By Fransisco Msonge (MD), 2022.
Content
- Introduction
- Sin and the knowledge of God
- A knowable biblical God
Introduction
Scholars and agnostics argue that it is irrational to speak of knowing God. Some argue that if God exists, he is so far above us that we cannot know him. Robert Ingersoll (1833–1899) asked skeptically, “Is it possible for the human mind to conceive of an infinite personality?” Can it imagine a beginningless being, infinitely powerful and intelligent? “Others argue that while we may know something about God, we cannot know him personally. Aristotle said that friendship requires a degree of equality, “but where there is a great gulf, as between God and man, friendship becomes impossible.”
Despite all these world arguments, we must remember that: Christian theology arises from God’s pursuit of man and it is possible to know God because God has made himself known. We read (Romans 1:19-20) “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse”.
Putting it in a better way, “knowing God is the entire purpose of scripture”. Not only do we know God, but we also establish a personal relationship with Him. What is required of us is to seek God and submit ourselves to Him; the psalmist says, “With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.” (Psalm 119:10). We read; “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7). “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:18)
1 John 4:6-7 KJV
“We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.”
Jeremiah 31:33-34 KJV
“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more”
2 Peter 1:2-3 KJV
“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue”
Our knowledge of God is grounded upon God’s will to be known. Yes God is infinitely greater than man; we cannot fully comprehend him (Isaiah 40:28). However, God has willed that “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed” and sent forth the message “Behold your God” (Isaiah 40: 5). We read in (Isaiah 43:10) “Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me”.
To say that God cannot be known is to say that God cannot do what he wills. God usually works after the counsel of his own will. (Ephesians 1:11). Job 23:13 reads, “But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.” God’s intention has been to be known by his people, to reveal his love and our salvation.
Sin and Knowledge of God
The Bible says that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16), which implies that His creating and saving acts are all love expressions. Consequently, He created Adam and Eve as recipients of His love and care. In the Garden of Eden (Gen 1:26–2:25), the first couple had an undistorted and ever-expanding knowledge of God and the wonders of His creation.
With open faces, they beheld the glory of the Lord and talked with God, and Christ, and angels, in Paradise, without a dimming veil between. For that couple, the study of God’s creation, with its multiform expressions, was an exhaustless source of instruction and delight. But this reality changed radically with the mysterious and unjustifiable appearance of sin.
Genesis three not only describes the fall of Adam and Eve but also reveals some of its most tragic results. One of them was the rise of theophobia (to be afraid of God), as evident when our first parents hid themselves from God (Gen 3:7–8). Sin also drastically degenerated God’s creation (Gen 3:17–19). “Where once was written only the character of God, the knowledge of good, was now written also the character of Satan, the knowledge of evil.” In reality, the presence of evil has distorted both our understanding of God and our relationship with Him (Isa 59:2).
Genesis 3:17-19 KJV
“And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”
Isaiah 59: 2 KJV
“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”
The Hebrew-Christian religion is grounded on the experiential knowledge of Yahweh as the only way for someone to really know himself or herself. This notion is well expressed by the prophet Hosea in his lament “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hos 4:6). That adversity occurred because there was no “knowledge of God in the land” (Hos 4:1) and people had “forgotten the law” of God (Hos 4:6). In his attempt to reverse that disastrous condition, the prophet insisted, “So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord” (Hos 6:3).
After recognizing the foundational importance of knowing God, we are faced with the crucial question: to what extent can we know God? In our attempt to answer this question, we should recognize, first of all, the existence of an infinite contrast between the all-powerful Creator and Sustainer of the universe (Isa 40:12–28) on the one hand, and us as fragile and mortal creatures whose life is fully dependent on Him (Isa 40:1–11, 29–31) on the other.
Furthermore, our sinful human nature significantly limits our understanding of God (Isa 59:2; John 16:12-13). So we are utterly dependent on God’s self-revelation in order to understand His nature and work, as well as to develop a saving relationship with Him.
Their many theories attempting to explain God and many arguments for and against His existence. All of this shows that human wisdom cannot penetrate God`s mind. Depending on human wisdom alone to learn about God is like using a magnifying glass to study the constellations. Hence, to many, God’s wisdom is a “hidden wisdom” (1 Cor. 2:7). To them God is a mystery. Paul wrote, “…..None of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8).
