Knowing Jesus

"I desired ... the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings"  (Hosea 6:6).
"[Jesus] will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus"  (2 Thessalonians 1:7).
"Now that you know God, or rather are known by God"  (Gal. 4:9).
"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.  Test yourselves.  Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? unless indeed you fail to meet the test!"  (2 Cor. 13:5, ESV).

(Note:  If anyone says he knows God and doesn't obey Him, he is a liar, according to Jesus).

More important than understanding who Jesus is theologically, is to know Him personally as salvation, and the utmost value is in finding Him.  The result:  Do you love Jesus?  The ultimate question:  Who is He to you?  In summation, let's realize that to know Him is to love Him!


It is one thing to be content to just be theologically sound concerning Jesus, and quite another to know Him intimately and personally in a living relationship that grows, and doesn't stagnate or static. You can be saved knowing remarkably little doctrine; God is looking at the heart and faith of the individual in Him and not in himself--we are God-confident, not self-confident, relying on our acumen or cognition or intellectual prowess.

Extremely naive and simple-minded people can be saved, and those of great education can miss it entirely--miss the boat!  Christianity is not about a creed, but about knowing a person--how we are getting along--relationships are of utmost value.  Job 22:21 says, "Acquaint now yourself with Him and be at peace."  We must be willing to agree with God and see things His way, and not be stubborn and insisting on our way.

Faith is very simple:  Even a child can have it, but it is not simplistic--it is childlike (you must approach God in this way), but it is not childish (God wants us to grow up and become mature).   Subsequent to learning enough doctrine to become a renowned theologian we may lack people skills and not know our Lord hardly at all.   For example, John Bunyan didn't know very much compared to the likes of John Calvin, but he knew his Lord.  It is so much more important to apply what we know and realize that we will not be judged by what we know, but what we sow.

We are called to be lights in the world and that means we are ambassadors who represent our Lord in an evil world.  The world sees the gospel according to you--what your lifestyle and story testify of.  A man of simple faith who just knows Jesus is God and his Savior may utter simple prayers and have a constant dialogue with their Lord, while the scholar doesn't apply what he knows and just likes to be right or smarter than others.

Jesus said that eternal life is to "know Him" in John 17:3 and Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 9:24 that if we are to "boast" we should do so about knowing the Lord!  J. I. Packer alleges that we can know a great deal "about God" and not much "of God." He concludes that a little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal about Him--touche!  This only happens through a living faith and a vital relationship in a daily walk. A word to the wise:  God is pleased with faith more than feelings or emotions, and tests our faith.  We must learn to cultivate intimacy and get to know our Lord, basically through knowing others who know Him, the Scriptures, and ongoing prayer.

You can even know a lot "about" Christ, and not know Him as a living God, Savior, and Lord.  We are to "grow in the grace and knowledge" of Him according to 2 Peter 3:18, and as we do good works we do also "grow in our knowledge" of Him according to Colossians 1:10.  Doctrine can be "interesting" but some people are so assured of their relationship and know it must be put in its place--application is what it's about and the Bible was not written to increase our knowledge, but to change our lives. Jesus came to save us, not educate or teach us, though He did that too.  In the final analysis, it is not that we know Him, but He knows us (Gal. 4:9) that is significant.

What Jesus is really looking for is someone after His own heart who wholeheartedly follows Him and is yielded to His will (2 Chron. 16:9).   Theologians have their place, but this is not for everyone and we shouldn't expect everyone to have the same "interest" in the so-called deeper truths of the Word.  It is a good idea to keep our faith as simple as possible and not to have such a heavy yoke to bear, expecting everyone to be at our mental capacity--remember, the "common people heard Him gladly."

Immature believers balk at learning doctrine and we must remember that "solid food is for the mature" who have learned to distinguish good and evil (cf. Hebrews 5:14).  We must know where our listeners are and not go over their heads, meeting their needs where appropriate, as Jesus told Peter to feed the lambs.  Sometimes it is tempting to "wow" the congregants with our scholarship, but this is ill-advised and we need to not depend on impressive words, but to rely on the power of the Spirit.

The Order Of Faith

"For everything there is a season, a time for every matter under heaven" (Ecclesiastes. 3:1, ESV).
"For God is not the God of confusion, but of peace" (1 Cor. 14:33, ESV).
"He has made everything beautiful in its time"  (Eccles. 3:11, ESV).
"This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent"  (John 6:29).
"For unto you it has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him..." (Phil. 1:29).
Our God is a God of design, order, harmony, beauty, and plan, and not of chaos or disorder, even in salvation.
EMPHASIS MINE.
He providentially makes everything beautiful in its time Ecclesiastes 3:11)--according to His timetable. Meditate on this as we discuss our salvation experience.

We are all a work of grace and had no desire for Christ apart from His grace, who made us willing and exchanged our heart of stone for a heart of flesh (Ezek. 36:26).  Our election is unconditional and not dependent upon anything we do, but God called us according to His purpose and grace and His divine good pleasure (cf. Eph. 1:5).  Our inability to believe apart from grace is due to our total depravity. Rome has turned faith into a meritorious work and believes we are capable of achieving it--it is granted, not achieved. The idea that God elects us because of our faith is called the prescient view and is in error, though some sincere Arminians subscribe to it out of ignorance or bias--this is the beginning of salvation by works and gives us merit to boast of.

