When it comes to knowing God, of our own power, we cannot. We have enough problems knowing what other finite men and women think, let alone knowing what the infinite Creator of the Universe thinks. A couple who have been married might, if they’re fortunate, know what the other is thinking on occasion. Not only are we separated because of our finiteness, but our rebellion against God, our sin, puts us at enmity with our Creator.

Knowing God, (for this is eternal life), is what Jesus promises us when place our trust in him. Jesus removes the barriers to knowing God by removing our sin from us, taking it upon himself, and placing his righteousness over us. Not only that, but his Spirit makes his dwelling in us, changing us from within and renewing us to the image of God. Even more, the Spirit of God knows the mind of God, for he has been in eternal fellowship with the Father, and he is God. The Spirit, with the word of God, reveals the mind of God to us, not in its entirety, but essentially. As our knowledge grows, so does our love. As our love grows, so does our obedience.

However, we must kid ourselves in thinking it is because anything of ourselves, but because God first loved us. Without God making the first move, we would never understand the ways of God, for the ways of the world cannot discern the ways of God. May we love and obey the one who has saved us.

As Christians, we are given the promise of resurrection. Jesus himself says, I am the resurrection and the life Jn 11:25. We must be careful that we don’t take this to be in some strange ethereal way. In many religions, even within certain groups of Christians, the physical, material, world is seen as bad. Yet, when God created the Universe, both material and spiritual, God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Ge 1:31.

For it is not the material which is sinful, but our own spiritual nature. So when the bible speaks of resurrection, it is not just of the soul, but of the body also. A perfect, glorified body, as it was meant to be in the beginning.

It will be a body perfectly attuned to glorify God, not in some weird sitting on a cloud with a harp bored out of ones skull way, but in a more practical, enjoyable way.

For there will be work to do, just as there was in the garden of Eden before the fall. For the new heaven and new earth will be a garden in a city, where God will dwell with his people.