THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD
Nothing is so important for us as the knowledge of God. “With all thy getting get understanding”, Prov 4: 7. “The knowledge of the holy is understanding”, Prov 9: 10. “The Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true”, 1 John 5: 20. It has been truly said that ‘if we know God, we know that certain things must be, because of what God is’. Hence the knowledge of God is the secret of all true knowledge. In Ephesians 1, after unfolding the truth of God’s calling, the apostle turns to prayer, and the first thing he prays on behalf of the saints is that God would grant them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Himself. On the other hand, he traced the defects at Corinth to their lack in this knowledge: “some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame”, 1 Cor 15: 34.
God has been pleased to reveal Himself in His Son, in order that we may know Him. It is God’s desire to be known by His creatures. He “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Tim 2: 4. He has made Himself known in His Son, in order that we who are lost and ruined in ourselves may turn to Him, and find in Him our only and all-sufficient resource, and that we might render to Him intelligent service, “worship him in spirit and in truth”, John 4: 24. What was true of Israel is true of man generally, as God said by the prophet: “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help”, Hos 13: 9. And His complaint against that nation was that they had forsaken Him, the fountain of living water, and had hewn out to themselves broken cisterns which would hold no water. The greatest loss which man sustained by the fall was the loss of the knowledge of God; he lost God, and ever since, as we see in Cain and his family, man’s effort has always been to be independent of God. This he cannot be; man is not self-sustaining, without God he is perishing. Although Satan has helped man to build up the great system of this world for the gratification of his lusts, yet he finds that there is no real satisfaction in it. “Vanity of vanities! all is vanity” (Eccl 1: 2), as said the man who was able to possess everything in it which he desired. “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again”, John 4: 13.
God is good, and the source of all that is really good. He is the living God, and the fountain of life for man. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent”, John 17: 3. Man can only live in the light of God and in the enjoyment of His favour. “In thy favour is life”; to be without this is moral death. Hence the day that man sinned and lost the knowledge of God that day he died, Gen 2.
To know God is to trust Him (Ps 9: 10) and to love Him, 1 John 4: 19. The better we know God the happier we are and the stronger we are, for He is the source of our joy and strength, Exod 15: 2; Hab 3: 18. The day is coming when all will know Him from the least to the greatest, and in the end God will be all in all, then men will be perfectly happy and enjoy eternal rest.
But if God is to be all to us, if we are to find our all in Him, if we are to understand that all our good depends upon what God is to us, and that entirely independent of any question of what we are to Him, there must be at the same time the learning of what we are in ourselves, in our sinfulness and nothingness. We have to be reduced to the condition of a little child without any pretension before we can learn the truth. God’s way is to bring us down that He may lift us up. As I learn what sin is, and what I am as a sinner, I am let down, and in the knowledge of God I am lifted up, 1 Sam 2: 1-9. Such is God’s way with men, and these two processes go on together. We see this illustrated in the case of Job. Such is God’s way; He humbles us that He may exalt us, see Deut 8: 2, 3. He humbled thee and proved thee, to make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live. With the prodigal son (Luke 15) it was when he was reduced to the end of all resource in himself, and was ready to perish, that he began to think of his father, and in the thought of his goodness to turn to him, to find in him the source of all goodness and life, he came to live in his favour. So it must be with us all. As long as we think we have anything in ourselves which we can cling to, as long as we think we can find any satisfaction in the things of the world, so long we keep away from God and fail to seek Him. It is always the sense of sin and need which brings us to God. In the parable of the great supper (Luke 14) we see how man allows the very things which God has given him to use to keep him away from God’s supper. But when a man really turns to God he finds that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. But we must seek Him in the light in which He has revealed Himself in Christ. Man by searching in any other way cannot find out God. The world by wisdom knew not God, the wisdom of the world will not help us. The natural mind of man is incapable of receiving the knowledge of God, 1 Cor 1: 21; 2: 14. “The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”, John 1: 18. Such was the ministry of the Son of God; all His words, His works, His ways declared God, in Him the light shone out fully, so that He could say, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father”, John 14: 9. Therefore it could be said, “he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also”, 1 John 2: 23. In Jesus we see God manifest in flesh; the Word, who was God, was made flesh, and dwelt among us6. We can only see God as expressed in the living Word. Christ is the image of God, He represents God to us. For us the glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ. He is the express image of His Person, the effulgence of His glory. All the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him. All that can be revealed of God, His nature and His attributes, has been manifested in His ministry, death, resurrection and exaltation to glory, and is set forth in Him glorified. He is the true light, all that God is has shone out for us in Him and still shines in Him. In Him God, who had previously dwelt in thick darkness, has come out, He is now in the light, He is no longer hiding Himself behind a veil. If we receive this revelation we walk in the light, as God is in the light. Jesus could say, “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”, John 8: 12.
It is well to remember that the One who is the Word is at the same time the Lamb of God. It was in view of the work of redemption that God was pleased to reveal Himself. On this ground alone is the revelation available for men. But the work of redemption being accomplished, all that has been revealed of God is available for all men—it is good for all. Christ could say, “I am the light of the world”, John 8: 12. He was the true light, that lighteth every man coming into the world; not that all are enlightened, but the light shines for all, just as the light of the sun as it arises in the morning shines for all, but if men are blind or asleep they are not enlightened by it; yet it shines for all.
Then we need to be taught in that which has been revealed, and the Revealer is the Teacher. He says, “Learn of me”, Matt 11; 29. We need as Mary of old to sit at His feet and receive His word, to continue in His word, that we may know the truth. All that has been revealed in Christ has been preserved to us in the inspired record—that is, in the scriptures; nothing has been lost. But we need a divine Teacher, One who is competent to instruct us in that which has been revealed. God in His perfect grace has given us such a Teacher, One who abides with us for ever. After the Lord had completed His ministry here, on going away He promised the disciples that He would send the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, to abide with them and to dwell in them, and that He would teach them all things.
The apostle John could say to the babes in the family of God, “Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things ... The same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth”, 1 John 2. Hence they needed not that any man should teach them. Then the spiritual man has the mind of Christ, so that he discerns all things. A spiritual man is a Spirit-formed and a Spirit taught man. The natural mind of man is unable to receive divine things. The wisdom of the world does not help us in divine things. It is having the mind of Christ which gives us capacity for receiving the knowledge of God, and it is only as we are taught of the Spirit that we know anything. Still, we have to remember that we know nothing as we ought to know; we should therefore search the scriptures in all lowliness of mind and in continual dependence upon the Spirit of God. He teaches us as we are able to receive and make use of the truth, line upon line, here a little and there a little; the light breaks in little by little. There is no hurry in acquiring divine knowledge, but as we use what we have received, as we are consistent with the light received, the Spirit communicates to us more: To him that hath shall more be given, Mark 4: 24. There must, too, be diligence on our part; the Spirit will not reward indolence: “The soul of the diligent shall be made fat”, Prov 13: 4. We need to apply ourselves to these things in prayerful dependence upon God, distrusting ourselves and fearing the working of our own natural minds and the thoughts and teaching of men. The Spirit of God is always ready to teach us if we are in a state to be taught. Then, as we grow in the knowledge of God we grow in spiritual stature, Col 1: 10; 1 Pet 2: 2. Let us then seek as our chief good that we may ever increase in the knowledge of God, remembering that He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
From Helps for the Poor of the Flock vol 15 (1910)