Excerpt from HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD
Timeless Daily Readiness on the Nature of God
The Heart of True Understanding By Sinclair Fergusson, in A Heart For God
"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the
knowledge of the Holy One is insight" (Proverbs 9:10
What is the most important thing in the world to every
Christian? It is to grow in the knowledge of God.
The Knowledge of God is the heart of Salvation and of all
true spiritual experience. Knowing Him is what we were created for. It will
occupy us throughout all eternity. In the Scriptures, it is almost equivalent to
Salvation. Jesus said that eternal life, or Salvation means knowledge of God:
“and this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3) To be a Christian is not a mindless
experience, but involves knowledge and understanding. It means a personal
relationship and personal acquaintance with the Lord.
Behind what Jesus says in John’s gospel lies the promise
that God gave centuries before in the prophecy of the new covenant: “I will
give them a heart to know that I am the Lord” (Jeremiah 24:7) The fulfillment
of that prophecy would mean, Jeremiah added, “No longer shall each one teach
his neighbour and each his brother saying, “know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from
the least of them to the greatest” (31-34.) Isaiah similarly tells us that this knowledge of God
is what would mark the reign of the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ: “The earth
shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah
11:9) What a vision! Yet it summarizes
what Scriptures tells us Christ came to do: to bring us the knowledge of God.
Such knowledge of God is really the heart of all true
understanding of the Christian life. A man or woman may be a Christian and
remain ignorant of many things. But we cannot be Christians and remain ignorant
of God. In the Final analysis, says the wise man in Proverbs, “knowledge of the
Holy One is understanding” (9-10)