Before we continue our studies in the
closing chapters of Exodus, it seems necessary that the subject opened in the
previous paper should not be left without the sequel supplied by the N.T.
In Exodus we have seen the knowledge of
the Lord, commencing in redemption, progressing through separation and pilgrim
supply, and culminating in sanctification.
If we gather up some of the teaching of the N.T. upon the subject of
knowledge, we shall have before us the same truth in terms applicable to
ourselves. No one who realizes the truth
of Eph. iv. 18 can ever speak slightingly either of
ignorance or knowledge:--
“Having the understanding darkened, being
alienated from the life of God through the IGNORANCE that is in them.”
This ignorance alienates from the very
life of God! It does not mean merely a
little less culture. The passage speaks
of the Gentiles, and Romans i. contains the genesis of their defection:--
“Even as they did not like to retain God
in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind” (Rom. i. 28).
Israel likewise failed in connection with
knowledge:--
“They have a zeal of God, but not
according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God’s
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not
submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom.x.2,3).
The great prayers of the prison epistles
give a high place to knowledge:--
“The spirit of wisdom and revelation in
the knowledge of Him . . . . . that ye may know . . . . .” (Eph.
i. 17, 18).
“And to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge” (Eph. iii. 19).
“And this I pray, that your love may
abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment” (Phil. i. 9).
“That I may know Him, and the power
of His resurrection” (Phil. iii. 10).
“That ye might be filled with the knowledge
of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Col. i. 9).
The results of the true application of
this knowledge must be considered also.
Looking again at these great prayers, we find that this knowledge is for
a very high and holy purpose. The Ephesian
prayers lead on to “fulness”:--
“The fulness of Him that filleth all in
all” (Eph. i. 23).
“That ye may be filled unto all the
fulness of God” (Eph. iii. 19),
and
the path to this goal is pointed out as a result of knowing the exceeding
greatness of resurrection power to us-ward who believe, and of the
comprehension with all saints of that which really passes all knowledge — the
love of Christ. This same knowledge is
to enable us to
“approve
things that are excellent (try the things that differ), so that ye may be
sincere and without offence till the day of Christ” (Phil. i. 10).
This is a goal that must commend itself to
every renewed mind, and if “knowledge” can help towards it, it is indeed of
supreme value. The acquisition of
knowledge for its own sake is nowhere taught in Scripture. The Colossian prayer seeks knowledge: “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto
all pleasing” (Col. i. 10). What Paul
thought of this glorious knowledge is seen in
Phil. iii. 8: “Yea doubtless, and
I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord”, and the prayer of the Colossian epistle leads on to
“increasing in the knowledge of God”.
Sin entered into the world in connection
with the tree of knowledge, and the new man “is renewed in knowledge after
the image of Him that created him” (Col. iii. 10). The light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ is the very “gospel of the glory of Christ”
that the god of this age seeks to veil.
The climax and crown of the perfect man is
expressed in the words: “Then shall I know
even as also I am known” (I Cor. xiii. 12).
The sophistry and the intolerance of the Pharisees could not stand
before the simple testimony of the man born blind: “One thing I know, that, whereas I was
blind, now I see” (John.ix.25). How
much service will fail to stand the test of that day, because the deep lesson
learned by Paul and expressed in the words of
Rom. vii. 18 has never been
learned: “For I know that in me
(that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.”
What a comfort resides in the blessed
words: “We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. viii. 28). Think of the repeated phrase — “we know” — in John’s epistle with its blessed assurance:--
“We know that when He shall appear
we shall be like Him.”
“We know that He was manifested to
take away our sins.”
“We know that we have passed from
death unto life.”
“We know that the Son of God is
come”,
think,
too, upon the wealth of doctrine, practice and consolation that is hung upon
the one word “knowing”: “knowing that
tribulation worketh patience” (Rom.v.3).
Without this knowledge glorying in tribulations would be impossible.
“Knowing this, that
our old man is crucified with Christ” (Rom. vi. 6).
“Knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead dieth no more” (Rom.vi.9).
Without this knowledge who would
contemplate the reckoning of self as dead without shrinking back with dread? So
Rom. xiii. 11; II Cor. iv.
14; Gal. ii. 16; Eph. vi. 8, 9;
I Thess. i. 4; II Pet. i.
20, iii. 3, and other places. What was Paul’s great stay when all Asia left
him? when no man stood by him? when the truth for which he had lived, suffered
and was about to die was forsaken and betrayed?
“Nevertheless I am not
ashamed, for I KNOW Whom I have believed” (II.Tim.i.12).
While it is perfectly true that there is a
knowledge that puffeth up, a knowledge that is nothing worth, a knowledge that
is proud, selfish and false, is this any reason why we should renounce the true
because of the counterfeit? “I would not
have you ignorant” is still written.
“Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ” is still true. “Add to your
faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge” is still a divine command. As with Israel of old so now. Redemption, separation, pilgrimage,
sanctification are all stages in the knowledge of the Lord, and the glorious
goal is foreshadowed in Israel’s prophetic history:--
“After those days, saith the Lord, I will
put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My
people, and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his
brother, saying, Know the Lord; for
they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith
the Lord; for I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jer. xxxi. 33, 34).
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