Knowing God

This is eternal life: that they should know thee, the only true God, and him whom thou didst sent, even Jesus Christ (John 17: 3).

 

 

Simply put:  eternal life is knowing God.  In the book of Ephesians, Paul asks God to grant us "the spirit of wisdom and revelation" that we may know God.  When Paul passed through Athens, he saw an altar with the inscription: "To an Unknown God."  In the minds of the Athenians, God was considered unknowable -- they did not believe they could find Him by searching with their minds.  Even with their many philosophies, they did not think they could understand God.

 

We still have "Greeks" among us, people who say either that we "cannot know" God, or we cannot know if He exists.  Yet, as Jesus was about to depart from this earth, He plainly stated that we could know Him.  And John's Gospel states at the very beginning: No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, has made Him known. 

 

Such knowledge comes through revelation only:  Because we are sons, God has sent His Holy Spirit into our hearts, crying out "Abba! Father!"  Our knowledge of God is deeper than thought and deeper than feeling.  This knowledge does not rely on how logical the reasons or how clear the doctrines; it relies only on revelation.

 

We can ask for the spirit of revelation, according to Jesus:  Everyone who asks, receives; everyone who knocks, to him the door will be opened; the one who seeks will find....for the Father knows how to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him (Matt. 7).  And Jesus promised that when the Spirit comes, "He will take from what is mine and make it known to you."  Jesus certainly knew the Father, and He certainly seems to want us to know what he knows also in this regard.

 

It is such a joy to know the Truth about God, based on the words and promises of Jesus Christ, and the testimony of the Holy Spirit living within.  If we cannot trust Him to tell us the Truth, there is no hope in this world.  I would certainly not trust anyone else to tell me the Truth about God -- but knowing that He has sent His own Spirit to dwell within me, to lead me into 'all truth," I know that I can know God.  The arguments of all the world's philosophies have no impact on one who has the Spirit of God within him:

 

I will put my law in their minds

and write it on their hearts....

No longer will a man teach his neighbor,

or a man his brother, saying, "know the Lord,'

because they will all know me,

from the least of them to the greatest,"

declares the Lord (Jer. 31: 33-34).