A New Way to Know God
Categories: Bible Study LessonsRecently I was driving down the road and I noticed a sign on one of the local denominations. It said, “Experience a new way to know God.” This really got me to thinking. If God wanted me to know Him, the Creator, the Sustainer, the Giver of life and salvation, how would He reveal himself to me? Are there any new ways to know God–ways in which God has not revealed Himself to us? Better ways than the ways He reveals Himself to us now? Let’s think about this question together.
According to Hebrews 1:1, God revealed Himself to people of old times by the prophets in diverse portions and diverse manners. Sometimes God used dreams to reveal things as in the case of Joseph. Sometimes God used divine messengers (we call them angels) as in the case of Lot at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorra. Sometimes God revealed Himself directly in the form of a person such as in the case of Joshua (Joshua 5:13-15). Most of the time, however, God spoke through prophets–men who preached His word to the people. According to Peter, this involved the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Peter wrote regarding these prophets: “holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). This was the way in which God once made Himself known to men.
Today there is only one way that God makes Himself known to us–it is through the person of Jesus the Christ. The Hebrew writer continues the thought in Hebrews 1:2 that in these last days God has spoken to us by His Son. Jesus is the only means through which we can come to know God today. The best way for one person to reveal himself to another person is to TELL that person in person what he or she wants the other to know. This is what God has done through Jesus. He has told us, in the person of Jesus, what He wants us to know. I recently read a story about one of the presidents of the United States who was standing on the edge of a yacht. He had been there for some time just staring intently into the ocean. The people around wondered what great thought was pulsing through the president’s mind. At last he turned around, looked at the crowd and spoke. “Do you see that seagull over there?” he asked. The crowd listened intently. “I do believe,” he said, “that it is dead.” Oh the disappointment that must have swelled through the crowd to think that their president would be considering such low thoughts. Disappointment, however, only due to the fact that he had not revealed his mind to them; they assumed him to be thinking great things. All the speculation of those around could not reveal what he alone could. God reveals himself through the person and life of Jesus Christ–His Son. To know God we merely need to know the Son and He has revealed the Son to us in His word. John boldly states, ” No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18).
While there will be some who will enter that denomination which purports a “new way to know God,” I will not be one of them. God has given us the only way to know Him today–the Bible. The Bible contains the history of the preservation of the people from which His Son arrived. The Bible contains the story of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of His Son. The Bible contains the continued story of the kingdom of God’s Son through the efforts of the apostles and prophets in the church. It is complete in its revelation (Jude 3; 2 Peter 1:3; James 1:25). There are no “new ways” to know God today. God has revealed Himself to us in the greatest possible way–personally through His Son, Jesus the Christ. And through the excellencies of His knowledge we can come to know Him (Phillippians 3:8-10).