The Excellence of the Subject

Why did Jesus, the Son of God, come into this world? In contrast to the ruler of this present age—the thief—who steals, kills and destroys, Jesus says, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (Joh 10:10) All we, like sheep, have gone astray, but Christ, the good Shepherd, came to lay His life down for His sheep that they may have life and have it abundantly. Though we were once dead in our trespasses and sins pursuing the passions and lusts of our flesh, God, being rich in mercy, and abounding in love, made us alive together with Christ. (Eph 2:1-5; paraphrased) Through His death and resurrection, Jesus Christ secured eternal life for all who would believe in Him, to the praise of His glorious grace. His purpose in graciously humbling Himself and bearing the wrath of God in our stead was to save us from sin and death, and to give us life and that abundantly. How marvellous the Gospel of Jesus Christ which you have received and in which you stand, if indeed you believe!

Dear reader, consider now that this abundant eternal life which Jesus Christ purchased for His sheep by His death and resurrection is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ.
(Joh 17:3) My design is to show you that knowing Jesus Christ—intimately and personally—is both the means by which we receive the gift of life and the end thereof. All the bountiful riches of blessedness, peace, and joy that are to be found in Christ are all bound up in this one thing: knowing Him. In the words of John Flavel, “As Christ is the door that opens heaven, so knowledge is the key that opens Christ.” Knowing Christ is the only means by which the sinner lays hold of the treasures of heaven; without knowing Him, the door remains firmly shut. And once the door has been opened by this one and only ‘key’, that eternal life consists of knowing God ever deeper and ever more intimately to the everlasting enjoyment of the saints and the Glory of our God.

Peter in his second epistle say, “[Jesus'] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them, you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” (2 Pet 1:3–4; my italics) All things relating to life and godliness are given to you through the knowledge of God who called us. Knowledge is the vehicle through which God gives us all spiritual blessings—eternal life and practical sanctification of that life. Possessing this knowledge—the knowledge of Christ—yields unto the saint God’s glorious covenant promises so that he may enter into grace and immortality having escaped from the body of sin and corruption. Knowing God truly, delivers from sin and grants a sure and steadfast hope of heavenly glory.

Assured of the excellence of the knowledge of Christ, Paul reminds the Corinthians of how he laboured among them. “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Cor 2:1-2; my italics) The apostle did not speak to tickle the ears with clever words or philosophical niceties. Rather, it was his determined aim to study nothing himself and to teach nothing to others except Christ and Him crucified, i.e. the Person and work of Jesus Christ. Paul disregarded all knowledge that might compete with the most precious of all subjects. How noble, profitable or pleasant others may seem; the subject of Christ surpasses them all, and of this only He spoke. Paul, that mighty apostle, was a man whose heart overflowed with one thing only: the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is the same Paul who was personally commissioned by Jesus to preach and defend the Gospel in its earliest and most vulnerable stage; the apostle who left a legacy of churches and writings unmatched by any of his contemporaries; and the humble disciple who tells us to imitate him as he imitates Christ. Therefore, when this Paul tells us something about how he conducted his ministry unto the Lord, all who desire to be Christlike and fruitful in their labours, would do well to take note. This man was completely rapt by one thing only: the lovely Person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And this only he determined to know and make known. Even when not speaking explicitly of the Gospel, all he said was either supporting the Gospel or drawing out implications from the Gospel. Let us be diligent to imitate Paul, our brother, who literally exhorts us to do so (1 Cor 11:1), and make it our determined aim to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 

Consequently, if knowing Christ is eternal life, then being ignorant of Him is eternal damnation. A soul uninformed or indifferent to the knowledge of Christ is in a most dangerous condition. As the prophet Hosea spoke, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” He is by no means speaking of a general knowledge or education, but a specific knowledge: the knowledge of the law of God which was given to Israel a shadow, type, and tutor pointing towards Christ. The people of God were perishing because they lacked knowledge of God’s revealed law (a precursor of Jesus Christ). A keen intellect and mountains of knowledge in itself cannot save; salvation is only in knowing Jesus Christ. Countless learned men and philosophers throughout the ages of marked intellect and academic achievement now fearfully await the judgement day on which they will be measured in the scales and found wanting not because they lacked an education or because they had a weak intellect, but because they lacked this knowledge: the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Humility and the Knowledge of Christ

