Do You Know God?
Spring 2024
With the invention of the internet and the influence of social media, the average person today is connected with more people than at any other time in history. If you look at your social accounts, likely there will be people from many different countries across the world. Although the internet and social media have allowed us to make more contacts, these are often merely acquaintances and not people we truly know. Knowing someone takes a lot more effort than sending or receiving a friend request—we must invest our time in talking with them, understanding them, and learning about them.
I want to ask you a question: Do you know God? Many people in North America would immediately answer with a “YES!” but their lives and testimony demonstrate that they are only acquainted with God; they do not truly know Him. “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). Some may have gone to church, prayed, and got involved in social work, but they do not know the Lord personally by experience.
Jesus Christ spoke about knowing God. He said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Christ is talking about a knowledge of God that is above and beyond being merely acquainted with him.
First, this knowledge is an evangelical knowledge. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee.” God has given to man, through Creation, a general knowledge of His existence and character (Romans 1:20). But the knowledge spoken of here is a knowledge that believes in Jesus Christ as the only Savior given to us by God. This knowledge believes in God and His Son as the only true and living God. People may be acquainted with God through Creation or through what they have heard at church, but the knowledge that we all need to have eternal life is a knowledge of Him as Lord and Savior.
Second, this is an experiential knowledge. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee.” Our evangelical knowledge of God as Savior is not only an intellectual agreement with the truths of Christianity. It is experimental knowledge because, by faith, we receive eternal life—the most incredible experience anyone can have. This life given to the believing sinner is in contrast with his natural state of being spiritually dead. We are radically changed when we receive the gift of eternal life. Our sins are forgiven, and every part of us is changed and continues to change by God's saving grace. The sinner evangelically believes and then receives this wonderful gift of eternal life. This life is truly experiential as it brings the sinner, now made alive, into a relationship with the living God. True life is the enjoyment of God—hearing Him in His Word and speaking to Him in prayer. Not only knowing about God, but knowing God relationally.
Let me ask you: have you believed in the one true and living God and Jesus Christ, whom He sent to be your Savior? It is only through believing and receiving that we can say, “Yes! I know Him.”
Rev. Andrew Simpson | Minister, Heritage FPC, BC