Week 35
John 17:3; 2 Timothy 2:19 “This is eternal life that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent…The Lord knows those who are His”
The salvation of sinners can be described in many ways and is done so beautifully by our precious Lord. In these two passages before us, we have two sides of the wondrous truth that salvation involves personal and intimate knowledge between God’s people and God.
To possess eternal life as a gift by God’s grace in Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord means and includes that we have knowledge of God. This knowledge includes proper and correct (though limited) intellectual understanding of God and reality as related to God, but it also includes relational knowledge, as well. This relationship with God is a knowledge that is deep, rich, fulfilling, satisfying, corrective, and inspiring. This knowledge and relationship with God in Christ is an organic and fundamental part of our lives because it is central to our life in Christ. Thus, we come to know our Lord in every human experience as informed and developed by the Bible taught through the sovereign sanctifying ministry of the Holy Spirit. As we grow, we come to know Him better and more thoroughly. And when we get to heaven, this knowledge will expand beyond our capacity to imagine on earth, as we enjoy eternity and grow forever in our personal knowledge of God.
But this knowledge is also described as God’s knowledge of those who are His. God has known us eternally before the beginning of time, as those who are His. He has known us in Christ on the cross, as Jesus died for our sins. He has known us in the resurrection of Jesus since Jesus rose for our justification. He knew us, sending the Holy Spirit into our hearts, drawing us effectually to Christ, regenerating us, and establishing a new life in us in Christ through the Spirit’s presence and ministry. God knows us every single day of our lives, seeing and perfectly understanding our hurts, our fears, our disappointments, our struggles, our sins, and our yearnings for Him. He knows us so well, that it can be said that He knows us in ways that no one else could ever know us, including ourselves. This knowledge of us is soaked in love, controlled by grace, and directed by perfect wisdom. He knows us!
And so, the Christian life is a life of knowledge: spiritual knowledge, biblical knowledge, holy knowledge, personal and intimate knowledge, healing knowledge, helpful knowledge, and worship knowledge. This knowledge goes back and forth between God and His people and does so with love, sweetness, correction, and guidance. What a wonderful knowledge of our God we have in salvation; what a glorious promise we have to know that He knows us eternally and redemptively!
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank You for making me know You in Jesus Christ. This is the greatest experience of my life, and I give You praise for it. Thank You also for Your knowing me in Christ. I am Yours, I belong to You, and You know all my life, the good and the bad. Please draw me close to You so that I may truly live in the true knowledge of Your Word and salvation.