The God Who Reveals Himself
Posted: May 16, 2009 Filed under: Gospel Boasting Leave a comment1 Peter 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
The fact that we as human beings can come to know the omnipotent God ought to be a truth that makes the believer yearn to boast in the gospel. For there is nothing greater, more satisfying, or more delightful in the heavens and on this earth than knowing God.
One might ask, “How can God allow sinners – allow the ones that have left the side of God and sinned against Him – to know Him?” The question does not remain unanswered, like many think. God has given men and women faith so that they may know Him and boast in Him more. The fact that human beings can know God should be boasted high above the many people and things that we know today. God giving His Son to people so that they could come to hope in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ – and then know God through this – does not only call for this amazing truth to be shown in the lives of believers, but to be praised in every day of life. It is truly amazing to dwell upon the fact that God would design a plan throughout all of history, and act to redeem the peoples among the earth, so that they can take part in knowing God! This is another gleam of the gospel in knowing God, which brings home the fact that God has called His people to know Him. In the secular world, where we see people who have no idea of the Gospel Giver, it is so sweet to the soul to see that believers can boast in the vast glory God has in Himself.
Knowing God is the sweetest and most gratifying knowledge that exists. To be able to boast in this truth, man must see that not all men are called to this; and that the ones who are called sometimes do not find their satisfaction in this. When a believer knows God first and foremost in his or her life, this helps to overcome lust, pride, greed, envy, and all other sins that can destroy a Christian’s life piece by piece. When God is known more than anything else and is enjoyed far above anything, this alone gives the upright and correct relationship that God’s people are to have with Him. Many of God’s people today will look for other areas in life that make them comfortable. They trust in their job, family, or friends to give them their satisfaction or their happiness. The problem with this, though, is that it does not boast God to His highest when satisfaction is found in anything else without Him or in anything else that does not glorify Him first. John Piper said, “We were made to know Christ as He really is (which is why Biblical doctrine is so important). We were created to comprehend – as much as a creature can – the supremacy of Christ.”[1] Man must know God more and more every day in order to fight sin’s ongoing battle. If man wants to gain victory over struggles and sin problems, he will look at God – wanting to know Him more and more, until he is so saturated with God that he wants to know Him more than his own selfish desires.
It seems to be especially true in American culture that we love to find our pleasures in what we know to be true. Oftentimes, pride can dominate even the life of a believer in what he chooses to know. Believers choose to know things of the wrong nature and not dwell upon the all- knowing God. They seldom think about the fact that there are billions of people on their way to hell and some of them may never hear of the gospel truth about knowing their Creator, God. For those who know God, and have a relationship with Him, this should bring them to their knees in awe of the highest-knowing God. If man does not boast in the fact that he is called to know God, then He will never get the full glorification out of the individual whom He called. This is just another area that man was called throughout life to do: to know Him, for Him.
[1] John Piper, Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, ed. Justin Taylor (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005), p. 38.
Gospel-Centered Musings 