“How good it is to know the Lord this morning!” cried the emotional preacher. “Amen,” echoed several in the congregation, their arms waving in the air.
Most of us have seen mainstream “Christians” expressing in such glib manner their relationship with their God and Creator. Many honestly believe that they are glorifying the Eternal God in this way. These people are—on the whole—quite evidently sincere. But non-Christians and those of less emotional beliefs just smile to themselves and perceive that these people have been misguided into using religion as a means of “letting off steam.”
Other less emotional sorts think that in the name of “Christianity” they can form a committee—perhaps called a “Curia” or a “presbytery”—and force God to work through their human will, no matter what form He has consistently shown He uses to guide His Church over the ages.
Still others fancy themselves as “prophets” or “apostles” or scholars who “know better” than their own teachers who came before them. Do these people truly know their God?
Putting all personal feelings and preconceived ideas aside, how can we as Christians really “get to know” our God—our Creator and Savior—deeply?
God Reveals His Nature
One way to begin to understand God’s nature is by carefully studying the things He has produced—His creation—that we sometimes call “nature.” The Apostle Paul knew this, and so was inspired to write, “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” (Romans 1:20).
Yes! So evident is God’s supreme intelligence in His creation, that the atheist is totally without excuse for denying God’s existence (Psalm 53:1). We live in a law-abiding universe. God is clearly revealed in nature as a God of law and order—of supreme wisdom and purpose behind every creation.
Try to break the law of gravity sometime! The unity of nature and the constancy of inexorable laws point to the nature and character of the Creator. God’s creation did not “evolve” from some primordial ooze! Its laws remain the same. Charles Darwin’s own son said, “We cannot prove that a single species has been changed.” God decreed (Genesis 1:25) that every plant and animal should bring forth “after his kind.” Not once in 6,000 years has this decree been violated.
God’s laws do not change! All nature thunders forth this truth. This principle applies to spiritual as well as physical things. Study God’s creation if you truly wish to understand your Creator. The Bible and “nature” both teach that God’s plan and His laws are not variable. “The works of His hands are verity and justice; all His precepts are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness” (Psalm 111:7 –8).
Further Witness Needed
In contrast to the united testimony of nature, which testifies even to the honest pagan that there must be a God, human beings are divided and confused in their ideas about that God. It has been said, “Man creates God in his own image.” In the majority of cases, that is true!
People of every nation and tongue have always worshiped something. But their “god” was usually a product of their imaginations—a god that would conform to their current human standards, laws, and ways of looking at things.
Even today, most professing “Christians” read their own idea of God into the Bible. We all know of “sweet old ladies” who think of God as a kindly, sentimental, and very prudish old fellow who would be shocked to tears and completely upset if any of His children should go to a movie. Their conception of God is just as narrow and limited as their own environment, training, and mental outlook has been.
Other people go to the opposite extreme. They think of God as a far-off spiritual power with little or no direct concern with the human family. They imagine that God is “wise” enough to let us alone to choose our own amusements, society, laws—our own religion the way we want to have it. They think they are philosophic, cosmopolitan—“modern.” So they make God in their own image!
The Holy Bible is the revealed word of the Creator God. It was written to show us the nature of God, and how we should live and worship Him—that we could be His children. Diligently studying your Bible is the way to truly come to know God. It is what is needed to dispel mankind’s confusion in its ideas of God. Are you daily saturating your mind with the word of God? Do not assume that you “already know” everything God wants you to know. God reveals Himself to those who fervently seek Him!
The Bible Carries Authority
We in God’s Church, who should have proved and really believe that the Bible is the inspired revelation from God to man, should more than anyone else clearly realize that God’s word is not to be argued with—or falsely interpreted to promote pet doctrines.
We may have had our own preconceived human idea of God. We may know what “we want” to do. But if we really want the truth, we need to put our biases aside and search God’s word to find out how He reveals Himself to us. Remember, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). The Bible is to correct and reprove us—to show us where we are wrong. Will we let it?
God says, “I am the Lord, I do not change” (Malachi 3:6). We find that Jesus Christ is, “the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The Father and the Son do not whimsically change their plans and principles, or their laws. They “change not.”
