Knowing God is the special duty and privilege of every Christian. It is true that there are many great areas of study, many worthwhile areas of learning. But the highest science, the most mind-expanding of all, is theology — the study of God and knowing Him by faith, through the truth of the Bible, revealed by the Holy Spirit, as a result of the regenerating conversion of the new birth event at one’s salvation by grace.
To know God is for God to know you in a personal relationship. Concerning the subject of knowing God, C.H.Spurgeon once wrote:
“There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity.
It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity;
so deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity.
Other subjects we can comprehend and grapple with;
in them we feel a kind of self-content,
and go on our way with the thought, “Behold I am wise.”
But when we come to this master-science,
finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth,
and that our eagle eye cannot see its height,
we turn away with the solemn exclamation, “I know nothing.”
But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it.
Nothing will so enlarge the intellect,
nothing so magnify the whole soul of man,
as a devout, earnest, continuing investigation of the great subject of the Deity.”
We live in the day of psychiatrist and psychologist. Men and women spend billions of dollars annually in an attempt to know themselves and to sort out their psyches. All secular psychiatry falls short of ultimately helping anyone. Our worth and failures must be estimated against the standards of our Creator. That is why theology matters.
Encountering God, his holiness, his righteousness, his attributes will bring a person into a true, life-changing, encounter with one’s own reality. It is humbling.
We are not God, nor are we like Him.
He is holy; we are unholy.
He is good; we are not good.
He is wise; we are foolish.
He is strong; we are weak.
He is loving and gracious; we are filled with hate and selfish affections.
And then in Him we discover our worth.
We discover our potential.
We discover our purpose.
We find answers to our problems.
We experience all of God’s love, grace, and spiritual blessings.
We discover the world’s good and evil.
We discover the world’s past and future.
We discover the world’s purpose and impending judgment.
Of course, if we know God and thus know ourselves we will consequently have knowledge of this world which is made up of individuals.
As we know God better, we will understand the reality of evil in society.
We will understand rebellion.
We will understand how and why God’s providential working in this world happen as so.
In fact, this world is a confusing place until we know the God who made it
and learn from Him why He made it
and what is to happen to it.
Thus as Augustine noted all the problems of people derive from two things: lack of knowledge of God and lack of knowledge of ourselves.
We do not fully comprehend God and his character and ourselves and our sinfulness.
We tolerate sin,
we excuse sin,
we justify sin,
we make sin legal and therefore morally acceptable,
we redefine sin,
we ignore sin,
we even frown upon calling sin SIN.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man gloat in his wisdom, or the mighty man in his might, or the rich man in his riches. Let them boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who is just and righteous, whose love is unfailing…
And finally, knowing God is important because it is only through a knowledge of God that the church can become strong.
Daniel wrote “the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action” (Daniel 11:32)
We do not have many strong churches in California because we do not have many strong Christians. And we do not have many strong Christians because of an acute lack of sound spiritual knowledge.
Why is the church weak?
Why are Christians weak?
Because they have allowed their minds to become conformed to the “spirit of this age” with its godless thinking.
They do not know what God is like,
what He promises,
what He warns,
what He explains,
what He does.
Ask the average person about God and you will get?
a description of a little god of vacillating sentiments,
a god who would like to save the world, but who cannot,
a god who would like to restrain evil, but somehow he find it beyond his power,
a god who therefore who has withdrawn into semi-retirement,
willing to give good advice in a grandfatherly sort of way,
but for the most part he has left his children to fend for themselves in a dangerous environment.
Such a God is not the God of the Bible.
He is not weak but the ALMIGHTY.
Nothing happens without his permission or apart from His purposes … even evil.
Nothing disturbs Him
Nothing puzzles Him.
His purposes are always accomplished.
Therefore, those who know him rightly act with boldness, assured that God is with them to accomplish his own desirable purposes in their lives.
So let us learn about God and come to know God in the fullest, Biblical sense.
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Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
A-men.
A very refreshing post! What must it be like to see the light bulb finally come on for some of those in Californication?
Here in NC, biblical tradition reigns supreme. They have heard it all their life, so they don’t think they need to dig to know God in their “own” personal way.
Not sure which situation can get more frustrating.
Wonderful. The late Stan Grenz has made some important insights into the neglect of the “image of God” in biblical soteriology and the unfortunate consequences of it. Beyond his book on the subject, there’s a stimulating article clled “Jesus as the Imago Dei: Image-of-God Christology and the Non-Linear Linearity of Theology,” JETS 47 (2004). Great follow up, if anyone’s interested!
“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16
Trust me Alex, I’ve witnessed both and your situation is more frustrating. Great to see you getting in on the conversation here at Fide-o.
Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen
It’s like being in church on Sunday morning.
You know it is shameful to hear popular KBRT talk radio hosts cut people off and countless other “ministers” avoid the subject when people start to talk about THEOLOGY. Gosh, wouldn’t want to learn something about God when you can just preach love or about how we need to stop sinning (for the you know who’s, that’s doing bad things)…..but wait…how you can do one without the other.
Mrs. TBlackley, how’s it going. I have been posting a bit here in the past few weeks, so if you haven’t heard that, then Jason isn’t ticked at me too bad yet
Did you send my wife those pictures?
There is such luke-warm-ness, at times I wonder why even try. Just read, study and pray for and with my family and let everyone else figure it out at the judgement seat.
Oh well, tell the family I said hey.
Mr. Dunn, it is okay to use my real name they’ve all figured it out anyway. Yes your wife has the pictures and yes I’ve read your posts. Seems like old times. Keep ‘em commin’.
(To continue what daryl harper began with)
Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen and Amen!
I’m gonna’ link this post on my blog in hopes that the 3 people that read my blog will check this post out…
Blue Raja,
Do you agree with Grenz that human conformity to Christ as the image of God is “the divinely determined goal for human existence”?
Marc,
If not THE goal, it’s most certainly one of them. The the “new man” terminology of Colossians and Ephesians should be understood in light of this “image of God” theology. The Adam/Christ motif serves as a helpful backdrop for understanding the “new man”, which is better translated “the new humanity” created in Christ (who defines true humanity). There is another corporate manifestation of “the image of God” in the “body of Christ” imagery. So the restored image of God in a born again individual is really just the tip of this iceberg in the NT. Whaddayou think?
I think this is larely unexplored territory in evangelicalism. I see a lot more on it in the Fathers and in Orthodox stream writings of those like Hans Urs Von Balthassar (catholic) and David Bentley Hart (eastern orthodox, Beauty of the Infinite especially part IV, not so much his most recent work on the Theodicy). I think about phrases like “make up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ” and “The image of God in Christ” from Paul. And the idea of knowing Him in His suffering, to become like Him, and since Christ did what Adam failed he is the human image of God as well as the Incarnate God.
It all makes me wonder if we pound the justification aspect of us being hidden in Christ to the exclusion of an incarnational becoming like Christ, the Imago Dei.
I’m not sure I made much sense here, its only something I’ve been thinking on recentley and not real coherently yet.
Of course we all know the chief end of man is to glorify God and ejoy Him forever… maybe I’d agree with Grenz, but put the goal as he formulates it at a close second
.
I completely agree, Marc! Also, consider, that though this is the chief end of man, the chief means to this end is to live in accordance with our Creation mandate, faithfully bearing His image!