Knowing God (short video)

Watch
Listen
Download/Subscribe
Program Transcript +

The very reason God came to us – through Jesus Christ – was to do for us what we can’t do for ourselves. We learn who we are when we learn who God is.

Program Transcript

It’s a crazy
thing.

We humans are still so messed up that
there’s nothing we can do about it. Like all the masses of people who have gone
before us, we try and try in our puny little ways to straighten out our lives,
but the bottom line is that we go right on being messed up, and mixed up. 

And before
we start to puff out our Christian chests, let’s be clear that we believers are
no better than anyone else. We sin just about as much after we become believers
as we did before – sometimes in different ways from before, but we still sin
nevertheless.

And we don’t
like to admit it. We usually try to pretend that we don’t continue to struggle
with sin, especially when we’re at church or around other believers. Maybe with
our closest friends we’ll disclose some of our struggles, but most of us, deep
down, knowing how messed up we really are, actually worry about whether we’re
even going to be in the kingdom of God at all.

And that’s a
shame, because none of us should be worrying about that. To worry about that
means that we need to know who God is better than we do – and that we need to
know who we are, better than we do.

We need to
remember that the very reason God came to us–through Jesus Christ–was to
do for us what we can’t do for ourselves. We need to remember that Jesus took all
of humanity, even you and me, into himself and presents us, in himself, to the
Father as perfect in Jesus’ own perfection.

We need to
remember that God loves us so much that he made us one with Jesus, and
he did that in such a way that we can never be outside
Jesus. We need to remember that he will never stop loving us and that he will
never let us go, even if we refuse his love and plant our feet in hell.

We need to remember that Jesus
opened up the life of the Trinity to humanity and drew us into it through the
Holy Spirit. That he stood in for us and did for us what we couldn’t do for
ourselves; that he reconciled us; that he secured our adoption as beloved
children of the Father, and that he guaranteed our place in his life and his
family.

We need to remember that he made
us into a new creation in himself, and that we didn’t decide any of it.
We didn’t earn any of it. We didn’t qualify for any of it. It was a gift
– God’s gift, given to us out of his great kindness, mercy, and love–because he
is love.

“I have been crucified with Christ,” Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “and
I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Jesus
took our messed up minds and ways on himself, becoming what we are in order to
reconcile us to God. He cleansed us, healed us and sanctified us all. That’s
why we trust him, and not our faith or our good works, but him
and only him – the Author and Finisher of our salvation.

Because
of Jesus, and only because of Jesus, we can love God and love others.  Remember, It is by grace that Jesus Christ is
in us and we are in him.

Indeed,
It is “Amazing grace,” and “how sweet the sound, to save a wretch like me!”

That’s
what Christmas is all about – knowing God and knowing ourselves. And it’s done
only in Jesus.

I’m
Joseph Tkach, speaking of LIFE!

Program Transcript

It’s a crazy
thing.

We humans are still so messed up that
there’s nothing we can do about it. Like all the masses of people who have gone
before us, we try and try in our puny little ways to straighten out our lives,
but the bottom line is that we go right on being messed up, and mixed up. 

And before
we start to puff out our Christian chests, let’s be clear that we believers are
no better than anyone else. We sin just about as much after we become believers
as we did before – sometimes in different ways from before, but we still sin
nevertheless.

And we don’t
like to admit it. We usually try to pretend that we don’t continue to struggle
with sin, especially when we’re at church or around other believers. Maybe with
our closest friends we’ll disclose some of our struggles, but most of us, deep
down, knowing how messed up we really are, actually worry about whether we’re
even going to be in the kingdom of God at all.

And that’s a
shame, because none of us should be worrying about that. To worry about that
means that we need to know who God is better than we do – and that we need to
know who we are, better than we do.

We need to
remember that the very reason God came to us–through Jesus Christ–was to
do for us what we can’t do for ourselves. We need to remember that Jesus took all
of humanity, even you and me, into himself and presents us, in himself, to the
Father as perfect in Jesus’ own perfection.

We need to
remember that God loves us so much that he made us one with Jesus, and
he did that in such a way that we can never be outside
Jesus. We need to remember that he will never stop loving us and that he will
never let us go, even if we refuse his love and plant our feet in hell.

We need to remember that Jesus
opened up the life of the Trinity to humanity and drew us into it through the
Holy Spirit. That he stood in for us and did for us what we couldn’t do for
ourselves; that he reconciled us; that he secured our adoption as beloved
children of the Father, and that he guaranteed our place in his life and his
family.

We need to remember that he made
us into a new creation in himself, and that we didn’t decide any of it.
We didn’t earn any of it. We didn’t qualify for any of it. It was a gift
– God’s gift, given to us out of his great kindness, mercy, and love–because he
is love.

“I have been crucified with Christ,” Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, “and
I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Jesus
took our messed up minds and ways on himself, becoming what we are in order to
reconcile us to God. He cleansed us, healed us and sanctified us all. That’s
why we trust him, and not our faith or our good works, but him
and only him – the Author and Finisher of our salvation.

Because
of Jesus, and only because of Jesus, we can love God and love others.  Remember, It is by grace that Jesus Christ is
in us and we are in him.

Indeed,
It is “Amazing grace,” and “how sweet the sound, to save a wretch like me!”

That’s
what Christmas is all about – knowing God and knowing ourselves. And it’s done
only in Jesus.

I’m
Joseph Tkach, speaking of LIFE!

Archive