The best thing in life is to know God in a personal way. According to John 17:3, Jeremiah 9:23-24, and Hosea 6:6, having this kind of relational knowledge of Him should be the chief end of man. Eternal life is to know God. Eternal death or separation is to not have a personal knowledge of or relationship with Him. God wants us to know Him, and He wants to know us. But how does a person actually get to know God in this personal way?
The first step to knowing God personally is to see yourself as God sees you - a sinner, lost and undone! Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 6:5 that he was ruined, that he was a man of unclean lips. Each of us needs to see ourself in the same way. After that, the next step is to realize that Jesus is the Son of God and that He offered Himself on the cross at Calvary as a way to bring redemption to mankind. The final step is to simply receive Christ by faith and to trust Him to close the sin gap which exists between each of us and God.
The Bible says in John 6:44 that a person cannot come to the Lord unless He first draws him or her to Himself. This means that a person cannot know God in the way that is described in the above paragraph unless God takes the initiative to make it happen. Through general or natural revelation, God reveals Himself to everyone in a way that each of us can know that He is real and that we are accountable to Him. But through the special revelation of the Bible, He shows us how to have forgiveness for our sins and then how to enter into a personal relationship with Him. Knowing God in a personal way should be the chief end of man. Yet, it can only be accomplished when God has taken the initiative to make it happen.
According to Mr. J. I. Packer, knowing God brings results. He says that the person who knows God will, first of all, have great energy for Him, particularly in the area of prayer. A Christian demonstrates his or her personal relationship with God by having a strong prayer life. Secondly, a Christian shows his or her relationship to God and knowledge of Him by seeing Him as the Most High and sovereign over all the kingdoms of the earth. Mr. Packer also points out the boldness that accompanies a knowledge of God, plus the contentment that a person can find in Him. When a person shows these traits, it is evidence that he or she has a relational knowledge of the God of the Bible.
Tom of Spotswood "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." (I John 5:12)
Index to Selected Essays And Book Reviews
Lesson 3 - The Bible And Proving God's Existence
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