Thursday, January 2, 2013
John 17:3 This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
KNOWING GOD
When people talk about knowing someone they are often talking not simply about knowledge but about some kind of relationship. To say you know Bach suggests you have not only read about him but you have also experienced his music in some way. If you play the organ and know Bach that relationship reaches another level. When we talk about knowing living people we are often talking about a relationship that involves some kind of interaction -- even love or trust. That's why there is such a huge difference between saying "I know her, she's a mother" and "I know her, that's my mother."
Martin Luther once said that if we try to know God by grasping Him with our minds, we will never really know Him, never draw close or find security. Luther urges us instead to "go to the manger and hold the Baby." When God became man at Bethlehem He drew near to us in a way that said, "Do not be afraid." As Paul Gerhardt puts it:
Hark! a voice from yonder manger,
Soft and sweet, doth entreat, "Flee from woe and danger;
Brethren, come; from all that grieves you
You are freed; all you need I will surely give you."
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 77:5)
Furthermore:
Should He who Himself imparted
Aught withhold From the fold,
Leave us broken-hearted?
Should the Son of God not love us,
Who, to cheer Sufferers here,
Left His throne above us?
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 77:4)
To know Jesus as He wants to be known is to know, to experience, His abiding love -- that love that caused Him to be born into our human family in order to live and die and rise from death as our Stand-in, our Representative. What a wondrous thing it is when the Holy Spirit brings us to the cradle of the Christ-child so that we rest our hearts on this love of Jesus. Then, to know the Christmas miracle is to know Christ as Savior and to have eternal life.
" ... what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1).
