I've been thinking about knowing Jesus

I've been thinking about knowing Jesus. 

Can we know Jesus? 

To answer this question, we first have to understand that Jesus is a person. God is a person. He is not the ink on the pages of our Bibles, he is not our own conscience or ideas, he is not the icon that every cause will try to squeeze into their agenda. 

Jesus is more real than that. 

He has a story and a history, he has a personality, he has qualities about him just as real as the unique qualities about us. It is because of this, that he is knowable. He will not be different to each person based on who they are, but he remains the same because that is who he is. 

Paul gave the highest purpose of his life in Philippians 3:8 when he said:

“I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”

Philippians 3:8

Paul knew Jesus, and yet, a few verses after that in verse 10 he goes on to say “I want to know Christ.” This is because while Paul did know Jesus, Jesus was so much more than he could ever grasp. There is always more to know about him, and every step in knowing him better brings more joy. 

Because Jesus is real person with certain qualities, it is possible that each person has some things wrong about him, or at least not a fullness of understanding about him, and that’s okay! 

Even as I live with my wife everyday, we have times together that I discover something new about her, that I know her heart better, and times she completely surprises me! Sometimes I have to take things I thought were true about her off the table as I learn more about her. 

We should be willing to approach a relationship with Jesus in this way. The primary way that we get to know Jesus is the Word of God in its context. We have to read the Bible to know Jesus, and as we do we ought to be careful not to read our own experiences in to the Bible or to apply the life of Jesus in ways that it does not fit.  

An example of this that I see often is people asking “what would Jesus do in this particular situation?” It’s a fine question, Jesus is our highest model for how to live for God, but the question is often posed at hot topic issues in our own lives or culture that we may be surprised to find that the real Jesus has little interest in, or at least a very different solution. 

We have to know that above all things, if Jesus were on the earth today he would be preaching repentance from sins and salvation by trusting in Him, and that’s it. Of course Jesus also had compassion for people and healed them, but it was only for the good of this message he came to preach. We know this is what he would do because that is what he did. Jesus commands us to love God, to love others, and to preach the same gospel message he came to save the world with. 

Thankfully, we don’t have to do this alone, we have the community of God that collectively seeks to know him.  Even more, we have Jesus who desires to personally reveal himself to us. After all, he is a good teacher who is “gentle and humble in heart.” We ought to be humble to seek to know Jesus better as we abide with him - whether that abiding is in actions like reading scripture and prayer or experiences like suffering and death as it was for Paul. When we come to community, we ought to be open handed to change our ideas about Jesus as we seek deeper understanding and the truth of his amazing person together. This is especially important in times that our culture would divide us along many lines, even in the body of Christ. 

What a great thing that we can grow in the knowledge of the real person of the creator of the universe and the savior of this world, and that this is always our highest purpose.