It may seem important that you know God, but it matters much more that God knows you. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus describes the tragedy of those who know God, believing they have a relationship with Him. But then they hear Him say on the day of judgement, “I never knew you, depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.” You may say you know Jesus, but does He know you? Let’s look into this for a bit.
The most important relationship for a man is his relationship with God. God is the Creator, and man is His creation. Living in alignment with the design of this relationship is key to the peaceful harmony and sanctity of human life. Humility defines the proper posture of man toward God. Humility fills the heart of the creation who knows they exist and have life only by the will and generosity of the Creator.
At the beginning of time, in the book of Genesis we meet Adam. Having been just formed from the dust by God’s hands, Adam knows that he exists by God’s grace and desire. God had breathed His own breath into Adam’s lungs and given him life. That life was not just a once-only disbursement, but God energized every breath, every heartbeat, and every movement by His eternal will and power. This is true for you and I, and for every other person since Adam. The recognition and acknowledgment that God is everything, and that man is an otherwise empty vessel into which God breathes life each moment, is humility. Andrew Murray describes it this way:
“Humility, the place of entire dependence on God, is, from the very nature of things, the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature…” Murray, A. (2001). Humility. Bethany House Publishers.
in Genesis 3, we read that man is tempted by the serpent to turn away from trusting God and His instruction, and instead to trust their own judgement and decision-making. Humility toward God was discarded and was replaced by the pride of self-rule when man ate the fruit that was forbidden by God. Their sin filled them with shame and they desperately tried covering themselves with leaves..
Later, God came looking for Adam and Eve. When they heard Him walking in the garden, their shame further drove them to hide among the trees. As God walked through the garden, He “called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’” (Genesis 3:9). Remember, God is all-knowing, and he wasn’t playing a game. God is literally asking Adam to look at, and answer for himself, “Adam, where are you?” Adam responded; his willingness to confess and expose himself, and to acknowledge to God that he was hiding because of his fear and shame was a critical turn back toward humility. By being open and transparent in humility toward God, Adam continued to be “known” by God. Though there were lasting consequences for their sin (for them and for us), God addressed their newfound shame, clothing them in animal skins and pointing toward the promise of a Redeemer who would be sent to pay the full price for man’s redemption from this slavery to the sin of Self-rule.
When we hide who we are from ourselves and from God, refusing to acknowledge the truth about our sin, our shame, our fear, and our failures, we are refusing to allow God to “know” us. This “knowing” is an intimate relational knowing of the person which only comes from that person being vulnerable and transparent. Of course God sees you completely, just as you are. Knowing that, God sent Jesus to die on the cross because He loves you. Any given day, God is asking you, “Where are you?” Are you willing to acknowledge where you are? Choose the humility of confessing your sin and shame to God; be willing to expose all of you to Him – to be fully known by Him. He will then clothe you with the righteousness of Jesus, who lived a perfect life and paid the full price for all your sin, dying on the cross so you can live. If you are not certain that God knows you, make certain of it today.
