“Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You, and they know that You have sent Me.- John 17:25

September 15, 2008 Floyd Ray Gage

Though most other versions translate this as have not known, it means the same thing. Jesus is saying that the world has not, does not, and will not know the Father. Christ has known the Father, knows the Father, and always will know the Father. The disciples know Jesus and that Jesus has come from the Father. This is what we can hope to understand.

The disciples thought that they knew the Father. They had been raised Jews and had been taught the law and the other parts of the Old Testament. They had been raised in homes where the things of God were taught, so they thought they knew God. The truth of the matter is that they did not know God.

To know something or someone is to perceive them and to understand them. This is the sense of the word “ginosko�?that is used in this verse and translated know or known. It is very possible to know about something but not to know that something or someone personally and intimately.

The disciples knew about God. The world or parts of the world know about God. They may even know about some of the things of God, but they don’t know God. Our sin has separated us so far from God that we cannot properly perceive Him or understand Him anymore. If we read in the Old Testament we will see this dilemma over and over. The children of Israel knew about God and His truth, but they didn’t know God or they would have followed Him and obeyed Him. Once we truly know God we will obey Him.

We are so far removed from God that we need an introduction to God by someone that knows Him intimately. There was only One that knew God and could introduce God to us in such a way that we could come to know Him and understand Him again. That One was God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ came to introduce us to the Father and make it possible for us to know Him again as we are known by Him.

God never stopped knowing us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He understands us better than we will ever understand each other. He loves us more than we can possibly imagine. God wanted the breach repaired and so He incarnated Himself in the person of Jesus and reintroduced Himself to the world.

The world still does not know the Father unless they are introduced to Him through the Son. We are introduced to the Father anew, when we, like the disciples, admit and believe that Jesus came from God. When we know that He came from God and understand all that this truth means. We must understand that He died on the cross for our sins after living a perfect life and then rose again on the third day. We must perceive all that this means for our sin sick souls and accept the redemption that is found in Christ alone. We must then commit our lives to Christ and strive to live for Him and allow Him to live through us. Then and only then can we come to know the Father anew.

Again, all of the religions of the world know about God and try to understand the things of God, but they don’t know God apart from Christ. No one can know God apart from Christ, because Christ is the only One Who can reintroduce us to God. Otherwise our ability to understand God is so man-centered that we are blinded to the truths of Who God is and all that He wants for our lives.

If we want to understand God, we must understand Christ. If we want to perceive God, we must surrender more to Christ. If we want to know God, we must know Christ!