One of the most influential books in regard to helping me grow in my relationship with our LORD Jesus Christ, my redeemer, is a book by theologian J.I. Packer, titled “Knowing God”. Packer made it very clear throughout the book that the Christian life was not just about gaining facts and information about God, but that by the scriptures and the power of the Holy Spirit we move beyond the facts into a true, vital, intimate, loving relationship with the God who created and redeemed us for that very purpose (Proverbs 8:17) (John 17:1-4).
In emphasizing that the ultimate goal of human existence is a personal, intimate relationship with the eternal God rather than mere impersonal knowledge about Him, Packer writes: “What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we have in life? To know God. What is the eternal life that Jesus gives? To know God. What is the best thing in life? To know God.”
God Himself makes the necessity of our knowing Him clear in Jeremiah 9:23-24, wherein through the prophet Jeremiah he proclaims to the nation of Israel, and ultimately to His church:
“Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man boast in his might, Nor let the rich man boast in his riches; But let him who boasts in this; That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord.”
To know can mean in general to have information about or great confidence in something or someone. In the context presented by Packer and the LORD through the prophet Jeremiah, the term know or known means to have true knowledge of, intimate relationship with, and unwavering confidence in the one true and living God, who reveals Himself as one God, consisting of three divine persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, who have existed in an eternal love relationship of unimaginable joy and pleasure. Mankind was created out of the overflow of this love to share in that relationship, to know and be known by God intimately and personally, imaging in our being, the glory of God; not as divine equals but as beloved children who would find our greatest joy, our greatest pleasure, our greatest satisfaction and ultimate significance within this relationship, enjoying and being enjoyed by God, under His divine authority (1 John 4:7-8) (Genesis 1:26-28) (Isaiah 43:7).
Tragically, all mankind, beginning with Adam and Eve, have rejected, alienated ourselves from this glorious relationship, opposing God’s purpose for and rule over our lives as well as His order and design for human flourishing and our individual happiness in Him, all of which the Bible refers to as sin (Romans 3:23). In the Garden of Eden, immediately upon their one act of disobedience, the glorious relationship they had with God, one another, and ultimately all of creation is shattered. They experience guilt, shame and fear causing them to hide from God, and when confronted by God, the become the first to engage in fallen mankind’s favorite pastime, the blame game (Genesis 3:6-13).
The promised consequence of sin which is death, being cut off from the glorious life and relationship with God for which we were created, is executed swiftly, extending to all of mankind who would proceed from them (Genesis 2:15-17) (Romans 5:13), with mankind having no means of restoring ourselves to that relationship nor any real desire to do so apart from God’s saving grace (Genesis 3:23:24) (Psalm 10:4) (Romans 3:11-12).
We learn in Romans 1:18-20, that sin-corrupted men and women actively suppress that which God has clearly revealed of Himself within the glory of creation and in the consciences of men, believing that in suppressing this truth it frees us from any dependence upon or ultimate accountability to God, where in fact it has made us slaves to our sinful nature and inclinations (John 8:34).
God’s glorious image in which we were designed is now totally corrupted, with our nature and character imaging that of the devil more than that of God (John 8:44). We have made ourselves His enemies, with minds blinded to His glory and hostile to His rule, having joined the devil in “cosmic treason” against the glorious creator and sovereign ruler of His universe (Colossians 1:21) (Ephesians 4:18) (Isaiah 14:12-14).
Genesis 6:5 reveals that the thoughts and imaginations of our hearts, our innermost being, are “only evil continually,” displayed in disordered desires and vile passions that are contrary to God’s original design and purpose for our enjoyment of Him and His creation. Thus, we are subject to all of the miseries and calamities brought about by sin and God’s wrath and judgment on our sin, with the certainty of physical death, and the eternal miseries of Hell awaiting us (Romans 1:18-34) (Psalm 9:17).
Mankind’s total alienation from God is highlighted in the book of Jeremiah, wherein the LORD speaks through the prophet to the people of Israel whom God, in His eternal plan of redemption, has made a special effort to establish a relationship with through both the miraculous and spectacular ways in which He redeems them from slavery to Egypt, and then in establishing a covenant relationship with them with promises of His gracious presence and related blessings in a land “flowing with milk and honey” as long as they were willing to obey the conditions of the covenant (Deuteronomy 28:1).
God begins to define those conditions in this commandment: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of [bondage. “You shall have no other gods before Me (Exodus 20:1-7). And like Adam and the fallen world of humanity that proceeded from him, they violate those conditions, repeatedly, and thus come under God’s judgement. Thus we read in Jeremiah 4:22 the following indictment:
“For My people are foolish, They have not known Me. They are stupid children, And they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, But to do good they have no knowledge.”
This is the desperate and dire state of all mankind, resulting in our being destined for eternal separation away from the presence of God and the glory of His grace, in a place referred to in Revelation 21:8 as the “second death” or lake of fire, which is another term for Hell (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
However, the LORD God, who we learn from Genesis to Revelation is “rich in mercy” and delights in displaying that mercy, had a plan from the foundation of the world to glorify Himself and magnify His grace in redeeming – reconciling and restoring sinful, truth suppressing, God ignoring men and women, who deserve only His wrath and the miseries of Hell, back to the glorious relationship and life with Him for which we were created in the beginning, what is referred to throughout the New Testament as “eternal life” (Ephesians 2:4-7) (Isaiah 43:1-7) (Isaiah 44:22) (Romans 6:23).
This redemption is accomplished through the person and work of God the Son, the LORD Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:7) (2 Corinthians 5:18-19) (John 10:10) the seed of the woman promised back in Genesis 3:15. Through Jesus’ sinless life, sacrificial death on the cross and miraculous resurrection to newness of life, He fulfills the demands for divine justice on our sin and in doing so “propitiates” God’s wrath, taking it upon Himself on the cross (Romans 3:21-26) (Matthew 27:46). Jesus then sends the Holy Spirit to create in all who will be redeemed, a “new heart” with new longings, affections and desires, wherein knowing, loving and being loved by God and knowing and doing His will as our LORD, becomes more important to us than anything else in this world (Ezekiel 36:24-28) (Psalm 40:8) (Psalm 1:1-2) (Psalm 27:4).
While Jesus was Immanuel, “God with Us” (Matthew 1:21-23), who as a man accomplished redemption for us, He would now, as the God Man, send God the Holy Spirit to be “God in Us” (John 7:37-39 (John 14:15-18), for the purpose of revealing the glory of God in Christ to us and applying the benefits of Christ’s redemptive work in us (John 16:12-15) (Romans 8:14-16). In this we have intimacy with God, restored. And it will only get better from here on (1 Corinthians 2:9)
More in my next post.
Grace and Peace ×