Let Us Know God
The bible teaches that the most important thing in life is to know God. And Prophet Hosea says:
Hosea 6:3 Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.
Hosea says that we have to make every effort to know God. God is the uttermost priority for our salvation. Then how can we know God?
Those Who Rejected Jesus
Today there are so many who claim to know God. However, how can we be sure about God? 2000 years ago, the religious leaders such as Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribers claimed that they know God and the words of God. Jesus, God who came as man in the flesh, appeared to them to save them. If they knew God and the bible, they should have received Jesus with a joyful and thankful mind, shouting “Hosanna” for the grace of God coming down to this earth as man in the flesh to save them. Rather, they rejected him and ridiculed him, and crucified him, resulting in their destruction.
They could not receive their Savior because of two reasons. First, they did not know God even though they thought they knew. And second, they did not know the bible even though their authority came from the knowledge of the bible.
Who Can Know God?
It is the same with us today. There are so many religious leaders, such as ministers, pasters, bible scholars, etc. who claim to know God and the bible. However, in fact, they do not know God, neither do they know the bible. Their knowledge of the bible does not come from God or the bible, but from their own traditions. For this reason they misinterpret the bible, causing many people to go astray from God.
Those Who Are Under the New Covenant
Then who can know God? How can we have true knowledge of God? We have to find answer for these question from the bible. The bible teaches that those who keep the new covenant can know God.
Jeremiah 31:31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to[d] them,” declares the Lord. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
God teaches that only those who keep the new covenant can know God and they can be the people of God. And God says that He will forgive their sins.
Those Who Cleansed Of Their Sins Through The Blood of Christ
Also, Paul teaches only those who are cleansed with the blood of Christ can have wisdom to know God.
Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ.
Only those who are purified with the blood of Christ can have wisdom and understanding to know the mystery of God. And the mystery of God is Christ.
Colossians 2:2 My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Through this we can understand that only those who washed their sins through the blood of Christ can have knowledge enough to know God.
The New Covenant Passover
Then what is the new covenant? And what is the blood of Christ that cleanse us of our sins? The answer is in the Passover. On the night of the Passover, while eating the supper, Jesus established the new covenant through his blood. (Luke 22:20) And he promised the forgiveness of sins to those who kept the Passover. (Matthew 26:28) Therefore, we can see through the bible that only those who keep the Passover can know God. When they keep the Passover, they are under the new covenant of God established through Jesus and also they can be cleansed of their sins and know God according to the promise of Jesus who is God.
Conclusion
In short, to know God we have to keep the new covenant according to the teachings of God in the bible. However, today how many people know the Passover, not to mention of keeping the Passover? Then without keeping the Passover, how can they say that they know God? The knowledge they have of God is not from the bible, but from their own traditions or their own thoughts. Like the teachers of law in the time of Jesus, the religious leaders of today have wrong knowledge of God and mislead many to the falsehood. Let us press on to know God by keeping the new covenant. Then God will give us wisdom and understand to know Him.