Saving Knowledge

“Hereby do we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments” (1 Jn 2:3).

To know God and Christ seems to mean to live under the conviction of His presence, who is to our bodily eyes unseen. It is, in fact, to have faith, according to St. Paul’s account of faith, as the substance and evidence of what is invisible. It is faith, but not faith such as a Heathen might have, but Gospel faith; for only in the Gospel has God so revealed Himself, as to allow of that kind of faith which may be called, in a special manner, knowledge. The faith of Heathens was blind; it was more or less a moving forward in the darkness, with hand and foot. But the Gospel is a manifestation, and therefore addressed to the eyes of our mind. Faith is the same principle as before, but with the opportunity of acting through a more certain and satisfactory sense.

We recognize objects by the eye at once; but not by the touch. We know them when we see them, but scarcely till then. Hence it is, that the New Testament says so much on the subject of spiritual knowledge. For instance, St. Paul prays that the Ephesians may receive “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ, the eyes of their understanding being enlightened” (Eph 1:17-18), and he says, that the Colossians had “put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of Him that created him” (Col 3:10). St. Peter, in like manner, addresses his brethren with the salutation of “Grace and peace, through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord” (2 Pet 1:2), according to the declaration of our Lord Himself, “This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (Jn 18:3).

It is plain what is the object of spiritual sight which is given to us in the Gospel: God manifest in the Flesh. He who was before unseen has shown Himself in Christ, not merely displayed His glory, as (for instance) in what is called a providence, or visitation, or in miracles, or in the actions and character of inspired men, but really He Himself has come upon earth, and has been seen of men in human form. In the same kind of sense, in which we should say we saw a servant of His, Apostle or Prophet, though we could not see his soul, so man has seen the Invisible God; and we have the history of His sojourn among His creatures in the Gospels.

To know God is life eternal, and to believe in the Gospel manifestation of Him is to know Him; but how are we to “know that we know Him?” How are we to be sure that we are not mistaking some dream of our own for the true and clear Vision? How can we tell we are not like gazers upon a distant prospect through a misty atmosphere, who mistake one object for another? St. John says, “Hereby do we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” Obedience is the test of Faith.

Thus the whole duty and work of a Christian is made up of these two parts, faith and obedience: looking unto Jesus, the Divine Object as well as Author of our faith, and acting according to His will.

To know Christ is to discern the Father of all, as manifested through His Only-begotten Son Incarnate. In the natural world we have glimpses, frequent and startling, of His glorious Attributes; of His power, wisdom, and goodness; of His holiness, His fearful judgments, His long remembrance of evil, His long-suffering towards sinners, and His strange encompassing mercy at times when we least looked for it. But to us mortals, who live for a day, and see but an arm’s length, such disclosures are like reflections of a prospect in a broken mirror; they do not enable us in any comfortable sense to know God. They are such as faith may use indeed, but hardly enjoy. This then was one among the benefits of Christ’s coming, that the Invisible God was then revealed in the form and history of man, revealed in those respects in which sinners most required to know Him, and nature spoke least distinctly, as a Holy yet Merciful Governor of His creatures. And thus the Gospels, which contain the memorials of this wonderful grace, are our principal treasures.

Turning from Him to ourselves, we find a short rule given us, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” (Jn 14:15). “He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked” (1 Jn 2:6). “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God” (Col 3:1). This is all that is put upon us, difficult indeed to perform, but easy to understand; all that is put upon us, and for this plain reason, because Christ has done everything else. He has freely chosen us, died for us, regenerated us, and now ever lives for us; what remains? Simply that we should do as He has done to us, showing forth His glory by good works. Thus, a correct (or as we commonly call it), an orthodox faith and an obedient life, is the whole duty of man. And so, most surely, it has ever been accounted. Look into the records of the early Church, or into the writings of our own revered bishops and teachers, and see whether this is not the sum total of religion, according to the symbols of it in which children are catechized, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments.

The essence of Faith is to look out of ourselves [by] putting self aside and living upon Him who speaks in the Gospels.