Know the One True God
And the Lord Jesus Christ
“And this is eternal
life, that they may know You, the Only True God, and
Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (Jn. 17:3)
From our Lord’s
Prayer we understand that we must know the One True God and Jesus Christ to
have eternal life. This is the initial
step towards salvation. Most people have
heard about the One True God but have not seen Him, so how do they get to know
Him?
“No one has seen God at
any time. The only begotten Son, who is
in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” (Jn.
1:18)
Jesus Christ and the Father are One
We can
know the One True God and Jesus Christ at the same time. Here is what the Lord spoke to Philip:
“If you had known Me, you would have known the Father also; and from now on
you know Him and have seen Him.’ Philip
said to Him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me
has seen the Father, so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father,
and the Father in Me? The words that I
speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but
the Father who dwells in Me does the works.
Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe
Me for the sake of the works themselves.” (Jn. 14:7-11)
This relationship
shows the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father are one and the same True God. He declared: “I and My Father are One.”
(Jn. 10:30)
Baptism of the Holy Spirit
Many
Christians came to know the One True God when they believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Some Gentiles became believers
when they received the Holy Spirit. Cornelius
and his household were baptized with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues when
they heard Peter’s gospel of salvation. (Acts 10:34-48) That is the only recorded event in the Bible
where people received the Holy Spirit before their water baptism. This happened
only because God wanted the Jewish Christians to know that He also wanted the
Gentiles to be saved. This is the turning point in the
Knowing the One True God through the Gospel
Here is
the normal process for a person to be saved.
“For whoever calls upon
the name of the LORD shall be saved. How
then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom
they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall
they preach unless they are sent? As it
is written: How beautiful are the feet
of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring
glad tidings of good things!” (
In His
Great Commission to the Church our Lord Jesus Christ said, “. . . . Go into all the world and preach the
gospel to every creature. He who
believes and is baptized will be save; but he who does
not believe will be condemned.” (Mk. 16:15-16)
Knowing the One True God through Christian Love
Preaching
the gospel is absolutely essential for truth-seekers to know the One True God
and Jesus Christ. When they attend
church services other factors affect their continued interest in seeking the
One True God and Jesus Christ. It is the
church members’ Christian love towards them.
“No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another God abides in us, and
His love in us. By this we know that we
abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father
has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and
he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who
abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” (1 Jn.
4:12-16)
Our Lord Jesus Christ
declared: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another;
as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn. 13:34-35) Having Christian love is a clear evidence to show others who are the true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of the reasons why non-denominational congregations and ministries that demonstrate Christian love are the most blessed by the One True God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Knowing the One True God through the Holy Bible
Another important way to know the One True God and Jesus Christ is through the Holy Bible.
But some are not sure whether or not the Bible is the only book to
follow since there are other religious books in the world, and every religion claims
theirs to be the best one.
There are
several reasons why Christians believe the Holy Bible is the only book that is
the Word of God.
What makes
the Holy Bible so unique is the unity of thought throughout its pages. Unlike books of other religions that were
written by a single person over a short period of time, the author of the Holy
Bible is the One True God Himself who dictates His words to more than forty
different writers over a period of about 1,500 years.
You may
not think this is amazing but let me give you an illustration. If you ask ten different persons in a room to
write an essay on “life”, you will get ten different viewpoints. Now when you compare this situation with the
Holy Bible you have to agree it is truly the word of God.
There is
complete unity and harmony of thought throughout the sixty-six books (39 OT and
27 NT) that were written by men of different backgrounds, in different places
and in different epochs (periods of time).
The first five books called the Torah were written by Moses in Hebrew in
the wilderness. The last book Revelation
was written in Greek by the apostle John while he was exiled in the
“All Scripture is given
by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be
complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
The main
theme of the Bible is the One True God’s coming to this earth in the form of
flesh as the Lord Jesus Christ to save mankind from sin and eternal damnation,
and to bring the saved ones with Him to heaven.
You can read about God’s plan of salvation from cover to cover. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself testified that
He is the main theme of the entire Bible.
“You search the
Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they
which testify of Me.” (Jn.
5:39)
Knowing the One True God through Bible Prophecies
The Holy
Bible is the book of prophecies.
