The Knowledge of God

It is very generally acknowledged that there is a God. There are very few out and out atheists who deny that there is a God. However, there are millions of practical atheists in the world, men and women who live as though there were no God. It is evident in such cases that God is not in all their thoughts. Man by nature is truly ignorant of the God who has given him a being in this world. This is one of the solemn consequences of the fall of man — man lost the knowledge of the living and true God.

Yet the Word of God makes plain that to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent is eternal life. It is impossible therefore for anyone to possess eternal life apart from the knowledge of the living and true God. If we are to have eternal life we must know God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

The fall brought man into a low condition in that man, once possessed with the knowledge of God, knows Him no longer. The most educated of men are no better than the most backward so far as this knowledge is concerned. The natural mind is blinded and cannot apprehend what is spiritual. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” It is certain, then, that no man can know God until his sin-darkened mind is enlightened by the Spirit of God.

What our souls need is the saving knowledge of God which can only come through saving enlightenment in the knowledge of the truth. If we are to know God in a saving and a living way, it cannot be apart from saving belief of the truth. The revelation that God has given of Himself to poor sinners is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in and through Christ alone that God is to be known as a reconciled God. Outside of Christ He is a consuming fire.

If we are then to come to the knowledge of God, it is through coming to the knowledge of the One whom He has sent, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is made known in the gospel of God’s grace as the alone Saviour of sinners. It is through that gospel being applied to our hearts by the Spirit of God that we are brought to receive and rest upon Jesus Christ alone for eternity. Through faith in His Name, He becomes precious to us — “Unto you, therefore, which believe He is precious.” Christ is revealed to the soul as the One who alone can meet his need for time and eternity. It is as a poor needy sinner that the soul lays hold of Jesus Christ in the gospel. It is on a divine Saviour that the soul lays hold, seeing in Him the One who is the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His Person.

One of the disciples said to the Saviour: “Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” The Saviour answered: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. . . . Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me.” What a revelation God is giving of Himself in Jesus Christ. He is making Himself known in the riches of His grace, mercy and love. He is revealing Himself as a sin-forgiving God in His Beloved Son. That a God of infinite glory should condescend to pardon and blot out sin, iniquity and transgression is something altogether wonderful and ought to fill our souls with joy and rejoicing. What amazing grace that must be to pluck a sinner from the burning and bring that soul to be an heir of eternal life.

Eternity will consist of the unveiling of the glory of God as that is to be seen in the great work of Calvary. Of that glory there is no end. How blessed shall the eternity be of all who will be entering in more and more to the knowledge of the glory of God as revealed in the great work of redemption where “mercy and truth are met together” and “righteousness and peace have kissed each other”!

For ourselves the great question must be whether or not we will be of that blessed company. The answer to this question must lie in the question whether or not we have come to the knowledge of God here in time through the revelation that is given to us in Christ Jesus. Can we say in truth that we know Him, whom to know is eternal life? If so, then we may be assured that we shall inherit glory and shall be eternally enjoying the beatific vision of God in glory for, as the Saviour has said, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”