Known By God (Galatians 4:9)

 


Friday, July 12, 2024


Psalm 31

2 Chronicles 24:15-25:4

Galatians 4:8-20


Known By God (Galatians 4:9)


Personal relationships are tangled, messy things. There are different types: acquaintances; friends; comrades; professional; family; lovers – and each of these have their own degree of depth, preference and choice.


And we all have a relationship with God – even those who claim to “not believe”. Elsewhere in his letters, St Paul boldly asserts that there is no such thing as an athiest, and this claim is made elsewhere in the Old Testament, too. People’s relationship with God can be antagonistic, or cause for despair, or a mild annoyance. Or they could be an exciting relationship, or a peaceful one, or joyful, intimate, or not-quite-yet intimate.


In today’s second lesson, the apostle is making an application. He is saying that we have been set free from trying to have a healthy relationship with God on the basis of following certain rules and routines. To get to this point, he makes this curious turn of phrase: “Now that you know God – or rather are known by God”.


God knows everything and everyone. This is what it means to be God. But here specifically, to be known by God seems to mean something a bit more special than intellectual knowledge. In another letter, St Paul writes that “the one who loves God is known by God” (1 Corinthians 8:3). And in yet another, he tells us that God’s knowledge of us in this special way was predestined; a decision God made in eternity past (Romans 8:29). This is the same turn of phrase God uses when he called Jeremiah to be a prophet: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you”. (Jeremiah 1:5)


St Paul is “perplexed” at the Galatians turning away from their freedom in Christ, because God had always decided to call them into his loving presence, before they had even been formed in the womb. His call to them in this letter is to remind them that they “are known by God”, which is an unbreakable promise of God to keep them close forever. This departure from their freedom in Christ that they are going through is but temporary. They “are known by God” – God will lead them into the Promised Land, and they will be numbered amongst the saints forever.


What doubts or struggles are you going through right now? How closely have you applied God’s promise to you personally, the promise to keep you in his close presence forever?


God of unbreakable promises, you knew me before I was born, and promise to keep me in your love forever. Keep the love of my Lord Jesus always before my soul, and save me from spiritual attack that would seek to do otherwise.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Lord Was Moved (2 Chronicles 33:13)

Image
  Wednesday, August 28, 2024 Psalms 143; 146 2 Chronicles 33:1-20 Romans 15:14-21 Observance: Augustine of Hippo, bishop and teacher (d. 430) The Lord Was Moved (2 Chronicles 33:13) In our passage from St Paul’s letter to the Romans, the apostle is making a small break in his preaching to tell his audience that he is not telling them anything they do not already know. This is perfectly understandable if we recognise that this letter is a sort of fundraising appeal for his missionary work: the apostle wants to get on and start planting the gospel in places where Christ is not known, and so he gives the church in Rome a run-down on what his theology is, so that they will feel comfortable in supporting him financially. The fact that we have this fundraising appeal as part of inspired scripture can teach us something important: God wants us to keep being reminded of certain eternal truths. Reading through the story of King Manasseh can feel a bit same...
Read more

I intend to build a house for the name of the LORD my God.

  Friday, September 8, 2023 Psalms 20; 21 1 Kings 5 Acts 25:13-27 Observance: Birth of Mary, Mother of the Lord I intend to build a house for the name of the LORD my God. How big do you dream? Try this experiment on yourself: next time you are walking down the street, observe where your eye level sits. Do you watch your feet move around the cracks in the footpath? Do you do that trick where you stare blankly into the middle distance, so as to avoid making eye contact with passers-by? How do you think that relates to your spiritual aims, and the requests you make of God? Solomon dreamt big. He knew perfectly well that the God of his nation was also the God of the entire universe. No house would be entirely suitable, nor appropriate. But by golly he was going to give it a red-hot go. And just look at how much work he put into it: an entire nation of people were hired to provide the best timber on the planet. His own nation too was put to work, either a...
Read more

Marvellous? (Zechariah 8:6)

Image
  Wednesday, October 16, 2024 Psalm 105:1-22 Zechariah 7:1-8:8 1 Peter 1:18-2:3 Observance: Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, bishops and martyrs (d. 1555) Marvellous? (Zechariah 8:6) There are several phrases that, when we see them in the Bible, should make us sit up and pay attention. Anything to do with the “Day of the Lord” is one of them; another is when God speaks about when “they shall be my people and I shall be their God”. This second phrase, which, because of its frequency, risks becoming bland to our hearts, is so tremendously deep and rich in what it speaks of, is nothing less than the gospel of Jesus Christ. We remember way back in Genesis that God would walk through the Garden of Eden in the cool of the afternoon and speak with Adam and Eve about their day. One can imagine the scene: an enchanted place, a place with no evil, our first parents probably bouncing along, joyfully telling their loving Maker about all the wonderful things the...
Read more