Beloved God’s children in Christ,
In order to partake in the first resurrection we must know four important things. First, we must know Him. Second, we must know the power of His resurrection. Third, we must know the sharing of His sufferings. Fourth, we must have a death similar to Hos death (Phil 3:10).Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. (Rev 20:6).
This month, let us see a few things about why we have the knowledge of Christ.
Everyone of us should have the knowledge about our God. God is our creator. He only created us. He only chose us. So we must know about Him. It’s good to know about God at a young age. The knowledge about God creates a close relationship with God for us. Moses knew about God completely. Moses knew that our Lord God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and filled with gracious love and truth. We should inherit the divine nature of our God.
Let us see some divine natures of our God.
First our God is merciful
Who are merciful shall obtain mercy( mat 5:7). When we plead in God’s presence, he shows mercy on us. Who desires God to have mercy over them, must show mercy to others. Though Ephraim was unfaithful to God, God has compassion on Ephraim (Hosea 11:8).Our Lord is the one who waits so he can be gracious to us (Isa 30:18). He shows love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.(Exo 20:6)
Second, Our God is gracious
God looks unto us who have no merits. We, who received grace should show grace to others. We should look unto others to help and and solve others problems. He lifted us out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; This purely by His grace (Psa 40:2) He only given us new songs to praise Him. He sends from heaven and saves us, while others rebuke us ( Psa 57:3)
Third, our God is slow to anger
Though our God is a consuming fire, He is slow to anger on us. We also must be slow to anger( James 1:19). We should be gentle, which is the fruit of spirit.(Gal 5:22)
Fourth, our God is filled with gracious love
The love towards the persecuted and suffering people is gracious love. This character is important for people who want to save souls. Gracious love should be shown towards the afflicted.(Job 6:14). We must have compassion towards simple (Due 15:7,8).We should not despise the rich kindness of God (Rom 2:4).
Fifth, our God is righteous
He is unchanging in His words. We must Stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. (Eph 6:14). A man who is connected with God, speaks only truth. We may suffer many times for speaking the truth. But we should never lie.
Sixth, our God is meek
John introduced Jesus as lamb. Jesus didn’t have a haughty look. He accepted all things meekly. The people who sung Hossan previous week, cried loudly,” Crucify him”. But Jesus stood calmly.(Isa 53:7)
Seventh, He is humble
A humble man accepts any man. Once some people make fun of William Carey stating he is a shoe maker. But William Carey replied calmly saying I am not a shoe maker but a cobbler who repairs chapels. Our Lord chose to travel on a donkey. (Zech 9:9). Jesus humbled Himself to the point of death (Phil 2:8)
Somehow we must have the knowledge of Christ and partake in the first resurrection. We must know the divine natures like mercy, grace, slow to anger, gracious love, righteousness, meekness and humility and attain those natures in our life. When we say we know God well means, we tasted Him well in our life.
Who can have the knowledge of Jesus?
- Who are all not consult with flesh and blood can only have the knowledge of Jesus (Gal.1:16)
We are the servant managers of Jesus Christ. We must be ready to sacrifice anything to know Jesus Christ. We must think according to the Spirit. - Who counts everything as loss, can only have the knowledge of Christ (Phil.3:8)
Apostle Paul considered everything as a loss and useless to have the knowledge of Christ.
What are all to know?
- Must know Jesus as the saviour of the world and believe (John 4:42)
We must know Jesus in our personal life, then only we can experience Him. He must believe that Jesus is sufficient to all my needs. - We must know that Jesus is alive and in the last day He will be standing on the earth (Job 19:25)
Though Job went through many sufferings, he never lacked faith. All his friends forsake him during suffering. His wife blasphemed. All material wealth has been destroyed. There is no one to comfort. But, his confidence in God never reduced. “My saviour is alive” is that faith. Though everything got away from him, his faith in his saviour never reduced. SInce he believed Jesus is alive, he experienced Him. He believed God’s power can revive his health, how bad the health may be. - We must believe, everything works for good who were called (Rom.8:28)
First everything works for good who are all called by God. This is a period. Later while going through pains, sufferings and persecutions, we can know everything works for good who love God. In order to learn some lessons, God allows a few things in our lives. - We must know, He is able to guard what we have entrusted to him until that day (2Tim.1:12)
We must believe that God is able to huard what we have entrusted to Him. They will not be lost, destroyed, snatched or exchanged. He will guard it. There are many these days who say, we need divine protection but don’t need diving presence. The below who expect only blessings and protection are the generation of Cain. These people seek God at the time of distress and later forget God. - We must know, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands (2 Cor.5:1)
From our eternal house we can alway see Jesus, we can see the angels worshiping the glorious God. Jesus promised that there are many mansions in His father’s house.(John 14:1). We see in Job 4:19 that how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth, can believe in god. Though we live on this earth, we need that eternal hope. - We must know, when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:1)
When Christ appears, Holy saints will receive a glorious body. If we have that body we can go until third heaven. God called us to have a glorious body like His body. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom 8:29) - We must know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other (1 John 3:14)
We are in debt to love our brothers. Whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. It is our duty to look for the lost brothers and to bring them into the herd again. Anyone who wants to have good fellowship with God, must have good fellowship with his brother. 1 Pet 2:17 says, love your brother and in Heb 13:1 says, Let brotherly love continue. We have passed from death to life, because we love each other.