Faith is necessary for our salvation, but not our election, and is a sure thing because it is decreed by God.  It is like God owing mercy to someone (that would be justice, not grace)--God is obligated to save no one--He could have saved no one!  In addition, dead people can't have faith or do anything that pleases God! "There is none good, no not one."  Our salvation is "...not of him who wills [sincerity], nor of him who runs [effort of the flesh], but of God [His sovereign choice] who shows mercy"  (Rom. 9:16).

According to the Reformed tradition, regeneration precedes faith in the ordo salutis (the Latin for the order of salvation).  If it was a prerequisite for regeneration, we could muster or conjure it up on our own and this would be the genesis of merit of some sort, and God is no respecter of persons and shows no partiality.  Acts 18:27 says that God "helped those who through grace had believed."  2 Thess. 2:13 says God chose us "through sanctification of the Spirit [first in occurrence] and belief in the truth."  1 John 5:1 says that everyone who believes "has [past tense and occurring beforehand] been born of God."  In the golden chain of redemption of Romans 8:29-30 we see those who were called to be justified and there can be no justification without concurrent faith and repentance (penitent faith or believing repentance, if you will).

God calls us unto faith or quickens faith within us as His gift (Rom. 12:3) and it is our duty to act upon that faith.  We are not elected or called because of our faith but elected unto faith.  God does the choosing or electing, not us (cf. John 15:16)!  Our destiny is ultimately in His providential hands--thank God!  He reserves the right to save those whom He chooses.

We are not judged by our faith, but our deeds done in the flesh (Rom. 2:6).   However, Eph. 2:8-9 delineates the order clearly:  "...by grace, through [instrumental means] faith, it [the antecedent is faith in one sense as well as the whole phrase] is the gift of God [God's gift, but our act]."  If faith were our work and not God's work in us we would reason to boast in His presence.  We are not saved by works, even though we are incurably addicted to doing something for our salvation (cf. John 6:28). The phraseology of the Reformation was Soli Deo Gloria, or to God alone be the glory!  Amen.  The whole of Reformed theology can be put in the synopsis that "Salvation is of the LORD" as Jonah said in Jon. 2:9.  It is not, therefore, any other combo, such as of us and the Lord, or of us alone; which would mean we have to work, earn, and merit salvation to some degree, and that it partially depends on us. Believe me, if our salvation depended on us, none of us would make it and we could have no assurance!

Now to the subject of the post at hand:  The first sign of faith as a seed planted is when a person becomes positively oriented to pay attention and listen to the preaching of the Word (1 Sam. 15:22 says, "...to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams"), even if he is neutral--he lets it sink in and then understands it only through the illuminating ministry of the Spirit. No one is the same after hearing the gospel message; they either get upset and are hardened, or they get convicted and are a step from salvation.  "Faith comes by hearing and by hearing of the Word of God" (Romans 10:17). After acceptance and comprehension, he must decide to agree or react and reject.  He can agree, or consent mentally and still not have saving faith though

The belief must go from head belief to heartfelt faith affecting the whole personhood of intellect, emotion, and will.  He must be willing to do His will to know the truth as Jesus said in John 7:17:  "If any man wills to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God...."  In short, God makes believers out of us by His wooing and grace to make the unwilling willing!  We are incompetent to meet the requisites of salvation and election, ergo it must be unconditional and by grace.

After ascent, no matter how much faith he has [it only takes a grain as a mustard seed to germinate--it is not the amount per se] he must still decide to surrender to God's will. This is the beginning of trust and obedience, which goes hand in hand with saving faith (John 3:36), and this is where faith grows in "good soil" and is saving faith when committed and one takes his stand, after finding his standing.  However, note that the faith must be correct faith in the right object (it is the object that saves, not faith itself) and if he is heretical in his knowledge, no amount of faith will save him and no matter how sincere (though sincerity is vital, it is not everything because you can be sincerely wrong). A strong but misguided faith will be of no avail (cf. Rom. 10:2).

To take the leap of faith we must give up, surrender and put trust in all God's will all at once, and not some to-do list or rules and regulations of legalism--we don't trust in a religion or a creed (creeds don't save, Christ only saves), but we rely on a person we deem as not only having died for us personally but living for us now and that wants a personal relationship with us.  In other words, we know Christ died for us, we reckon it true for us personally and real, and then we yield to God's will (Christ's yoke is not the Law of Moses, but an easier one; we submit to His will in obedience and fellowship)--we let God live through us!   We must really surrender our will (step off the throne of our life and put Jesus in charge, giving up the ownership of our lives as we count the cost), submit to His will and live for Him to get a changed life--the evidence and telltale sign of salvation.  This changed life is from a surrendered life, a substituted life, an inhabited life, an exchanged life, an obedient life, and a trusting life (cf. Gal. 2:20).  Knowing just the facts like the burial, death, and resurrection of Christ is only history, but knowing it is in your behalf and real for you is salvation.  

The conclusion of the matter is this:  grace is the sine qua non of faith and doesn't just facilitate it. That means it is necessary and sufficient and we cannot believe apart from the grace of God in our fallen state (called the primacy of grace), because we have no inherent virtue and cannot prepare ourselves for salvation, and must come as we are spiritually bankrupt, begging for mercy:  God be merciful to me, the sinner!   Soli Deo Gloria!