“But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?” Galatians 4:8-9
The context of these verses is that the Galatian Christians are being deceived by false teachers to observe the Old Covenant ordinances which Paul here calls weak, beggarly, and a return to bondage. The observance of the Old Covenant ordinances is the same as returning to their pagan practices before they knew God. Now that they have come to faith in Christ, now that they know God, the Old Covenant ordinances are obsolete. Paul says something very interesting here. It’s not so much that they know God but, rather, that God knows them that has changed everything.
J.I. Packer in his classic book “Knowing God” says, “What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it – the fact that He knows me.” Of course, in one sense God knows everyone who has ever existed. But what Packer is talking about is grace and the sovereignty of God in salvation.
The great comfort for the Christian is that God knows me. God has always known all my faults. He has always known all my failures, my selfishness, and all my sins. And look what He has done for me. Despite knowing full well all my unworthiness, He died for me, gave me the gift of faith, forgave me, justified me, ensures my sanctification, and ensures my place in eternity. All because He loves me. In John chapter 10 Jesus says that He knows His sheep, and He lays down his life for them so that they will have abundant life.
True assurance of salvation, true peace, comes from knowing that God knows you and has reconciled you to Himself. As Paul says in Romans 8:31-32 “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
Saints, rejoice today that you are known by God!
Fight the good fight!
His mercy endures forever!
Pastor Flynn