Have you ever thought about this question? Can one really know God? The answer is yes you can. There is one verse in the Bible which tells us how we can know God. The verse is John 3:16 which states “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

We will look at this verse by breaking it down in four statements. The statements and order in which we will look at these statements are:
    1 – For God so loved the world
    3- That He gave His only Son
    4- That whosoever should believe in Him

    2 – Should not perish but have eternal life

The first statement is For God so loved the world. The three words we will emphasize in this statement are God love and world. If we were to diagram this statement it would look like this:

We can see in the beginning God designed that the world would have fellowship with Him. We can see Adam and Eve getting visited by God in the garden. Originally the world loved God as well.

If the everything stayed this way then we would automatically have been able to know God. However things changed.

The second statement is: Should not perish but have eternal life.

However because Adam and Eve sinned against God there was a rift in this relationship. God cannot have relationship with sinful people because He is a holy. He also must punish disobedience just as any Father because He is just.  Therefore there is a wall of separation between us and God because of our own sin.

We can see it diagramed like this:

If you think you have never been disobedient, let’s look at some of the 10 commandments:

Have you ever lied? That makes you a liar

Have you ever stolen anything even if it was something small? That makes you a thief

Have you ever looked at anyone with lust? Jesus said if you do then you have committed adultery.

Have you ever used the Lord’s name in vain? That makes us a blasphemer.

All these sins have offended the holiness of God and we cannot have a relationship with Him because of this. Furthermore His wrath is also separating us because of the necessity of our disobedience having to be paid for. Even if we sinned once we have still offended the holiness of God and have to pay the penalty much in the same way a criminal has to serve their sentence if caught once…even if they only did one thing wrong and were really great people. They still are sentenced to jail.

We see as a result of our disobedience that we are separated from God and our eventual destination is hell. There are many statements in the Bible about hell being a real place. For a few pictures of what hell is like click here . But He is a loving and kind God and wants to be in a relationship with Him and to know Him and to enter heaven eventually. John 17:3 says that eternal life is knowing the True God and Jesus Christ.

The third statement found in John 3:16 is “that He gave His only Son”. 

We can see this diagramed out like this:

In order to allow us to be in relationship with Him, God sent His Son. There is many things that is said about Jesus. Most people have heard that He was born miraculously, lived a life, taught good things, and was killed and resurrected. There are some thoughts that all Jesus was was a good person. Several other religions teach that He was a good man. However He was more than that. The Bible says that God sent Him for us. Jesus also claimed to be God. Imagine God dying for us. That is incredible.

In fact there are a few things that help show what Jesus said was accurate.

1)   First many other people said He was a good man. Muslims think He was a prophet. Others classify Him as a philosopher.

2)   Second 10 of His disciples who followed Him died horrible deaths because they believed and saw first hand His resurrection and teachings of His Lordship.

3)   Third Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies of the Old Testament. If He were to fulfill only eight that happened on one day, it would be like taking the state of Texas and filling it 2 feet deep with silver dollars, marking one of them, walking through blindfolded and finding that silver dollar. Granted some of the 300 plus could have been planned (like He read the Messiah was supposed to ride to town on a colt so He did) but others would be hard to plan (Jesus having no bones broken, betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, poked in the side by a spear).

All these go to show the truthfulness of Jesus and His message. But what is more amazing that this is what His death did for us.

The final statement found in John 3:16 is: that whosoever believes in Him. 

Now in order to have make God happy or to obtain whatever good the religion teaches in most cases you have to do something or believe something.  Jews have to follow certain laws. Hindus and Buddhists have to be good people and respect life. Muslims have to believe in Allah and Mohammad his prophet and do things (like pray 3 times daily, certain feasts and more) These religions DO to earn whatever is good. Other nonreligious people may try to be good people as well. I go to church, I don’t beat my wife anymore, I haven’t killed anyone. All these are trying to get to heaven. Some people even try many different ways.

However because Jesus died for us, His death paid the penalty for our death. In other words we can’t DO anything. It is already DONE for us. Jesus now has a way for us to know God and for God to look past our disobedience because of what He did. Instead of trying or doing we are asked to believe or to trust in what was already done.

Jesus says that He is the way, the truth, and the life and no one can come to the Father but through Him. In a sense He has created a doorway to a journey of knowing God. An analogy I could use is if I were to say to you behind a door is something you want. However you need to open the door to get it. You wouldn’t try getting through the wall would you? You would open the door and walk into that room to get what I was giving to you. We need to open the door and journey in to get to know Him. That is essentially what it means to believe. Believing is something that you trust in and do rather than mentally believe in something.

Another example would be if I gave you a car and told you that it was parked in the garage. You may believe in your mind that there is a car for you in the garage. It wouldn’t be until though that you went out to the garage and started to drive the car that you really experience what you believe.

When we enter He will help us on our path of getting to know Him.

Do you see anything preventing you from entering the door today?