What does the Bible mean by the knowledge of God?

Now, it is deeply interesting to turn from Satan's lie in reference to the truth and love of God, to the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ, who came from the bosom of the Father in order to reveal what He really is. "Grace and truth" — the very things which man lost, in his fall — "came by Jesus Christ." (John 1:17) He was "the faithful witness" of what God was. (Rev. 1:5) Truth reveals God as He is; but this truth is connected with the revelation of perfect grace; and thus the sinner finds, to his, unspeakable joy, that the revelation of what God is, instead of being his destruction, becomes the basis of his eternal salvation. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3.) I cannot know God and not have life. The loss of the knowledge of God was death; but the knowledge of God is life. This, necessarily, makes life a thing entirely outside of ourselves, and dependent upon what God is. Let me arrive at what amount of self-knowledge I may, it is not said that "this is life eternal, to know themselves;" though, no doubt, the knowledge of God and the knowledge of self-will go very much together; still, "eternal life" is connected with the former, and not with the latter. To know God as He is, is life; and "all who know not God" shall be "punished with everlasting destruction from His presence."

This leads to the explanation of "the eternal life" in question. Life for evermore, life to eternity, is the blessing commanded by Jehovah on the mountains of Zion (Ps. 133); and of the many Jews that sleep in the dust of the earth, some shall wake to everlasting life, as others to shame and everlasting contempt (Daniel 12). But both these Scriptures contemplate that great turning-point for the earth, the kingdom when it comes in manifest power and glory. The Lord speaks of life as given in Himself to faith now. "And this is the eternal life, that they know Thee, the only true God, and Him Whom Thou didst send, Jesus Christ." If it be distinguished from that which is to be enjoyed in the displayed kingdom by-and-by, it stands as to its character in the knowledge not of the Most High Possessor of heaven and earth, with the true Melchisedec a Priest on His throne, but of the Father and of His sent One, the only true God now plainly revealed in the Son, the one Mediator between God and man. If distinguished from the past, it is no longer the Creator-God giving promises to the fathers protected and lodging as under the shadow of the Almighty; nor yet the sons of Israel in relationship with the name of Jehovah, the moral governor of that chosen nation. But the children of God now possess the revelation of the Father and of Jesus Christ Whom He sent; and this knowledge is identified, not with promises nor government, but with "eternal life," as a present thing in Christ, the portion of every believer. A deeper blessing it is impossible for God to bestow or for man to receive; for it is exactly what characterised the Lord Himself, Who is the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. Only Christ could be said to be that life; we as believers are not, but we have it in Him; and as by faith alone it is received, so in faith it is exercised, sustained, and strengthened.

The knowledge of the Almighty is acquaintance with protecting power; of Jehovah, faithfulness to promise; of the Father, in the exercise of love, is eternal life. It is to know Himself in His own blessedness in relationship with the Son. Hence is added, "And Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." The Father and His love in sending (still the knowledge of Himself), and He also expression and accomplishment of this love in whom is that life. To be in relationship with these is the very essence and reality of eternal life, separated (in the power of the full knowledge of God in grace in this blessed relationship of Father and Son, and of love to us in sending Him) from all else. So thus one is with the true God, all idols away.

Those who receive Him as the Scriptures reveal Him in faith become the sons of light. The repentant sinner feeling the burden of his sins, accepts Him as his personal Saviour, and there is joy in heaven over such. Wherever two or three are gathered to His name alone, He is in their midst; and they may know Him there as their Centre and their all. The individual believer who loves Him and keeps His Word, may know His abiding presence. What a great honour to be granted to us in a world like this, an honour only to be surpassed by our being taken out of the world by the Son of God, and received into the Father’s house. To know Him is the greatest wealth and wisdom we can possess. “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, says the Lord.”

Not so, however, with one who knows God as He is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. Such a one has gotten life eternal. "This," says Christ, "is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." (John 17:3) It is not life eternal to know theology or divinity. A man may sit down to the study of these, as he would to study law or medicine, astronomy or geology, and all the while know nothing of God, and therefore be without divine life, and perish in the end.

17 Now if we compare John 17:3, we shall see the amazing force of that expression, and the meaning of this: "This is life eternal, that they should know thee, the only true God [that is the Father], and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." That they may know thee, τόν — that one, or Him, who is the only true God, contrasted with gods many and false gods, and Him whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ. How does He give them this eternal life, this knowledge? I answer, By their being planted in Himself: "he that hath the Son hath life": but they are thus in Him that is true, and consequently, being in Him that is true — that is, in His Son — they dwell in God and God in them. They know the Father, who Himself is the only true God; and they know Jesus Christ whom the Father hath sent, and none else can know Him. Being in Christ and knowing His love, we are in the true God, and so know the Father as being in the Son, and we know Jesus Christ.

