What is God's purpose for us in this world?
YWAM, one of the best known missionary organizations in the world has its caption as "To Know God and to make Him known." As a new believer, when I heard about it, I was so thrilled. Later found that it is the caption of many other organizations as well. For example, the Christian Research Institute, even the church that we used to be a part of uses the same caption. It is so popular a caption because it is really succinct, and perhaps the most accurate statement of purpose that a Christian organization can have.
The Bible encourages us to boast in our knowledge of God. In knowing God as the One who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on the earth.
“Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.”
Jeremiah 9:23-24
Just like knowing a person is knowing what type of person they are, what their values are, knowing God is understanding Who He is, in understanding what type of person He is.
When Moses requested to see God and His glory, God revealed His nature and attributes to Him, after hiding him in the cleft of a rock.
"Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”
Exodus 33:19-23
That is a beautiful prophetic picture of how we can seek to know God. There are two important lessons to learn here:
1. To know God is to know His nature, His attributes.
2. We can only approach God while being hidden in the Rock, which is Christ.
Since no one can see God's glory and live God allows us to see that in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus, is that Rock on which Moses stood as He saw the glory of God pass by, the Rock that was cleft for us. Hallelujah!
Ways that are not guaranteed to help us know God
It is important to know what does not constitute knowing God.
Knowing about God - One can know much about God while knowing God very little. It is not by gaining doctrinal correctness or intellectual knowledge about God that we know God. In fact, mere knowledge often alienates us from God since it becomes just an intellectual exercise. To know God, we cannot just learn to recite His attributes. we must really experience His attributes in our life. While we speak about the love of God, we must first experience God's love. And so on. An intellectual understanding of those attributes is not
Learning Bible concepts or memorizing scripture - One can quote large portions of scripture without letting the word of God work in us. We need to first have a relationship with the Author of the word before we can use the word to know Him.
“For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.” (Isa 66:2)
How then do we know God?
Because God desires that we know Him, He has provided a revelation of Himself:
Nature - Through His works or the world around us.
"The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard." (Psalm 19:1-3)"For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse" (Rom 1:20)
The creation of God around us is a marvelous reminder of the greatness of God. The heavens and the earth, the heavenly bodies, the wonder of the human body, each cell in the body, prompt us to search for the One behind it and marvel at that. Most scientists begin with an assumption that everything was created by a lot of time and infinite chance. Honest scientists know that as we learn more about the complexity of the world and the amazing intricacy and purposefulness of creation, it is impossible to be the result of random chance. The child of God knows that the world was formed by the purpose of God and for His pleasure.
His written word - The written word of God is the most accurate method of God's revelation that He has given to us. Proper studying of scripture is the method we understand who He is.
Our Lord Jesus Christ - God's ultimate revelation is through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Hebrews 1:1-3)
Jesus is the perfect revelation of God. He is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of God's person. If we want to know God, we need understand who Jesus is. Studying His person (who He is) and His work (what He did) is the greatest way of knowing God.
Imagine the disciples who spent three years with Him and watched the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person walk with them and talk with them. After His resurrection, they spent several more weeks with Him. Being with the person who is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person transformed them so completely that they not only decided to live for Him and great lengths to serve Him, but they were also willing to die for Him, that too suffering violent, brutal death for their faith in Him. Knowing God transforms us.
It also transformed Paul, who did not meet Jesus in person, but had a personal vision of Him. His encounter with Jesus changed him so much that after boasting about his pedigree as a Pharisee and teacher of the law, Paul says in Philippians:
“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”
Philippians 3:7-11
Let us also count everything but loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. That we may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering.
May God enable us to know Him, and may that knowledge transform us.