This verse is unsettling to me and has been since I heard it. First it was just a matter of assurance of salvation and the fear of one day hearing those words. Being turned away from heaven with those words would be awful.
Taking it deeper though it makes me question the immediacy and guarantee of salvation. Can salvation truly be traced back to the instant that a person prays a prayer and 'asks Christ into their lives'? Even if they mean it and have faith and all that. It specifies the condition of Christ knowing us. In that direction. How could Christ know us the second we pray that prayer? Because technically Christ is God, therefore God/Christ claims to know us intimately (knowing the number of hairs on our heads) even when we aren't 'saved'. So if he knows everything about us before we pray the prayer and we aren't saved then knowing in this sense must refer to something more. This knowing would be active, choosing to share our happiness, trials and learning. Choosing time to get to know Christ. This can't have been done that quickly can it? So when does Christ 'know' us?
3 comments:
I feel like this is a very simple-ish kind of knowledge. I feel like it's the same "knowledge" that Peter refused to have - three times - just after Christ was arrested. Peter certainly knew exactly who Jesus was (aside from the... Messiah bit) but certainly denied Him before men.
Then again, maybe it's a more intimate (at the risk of being gross) kind of knowledge, like a husband and wife have. If we don't let Him in, He doesn't know us in that enrafted/part-of-my-life way. Is that... making sense? Do you see the difference?
Yeah, i can see the difference. I guess I just dont' get when this happens. I mean can it really become intimate knowledge the second you pray a prayer? Or maybe it is just enough to commit to building that relationship. I mean if you accepted Christ and then died 3 seconds later, would you know Christ more? Would he know you more?
I say probably not. I mean, God is supernatural (and I suppose would be capable of infusing us with all of that in a three-second period..maybe that's what killed us!) but He relates to us in a humanly way...
I am certain that God cannot know us any more than He already does. (That somehow implies that there is something God doen't know.)
Things can get inimate (like my language?) the second you pray a prayer IF you already know Christ very well. Personally I can mark the difference between someone who has known Christ for a very long time (and by that I mean knows Him well) and someone who does not or is just getting to know Him now. You see how they can sink into His character and see Him in deeper ways than others (like me) can get to. It would be like.. how you or I could talk about Colbert in any situation being familiar enough with this mannerisms/gestures, random facial expressions, phrases, gaps, sense of humor, comedic timing, etc. etc. He would become more predictable to us (though more appealing, still) we could perhaps appreciate his versatility more... I imaging all of this as being able to try someone's skin on. I feel like that makes NO sense (or not enough sense) so maybe we can continue this conversation in person. P.S. we're still supposed to talk poetry..
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