How Can I Know God?In order to know God we must know three things:
1) Who We Are
We are God's creation. God created us and built
us for a relationship with Him. We belong to
Him and owe Him gratitude for every breath,
every moment, everything. Since humans were
built to live for Him (to worship), we will always
try to worship something. If not God, we will
choose some other object of ultimate devotion to
give life meaning.
We are sinners. We have all chosen (and reaffirm
daily) to reject God and to make our own joy and
happiness our highest priority. We do not want
to worship God and surrender our self-mastery,
yet we are built to worship; so we cling to idols,
centering our lives on things which promise to
give us meaning: success, relationships, influence,
love, comfort, etc.
We are in spiritual bondage. To live for anything
else but God leads to breakdown and decay.
When a fish leaves the water, that which he was
built for, he is not free, but dead. Worshiping
other things besides God leads to a loss of
meaning. If we achieve these things, they cannot
deliver satisfaction, because they were never
meant to be "gods." They were never meant to
replace God. Worshipping other things besides
God also leads to self-image problems. We end
up defining ourselves in terms of our achievement
in these things. We must have them or all
is lost, so they drive us to work too hard or fill
us with terror if they are jeopardized.
2) Who God Is
God is love and justice. His active concern is for
our joy and well-being. Most people love those
who love them, yet God loves and seeks the
good even of people who are His enemies. But
because God is good and loving, He cannot
tolerate evil. The opposite of love is not anger
but indifference. "The more you love your son, the
more you hate in him, the liar, the drunkard, the
traitor." (E.H. Gifford) To imagine God's situation,
picture a judge who is also a father, who
sits at the trial of his very guilty son. A judge
knows that he cannot let his son go, for without
justice no society can survive. How much less
can a loving God merely ignore or suspend
justice for us who are loved, yet guilty of
rebellion against His loving authority?
Jesus Christ is God. Jesus is God Himself come
to earth. He first lived a perfect life, loving God
with all His heart, soul and mind, fulfilling all
human obligation to God. He lived the life you
owed—a perfect record. Then, instead of
receiving His deserved reward (eternal life),
Jesus gave His life as a sacrifice for our sins,
taking the punishment and death you owed.
Adapted from Timothy Keller, 1991