To the objection that knowledge of God is subjective: Is the statement “I think therefore I am” subjective? It becomes the basis of objectivity, yet it is so subjective. Philosophies are usually more flawed than anyone realises until new ones replace them. We all need something more permanent so that we can realise our potential to continue. Knowing the only true God and knowing Jesus Christ whom He sent, this releases us to reach that full potential, freeing us from being highly temporary, facilitating permanence.
To the objection that you lose control of your own life by knowing God and Christ, I have never given up control any more than getting a job lost me control of my life. Getting a guide for the areas where we really know we need one is great. I wish someone would guide me through the architecture of the codebase I have to maintain at work but nobody is willing to do that, perhaps because they ironically think they will lose control by doing so, and they prefer me to stay in the dark in case I compete with them. Well a superb guide is available for our lives who has mastered mortal life to the ultimate degree and is now living it immortally.
To be honest, I must say you do lose everything by seeking to know Jesus and the one who sent Jesus, but control is not something you lose. You lose fancy stuff you can do without like popularity, status, ease, favour with some kinds of people, kudos, maybe a cosy lifestyle and sometimes even family links. Yet you gain permanence of what really matters. It is thrilling to know Jesus who is the ultimate human person to know, and to know the one who sent Jesus, who is the absolutely ultimate being to know, and it is worth losing everything. But I do not think you lose any control. You are, if anything, far more free as a result of it than you can imagine is possible. Like a kind of sovereignty. Nobody controls you anymore because the one with the greatest right to control you, instead gives you ultimate freedom. It is impossible to explain or even to put into words in my head. It is a deep peace. Nobody able to tell you you should be aiming higher.
When I first tasted a full sample mouthful of that knowledge twenty five years ago after decades seeking and after losing so much to get there, I just utterly relaxed, fully knowing I had found the most ultimate thing anyone can ever know. Deep deep peace came up from within. Absolute serenity. And that was just a taster. The best is yet to come, I know it.
Better than conquering Everest.
This is absolutely true. I remember that peace, joy I had, that stillness from the very centre of my innermost being, thinking back on it almost every day of the twenty five years ever since. Nothing takes it away from me. It never fades. That innermost knowledge that Jesus has mastered me in my deepest level of existence and was giving me freedom.
