Have a think – what is the most outrageous thing you believe as a Christian? Increasingly, there are many things which we believe and say that disturb our society. One thing that I think is up there among the most outrageous is simply that we know God.
Just pause and consider how shocking that is to our modern ears. Not just that we know about God but that we actually know him in a personal way. This God, who is invisible, whom no one has ever seen, and we are in an intimate relationship with him. The God who is beyond this universe, who cannot be contained to time, who is powerful beyond our imagination, whose knowledge is inaccessible to human comprehension – we know him.
Religions are blamed for division and wars because of their differing views of God. It’s assumed that all religions have got a little something though not everything of God. Atheists vehemently declare that the concept of God is laughable. Agnostics hedge their bets and propose, ‘Who can know either way?’ Into that mishmash of viewpoints we speak and say, we know God.
I was struck recently in Exodus 33:11 where Moses meets with God and speaks to him as if to a friend. That’s the kind of knowing I mean. We know him as we know any other friend. We have an intimacy, a familiarity and a security with the eternal and holy God. We can talk to him and share anything with him. We spend time with him and feel known to him.
How is this possible? Only in Jesus, the Son of God who was made one with us in our humanity. The impossibility of containing the infinite God in humanity was miraculously accomplished in his birth. Furthermore, every barrier to knowing God that we have imposed was broken down in Jesus’s death and resurrection. Now, the way is open for us to actually know God through union with Jesus.
This wonderful theme is how we wanted to mark the beginning of the year. If you don’t yet know him, then as the New Year begins, maybe God’s Spirit will open your understanding to grasp the immensity of God being made known to us in Jesus. If you do know him, then as each New Year arrives, it’s an opportunity to grow in our knowledge of him through the various means of grace he has provided to us. We do hope that the articles we have provided here on this awesome theme, together with the other excellent articles included in this edition, go some way to helping you know God more.