Being Known

What matters supremely, in the last analysis:
Is not the fact that I know God, but
the larger fact which underlies it
– the fact that He knows me.

J.I. Packer, Knowing God

All our knowledge of Him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing us. We know Him because he first knew us and continues to know us (Psalms 139:13). Without God’s sustained initiative to know us, our knowledge of Him will come to an end. We will never even have a deeper relationship with Him. But God established a relationship with His people. He does not only know us but He knows us personally as His friend (John 15:13-15).

The Momentous Knowledge

J.I. Packer sets before us the unparalleled benefits of being known by God.

First, there is unspeakable comfort— the sort of comfort that energizes, be it said, not enervates-in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good.

Second, there is a tremendous relief — in knowing that his love for me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench His determination to bless me.

“He foresaw my every fall, my every sin, my every backsliding; yet, nevertheless, fixed His heart upon me.”

A.W. Pink, The Attributes of God

A Great Cause for Humility

The fact that we are known by God should breed humility from within. God’s personal knowledge of us is His love for us. Unparalleled and unextinguishable love. Think about these lines from J.I. Packer,

"God sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow humans do not see (and am I glad!). God sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which, in all conscience, is enough). 

And still, for some unfathomable reason…. 

He wants us as His friend, and desires to be our friend, and has given His Son to die for sinners in order to realize this purpose.

None of us is worthy of God’s love. To say that one is worthy of being known and loved by God means that he is still blinded by his own depravity. Above it all, our apprehension of God’s great condescension to know us finds its reason in His Son, Jesus Christ.

Questions for meditation:

Why is the fact that

• God knows us more important than the fact that we know God?
• Is there anyone who is worthy of being known by God?

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Note: This is from our Youth Bible Study. Citations are from Packer, J. I. (1993). Knowing God. Intervarsity Press.

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