To Know God

Memory Verse

“‘And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent'” (John 17:3, NKJV).

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I once heard a preacher ask a congregation, “Is it good news that there is a God?” The congregation immediately responded, “Yes!” The preacher revealed that it was a trick question. He then asked another question in order to clarify his intent: “Is it good news that there is a wife?” The congregation laughed. Because one knows that the answer depends on what kind of wife is being referred to.

It’s not enough to know that there is a God. Other worldviews believe in some form of god. Deists believe that there is a God, only that He is not concerned with our world. He created and then was probably too busy taking care of other worlds. Pantheists believe that there is a god. Actually, gods. The flower is a god. The tree is a god. We ourselves can be gods. But it defeats the purpose, for what then is a god for?

In this lesson, we want to know God. I hope that is your desire, too!

God is Holy

Holiness is a term we usually hear in church but usually don’t employ in day-to-day contexts. Probably because we don’t see things in the world that might be appropriate to use the word “holy” for, or don’t know many people who can be examples of holiness.

Leviticus 20:26 NKJV 

And you shall be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy, and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.

So, what is holiness?

Ellen White explained,

Holiness is wholeness for God; it is the entire surrender of heart and life to the indwelling of the principles of heaven. —Desire of Ages 555.6

So, holiness is surrendering everything that we are to God. This means that we grow in holiness because we don’t necessarily know everything that we ought to do and not to do at the beginning of the Christian journey. Like a group of hikers stuck in a dark cave, a small glimmer of light is more than enough to get them out. A great splash of light would overwhelm them. The same is true for us who have been stuck in the caves of sin for so long. God doesn’t flash a gigantic chunk of truth at us. God knows we will not be able to bear it.

Like the full glory of the noontide sun to those who have long dwelt in darkness, all the light would have caused them to turn away. Therefore He revealed it little by little, as it could be received by the people. —Ellen G. White, From Here to Forever 64.1

God reveals just enough for every phase of our journey. But our response should be one of surrender and willing obedience to what God reveals. This is called holiness. Being like Jesus.

Some have this misconception that to be holy is to be boring. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I love when Ellen White wrote these words:

The lovers of the truth of God should be the happiest people in the earth,… Holiness is happiness, because holiness is a part of Heaven. How can we be unhappy when we see so many evidences of the love of God to us, expressed in his created works? How many look with indifference upon the tokens of God’s regard for their happiness! —Signs of the Times June 29, 1888, par. 1

Holiness is happiness. It is true happiness! Far from the fake and shallow excitement that the world offers. It’s peace that passes all understanding. And it can only be found in Jesus.

So, what does it mean to be holy? It means living a life fully surrendered to God and living a life happy in Him.

Are you happy in Him? Do you find your joy in thinking about Him? Not to think of Him during our devotions just for the sake of saying that we did our devotions for that day. No. Do you find your happiness in thinking about Him? Of what He means to you personally? Do you find your happiness in making Him happy? That’s the life of holiness.

God is Relational

God is triune in nature. God is love in His very nature.

Why did I write those two sentences above? Love in its very nature is not self-centered; it’s other-centered.

So, if God is singular in eternity past, then how can He be love if there is no one to love? He must have created the universe for selfish reasons if that’s the case. But in the Christian worldview, God is rightly described as a Trinity (three Beings in complete unity to the point that they are described as one) because that means God has been deeply personal since the very beginning! He wants to be in deep fellowship.

In eternity past, we see the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit loving each other. Giving each other the happiness that they want each other to experience. They were so full of love that they created the cosmos and other intelligent beings for the primary purpose of love.

Do we now understand why God created human beings? It’s for the purpose of sharing that love with us.

We were created to be in fellowship with God and God to be in fellowship with us.

Now we understand why God asked:

Genesis 3:9 NKJV 

Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”

It was a question out of a longing heart seeking fellowship, not from a curious mind looking for information.

W.D. Frazee wrote,

All my life I have known that I needed God. But it came as a wonderful revelation when I found out that He “needed” me, not just to run errands for Him, but to be His friend. —Ransom and Reunion pg. 14

God is relational. He longs for love. He longs for your love. Will you give it to Him?

God Was Revealed in the Life of Jesus

Until now, there are still people who would come to me and say, “You look like your father.” Sometimes, when I do a certain thing, they say I remind them of my father. We can’t help it, right? We share the same genes. I bear a likeness to my father.

In some ways, Jesus is like that.

John 14:9 NKJV 

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Hebrews 1:3 NKJV 

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,

John 1:18 NKJV 

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

Jesus is the image of the Father. One of the reasons He came down is to show what the Father is like. That He is not a tyrant, that He is not there in heaven with His arms crossed waiting to zap someone. Jesus came down to correct misconceptions about His Father. The Triune Godhead knew that misconceptions about His character wouldn’t go away with just a lecture. They needed a show and tell. And that is no other than Jesus.

In Jesus, we see the Father hugging the children close to Himself. In Jesus, we see the Father weeping with those who are suffering.

At the Cross, we not only see Jesus bleeding, we see the Father’s heart bleeding for us as well.

Conclusion

God is holy. God is relational. And all of that and more is revealed in the life of Jesus.

“Is it good news that there is a God?”

The answer is, if He looks like Jesus, then it’s a resounding Yes!

Discussion Questions

1. What’s one thing you used to think was “boring” or “restrictive” about following God that you now see actually makes you happier?
2. If God asked you right now, “Where are you?” — like He asked Adam — what would your honest answer be?
3. When you picture God in your mind, does He look like Jesus — warm, approachable, weeping with you — or does He look like someone else? Why?