Our God wants to make Himself known to the world. He had this desire from the very beginning in the garden of Eden when He created the first couple. He made them in His image (Genesis 2:26–27).
He wanted them to be “fruitful,” meaning to flourish with all the God-given abilities, talents, and gifts they were given. To “multiply,” to procreate more godly images of Him. To “fill the earth” with these God-honoring images of Himself (Gen. 2:28 NKJV).
But sin entered in when the couple chose the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil at the instigation of a Satanic serpent (Gen. 3). So their offspring was corrupted with a sinful image, one that no longer looks to God for guidance, but instinctively acts with autonomy, deciding what is good and right for themselves. So all people begin life with this sinful mindset. Meanwhile, God left a promise of a new man who was to come, saying to the serpent, “He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:15; “bruise” in these two uses can also be rendered “crush”).
Thus the people, endowed with all sorts of abilities, spread out and used them to build cultures that were stained with sin. So everywhere we find man we find a mean, selfish streak, from the highest authorities to the lowest stratum of humanity.
At one point Yahweh brought Israel out of Egypt with a miraculous deliverance to make Himself known: “I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians” (Exodus 6:7).
According to Israel’s history (in Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings) Israel suffered greatly because they fell away from the true and living God again and again, because they did not know the Lord, were continually addicted to their own selfish desires, their own man-made cultures, and the vile idols of the nations around them.
The Lord brought correction to Israel repeatedly, even to scattering them throughout the earth—for a reason. Why? “Then they shall know that I am the Lord, when I scatter them among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries” (Ezekiel 12:15). He wants to be known. Knowing God and His personal work is to make its mark on us in such a way that we desire to honor Him above all.
Clearly, putting His laws on stone and parchment was having no effect. They could not reform themselves and produce the godly images He desired. His chastening work did not change their hearts. God saw this problem and told Jeremiah the prophet what He was going to do about it: “Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart” (Jeremiah 24:7). How is this change of heart going to happen? It will come about as a gift He gives.
The prophets foretold of a time when a person will come and bring peace, and take back the dominion of the earth (Isaiah 9:6–7, filling the world with righteous examples of His loving image everywhere. He will come through Abraham, through Judah, and through king David.
At the end of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, the story is left hanging. Where is the promised man who will bring peace, crush the serpent’s head, wrest dominion away from him, produce a new covenant that will change hearts, even one who descends from Abraham, Judah, and David?
The New Testament completes the story. As we see from the genealogies in Matthew 1 and Luke 3, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, descends from Abraham, Judah, and David. Jesus is the Word that “became flesh and dwelt among us, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14 NKJV).
Jesus made the glory of God known.
He began training the twelve disciples that they may know Him and live as He lived. He told them about the Holy Spirit who will enable them to tell others about Him. None could find fault with Him.
On the cross, Satan crushed His heel and at His resurrection He crushed the serpent’s head. Jesus rose to the right hand of the Father, commissioning His apostles to pass on to others what He taught them. In this way, in the sharing of the gospel message, His followers will make the Lord known throughout the earth. In the sharing of the gospel, not by violence, nor by politics, government programs, education, science, or technology. The gospel is “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).
Through the gatherings of the believers they would flourish and multiply, filling the earth with consecrated images of God, and so be salt and light in every culture they find themselves.
How easy to make the Lord known in any fallen culture when one is born again by the Spirit: Put God first. Honor His name through your lifestyle. Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t murder, not even with angry thoughts. Do not commit adultery; do not even think it. Do not covet anything of your neighbor. This lifestyle is different than any culture around us. In this way we’ll shine and make Him known.
What the law on stone tablets could not do, Christ does by writing His law on our hearts as new creatures in the kingdom of God. Many of the laws of loving God and neighbor from the Old Testament remain, but now with the newfound ability to live them out.
When Christ comes in the end, it will be to make Himself known. He will bring an army against Israel with this aim, telling the invading leader, Gog: “It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their eyes” (Ezekiel 38:16).
Christ will come again and make all things new in the fulness of the coming kingdom. These sin-saturated bodies will be changed in the twinkling of an eye to sin and die no more. The power of Satan, the old serpent, will be no more. The Prince of Peace will rule on the throne, and His servants will serve Him in the revived Eden, the New Jerusalem that comes down from heaven.
” ‘But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,’ says the Lord” (Jeremiah 9:24 NIV).
What is your purpose on earth?
Why do you follow the Lord?
Do you make it a point to know who your God is?
The Jews did not know the Lord, so they followed worthless, soul-enslaving idols. What does it mean to know the Lord? Does it mean to attend a church or synagogue? To try to be good? Keep a simple philosophy of life faithfully?
Just like none of these things help you to know your spouse, so they only indirectly reveal God. Knowing Him begins with a realization that you are far from God because of sin and selfishness, continually choosing your own way, eating from the wrong tree as did Adam and Eve. Christ died on the cross to pay the judgment we deserve for putting God low on the totem pole. The payment for sinning is death and eternal separation from God in hell.
The Lord wants to be known. “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” (Psalm 46:10 NIV). Be still and know your need of a God who saves, Jesus Christ. Confess your sin to Him, thank Him for dying for you, and believe He rose from the dead. Exalt Him.
Then read the Bible regularly so you can get to know Him. Paul’s mindset when reading and applying the Word was “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10).
Paul wasn’t satisfied that he knew the Torah well, or could prove his beliefs were solid by the Bible, or that he was a good Jew, but Paul counted “all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:5–8). Knowing Jesus Christ was true excellence. Knowing Jesus changes one’s life.
So desire to know Him. Desire to imitate Him. See the need to deny your flesh and crucify it to obtain this priceless knowledge, to “grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Then the riches of the Word will open up like never before. In this mysterious way of relationship with the Savior we take on His characteristics of love and faith, are yielded to serve our Lord from the heart, be a light to the world, and make the Lord known to all.
(The book The Mission of God introduced me to the truth that the Lord wants to be made known, and He uses the gospel work to accomplish it. Special thanks to Bible college Professor Hafner for his passionate teaching on the topics in this article.)
