Where Life Is
How do you know what you know? That’s really the big question that plagues us today. This is epistemology at its core, or the study of knowledge. You see, whenever we talk about knowledge, we often talk about the facts, the details the things that we “know.” But we don’t often talk about how we know them or learn them. What led us to this great conclusion of knowledge? That’s equally important because knowledge without a foundation, without a source is useless. Now, to avoid a deep philosophical lecture, this is one of the great questions that we must apply to theology, or the study of God. We know God… but how do we know him? How do we learn more about him? That’s an equally important question. For this made me thing of a quote I recently heard on the radio. It comes from C.S. Lewis, who said, “If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire; if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.” On a day like today when we talk about God as Trinity, this isn’t something that we just came up with out of the blue. It’s not some imagined or fabricated truth that’s been repeated a million times. It’s knowledge that has been given to us through a particular means. Like Lewis says, if you want something, you must be close to it. So too, if we want to know more about God, learn more about him, then we must be close to him. All knowledge comes through experience of one kind, or another, be it observation, experimentation, or logical deduction.
On this Holy Trinity celebration, we see God for who He is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But we realize that the only reason we know anything about God is one hundred percent grace. For it’s God who has come to be with us so that we may know and learn:
HOLY IS THE LORD WHO GIVES US ETERNAL LIFE!
I.
Closeness is the measure of a relationship. If you aren’t close to someone, that means you don’t know them well. And it’s not an either-or measurement. It’s a spectrum. This is the difference between best friends, casual friends, acquaintances, or those we barely recognize. So too does this have to do with our relationship with God. Everyone on this earth has some relationship with God. It just depends how close that relationship is. Consider Nicodemus in our Gospel, as we read, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees name Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him,” John 3:1-2. Nicodemus was simply observing from a distance, yet he recognized some of Jesus’ character. So too with God, even non-believers can recognize God as almighty, omniscient, omnipotent, etc. The fact that there is a God can be deduced from examining the world and universe in which we live. Yet, don’t be mistaken. Simply showing that there is a God doesn’t equate to saving faith.
For this has always been the issue with humanity, our closeness with God. To know God means to be near him, to be with him, as Lewis said. But it’s our sin that keeps us at arm’s length. It’s our pride, arrogance, idolatry that keeps us away from God. So how much can we know him who is far from us? How can we truly understand who God is if we’re separated from him by our sin? We can’t! Think about what Jesus says to Nicodemus, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” John 3:12. We’re constrained by our sinful flesh from truly knowing God. This is why the most we can know is that he exists. We can’t know him by his essence. We can’t know him by his character, his kindness or grace. We can’t know God because we’re far from him by our sin. Faith is a relationship with God, one where we must be ever present with God to know him, to understand him, to see him for who he is. And of course, the ancient Israelites knew this well. Sinful man cannot be in the presence of a holy God and live.
II.
So, how do we come to know God? It’s not just about what we know but how we know it. We talk about God as Trinity, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yet, this isn’t something that we learn from nature or logic. We learn from God. Consider what John writes, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him,” John 3:17. We know God because he comes to us to be close with us. The eternal Son, the second person of the Trinity, has come to make God known to you. The Son reveals the Father to us. The Father and Son give to us the Spirit. Yet, it’s the Spirit and Father that point us to the Son and his words. It’s Jesus who came down from heaven and became man who’s the source of all our knowledge of God as well as the source of our salvation! As Jesus said, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man,” John 3:13. Jesus came down to make God known to us so that by knowing God, we may be close with him, even in him who has forgiveness, and eternal life!
It’s because of Jesus that we know God to be holy, righteous, good, merciful, and loving. It’s because of Jesus that we call God our Heavenly Father. As Jesus teaches Nicodemus, the way we grow closer to God is through baptism, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God,” John 3:5. By baptism, we have been born of the Spirit. God has sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts that we may know him as He is. Through the indwelling of the Spirit, we’ve been connected with Jesus, the Son of God who was born in human flesh, took our sins upon himself, came near to us through his suffering, even dying on the cross for us. This is God’s righteousness, that He through Jesus fulfills the whole law, satisfying the punishment of our sins upon the cross, and delivers to us new life! Holy is the Lord who gives us eternal life!
This is how we know God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We know them because God has come to dwell with us, to be close to us through Jesus. By faith in Jesus, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the revealing of the Heavenly Father, we now can know God for who He is… the Holy Trinity who works our salvation unto eternal life! In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit! Amen!