However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? (Gal 4:8-9)The text is about being slaves to sin, and how we are no longer slaves, but "a son" (Gal 4:7). It's interesting to what Paul attributes that change. It's not what they did or what they believed. It is not even who they knew. It was coming to be known by God.
In what sense does he mean? In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke of people who would come to Him calling Him "Lord" and talking about what they'd done for Him, and Jesus would say, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness" (Matt 7:23). "Never knew"? He's omniscient. In fact, He knew them as soon as they came to Him at the very least. No, this isn't "have knowledge of." It's more of the "biblical know" -- Having a relationship with. But Paul says it's not us knowing God. No, this saving relationship is initiated by God. This "being known by God" is God's doing. You find it in His choosing of us before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4). You find it in the "Golden Chain" (Rom 8:29-30), where the beginning is "those whom He foreknew" and continues without break to "glorified." It's instigated by God.
It's difficult for us humans to settle ourselves with "all and only Him." We had to contribute something, even it it's just "I know God." And we are supposed to have a saving relationship with Christ, but ... we must always remember that He establishes it, not us. He completes it; not us. And He guards it all along the way; not us. To me, that's a real relief.
3 comments:
The only way we can have assurance of salvation is if God is the author and finisher of our faith. If I'm in charge of maintaining my faith, I can have no confidence that I will maintain that faith longer than the next 5 minutes.
John 17:3 and other scriptures exalt the knowledge of God, but due to man’s deceitful heart, no one should assume, “I know God, and He knows me.” The first thing that comes to my mind is how commonly people know a false “God”--i.e. not the One revealed to us in His Word and through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, but another one of their own imagination. False teachers and their followers can “know” a false “God” quite well--and serve this “God” with all their hearts--but they are not in actuality known by the true God. The important difference here is that the true God reveals Himself to those He foreknew, who are then brought to a knowledge of Him through the Holy Spirit. I am mindful that only a small percentage of those who think they are Christ’s sheep are truly known by the Shepherd of the flock as one of His own.
As happens to me on many days, reading today’s post made me think of a book in my home library: Knowing God, by J.I. Packer. (You mentioned this same book at a couple of old posts, as it happens.) In the chapter of Packer’s book titled, “Knowing and Being Known,” the very passage of Galatians you highlight in today’s post is discussed, including the qualifying clause, “…or rather to be known by God…” (Gal. 4:9). Packer emphasizes that knowing God in an intimate way is a matter of God’s sovereign grace, “pointing to God’s initiative in loving, choosing, redeeming, calling, and preserving.” He writes that “one can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of him” and that those who truly know God are only those to whom God has made Himself known. Packer closes the chapter with the thought that this “momentous knowledge” will inspire “unspeakable comfort,” “great cause for humility,” “great incentive to worship and love God,” and “tremendous relief”--an echo of how you closed your post.
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