Holding Onto The End

Sometimes the only thing you will have to hold onto is the ending.  Sometimes things will happen in your life that cause you to question everything, to such a degree that everything you thought you knew has slipped through your fingers and when you look down at your hands the only thing left in them is the ending.  Socrates famously said, "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."  And when you come to that realization, you will look around in horror at how many continue along in blissful ignorance, convinced that their own knowledge will carry them through to the end.  Comforted by their own hubris and seated on a throne of their own understanding.  

The writer of Proverbs says that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God.  To sit before Him in awe and reverence, is to sit before Him in rapt silence.  To cease striving and sit before the Creator with full knowledge that you know absolutely nothing, other than knowing you are a creature.  You are a creation that has been made and shaped by something so far greater than anything you could ever possibly fathom. What we know of God is only that which He has chosen to reveal to us about Himself.  We know only what we are capable of knowing within the confines of creation itself, since God exists outside of creation.  We can only comprehend God with the resources we've been given within creation.  In one way, this causes me lament because that means there are things about God that I will never know, since I am limited by my ontology as a created being.  In another way, this fuels my awe of Him because there are things about Him that are truly and literally unknowable and such awesome mystery makes me worship Him all the more.   

Revelation gives us the ending to our story, "No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him. They will see His face, and His Name will be on their foreheads.  There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever" (Rev 2:3-5).  The ending is knowledge of God, to know Him even as we are fully known, to see Him face to face (1 Cor 13:12).  To see His face is to have full recognition of Who He is.  God's name also embodies and communicates Who He is and having it written on our forehead implies that we will have knowledge of Him that unites us with Him and becomes a part of who we are.

Reconciliation with God through faith in Christ is just one part of the Gospel.  The other part is understanding that we have been reconciled for the purpose of knowing God.  God wants us to know Him and He made that possible through Jesus Christ.  That is the good news.  We are saved to know God. 

Sixteen years ago, the first time I ever bought a Bible for myself, I wrote on the inside cover:

"I would rather know God

And nothing else,

Than know everything

There was to know

In this world,

And not know God."

The wisest man who ever lived was Solomon, and after a lifetime of accumulated knowledge he reached a dark place in his life where he realized that all the knowledge in the world was meaningless, if it wasn't knowledge of God.  As you read through Ecclesiastes, you see Solomon working out his frustration with his own existence and sense his deep frustration with the seeming pointlessness about creation itself.  He sees the futility of our striving, of spending our lives accumulating and consuming and filling our time with activities and tasks that, in the end, just prove to be a chasing after the wind.  He recounts his observations about our existence throughout the course of his life and reaches the conclusion:  "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:  Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil" (Eccl 12:13,14).  At the end of his life, Solomon finally realizes that true wisdom is coming to the realization that we know nothing, and the only thing worth knowing is God.

The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God.  The ending is knowledge of Him.  If all you have to hang onto is the ending, then you have come to the place where you realize that it's all you ever needed in the first place.

"And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person's envy of another.  This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind." (Eccl 4:4)

"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ." (Phil 3:8)

"Now this is eternal life:  that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent." (John 17:3)

"And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him Who is true; and we are in Him Who is true-- in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life." (1 John 5:20)

"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of Him Who called us by His own glory and excellence." (2 Peter 1:3)

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." (2 Pet 3:18)