Do You Know Jesus?

It is commonplace among evangelicals to use the phrase “knowing Jesus” as a synonym for “being saved.” Recently, I’ve been challenged by some NT passages to think more carefully about what it really means to know the Lord Jesus. It’s a wonderful thing to pass from death into life, but there’s evidence that knowing our Savior means much, much more.

The central passage for this distinction is in John’s first epistle. In Chapter 2, vv. 12-14, he distinguishes three groups among his readers: little children, young men, and fathers. No doubt there were people of many ages among them, but the things he says of these groups seem to concern spiritual maturity more than physical age. Among the evangelist, John is the one who is most preoccupied with birth as a metaphor for salvation (John 1:12-13; 3:3-7). In these verses, he follows the development of the new life in Christ through childhood, robust youth, and gray-haired maturity. Other NT writers distinguish “babes in Christ” from those who are “of full age” (Heb 5:13-14; cf. 1 Cor 3:1; 14:20), and John’s language simply expands this description from two stages to three.

Let’s note what he writes about each stage of the Christian life. He actually goes over the list twice, changing the order slightly each time. In the table below, I’ve reordered the verses so that both lists come in the same order, to facilitate comparison.

Let’s consider these three groups in order.

The little children are described in two different ways in vv. 12 and 13c. In v. 12, we learn that their sins are forgiven. Here is a clear description of a new believer, one newly born again. In v. 13c he describes the same group by saying that they have known the Father. Apparently, to have one’s sin forgiven is to know the Father. We can understand this dynamic if we meditate on Isa 59:1-2:

1 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

Sin cuts us off from God. When we are born again, our sin is gone, and with it the separation from God. The youngest believer has access to the Father in prayer, and can draw near to him in fellowship. In fact, Paul uses the phrase “have not the knowledge of God” to describe an unbeliever (1 Cor 15:34).

John goes on to describe the young men. They were once little children, and they enjoy the forgiveness of sin and the knowledge of the Father that the little children enjoy, but something further is true of them. The basic characteristic of a one who is spiritually a young man is victory over the adversary: “ye have overcome the wicked one.” Little children may stumble and experience spiritual defeat from time to time, just as a physical infant stumbles many times in learning to walk. The young men have matured to the point that God’s Spirit gives them victory.

In describing the little children, John completely changed the metaphor between the two statements. In describing the young men, he retains the initial description when he addresses them the second time, but expands it. They have overcome the wicked one because they “are strong, and the word of God abides” in them. They know the Bible, the sword off the Spirit, and as a result they prevail in spiritual conflict.

What would you call someone who has a thorough, practical knowledge of the Bible, and as a result is able to overcome Satan? I suspect most of us would think of such a believer as quite mature. But in John’s terms, this is only the midpoint of spiritual growth. There remains one final stage, the spiritual counterpart of one who in physical life has become a father.

Of course, the fathers have their sins forgiven, and their lives are characterized by spiritual victory. But there is something more: they “have known him that is from the beginning.” John uses this phrase to describe the Lord Jesus. In his gospel, he describes the Savior as the “word” that was “in the beginning” (John 1:1), and he begins this epistle by describing the Savior’s life as “that which was from the beginning” (1 John 1:1). The little children know the Father. But knowing the Son is an attainment of mature believers.

We can gain some appreciation of what it means to know the Son by considering two other passages in the NT that speak of this relationship.

Peter closes his first epistle (2 Pet 3:18) by praying that his readers might “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” He agrees with John that knowing the Lord Jesus is not accomplished in the moment of salvation, but is the result of an ongoing process throughout the believer’s life.

Paul also bears witness to this progression. His epistle to the Philippians is written during his first Roman imprisonment, which begins at the end of Acts. By the time he writes this letter, most of his ministry lies in the past. He has executed the three missionary journeys that Luke records. He has been the Lord’s channel for most of the epistles that bear his name. Yet, looking back on his life and ministry, he writes,

Phi 3:7-12 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. 12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

Paul states the objective of his life in these words: “that I may know him.” He does not consider himself to have laid hold fully on this knowledge, even after so many years as a believer and servant of the Lord. For him, as for John, it lies at the pinnacle of Christian experience.

John’s exposition has the priority right. The first and most important thing is to know God by having one’s sins forgiven. We must all start there.

Spiritual babies, like physical ones, can seem pretty disappointing at times. It takes time, discipline, and nourishment to move from childhood to robust youth, the era of spiritual growth in which, through the knowledge of God’s word, we regularly experience victory over the wicked one. It is right that we encourage young believers to study the Scriptures and develop habits of holiness. And it is very rewarding to see them grow and become victorious over the wicked one. But we all need to recognize that the ultimate goal is not victory. It is an intimate knowledge of the Son of God as we become like him.

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An attentive reader may wonder whether Col 1:10 might not challenge the idea that knowing God is something that the youngest believer enjoys.

Col 1:10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing unto the knowledge of God;

Certainly, this verse might be understood as referring to growth in how well we know God. This interpretation understands “knowledge of God” as objective genitive, in which God is the object of our knowing. But the subjective genitive is at least as likely: our growth has as its objective to know what God knows. We find “knowledge of God” as subjective genitive elsewhere in Paul:

Rom 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

In the Garden, Satan tempted our first parents with God-like knowledge. It was not wrong for them to desire that knowledge, but the way they went about getting it was wrong, because it violated God’s command. A strong body is the result of hard exercise, not taking a quack “muscle pill.” According to Heb 5:14, God desires that we learn by the exercise of our senses, a process that Adam and Eve tried to shortcut by the “knowledge pill” of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As believers engaged in spiritual growth, we can expect over time to know more and more of what God knows, to “increase unto the knowledge of God.” And we ought not to forget that “no man knoweth the Son, but the Father” (Matt 11:27), so that part of that divine knowledge that we can expect to attain is the knowledge of him that is from the beginning.