How comforting is it to know that certain uneducated and common fishermen of Galilee now enjoy eternal blessedness in the presence of the One we love, simply because they forsook all worldly ambitions and humbled themselves to know Him? In the same spirit, Paul tells the saints in Corinth to consider that many of them were not wise according to worldly standards, but that God has chosen the foolish things to confound the wise so that no man may boast in the presence of their God. (1 Cor 1:26-31) The knowledge of Jesus Christ, is not complex or intricate, for if it were, we could boast of our mental ability. Marvellously, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is unintelligible to the “wise” of the world, but God reveals it to the “foolish.” There is more hope for a humble fool than a proud intellectual. While the world—wise in its own eyes—esteems the message of the cross as foolishness and rejects it to its demise, the uneducated commoner is able to grasp it and thereby live. We see then that humility is infinitely more important than intellect in apprehending the knowledge of Christ.

“For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” (1 Cor 1:19-21) All the scientific and philosophical endeavours and intellectual strivings of man—man's best efforts—have not saved but one soul. No man has been able to apprehend the knowledge of the Most High by ascending to the heavens in some intellectual pursuit or religious fervour. All the collective wisdom of man cannot provide a sufficient knowledge of God; we must turn desperately and faithfully to the knowledge of God as revealed in the Gospel. This is what Jesus Christ achieved, this is what the apostles preached, and this is what saves man, this is the 'folly' of the cross: Christ humbled Himself in the flesh; there, and only there, will He graciously meet all who would likewise humble themselves by forsaking their intellectual and religious pride to cling to Him.

Seeing the humble faith of His disciples, Jesus prayed: “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way.” (Luk 10:21 NLT) God is not impressed by a colossal intellect or an acclaimed academic career. The volumes written by the greatest secular minds of all the ages, the philosopher and the scientist alike, have brought man no nearer to the truth than when they first began. In fact, knowledge (without love) puffs up and leads to intellectual contempt and supercilious self-reliance. Jesus' prayer teaches us that it pleases God to confound the wise by revealing Christ to the lowest and the least. Humble preoccupation with the knowledge of Jesus Christ is what pleases God and attracts His unmerited favour.

It is easy to point the finger at those who ardently and unabashedly oppose God. But even we Christians are not immune to the dangers of cunning pride in the pursuit of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. In the first chapter of his book, Knowing God, J.I. Packer beautifully cautions against flippant superficiality in the study of God, “We need to ask ourselves: What is my ultimate aim and object in occupying my mind with these things? What do I intend to do with my knowledge about God, once I have it? For the fact that we have to face is this. If we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited. The very greatness of the subject matter will intoxicate us, and we shall come to think of ourselves as a cut above other Christians because of our interest in it and grasp of it; and we shall look down on those whose theological ideas seem to us crude and inadequate and dismiss them as very poor specimens. For, as Paul told the conceited Corinthians, “Knowledge puffs up. . . The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know” (1 Cor 8:1-2). 

To be preoccupied with getting theological knowledge as an end in itself, to approach Bible study with no higher a motive than a desire to know all the answers, is the direct route to a state of self-satisfied self-deception. We need to guard our hearts against such an attitude, and pray to be kept from it.” Packer continues by saying that our concern to grow in the knowledge of God should not be purely theoretical but practical. Our supreme desire should be to know and enjoy God. We must desire to know God so that our hearts may respond to it and our lives be conformed to it. Our ultimate concern should be with the knowledge and service of the great God Whose truth we seek to understand. Our study of God must lead to knowing God personally. “It was for this purpose that revelation was given, and it is to this use that we must put it.” — Packer.

Continued in Part Two

Written by: Joel van der Merwe

Paintings: Layla van der Merwe