He Is Alive, and We Can Know Him

“He is Alive, and We Can Know Him”

This month, we celebrate the most joyful day of the year – Resurrection Sunday! On this highest of high holy days, we are again reminded that we do not worship a Savior who lived long ago and is now dead, nor do we worship the mere idea of a Savior. We do not simply follow the teachings and philosophies of a Man who lived way back when. No, we worship a God who is alive! We worship a God who destroyed the power of death, and who opened the way to eternal life! We worship a God who has conquered our greatest enemy once-and-for-all! Is it any wonder we “pull out all the stops” on this day of days?

But that’s not the end to the Good News of this day: even more, we celebrate the fact that because we worship a living Lord, because we worship a God who is alive, this means that we can know this God. Our God is a God who actually desires to be known by us, just as we are known by Him. Our God desires that we have intimacy with Him. And intimacy is something we all desire – in fact, we were created to have intimacy with God. Most of our problems come in life when we try to fill that desire with someone or something else, such as money, relationships, fame, chemical substances, or being useful or needed.

We usually describe it using spatial language – an intimate friend is someone we feel close to, someone who knows us at a deep level. When an intimate relationship goes wrong, we say things like “she feels distant from me,” or “he only knows me at a superficial level.”1 But how do we actually get close to God? How do we gain an intimate relationship with the King of the Universe? Well, the key to intimacy is trust. Think about it: we cannot be intimate with someone we do not trust. We cannot have a closeness with someone we do not feel we can rely upon. It just doesn’t happen.

And trust is a funny thing. On the one hand, trust requires knowledge – but knowledge alone is not enough. We have more access to knowledge about God than at any time in history. Just think of all the books that have been published, all the magazine articles that have been written, all the sermons on the radio and TV, all the podcasts that we can download on our phones, all the stuff available on the Internet – and yet, on the other hand, despite all this knowledge, we do not have a whole generation of faith heroes rising up in America.2 In fact, it seems the opposite is happening. At the same time, trust takes experience – and yet, experience on its own is not enough, either. Think of a couple having a romantic candlelight dinner together – that could encourage a time of joyful intimacy between them, if both partners go into the experience willing to engage with each other. If there is distance between them, the elements of that dinner could actually end up driving them further apart by reminding them of what they have lost.3 In the same way, a well-crafted worship service could bring us closer to God, or it could end up driving us further way from Him.

In the end, trust involves a leap of faith. Trust involves a very conscious choosing to open one’s self up to another. Trust involves vulnerability, which means the possibility of being hurt or let down. (We all know what that’s about – we’ve all been hurt by people we have trusted, which is why so many of us have trust issues.) The only way we will ever have true intimacy with God is if we choose to draw near to Him, if we choose to take Him at His Word, if we choose to believe that His promises are true and that He really is who He says He is.4 But the Good News – the really Good News! – is that when we draw near to God, He has promised that He will draw near to us! (James 4:8) As author Jon Bloom writes, “When God sees someone whose heart fully trusts his promises and lives by them, God comes to strongly support that saint . . . and manifests himself to him.” 5 For as the author of Hebrews writes, without this faith and trust, “it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6, ESV).

So this month, celebrate the Good News that our Lord desires intimacy with you. And this month, celebrate the Good News that Jesus Christ has done all that is necessary to make that intimacy possible – He went to the cross, and He rose again from the dead just so you could know Him in the way you are known by Him! And this month, lift up your heart to the Lord. This month, draw near to Him. Put your trust in Him. Seek Him – in prayer, in worship, in service, and in His Word. I know it’s hard; I know your sinful and hurt self rebels against the idea of opening up and being vulnerable. But believe me – all the risk is worth it! For we were created to have this intimacy with God. And He has proven He is so, so worthy! Hallelujah! To Him alone be the glory!

In Christ’s Love, Joshua