Jn.7:28,29 – Then Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know Me and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. I do know Him, because I am from Him, and He sent Me.”
This could be one of those cliches that became popular in the Jesus Movement. I guess the problem begins when we see that not everyone understands what this means and may have a totally different understanding of the saying. Some may think that this means have they repeated the sinner’s prayer. Praying the prayer may or may not lead to knowing Jesus, it could be real or it could just be repeating some words. Others may think it means to know about Jesus, you know factual information about the historical man Jesus of Nazareth. This is what Jesus was dealing with when talking to the Pharisees. They knew where Jesus was from, they knew His parents, and even His synagogue that He grew up in. The problem was their eyes were closed and they had no revelation of who Jesus was. Here is how Augustine describes this.
“Our Lord replies that they both knew him and knew him not, as if to say, you both know where I come from and do not know where I am from. You know where I am from, that I am Jesus of Nazareth, whose parents you know. The birth from the Virgin was the only part of the matter unknown to them: … with this exception, they knew all that pertained to Jesus as man.… So he says rightly, “You both know me and know where I am from,” that is, according to the flesh and the likeness of man. But in respect of his divinity, he says, “I have not come of my own accord; he who sent me is true.”
Today people may think they know Jesus because they were raised in church, knew something of the Bible narrative, and practiced the teachings of the church. That is very similar to the population that Jesus was dealing with. They thought they were spiritually pretty good, not realizing that Jesus had come to carry their sin to the cross. Knowing about Him or even doing spiritual disciplines is not good enough, we must know Him for ourselves.