At this point, it is important to remember that Christ was the God or “Lord” of the Old Testament! In John 1:1–5, we find that Christ was the “Word” or “Spokesman” who was with the Father from the beginning. All things were created by Jesus Christ (v. 3 and Colossians 1:16). Christ was the spiritual “Rock” that went before and protected the children of Israel, and that gave them the Ten Commandments (1 Corinthians 10:1–4).
Remember, God—in the person of Jesus Christ—gave the law that most mainstream “Christians” hate today! Why do people—even most who claim to be preaching Christ’s message—hide their eyes from the Christ who is supreme Law-Giver? Do they think Christ has changed?
Your Bible says He has not!
God’s methods and laws are consistent from Genesis to Revelation. Apparently not realizing this, many self-appointed “Christian” preachers will tell you about the “God of the Old Testament” in contrast with Christ in the New Testament. They go on to say that Christ preached the Gospel, and the Apostle Paul preached a different gospel. They are in confusion.
In Revelation 17:5, God names this mixed-up, divided system of churchianity “Babylon the Great”—which literally means “Great Confusion.” God’s true people are commanded to come out of that system (Revelation 18:4). Why?
Because the people in that system do not know the true God! Satan has his own false ministers who appear to be ministers of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:15). These false ministers are deceiving people, “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
How can people be so easily deceived? First, because they blindly follow human tradition and its false ministers, and therefore have a false conception of God. Second, because they are spiritually too lazy to study their Bibles and come to know the true God and His way. Sadly, even in God’s Church, men sometimes think they “know better” and can change God’s long-established plan, replacing it with something “better” or “safer”—something that appeals to their carnal human reasoning. We must not fall victim to such flawed human reasoning!
The Bible Is Consistent
From Genesis to Revelation, God is revealed as the Creator, the Ruler, and the potential spiritual Father of mankind. In Genesis 2:17, God commanded the first man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Adam willfully disobeyed this command, following his wife’s example, and incurred the death penalty. God had shown himself as Ruler, and man had disobeyed.
Long before the Old Covenant was instituted, Abraham was blessed because he obeyed God’s laws and kept His commandments (Genesis 26:5). He recognized God—he knew God—as Supreme Ruler.
After the Israelites had come out of Egypt (symbolizing sin) to become an independent people, God gave them His commandments— which they had lost since Abraham’s time. They were to be ruled by God’s laws—which alone can bring happiness. Having the same human nature as we do, they disobeyed God and were driven into captivity.
Why? Because they refused to recognize God—to know God—as their Supreme Ruler. Is God really your Ruler? Or do you sometimes just pay Him “lip service” and go on doing things “your way”?
Jesus Reveals the Father
Jesus came in the flesh to “reveal” the Father. He showed that God’s law would be in force until heaven and earth should pass away (Matthew 5:18). He did not come to destroy God’s law, but to fulfill it. And fulfill means to do or perform, not to do away with. When a young man came to ask Jesus how to be saved, he was told, “keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17).
Jesus taught that His disciples were no longer to carry out the administration of the civil statutes and judgments for breaking the law (John 8:1–8). True Christians are no longer to execute judgment on evildoers (Matthew 7:1–5). Punishment of evildoers is the responsibility of this world’s rulers (Romans 13:1–6). Yet although the rituals, sacrifices, and carnal ordinances were nailed to the cross (Colossians 2:14, Hebrews 7:27), God’s spiritual commandments were never to be broken (Matthew 5:19)!
Indeed, Jesus’ whole ministry was one of revealing God as the supreme Lawgiver and Ruler. He preached the good news of the coming kingdom or government of God (Mark 1:14). That is the true Gospel—the good news of God’s government, God’s rule.
The very foundation of Jesus’ teaching was that, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4, KJV). What word? What God? Those Jews knew very well that Christ was referring to the God of the Old Testament—the Law- Giver—the God who was to rule Israel. The only “word” of the true God, at that time, was the “Old Testament”! Jesus referred to the Old Testament writings as scripture, and He said, “the scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35).
We are commanded to live by every word of the true God as revealed in the New and Old Testaments. Do you really know that God? Do you continually seek Him?
