Can We Know God?

 “this is eternal life, that they might know you and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” Jhn:17:3

Several years ago, I was attending a men’s conference in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and during the course of the conference which dealt with a whole host of men’s issues and responsibilities one of the leaders sang a contemporary worship song called “Knowing You, Jesus”.

The rendition of this song was quite moving and powerful and presented the idea that we can Know Jesus and in our knowing of him we experience all of his life in our very own lives, and put forward the idea that giving up everything of this life would be worth it if by doing so we would be brought to coming into a deeper knowledge and relationship with our Lord.

Seeking God

The question of “can we know God?” has been asked and pondered for centuries. Many have gone to great lengths to reach out and enter into a deeper knowing of God. Some left all things which they had to enter a monastic life or became reclusive in desert places all so that they might seek God undistracted by the outside would in prayer and in contemplation such as the desert hermits had centuries ago.

In the early centuries of the Church in the east, many sought out a union with and a knowing of God, a God whom some believed to be unknowable or Apophatic, that is beyond knowing, transcendent. 

Some, would employ a somewhat of a mystical approach to their search for the transcendent God. One method, which came about to seek this divine union relationship with God was called the Hesychasm which is a type of meditative prayer which directs the focus of the practitioner inwardly upon their own heart. This, and other somewhat esoteric practices were used to help Christians find the God whom they sought.

Knowing God is at the heart of Biblical Christianity and should be the endeavor of each and all believers. But can we really know the God of the Bible, a God who is beyond our natural ability of intellect and the capacity of our minds? A God, so lofty and high, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, a God who defies description? Can we truly come to know him?

That Might Know You

Jesus Christ, in his high priestly prayer found in the Gospel of John prayed for all believers to know God, even stating, that knowing God, which is having a relationship with God, is the very essence of eternal life and the reason which Jesus came; all that we might know God.

“this is eternal life, that they might know you and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” Jhn:17:3

Jesus is telling us that, God has made a way for us to know him and that very way is Jesus himself. Now, certain spiritual disciplines are helpful and should focus our minds upon the person of Jesus for in Jesus himself we find that God is knowable.  That in Jesus, God has condescended himself to us joining us as one of us, entering his own creation all that he is knowable, that is relatable.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jhn: 1:1

“and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (14)

Through the Word taking on our humanity he has in effect joined us all to himself, becoming one of us for all of us. Jesus has assumed up our humanity that it might be redeemed, but all the more, so that we can know the great God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Christ, this is eternal life. Eternal life is a relationship with God. Jesus has come to give us a revelation of God.

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.” Jhn: 17:6

 When we come to believe in Jesus and experience the salvation which he has accomplished for us we are now free to be who he has created us to be, his children. When we come to Jesus, we are encountering all of God, he has not left out any of himself in Jesus. Jesus is the very self of God.

“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,” Col:2:9

In Jesus we come to know the very God who created all things and has reached out to his human children through Jesus all that we might know him. When we grow in our relationship with Jesus, we are knowing the eternal all powerful God who has made all things and rather staying aloft, unknowable and distant from us he has come to us to show us his love for us and his desire that we might all come to know him all through Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Yes, we can Know God.

Benediction: May we each all come to Know our Great God who has reached out to humanity through Jesus Christ, today, tomorrow and forevermore. Amen

Rev.Todd Crouch, Norman, Oklahoma