We also have the
prophetic word made more sure, which you do well to heed as a light that shines
in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first,
that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy
never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by
the Holy Spirit.” (2 Pet. 1:19-21)
Here is a
very strong statement on the inspiration of Scripture. It is an affirmation that the Old Testament
prophets wrote God’s messages. This
places the apostles and prophets in the New Testament in the same category,
because they also proclaim God’s truth. “Holy men of God spoke as
they were moved by the Holy Spirit” means that
Scripture did not come from the creative work of the prophets’ own invention or
interpretation. God inspired the
writers, so their message is authentic and reliable.
The Bible
itself gives the purpose of prophecy. “Remember the former
things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none
like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things
that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My
pleasure.” (Isa. 46:9-10)
“I have declared the
former things from the beginning; they went forth from My
mouth, and I caused them to hear it.
Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.” (Isa.
48:3)
The New
Testament spoke of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, “which He promised before
through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures.” (
There are over three hundred
prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Prophecies
such as His place of birth, how he would die, His rejection by the nation of
However, in 1947, the
Messianic Prophecies
help to know the One True God
Some think it is unnecessary to
learn biblical prophecies to know the One True God. That may be so because God uses various ways
to get people to know Him, however, our Lord Jesus Christ placed great emphasis
on the fulfillment of prophecies concerning Himself as
a way for His disciples to know Him.
Jesus actually rebuked the two friends who were traveling to Emmaus for
not believing the Old Testament prophecies.
“Then He
said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the
prophets have spoken! Ought not the
Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?’ And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets,
He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Lk. 24:25-27)
In the Book of Acts we see the
apostles and the
There are two characteristics of the
Know the One True God
through Miracles and Healings
The testimony of the
Lord Jesus Christ is a written or verbal statement that confirms the Lord is
working with them. (Jn. 8:17)
“And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working
with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.” (Mk.
16:20)
“God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders with
various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to
His own will?” (Heb. 2:4)
“Then all the multitude kept silent
and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God
had worked through them among the Gentiles.” (Acts
How my family came to
know the One True God
Let me share with you my
testimony on how our family came to know the One True God and the Lord Jesus
Christ. When I was a one year old baby I
had diptheria and was on the brink of death. My parents were unbelievers and the only
Christian in our family was my maternal grandmother. She told my mother to believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. My mother said, “I do not
know Jesus, but if He can heal my son then I will believe in Him.” My grandmother brought me to the church where
she and a group of Indian Christians prayed for the healing of my
sickness. The Lord Jesus Christ healed
me. Praise and thank God. My mother and several of our relatives who
saw this miraculous healing believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and were baptized
into Him. I am the living evidence of
the One True God’s healing power that brought many people to know Him and the
Lord Jesus Christ. HalleluYah!
Miracle in India brought
many souls to know the One True God
Here is another testimony
how the Lord Jesus Christ saved many souls through a mighty miracle. In 1969 I was with a missionary team sent by
the Lord Jesus Christ to
On the second evening of
our arrival in Madras we preached in a school soccer field in Pammal Settlement, which is an amnesty village set up by
the Indian government for social misfits such as ex-convicts, criminals,
robbers, thieves, prostitutes, pimps, etc.
Many Christian missionaries have preached here but did not have good
results. On the first evening of our
open-air gospel service there was no response except for the healing of one little
girl who had a high fever. After the
healing she praised God “HalleluYah!.”
The following morning
Brother Abraham came to our hotel and banged on the door. He was very excited and told us to go back to
Pammal Settlement.
He said after we left that area it began to rain. Everyone in the village said we had brought
the rain. On our way back to Pammal Settlement we passed two other villages. The people told us it did not rain in their
villages. When we arrived in Pammal Settlement the villagers showed us the rain water
they had collected from the previous evening’s rain.
On the second night of
our gospel meeting there was a bigger crowd than before, and their response was
tremendous. Many people accepted Jesus
Christ as their Savior and repented of their sins. After
I can still remember one Indian
brother who was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke with tongues as soon as
he emerged from the water. This
Christian was “born
of water and the Spirit” at the same time. I have also witnessed several Christians
having this same experience in other countries as well. God is truly great!
May God bless
you
A sermon
based on this article was preached by Paul Wong
to a congregation in
For
comments please write first to: [email protected]
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Paul Wong is a Christian minister and the
President of ARK International. |
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