Knowing Christ

My wife and I have been married for many years. We have both recently been made aware that after so many years of living together in the deepest intimacy a marriage relationship can offer, there are still things about each other that we don’t understand. Is it possible to ever know all there is to know about your spouse?

Likewise, many have enjoyed an intimate spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ for many, many years yet hardly know him. Do you really know him? Not just as a personal savior but do you really know Him for who he is? We can know him through the word he has given us but we cannot know him by accident. Just as it takes effort to know and understand a spouse, it also takes effort to know and understand Christ. He is so vast in his nature and so complex in his person that he can never be fully known. It will be our greatest challenge throughout eternity to try to know Him.

But we do know a little about Christ. We know that he is exalted about all others. We know that he is supreme.

Christ is Supreme in His Diety – He is equal with God in all of his attributes. He is radiant in His glory. Christ is the exact image of the nature of God the Father.

“If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.” – John 14:7

Christ is Supreme in His Eternal Nature (eternality) - This is incomprehensible. Think long on it and it will drive you crazy. Jesus Christ never had a beginning. It is an imponderable truth.

“He was with God in the beginning” of the creation.” – John 1:2

Jesus is God! The whole world and all the worlds unknown and all of creation and its creatures are frail and vulnerable and fragile and could be shattered into a million pieces by a simple word spoken by the eternal One.

He lived eternities before the beginning and he will live eternities after the end.

Christ is Supreme in His Unchangeable Nature. Is Christ holy? He shall always be holy. Is Christ love? He shall always be love. Is Christ good? He shall always be good. His holiness will never be overcome by carnality. His love will never be replaced with hatred. Throughout all of eternity, his goodness shall reign and he shall never, never be touched with the darkness of evil.

His character is constant.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” – Hebrews 13:8 The seasons come and go. The sun shines and then the sky darkens. Friends change. Families fluctuate. Circumstances are unpredictable. Relationships evolve. The cards are always being shuffled. Transition is a norm in the American lifestyle. But Jesus Christ never changes. His feet are firmly fixed in some unknown foundation of the vast universe and he cannot be moved.

Christ is Supreme in His knowledge. We revel in our knowledge. The information age makes available a never ending source of knowledge. There seems to be nothing Google does not know. Gather all the billions and trillions of bits of information together and compare it to the knowledge of Christ and it’s like comparing a single drop of water to all the water held in all the oceans of earth multiplied by a trillion quadrillions. His knowledge knows no limit.

Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, why would you ask me any question at all. You know ALL things.” – John 21-17

“His understanding is infinite.” – Psalm 147:5

There are some things God has never experienced. He has never been confused. He has never been perplexed. He has never been puzzled. He has never been surprised. He could never be a scientist who searches out the meaning of natural laws. God is the source of all those laws. He could never be a historian to search out the story of man. God wrote the story and he knows every single detail. God could never experience the thrill of the archeologist finding a buried artifact. God hid all those pieces and he knows exactly where they are and what story they tell. God has never made a mistake. He has never experienced sickness. He has never explored anything. He has never investigated. He has never discovered. He is infinite in all his knowledge and wisdom.

Supreme wisdom flows like a great river from the heart of God. Those who drink of its waters are blessed with understanding and they comprehend His eternal truth. Americans find themselves in terrible moral decay: our financial system is in ruins, our legal system is plagued with unfairness, our leaders are diseased with the cancer of greed and corruption, our population is blinded by a lust for material things. Why have we murdered 51 million unborn babies? Why do Americans incarcerate more or its population than any other nation on earth? Why are 35% of our children born out of wedlock? It is because we do not drink from the waters of everlasting wisdom made available by an omniscient God.

Christ is Supreme in His Authority. He is qualified and he is worthy to have all authority. He is all wise, he is all powerful and he is morally perfect. No other can offer those qualifications. He can never do the wrong thing. He can never make a wrong decision. He can never be corrupted by flattery or bribed by money. It is not possible for him to show favoritism. He cannot be selfish and self-serving.

He never seeks a majority vote. He never has to seek approval or get permission. He never has to sit down and ponder and reason regarding a solution to a certain problem. He knows how to end warand poverty. He knows how to cure cancer. Christ is supreme in his authority because he is worthy.

Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” - Matthew 28:18

Ten thousands of angels sang, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” – Rev. 5:12

Jesus does as he pleases and we must be forever grateful that what he pleases to do is always good and honorable.

“All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?" – Daniel 4:35

Christ is Supreme in His Providence. God knows everything there is to know about you. “Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” – Luke 12:7

Christ didn’t just plunk you down on this earth and make some provisions for you and then walk away. He has a plan for you. You may not know his plan. It may take time for you to understand and you may sometimes experience doubt. Rest assured and do not doubt that God has a plan.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11

Do you sometimes feel he has forgotten you? Do you sometimes feel he isn’t listening? Know this; He knows every time a bird falls from the sky. He is fully aware every time one of his creatures becomes more road kill along the highways. He is fully aware of the smallest fish in the most remote area of the ocean where the eyes of men have not yet seen.
“Look at the birds of the air…your heavenly Father feeds them.” – Matthew 6:26

We have not yet scratched the surface of what it means to know Christ.


Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.