How Does One Have a Personal Relationship with the Lord?

Seeing that humans are relational beings and made in God’s image, it follows that God himself is relational. He has revealed himself to his human offspring as one who can be known. 

“Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; 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” (Jer. 9:23-24 NKJV). 

“No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jer. 31:34).

These scriptural affirmations have ultimately been fulfilled in Christ, through whom God has revealed himself relationally in familial terms like “Father” and “Son” (Heb. 1:1-4; 8:6-13). God is therefore “knowable” most fully through the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 11:27-29; John 1:18; 14:7-9; Rev 21:3). “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3)

To “know” the Lord, in the biblical sense, is not only intellectual, it is relational. Near the end of Paul’s life he writes, “For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him until that day” (2 Tim. 1:12). Paul’s stated conviction is not with reference to what he knows, although there is no question he was intimately familiar with the inspired message he had dedicated and risked his life to propagate. But here he categorically affirms, “I know whom I have believed.” 

Like Paul, our journey to “know” the Lord cannot begin without first learning about him. Knowing God through Jesus involves more than a mere subjective, emotional experience. One will never truly know him without spending a significant amount of time in the scriptures that testify of him (John 5:39) and then living one’s life accordingly (1 John 2:3-6).

--Kevin L. Moore

Related Posts: The Doctrine of Christ 

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