One of the most basic commandments of Scripture is to love “God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). We cannot love someone we know nothing about, yet we cannot by searching find out the deep things of God (Job 11:7). How then can we come to know and love the Creator?
A Knowable Biblical God
Realizing the human predicament, God, in His love and compassion, reached out to us through the Bible. It reveals that “Christianity is not a record of a man’s quest for God; it is the product of God’s revelation of Himself and His purposes to man.” This self-revelation is designed to bridge the gulf between a rebellious world and a caring God.
The manifestation of God’s greatest love came through His supreme revelation, Jesus Christ, His Son. Through Jesus, we can know the Father. As John states, “‘And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life'” (1 John 5:20). And Jesus said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3).
The Bible is indeed a trustworthy revelation from God about Himself. Every new truth discerned is a fresh disclosure of the character of its Author. The knowledge of God as revealed in Christ is the knowledge that all who are saved must have. This is the knowledge that works transformation of character. Received into life, it will re-create the soul in the image of Christ. This is the knowledge that God invites His children to receive, beside which all else is vanity and nothingness.
We have only one perfect photograph of God, and this is Jesus Christ. Actually, Jesus Christ is the great trustee of divine revelation, and “the whole Bible is a revelation of the glory of God in Christ. As the prophet Hosea encouraged the Israelites to “know” and “press on to know the Lord” (Hos 6:3), we should remember that “only by love is love awakened”. To know God is to love Him; His character must be manifested in contrast to the character of Satan.
Yes, it is impossible to fully know God, because God is infinite and beyond human comprehension, yet known through His self-revelation, the Scriptures afford a practical knowledge of Him that is sufficient for us to enter into a saving relationship with Him.
Unlike other knowledge, the knowledge of God is as much a matter of the heart as it is of the brain. It involves the whole person, not just the intellect. There must be an openness to the Holy Spirit and a willingness to do God’s will (John 7:17; cf. Matt. 11:27). Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8).
Unbelievers, therefore, cannot understand God. Paul exclaimed, “Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe………But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men”.(Read 1 Corinth 1:20-25)
The way we learn to know God from the Bible differs from all other methods of acquiring knowledge. We cannot place ourselves above God and treat Him as an object to be analyzed and quantified. In our search for knowledge of God, we must first submit to His authority, to His will and abide to His revelation—the Bible. Since the Bible is its own interpreter, we must subject ourselves to the principles and methods it provides. Without these Biblical guidelines, we cannot know God.
Why did so many of the people of Jesus’ day fail to see God’s self-revelation in Jesus? Because they refused to subject themselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures, they misinterpreted God’s message and crucified their Saviour. Their problem was not one of intellect. It was their closed hearts that darkened their minds, resulting in eternal loss. This is exactly what is happening in today’s world; people have closed their hearts, examining God’s knowledge and existence using philosophical methods and laboratories.
We cannot by our own faculties examine the secrets of God, so we are admitted into a certain and clear knowledge of them by the Holy Spirit and the Bible. “In the same line, man, as man, has no access to the inner life of God, or the knowledge of God’s essential being. It is pivotal to remember that theology is not a study of God-in-himself but of “God-as-he-has-revealed-himself.”
If it were possible for created beings to attain a full understanding of God and His works, then, having reached this point, there would be for them no further discovery of truth, no growth in knowledge, and no further development of mind or heart. God would no longer be supreme; and man, having reached the limit of knowledge and attainment, would cease to advance. Let us thank God that it is not so. God is infinite; in Him are “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Colossians 2:3). And to all eternity men may be ever searching, ever learning, and yet never exhaust the treasures of His wisdom, His goodness, and His power.
Job 11:7-9 KJV
“Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.”
The truth is that on our own, there is no way we can come to know God, but God revealed Himself to us. He is indeed knowable. Even though the Almighty and Sovereign God exist outside everything, we still perceive and understand him. Because he is the only source of knowledge about himself, what and how much we could know about Him is entirely up to Him.
Many might be surprised to learn that God has actually revealed quite a lot about Himself through both creation and special revelation (Bible) for us to have a close relationship and friendship with Him.
So, can God be known? Yes, He can be known. Habakkuk 2:14 read “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Our heavenly God is knowable. The source of our knowledge of Him is the Bible and the Holy Spirit. The Word of God tells us who He is, it reveals to us His characteristics, His purpose for revealing Himself, and it tells us about His wondrous work
Amen
