Q. How can a person know God?
A. If God reveals himself to us. Otherwise it is all a guess, a stumbling in the dark. God has revealed himself in ancient times through theophanies like Moses and the burning bush. In many and various ways God has spoken to people through human history. In a deliberate way God chose to reveal himself and his nature through the call of Abraham (Genesis 12), and then through the nation of Israel (see the Old Testament).
God has now fully revealed himself by coming to earth, in the person of Jesus Christ (his own eternal Son), through his life and actions and character.
A person does not have to guess who God is, or what God is like, or what he (i) has done, (ii) is doing and (iii) will do. The life of Jesus of Nazareth, the long awaited Messiah-King (or Christ), and his life’s activity is the revelation of God’s own true being.
Jesus said: ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father (God)’. See John 14:6
The full revelation of God’s character and holy heart of love for the world centres upon the death and resurrection of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit—the Spirit of Jesus the Man—and the same Spirit of God, the Father, comes to us (is given personally to humanity), so that through the Spirit’s help we come to know Jesus by faith, as we relate to him, trust him, learn of him, and hear his voice now.
The Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke-Acts and John—as found in the Bible are all written so that we might read them, or hear them, and so come to know Jesus more fully.
To know Jesus of Nazareth is to begin to make sense of life—at last!
Trevor
Look at the Birds 