Next we have from verse 4 Jehovah's grief, to which Hosea gives expression: "O Ephraim, what shall I do to thee? O Judah, what shall I do to thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes away. Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and their judgments are as the light that goes forth. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like men have transgressed the covenant; there have they dealt treacherously against me." It is the language of Jehovah, as the earlier verses were the prophet's exhortation. Thence he slides so to speak, into the language of Him who gave him his office. A prophet was really the voice of Jehovah, and therefore beginning as a prophet he rises up to that which becomes Jehovah Himself. The hewing of the people by the prophets expresses vividly the moral dealings of God which gave the wicked no quarter. "I have slain them by the words of my mouth," he adds, to make still plainer what kind of slaying it was. "And thy judgments are as the light that goes forth."

But of mercy He speaks. "For I desired mercy:" this is what He loves, and to this end, that He may be morally vindicated in displaying it. "For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like" — not "men" but — Adam is right. "Men" hardly gives the full force; in fact it is a force contrary to the truth, because men as such were not under the law nor under His covenant, and Adam did not hold such a place. As the head of the race, his position was well defined and peculiar. Adam had a relationship with God; but the fall broke up the state of innocence, and God "drove out the man," instead of keeping him in the earthly garden of His delights. The position of man since is that of an outcast from paradise. But Israel were called externally to a place of favour, separate to Jehovah from all the rest of mankind. There was a new trial of man, though of man fallen. Indeed this forms the proper scene of man's probation: either when in Eden, and there Adam comes before us; or out of Eden, and in due time the Jew manifests his course and issue. The interval between Adam and Israel, though not without divine testimonies and dealings in grace of the deepest interest individually, not to speak of the judgment of the world by the flood, was not one of recognised relationship with man as such, because, being driven out from the presence of God, he had as yet no formal position with God, save the responsibility of avenging His injured image. (Gen. 9:5-6.)

As a general principle it may be said, before considering this citation from Hosea, that a believer of any dispensation should be the expression of God as revealed in that dispensation. For example, the standard for a Jewish saint was Jehovah as made known in that economy, whereas the standard for a Christian is God as revealed in Christ. (See Eph. 5:1‑13, Col. 3:10‑13.) To bear this in mind will aid in the understanding of the prophet's words. Both Ephraim and Judah (Hosea 5, 6) had sadly corrupted themselves, and yet at the same time they would seem to have been punctilious in the observance of their sacrificial ceremonies, as if attention to outward forms could commend them to God's favour. "Therefore," says the prophet, speaking in Jehovah's name, "have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth … for I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." (Hosea 6:5-6.) That is, character and state — the character and state produced by the knowledge of Jehovah as a God of mercy — were of more avail before God than outward observances, these last being utterly valueless unless they were the indication of a spiritual condition. (Compare Micah 6:6‑8.) Turning now to Matthew's Gospel, it is very interesting to note the Lord's application of this Scripture. The Pharisees condemned Him for eating with publicans and sinners. In vindicating His action, the Lord convicted them of ignorance of the heart of God. "Go ye," He said, "and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Priding themselves upon being the people of God, the objects of His exclusive favour, and the guardians of His word, the Lord shows that they had utterly misconceived the character of the God in whom they boasted; that they had read in vain the many scriptures which contained the pre‑intimations of His grace and mercy toward poor sinners, and consequently that in their self-righteousness they were utterly misrepresenting God. In chapter 12 the application of the Scripture, while bringing out the same truth, is slightly different. Here the Pharisees, in their censorious spirit, condemned the disciples for plucking the ears of corn upon the Sabbath day. After citing examples from the Scriptures which should have opened their eyes to perceive the claims of the One whom they had presumed to assail, and should have convinced them of their unscriptural folly, the Lord added, "But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless." The point here again is that the hearts of these censors of the disciples were in utter contrariety to the heart of God. Cased in their self‑righteousness, not a ray of God's blessed mercy or grace had ever penetrated their souls, and hence they judged everyone round about them by their own thoughts instead of by the thoughts of God. Alas! how easy it is for ourselves, who live in the full light of the day of grace, to fall into the same mistake, and to forget that we are called to be the exponents of God's heart of grace in the midst of His professing people, and before an evil world.

It was this, too, that stood in the way of their return to God: "They have not known the Lord" (Hosea 5:4). But when repentance is wrought in them, and they are raised up, and live before God, then shall they know, and shall "follow on to know the Lord" (Hosea 6:3), and they will learn that this is more agreeable to God than anything else; "the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6).

Verse 7 contains the keynote to the entire book. (See 9:10; Eccles. 12:13; Job 28:28; Psalm 111:10.) The word "fear" means a godly fear, reverence. This fear of the Lord is mentioned fourteen times in Proverbs. This childlike reverence, so sadly lacking among the young of our day, is the beginning of knowledge; there is no true knowledge apart from the fear of the Lord. It means to acknowledge the Lord, adore and worship Him, bow in faith to His revelation and put it above everything else. The foolish despise wisdom and instruction, they follow the philosophies of this world. To acknowledge the Lord to reverence and fear Him is thus written over the portal of the house of wisdom.