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How to Know God

【God’s Knowability】Trying to explain God is like trying to explain a kiss. You can check the dictionary definition: “A caress with the lips; a gentle touch or contact.”

But does that really capture the essence of what a kiss is? Dues that describe what a mother does when she tenderly places her lips on the forehead of her newborn child? Is that what the young lover does when he says good-night to his girl?

Just as words cannot completely capture all that is involved in what we know by experience and attempt to describe as a “kiss,” we also cannot fully comprehend, explain, or define “God.” We can, however, know him through experiencing his revelation of himself to us in his Word and in the person of Jesus Christ.

【God’s Knowability】A farmer repeatedly invited a friend into his apple orchard to taste the fruit and make some fresh cider. But, just as often, the friend said, “No, I would rather not.”

Finally, the farmer said, “I guess you are prejudiced against my apples.”

“Well, to tell the truth, “ his friend said, “I have tasted a few of them and they are very sour.”

The farmer then asked which apples his friend had eaten. “Why, those apples which fell along the road over your fence,” he replied.

“Ah, yes,” said the farmer, “they are sour. I planted them to fool the boys who live around here. But, if you will come into the middle of my orchard, you will find a different taste.”

On the edges of Christianity are some very sour apples—conviction, self-denial, and purity of life—which keep off hypocrites and mere professors. But in the middle of the orchard are delicious fruits, sweet and desirable. The nearer to God, the sweeter the joy.

【God’s Knowability】The pagan world was always haunted by the unknowability of God. At best, men could but grope after his mystery. “It is hard,” said Plato, “to investigate and to find the framer and the father of the universe. And, if one did find him, it would be impossible to express him in terms which all could understand.” Aristotle spoke of God as the supreme cause, by all men dreamed of and by no man known. The ancient world did not doubt that there was a God or gods, but it believed that such gods as there might be were quite unknowable and only occasionally interested in mankind. In a world without Christ, God was a mystery and power, desirable but never known.