Knowing God
“This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (Jn 17:3).
What does it mean to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent?
Let J.I. Packer answer.
First, knowing God is a matter of personal dealing, as is all direct acquaintance with personal beings. Knowing God is more than knowing about him; it is a matter of dealing with him as he opens up to you, and being dealt with by him as he takes knowledge of you. Knowing about him is a necessary precondition of trusting in him (“how could they have faith in one they had never heard of?” [Rom 10:14 NEB]), but the width of our knowledge about him is no gauge of the depth of our knowledge of him…
Second, knowing God is a matter of personal involvement—mind, will and feeling. It would not, indeed, be a fully personal relationship otherwise. To get to know another person, you have to commit yourself to his company and interests, and be ready to identify yourself with his concerns. Without this, your relationship with him can only be superficial and flavorless.
“Taste and see that the LORD is good,” says the psalmist (Ps 34:8). To “taste” is, as we say, to “try” a mouthful of something, with a view to appreciating its flavor. A dish may look good, and be well recommended by the cook, but we do not know its real quality till we have tasted it…
The emotional side of knowing God is often played down these days, for fear of encouraging a maudlin self–absorption…But…we must not lose sight of the fact that knowing God is an emotional relationship, as well as an intellectual and volitional one, and could not indeed be a deep relation between persons were it not so…
Third, knowing God is a matter of grace. It is a relationship in which the initiative throughout is with God—as it must be, since God is so completely above us and we have so completely forfeited all claim on his favor by our sins.
We do not make friends with God; God makes friends with us, bringing us to know him by making his love known to us. Paul expresses this thought of the priority of grace in our knowledge of God when he writes to the Galatians, “Now that you know God—or rather are known by God” (Gal 4:9). What comes to the surface in this qualifying clause is the apostle’s sense that grace came first, and remains fundamental, in his readers’ salvation. Their knowing God was the consequence of God’s taking knowledge of them. They know him by faith because he first singled them out by grace.
The…meaning comes out in passages like the following:
“And the LORD said to Moses, ‘I am pleased with you and I know you by name’” (Ex 33:17). “Before I formed you [Jeremiah] in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” (Jer 1:5). “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me . . . and I lay down my life for the sheep. . . . My sheep listen to my voice; I know them. . . . They shall never perish” (Jn 10:14–15, 27–28). Here God’s knowledge of those who are his is associated with his whole purpose of saving mercy. It is a knowledge that implies personal affection, redeeming action, covenant faithfulness and providential watchfulness toward those whom God knows. It implies, in other words, salvation, now and forever…
(Knowing God)