Knowing Christ

Paul cries out, "I want to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death" (Philippians 3:10, NIV). Knowing Christ, or knowing God (the title of J. I. Packer's classic book) should be the heart of our lives. We ought to pursue a knowledge of the Holy One with a passion, but that knowledge should always lead to worship and heart transformation. Right theology should lead us to a right worship and love for God.

Samuel Guzman over at Christian Research Net writes

I believe that one reason we do not see power in the fundamental churches today is that we do not know God in the way that we should. I am not talking about right theology, for we have plenty of that. We have built our theology on the shoulders of the great men of God, and right it may be, but why did those great men of God shake the world while we remain helpless bickering armchair theologians? It is because they knew God. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that theology plays an essential role in the Christian church. Without right theology, we cannot know who God is or what He requires of us. But there seem to be so much fear of over emphasizing the Holy Spirit, that we fear any knowledge of God that goes beyond a dry intellectual sense. If you take the time to read any of the writings of the great men of God, Augustine, Luther, Tozer, and of course the Apostles, you will be impressed with one thing: God was real to these men and their hearts overflowed with love for him. I believe that’s what we are missing. We have figured God out, we have analyzed him into a cold abstract, and we have lost our love.

As a post on Thursday's on the theme of theology, I trust that it will awaken and stir up within all of us a love for God. My goal, by the grace of God, is to enlighten the mind and awaken the affections so that we pursue God more and say with Paul, "I want to know Him!" Knowing more about God causes us to know more of His love for us and causes us to see more of His love and care for us. Both are important.

David is a great example of a person who knew God, but His theology of God set His heart on fire for God. He knew God deeply but he also knew Him personally, not abstractly. He called God "my rock, my strength, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my shield, my horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my redeemer."

John Owen helps us to know Christ more in his book called Communion with God by spending much time just revealing the glorious nature of Christ.

Christ is all-glorious:

• glorious in his throne, which is at “the right hand of the Majesty on high”
• glorious in his commission, which is “all power in heaven and earth”
• glorious in his name, a name above every name—“Lord of lords, and King of kings”
• glorious in his scepter—“a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of his kingdom”
• glorious in his attendants—“his chariots are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels,” among them he rides on the heavens, and sends out the voice of his strength, attended with ten thousand times ten thousand of his holy ones
• glorious in his subjects—all creatures in heaven and in earth, nothing is left that is not put in subjection to him
• glorious in his way of rule, and the administration of his kingdom—full of sweetness, efficacy, power, serenity, holiness, righteousness, and grace, in and toward his elect—of terror, vengeance, and certain destruction toward the rebellious angels and men
• glorious in the issue of his kingdom, when every knee shall bow before him, and all shall stand before his judgment-seat.

Knowing you, Jesus!--there is no greater thing! You are my all in all!