John
17:1-3 Jesus spoke these words,
lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has
come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him
authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to
as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Continuing this study in
lesson four of Focus on the Family’s 12 part video series: “The Truth Project”.
Dr. Del Tackett explains that Jesus is not just the clinical
intellectual knowledge of God, but an intimate relationship. We are talking
about true relationship – the social order, the personal communion, and the
objective, real relationship that exists between God and man in heart, mind and
soul. Eternal life is bound up in our intimate relationship with Him. Jesus
spoke on this subject on many occasions: Luke
18:18-22, John 3:12-15, John 4:13-14, John 5:24 and 39-40, John
6:27, 54 and 58, and the opening verse above. Jesus is not demeaning the
Scriptures; He is stating that some stop there. Not clinical knowledge, but a
relationship is necessary.
Philippians
3:8-10 “What is more, I consider
everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them
garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a
righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that
which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes
from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to
know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming
like him in his death.”
Hosea 6:6 “For I delight in
loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God
rather than burnt offerings.”
Jeremiah
9:23-24 “Thus says the Lord, “Let
not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man
boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands
and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving-kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in
these things,” declares the Lord.
Dr. Del Tackett
explains what is meant in Deuteronomy
4:23-24 “So
watch yourselves, that you do not forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a
graven image in the form of anything against which
the Lord your God has
commanded you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.”,
that the Hebrew word for jealous is קַנָּא
, pronounced qanna.' What does it mean for God to be jealous? I thought
that jealousy was not a good thing. Yet, it is repeated in Zechariah
8:2 “Thus
says the Lord of hosts, ‘I am exceedingly jealous
for Zion
The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 42:1-2 “As the deer longs
for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the
living God.” In gazing upon the face
of God Almighty, we not only begin to know Him, but also begin to know
ourselves. This is what truly transforms us, and it came through the word of
God.
In Christ, Brian
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