Jesus’ prayer to the Father before He was crucified began with a declaration of His work being completed.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:1-3)
He came to bring eternal life to mankind. But Jesus did not define eternal as living forever or escaping hell and death. He said eternal life was knowing God. That word is ginosko in the Greek and means an intimate relationship to the point of perceiving a person. Jesus didn’t come to tell us about God, He came to introduce us to Him. That is why He rebuked the disciples request to “show us the Father.” His reply was, “You have been with me all this time and you still haven’t seen or met the Father in Me?”
Jesus was about to make it possible for God to maintain a constant relationship with His creation, man. And His cry wasn’t that mankind change and be better. It wasn’t that mankind follow a religion or join a synagogue or church or do some act of worship or sacrifice. It was that they would know God.
Jesus knew that if you introduce men and women to God and teach them to walk in intimacy, He will change what needs changed in their lives. You can never truly walk in an intimate relationship with God and remain as you were. You can know about Him and do “Christianity” and remain in your sinful ways. But intimacy with God cause His nature and desires to rub off on you. And He’s patient to walk with you long enough take it happen.
So our job is to do what Jesus did. Walk in intimacy with the Lord so we can introduce everyone to Him. Let’s stop converting people and start introducing them to the Lord. But we can only do that when our relationship is so intimate that we can say to them, “See, the father and I are one. To know me is to know the Father.”
Church, it’s time to go higher and deeper. We are not God’s billboard, we are His temple…. the place people come to meet Him!
