Life Eternal Can Be Ours

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:  3

What a beautiful Sunday morning – even if the skies are cloudy and the rain is coming! “For this is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” 

Whether you worship Him in church or spend some time alone resting in Him, may He speak to your heart and fill you with His presence. May we truly seek to know more about our God, and His Son, Jesus Christ.

This verse in John could sum up His entire Word and our Christian walk of faith. For in the Old Testament, we learn how difficult and impossible it was for God’s people to follow every letter of the law. He knew a Savior would be needed to redeem us, so God sent His Son.

“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”  For it is only through the Son that we truly know and see God for who He is. And to truly know God, we must know the Son whom He sent to save the world through His life, death, and resurrection.

But do we really know Him, this God of ours and His Son, Jesus Christ? For there is an essential and marked distinction between knowing Him and knowing about Him. He wants us to spend time with Him so we can get to know Him for the God He is. We can read and learn about Him, and try to understand His essence and His loving nature, but until we experience His presence, there is no way we can truly know and understand our loving God.

Truly knowing Him requires a personal experience with Him – acknowledging that He is God, calling out to Him, depending on Him, trusting in Him and believing in His love and care. For He loved us enough to send His Son to save us and to transform our hearts and our lives. Such a God, such a Savior, deserves our time and devotion. Truly knowing Him requires our hearts to be open to Him.

I once read an analogy about truly knowing God by thinking of the illustration of a vending machine in which the coin has been put in the slot but has failed to drop. In the same manner, the knowledge of the Gospel has been “seeded” into the minds of many, but sometimes it lodges there and fails to drop into the heart. Without the heart, we can’t feel His love and experience His grace. But once we do, the more we learn about God, the more we want to know, the more we want to feel His presence, to worship and praise Him, to know Him personally, and the more we want to tell others about Him so they too can know and experience the fullness of life in Him.

What a gift of love, sacrifice, and grace. We often praise God for the gift of life, for the beauty of His creations, and for His goodness to us, but may we never forget to give Him praise for His Son. For in Him, life eternal can be ours.

Prayer

Dear God, may we always honor you for all the blessings of life, but especially may we praise your name for the gift of your Son who came to earth to glorify you. May we truly experience your redeeming love and grace through knowing you, the only true God, and your Son, Jesus Christ. In your most Holy name. Amen