jesus Christ? The Lord Jesus is in every genuine believer’s heart, making them Christians. Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit who dwells in the heart of His disciples.

The Bible affirms this truth when Paul writes to genuine Christians, saying, “Because you are his sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father,” (Galatians 4:6).

Aside receiving visions, dreams and experiencing the indwelling Holy Spirit, Paul had accurate knowledge of Christ Jesus in the Scriptures and kept an intimate relationship with Him. The more a believer maintains a close relationship with Jesus Christ, the more he knows more about Him.

However, one of the general ways by which a person can know Jesus Christ is by being truly called by God to hear the gospel of the Kingdom of God, believing in Jesus Christ, repenting of their sins, confessing Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, being baptized by immersion and receiving the Holy Spirit in their heart.

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