Knowing Jesus vs. knowing about Jesus-what is the difference?

With Christ for his gain: being found in Him, not having his own righteousness, but the righteousness that is from God, what does Paul want next? "That I may know Him!" or, literally, "to know Him!" And did he not 'know Him'? Surely he did, as few others have ever known Him: but he could say, "Now I know in part," (1 Cor. 13:12): and no matter how large a part, that could not satisfy until he could say, "I know even as I am known." Paul's desire was not to know about Him, blessed as that is. There was a university professor who could challenge his class to begin any verse in the Bible, and he would finish it: but I sadly fear, though he knew the written Word so well, he did not know the Living Word at all. Most of us know a certain amount about Her Majesty the Queen: some of us have even seen her drive by: but that does not mean we know her. It was altogether something different for which Paul longed. This intellectual knowledge of Christ is not to be despised. I suppose it must come first, before we come to "know Him." It is preliminary, introductory, subordinate, to the knowledge spoken of in Phil. 3:10. What do we mean when we say of a man, I know him? Do we not mean, I have kept company with him — I have talked with him — I have spent time with him — I have learned to know his thoughts and his ways, I have been admitted to his confidence. What does a child mean when he says: "I know my Father: I know what he would like"? Surely it means he knows his Father's inmost heart: he knows his thoughts, without the necessity of uttering a word. We have no right to say we know Christ, merely because we have read of Him in the Scriptures. Paul had suffered the loss of all things for the surpassingness of the knowledge (as he says with such affection) of Christ Jesus my Lord: but he longs to know Him better still. The aged Apostle John writes to the fathers "because ye have known Him that is from the beginning." Perhaps through a long life, — a life of service to their Lord, — they had learned to "know Him." And what about the "little children"? "I write unto you little children, because ye have known the Father." (1 John 2:13). And none can come to the Father except by the Son: and so, in their measure, no doubt the little children knew "Him" also. How encouraging for you dear Lambs of the flock! And He has given Eternal Life to as many as the Father has given Him: "And this is Life Eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." (John 17:3).

Many people today have heard of the great things that Jesus has done. They know something of His birth, His holy life, His parables and teachings, and they've heard how He was crucified, died, and rose again. They may even have personal contact with others to whom He has given life, eternal life, and marvel at their changed lives; for becoming a Christian involves a new birth and a new life altogether. But that's as far as their interest goes. They know about Christ, but they do not know Him! This is not enough. Nor is it sufficient to be fair or kind or good. Where do you stand in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ?

Now it is not every believer that knows Christ. All believers — those, that is, that have peace with God — know Christ as their Saviour. They know Him in this character or relationship; but it is another thing to know Him in Himself; to have such a knowledge of Him as to be intimately acquainted with His mind, character, and ways. Those who thus know Him find their daily delight in feasting on His beauties and perfections. They value Him for what He is, if possible more than for what He has done; albeit these two thins can never be separated. The apostle John indeed teaches, that to know Him that is from the beginning is the last and highest attainment the believer makes. This knowledge is the characteristic of the fathers in the family of God. (1 John 2.)

To know Him that is from the beginning is thus to know Christ as He is, and where He is, as the eternal life "which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us," as all that He now is in Himself, as the glorified Man at the right hand of God. But it is sometimes asked, "Do not all believers know Him? This question does but ignore the truth of our passage. All believers more or less know Christ as their Saviour, and own Him as their Lord; but this is a far different thing from knowing Himself. To know Him in a special, in any, character, is blessed; but the knowledge of which the apostle here speaks embraces what He is, apart from any special presentation or character. For example, we may know the Queen as our sovereign without any personal acquaintance at all with her. Her children, on the other hand, while they do not forget that she is the sovereign, know her rather as what she is in herself — her mind, character, and ways. So the fathers here have risen beyond any character, office, or relationship which He may sustain towards them, and find their delight in Himself, in what He is, in all His moral beauties, perfections, and excellencies.

It is one thing to know the value of His work, and another to know Himself. And what is that? Is it to know His various relations as Son of God, as Son of Man, as the Christ, as the High Priest, the Advocate, the King? Yes, all that indeed—and a lovely and sacred theme of meditation is each of these relations. But I rather mean a heart acquaintance, a deep, personal intimacy with the Lord; that you should get to know Him as your own; that you should realize the blessedness of the link that binds you personally to Him who fills all these relations. Thus Paul could say near the end of his path, “I know whom I have believed.” That was no superficial or second-hand knowledge, one picked up from reports or writings, but the result of years of companionship, in summer or winter, in good report or in ill—such a companionship as enabled him to speak of “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil. 3:8).

