Feb 2, 2010
"My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me. If any one chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own." (John 7:16-17)
When Jesus spoke of our knowing God, was it a truth that could be tested or was he just speculating? Some will be disposed to doubt one's ability to know the truth about God...this is their right, provided they have put the proof to the test. Let's try and reason through what Jesus said.
When Philip asked of Jesus, "Show us the Father" he was expressing the desire that is the mother of religion. We all want to know him and Jesus declares it is possible. The New Testament brings us face to face with a group of eager and excited people who laid claim to knowing God. They were a group without social position, unique organizational skills or positions of special influence, yet, they remade the ancient world and are responsible for what we know as Western Civilization. They proclaimed with both their lips and their life a moral and spiritual reality of which they were certain. They were very effective. Their sense of certainty is a thing opened for everyone.
Being sure of God will never be because of gained information because the most brilliant among us is but a child picking up pebbles while the great ocean of knowledge remains unexplored. Certainty does not come from knowledge. You might ask me for the conditions at the South Pole and I can give an intelligent answer but the evidence would be hear-say.
Can the truth spoken by Jesus be tested? Yes, and the method for knowing rules out favorable circumstances. As a matter of fact, intellectual attainment might be a handicap in knowing God. Why? It is not the wisdom that might shut the door but pride that wisdom can produce. Remember how Jesus said the harlots and other sinners might enter into this knowledge before the spiritual elite? Pride and position can make one unwilling to meet the conditions.
Now, what is the condition for knowing God? "If any man wills to do his will, he shall know." To will is more than to wish. I grew up with a boy who wished to learn to swim...but he did not will to for he never went into water above his waist. Only those who dare to follow the teaching of Jesus will ever come to spiritual certainty. Here is nothing strange. If one wishes to become a musician, one must follow the laws of music.
Here's the important part. What we do conditions what we believe more often than our belief conditions what we do. Tell me how you act about any matter and I can tell you how you feel about it. For example: Our fore-fathers were slave owners, and, they could make solid arguments for the same. The black man was inferior, Abraham owned slaves, and etc. How did they reach that conclusion? They did not reason through this position and, then, bought slaves, they bought slaves and, then, reached their conclusions.
Now, again, how can I really know God? Take any thing Jesus said and act upon it. If you find it to be true, learn more and act upon that also.
If, as a Christian, your religion has become vague and shadowy...there is a road back. Begin, where you are, to do the will of God as you know it. Certainty will return.
Charles is a retired but busy missionary and preacher of the Gospel. Charles and Mary live in various places (depending on the time of year) but are surrounded in love and respect by family and friends from all over the world. Charles is a mentor to and supporter of those associated with mission work at NSCofC. Charles likes to tell stories just like Jesus liked to tell stories. We reprint with permission.
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