The Nature of Our GodSample

The Passion to Know Christ

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

The main reason you exist is to know God. Paul understood that. His life had been so  transformed by the love and grace of Jesus Christ that he never recovered. For the rest of his life, his passion was to know Christ. Paul understood that this was the privilege of human life.

J.I. Packer, in his classic book Knowing God, wrote:

"What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life? To know God. What is the “eternal life” that Jesus gives? Knowledge of God. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:3). What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight, and contentment, than anything else? Knowledge of God."

And Jim Elliot, who was martyred as a young man in the jungles of Ecuador, gave eloquent voice in his journal to the glory of knowing Christ, as seen in his wife Elisabeth’s book Shadow of the Almighty:

"I walked out to the hill just now. It is exalting, delicious. To stand embraced by the shadows of a friendly tree with the wind tugging at your coattails and the heavens hailing your heart–to gaze and glory and to give oneself again to God, what more could a man ask? Oh the fullness, pleasure, sheer excitement of knowing God on earth. I care not if I ever raise my voice again for Him, if only I may love Him, please Him. Mayhap in mercy He shall give me a host of children that I may lead through the vast star fields, to explore His delicacies, whose finger-ends set them to burning. But if not, if only I may see Him, touch His garments, and smile into my Lover’s eyes–ah, then, not stars, nor children shall matter–only Himself."