Life Eternal
“… and this is life eternal, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3)
From these words, we find that our eternal life is bound up with a knowledge of certain things. Those things comprise a knowledge of the Only True God, and His Son in whom He is well pleased. It is also written that:
“without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6).
It might seem to be a superfluous point to say that we have to believe that the Only True God exists, but a little reflection will reveal why it is so. Trinitarians do not believe in the God of the Bible, preferring instead to trust in a triune entity comprised of 3 members of the alleged Godhead, and making the Lord Jesus Christ God the Son, rather than the Son of God. Again, a common church teaching is that God has no bodily form or presence: “without form, body or parts”. Rejecting the Bible doctrine that Yahweh is a person with a specific dwelling place (1 Tim. 6:16), they teach rather that God is some intangible essence which they call “spirit”. They hold to the belief that God is everywhere, yet nowhere in particular, that He has no bodily existence or identity. To give one example, the following is from the Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church:
“There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. (The Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church)”
We find then, that Christendom at large does not know the One True God, nor Jesus Christ whom He has sent.
Sometimes it is argued that because God is Eternal, and we are but mortal flesh, we cannot comprehend Him fully. But whilst there is some truth to this idea (Isa. 55:8-9), we must believe and accept what He has chosen to reveal to us about Himself and His Son. Hence it is written:
“let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am Yahweh which exercise lovingkindness, judgement, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith Yahweh” (Jer. 9:24).
It is possible, then, to “understand” and “know” the Only True God, to the extent to which He has graciously revealed Himself to those who seek him in spirit and in truth. Upon such a consideration, we find that by contrast to the churches whose deity is an abstract nonentity, the God of the Bible is a Person, dwelling in a particular place, in light which is unapproachable to mortal man. The Lord Jesus Christ is currently “set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2) – which also implies a particular location and position.
We already saw that “this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ who thou hast sent” (Jno. 17:3). But do we know the only True God? Do we Understand and Know him? Can we say, with the Master: “we know what we worship …” (Jno. 4:22)? Let us forsake the imaginations of the flesh, and have faith in the revealed Person of Yahweh.
Christopher Maddocks