"Trade Show"

For all you kids living elsewhere, Hal's sermon last Sunday was rooted in Philippians 3:10-11: "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead." Ever since Sunday morning, I've been trying to unpack what it really means to know Christ. It's an important question to ask. If we are honest, we must confess that often we seek to know about Jesus instead of know Him.

What happens is that we trade a relationship for a system; a relational God for a mechanical God; a passionate pursuit for an academic pursuit. The former god is a self-fabricated god. It is the god of legalism and the familiar god of do-it-yourself salvation. This one is the dull god of history books. And that god is not to be found anywhere in Scripture. No. The God of Israel, our God, our Redeemer is the relational God; for He reveals Himself as such in Scripture.

So why is this distinction, knowing about versus knowing, that important? Because when we pursue knowledge that is disconnected from a relationship, God becomes the focus of our feeble analysis rather than our fervent adoration. And we become biographers and not children.

The biographer, say of a historical figure, knows his subject well because he's studied him extensively. He can speak for hours on end about his subject. He knows all that has been written about him, all that other people thought of him. But, he doesn't know him as a person. He has never met him, talked with him, marveled at him, loved him or been loved by him. In light of all his knowledge he remains a stranger, hidden by distance and anonymity. He never enters into the mind or the mystery of his subject. He knows plenty about him, but he has never known him.

Like Jason wrote in his post last month, if a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ does not translate into a deeper love of Jesus Christ, we are that biographer who never understands the heart of his subject, who never is warmed with affection for him. Let's each of us supplicate our Father to know Him and be known by Him (1 Corinthians 8:2-3), to seek after His very heart just like David yearned to do. This person, this God-man Jesus Christ is rich and beautiful and full of flavor. Taste of Him and see that the LORD is good! (Psalms 34:8, 1 Peter 2:3). He calls you by name and claims you by name (Isaiah 43:1).

Let us read Scripture not for the sake of knowing Scripture or being puffed up with knowledge, but to know the transfixing person of Jesus Christ. Let us pray not for the sake of praying or feeling more holy, but to understand more and more how our LORD relates to us and how we may rightly adore Him. Let us worship not because it is Sunday morning and that is what we do on Sunday mornings. No, let's do it because it is a Tuesday afternoon...or a Thursday morning...or a Saturday night and our hearts are melted all over again by the reality of His condescending love in spite of our habitual wandering.

There isn't any doubt: Jesus Christ is by His very nature infinitely holy and beautiful and riveting. If we do not presently see Him as such, one reason could be that we have forgotten our first love and exchanged intimacy for formality, a marriage for an acquaintance. Believer, if this sad state is descriptive of your heart, do not despair. If the Father was not willing to spare His only son to purchase you from death and misery, surly He is willing to "renew a right spirit within you" and "restore you to the joy of His salvation" (Psalm 51: 10, 12). Pray this from Him. Seek Him desperately with your whole heart and you will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). And rest assured that Christ's exceeding merit guarantees God's eternal acceptance of you, even His love for you!