Scripture speaks of external knowledge which a person may acquire by hearsay or sight, and also of conscious knowledge — that personal acquaintance by which we can know a person's mind. It is of this latter knowledge Paul speaks, when he says, "That I may know Him," and it is this knowledge we so often lack. We know and rejoice in the glorious things He has done, but do we know the heart of the One who has done so much for us, in such fashion that we can say, "I know how He feels about me"?

No, acquaintance with our Saviour where He is is not achieved by mental effort, nor necessarily by reading of His life in the Gospels, though we cannot neglect this if we are to know Him. But acquaintance with Him is much more than knowing something about Him; it is knowing Himself, and this must be where He is and as He is, for it is a present and personal knowledge. We arrive at it by a spiritual journey, which may be long or short according to our purpose of heart and appreciation of Himself and His love.

No, acquaintance with our Saviour where He is is not achieved by mental effort, nor necessarily by reading of His life in the Gospels, though we cannot neglect this if we are to know Him. But acquaintance with Him is much more than knowing something about Him; it is knowing Himself, and this must be where He is and as He is, for it is a present and personal knowledge. We arrive at it by a spiritual journey, which may be long or short according to our purpose of heart and appreciation of Himself and His love.

This blessed fact is the very beginning of everything for us. But you may say, as many often say, "what is there in that? I know salvation." Ah! but do you know the Saviour? Have you considered that it is possible to know about the work of Christ, and yet have but a poor knowledge of the Saviour? Oh, there is a very great difference! You might know safety, you might be clear from coming judgment and from coming wrath, and yet be to a very great extent with small knowledge of Christ personally. But you could not know the Saviour, you could not come into personal contact with Him, without your soul having the divine meltings which that knowledge brings. And, beloved friends, there is another thing. You may know security, and be free from wrath and judgment, and still go on hard and fast with the world. That, I grieve to say, is what a great many people do. They try to hold religion, as they call it, in one hand, and grasp the world in the other. That is what hundreds of God's people are doing. They may be clear about their acceptance, and I do not desire to say a word which might appear even to cloud that; but I must bear testimony to this fact, that though they seem clear about their acceptance, and their immunity from coming judgment, fully assured of all this, yet they do not seem to have that personal knowledge of the Saviour which would fortify their hearts against the world; and, be assured, nothing but this will do it. Oh, brethren, assuredly if we know and have to do with the Saviour Himself (I do not now speak of what He has wrought, however blessed), then the end of everything that could attract us down here is before us.

It is a great thing when the soul gets beyond the fact of its deliverance, wonderful and blessed as that is, and lays hold by faith upon the person of the Deliverer; for it is in being occupied with Him, in the having to do with Himself personally, and addressing Him in happy, assured confidence of heart as one now known and delighted in, that positive and increased blessing of an inexhaustible character consciously accrues to the believer. And the more I value the immensity of the blessing I now possess, the more surely should I desire to make the direct acquaintance of the One who has conferred so wonderful a boon upon me at the incalculable cost of the sacrifice of Himself. How much, dear reader, do you and I know of personal intimacy with Him, of Jacob's well at Sychar, and of Martha's cottage at Bethany, now the Man enthroned in glory? How much of that individual intercourse with Himself, without which each recurring day should be to us a cold and cheerless blank, and will be, unless we are drawing from earthly springs and human cisterns? Alas! how many habitually grieve Him by accepting the benefit bestowed, while exhibiting pronounced indolence or indifference as to the Benefactor, depriving themselves thus of that peculiar joy which fills the heart for the first time in that thrilling moment when we are conscious of what has never dawned upon us before - that we are personally known to Christ and He to us! Nor can we doubt that it is equally a time of exceptional joy to Him when a soul in the bloom and beauty of its new-born spiritual life is brought thus fully and blessedly into conscious acquaintance with. Himself, to enter upon an intercourse as intimate as the relations of the Father to the Son, and as lasting as God's eternity. It is the occasion on which the believer can say, and say it unequivocally, "Well, now I know Him, my Saviour! Not merely do I know what He did for me when He was here; but I know the One who has left the scene, the Man now in glory, and have been so brought into the secret of His own presence to have immediate contact with Himself, that, indeed, I know Him more intimately than I know any earthly relative, and am known of Him infinitely better than by any such!"