Christ: Our Example
Most professing “Christian” ministers talk about Christ as some sort of hero and savior, but they refuse to acknowledge His Gospel, His teachings, and His example. They picture Jesus as a sweet but helpless little baby at Christmastime, and as a savior who has gone “way off to heaven” at Eastertime! Their belief is that He came to die for men, but that His teaching carries no authority today!
As we in God’s Church know, the Bible says the exact opposite!
In John 1:4, we see that Jesus’ life was the “light” of men. It was to show them God’s way to live. Peter was inspired to write, “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps” (1 Peter 2:21). Speaking of Christ, John wrote, “He who says he ‘remains in him’ ought to be living as he lived” (1 John 2:6, Moffatt).
Jesus is our perfect example! If we say we are Christians—that we “remain in Him”—we ought to be living as He lived! Are you? Most professing Christians do not genuinely try to follow Jesus’ example, and do not understand what kind of God the true God is. They are ignorant of how to worship and obey the God and Father of Jesus Christ.
What was Jesus’ example?
Jesus’ entire life is a perfect example of obedience to God’s law and His rule! He said, “I have kept my Father’s commandments” (John 15:10). His own teaching was simply a magnification of God’s law (Isaiah 42:21). Actually, He came in the flesh to magnify His own law—the Ten Commandments! Remember, He was the God of the Old Testament who gave the Ten Commandments and dealt with Israel (1 Corinthians 10:1–4).
When He came in the flesh, Jesus kept that law to set us an example. He was our “light”—our example. He is the one who has set all physical and spiritual laws and energies in motion. He has an overall plan for this earth.
A true Christian is one who follows Christ—who follows His example.
The Word came in the flesh, as Jesus Christ, to preach the good news of God’s coming Kingdom—or government. Jesus always preached that Gospel. Philip preached it (Acts 8:12). The Apostle Paul preached it all throughout his ministry—even to the Gentiles at Rome (Acts 28:31). What was the Gospel they preached? They preached the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. That Kingdom is a real Kingdom—it has a Ruler (Jesus Christ), laws (the commandments and statutes), territory (the Earth, not some nebulous feeling in the heart) and subjects (human beings whom God has created to become His actual sons).
God’s Character
Yes, God is a Ruler! If we become His children through repentance, baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38), we may be “born again” at the resurrection (John 3:1–8)—changed into, actually born—of Spirit as a literal son of God! God is reproducing Himself! He—the Creator and Ruler of the universe—is begetting human beings through His Spirit to be born as His sons—to be in His own family—to receive inherent eternal life. But we must first learn how to live before God will grant us eternal life and make us His own sons.
We must develop God’s wisdom, God’s character. We must “live by every word of God.” Realizing that our Creator knows best, we should obey Him. To deny this is to admit a profound ignorance of the Eternal God’s great wisdom and purpose! It betrays a lack of understanding of the character of the true God.
The Apostle John summed it all up when he wrote of Christ—the God of the Old Testament, the giver of the law—“He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him (1 John 2:4, KJV).
God Himself calls such lawless ministers liars when they try to deny the authority of His rule, the wisdom of His law, and the very basis of His great purpose.
Are you keeping parts of your life separate from God while trying to “put on a show” of righteousness for others? If so, it is time to stop! May God help you to repent of defying His rule and breaking His laws, and may He guide you to live by every word of His! Then you may truly begin to develop the character of God, and prepare to be born of the Spirit as His son in the resurrection.
Talk to God
The more you come to really know the true God—the God revealed by Jesus Christ—the more you will want to talk to Him. You may do this in prayer. This is the third way you may come to really “know” the true God.
As you grow closer to God in this way, you will more deeply realize that here, too, you need to obey God if you expect an answer. But you will find that God is love, and that He will gladly grant any request that is good for you under the circumstances. You will also discover that He has power to heal you when you are sick, to deliver you in miraculous ways from trouble and to bless you in a manner beyond human comprehension.
Always remember—the combined testimonies of nature, of the Bible, and of answered prayer all reveal the same true God. He is the All-Wise, All-Powerful, Law-Giving Ruler of the universe. And this awesome Supreme Being wants to have a close, personal relationship with you!
So, get to know God better by talking to Him often, and always doing what He says! Then, as you acknowledge His government and obey His law—truly living His Way, not merely “playing church”—you will truly be preparing to enter into eternal life at Christ’s return as a Spirit-born child of God!