Accepting Grace reveals a deep knowledge of God

If I were to ask you “What is eternal life?” What would you answer?




Personally, I think my response would touch on heaven and hell, and the never-ending existence in one or the other. What would yours be?

After reading John 17:3 I realized I was WAY off. (Well depending how you look at it.) Spending a never-ending existence in the presence of my heavenly Father is part of eternal life for me. BUT - this is God’s description on eternal life:

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

Eternal life is more than just Existing with God. Its REALLY knowing God. The use of the word existence in my definition was what made my interpretation so wrong. Never-ending existence is eternal. But eternal life is never-ending existence understanding and living in the knowledge and belief of God. Meaning, if you do not choose to Know him, eternal life is not yours. But that is NOT where I want to go today. After all, who wants to focus on the negative? It would sadden me to know someone came to “know” Christ out of fear of the negative. You can really only come to Know Christ when you know the positive and long for relationship with Him. Otherwise salvation becomes an escape route instead of a connection.

…OK, off that Soap Box before my title changes…

As it seems Grace is a topic that has consistently popped into my head off an on over the years. And again on the subject of Knowing God. After all, without the grace of God, we wouldn’t have been gifted with the opportunity to know Him! Living is not just understanding the grace we have been given, it is about recognizing that grace in our lives! As we learn to understand grace, we begin to see its affect in our lives, which opens our hearts, mind and eyes to a more extensive understanding of who God is.

This really causes me to realize that what many of us do is just come to Christ and believe He saved us. We may appreciate it, but we choose not to react to that gift of grace. If we did react we would have stronger relationships with Him, and we would have fruit from that relationship. So, think about it… will you know God when you stand before His throne one day? Will you have invested in the relationship to where He will embrace you as family? I don’t think God ever intended to “meet” us in salvation in order to be strangers when we stand before Him in glory! He longs for SO much more than that! Would you want to “meet” your son or daughter in the delivery room and then be strangers the day you say goodbye? Would you want to miss all the incredible moments in between where you learn their sweet personalities and bond? God is like that too. He wants to be a part of the journey in order to know you and be known by you!

God seems so vast at times. It is my struggle many times to wrap my mind around what the Lord tries to teach me of Himself. However, I have to remember that is why God desires to give us wisdom. Ephesians 1:17 tells us that with wisdom we grow in the knowledge of God. We cant figure Him out on our own, but lucky for us He wants desperately to reveal Himself to us. And in knowing Him, we know what a gift it is. And the more we know, the greater our desire becomes to know Him.

So, does knowing OF God give you’re the desire to KNOW Him?? And if not, take some time to get to know OF him, and see if that births the desire within you.