Jesus Christ Is Come in the Flesh (Book of Sin 7)

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.

We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.  (1 John 4:1-6 KJV)

We live in a time when Christians lack the most basic of spiritual discernment. My wife and I believe that the Holy Spirit is alive and well and on planet earth. For this reason we always sought out churches with leaders who taught the continued reality of spiritual gifts in God’s people. However, in the 1980’s and 1990’s churches we attended always allowed evil spirits to manifest and then claimed that these were really manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Finally, we simply decided to quit playing church and since the year 2000 have only shared the Word of God in our own home. We no longer allow another person, a pastor, prophet, or whatever, to determine our spiritual life. Here it is up to us to discern the true from the false and to follow the true.

I believe that John gives us very explicit instructions for determining fellowship in his first epistle, but God’s people have not understood. Therefore, at the end of this age, which some call the Church Age, we witness a Church bereft of discernment and Godly judgment. Almost every commentator says the passage highlighted above means that a Christian can identify another Christian by whether or not that person confesses that Jesus Christ “has come in the flesh,” i.e., that Jesus Christ lived and died about 2000 years ago. That is not what this verse means. Even the demons believe that, “and tremble.”

Over and over in his book of sin John speaks of being born again and of coming from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light. “Be not like Cain,” he says, “whose deeds were evil.” He tells us that Cain was like his father, the devil.  Jesus told the Pharisees that the devil was their father too. Who is our father? Is our father the devil or is it God. If our father is the devil can that be changed? Can we actually somehow acquire a new and different father? Of course! That is what salvation is all about. This is what Jesus speaks of when he tells Nicodemus that he must be born again. We are all born into the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of satan. Our life begins with satan as our father. When we truly believe in the person and work of Jesus Christ we receive the seed of the Holy Spirit within our innermost being. When this happens we say we have been “born again.”

It is this concept of being born again that John speaks of here in chapter 4. If a person has truly been born again then he has been born from above by the literal seed of Jesus Christ. When this happens Jesus Christ actually comes into our flesh. This is what John means when he says, “Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.” Do you confess that Jesus Christ has come in your flesh? If you do not then you have not been born again and you are not at this time considered to be “of God.” You are still of your father the devil, just as Cain and the Pharisees were. If you do confess that Jesus Christ has come in your flesh, then you are of God. This is how we (those who are of God) know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. This is how we know who to fellowship with and who not to fellowship with. This is how we “try the spirits,” and this is who we discern true prophets from false.

But also remember this, to confess Jesus Christ means “to speak the same thing as” Jesus does. John spends much time in his letter explaining that the one who truly confesses Jesus also purifies himself and walks in holiness just as Jesus did. If someone tells you that Jesus Christ has come in his flesh and yet partakes of debauchery and sin, then know that it is not the Jesus Christ of whom John speaks that has come into his flesh. No indeed. Such a one still walks with satan and knows him as his father.

When one truly knows that Jesus the Christ, the very Son of God, has come into his own flesh, then he can like Jesus also say, “I Am” because he and Jesus are  now one. I Am. Are you?

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