Knowing God through the Son

We must realize how much God desires for us to know Him and fellowship with Him. Here’s how A. W. Tozer puts it,

"God is a person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires, and suffers as any other person may. . . He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills, and our emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchanges of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion." (1)

We would not have known God and His great love for us if Jesus had not come. We would not have understood God as our Father if Jesus had not introduced Him as such. Instead, we would have seen only the Deity of the Old Testament who was set apart and difficult (even dangerous!) to approach. If Jesus had not spoken as human-to-human, we could not have understood that He invites us in out of the cold of the world and into the warmth of relationship with Him.

Our response to that invitation is to become true disciples and learn to live as Jesus lived (1 John 2:6) We need to develop habits of holy living. The teaching of Jesus and the apostles found in Scripture will guide us in learning how we Christians should treat each other and how we can live separated and holy lives in this world.

Then, we need to engage in spiritual practices whereby we can put ourselves in God’s presence and wait for Him to meet us. Some of those practices include prayer, fasting, solitude, simplicity, confession, celebration, meditation, and worship. As we seek God in these ways, He begins to change us into the image of his own Son. We are transformed, not by our own efforts, but by God’s power as we seek to know Him.

Finally, we continue to focus on Jesus realizing that He never has separated Himself from human experience. He is seated at the right hand of God, still fully human and fully God, standing in the gap between God and mankind. He communicates our need and His payment for our sins to God the Father and He communicates God’s holiness and love back to us. Only a person who is uniquely human and entirely God could qualify for this role. We have a Friend in high places who has not forgotten what it is like to be human, because He still shares the human condition with us. What amazing grace!

“Christ makes himself over to the soul, to be his, as to all the love, care, and tenderness of a husband; and the soul gives up itself wholly to the Lord Christ, to be His, as to all loving tender obedience. . . Let us tell him that we will be for him, and not for another: let him know it from us; he delights to hear it.” – John Owen

1. A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God, (Camp Hill, Pennsylvania: Christian Publications), pp. 13 and 19

2. John Owen, Communion with God (Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications), p. 100 and 104