. . . ¹⁸but 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.

The second principle we need to define our spiritual progress is “to grow in the . . . knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” One can gain the facts of the life of Christ by reading through the gospel accounts as a historian would. But academic knowledge is not the point. Even demons know the facts (Matt. 8:29, Acts 19:15, James 2:19, etc.). One can achieve straight “A’s” in theology class. But to know Jesus is more than just the facts.

Jesus spoke of knowing at a much deeper level of understanding when in His high priestly prayer He said, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). The word for knowledge is gnosis, which carries the connotation of insight, a true understanding of Christ, to get below the surface, to really know Him.

How then, do we gain a greater depth of knowing Him? Peter gives us clues. We should meditate on Him as our Lord. With our imagination, we need to enter into the disciples’ experience, when they “were amazed, and said, ‘What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?’” (Matt. 8:27). Even the demons obeyed Him, and men fell before Him. All creation will become His footstool (Heb. 1:13). We need to look for His Lordship over the situations in which we find ourselves as we go through life.

Second, we need to meditate on Him as Savior. When we came to faith, we were just beginning our understanding of salvation. In the Lord’s Supper, we continue to dwell on all the glories of what He accomplished on the cross for us. He redeemed us, reconciled us, forgave us, made us alive, adopted us, set us on a rock, and the list goes on and on. In the same way that a prism reflects the infinite shades of the color spectrum, the cross reveals the unlimited hues of God’s grace and mercy toward us. So, we search for all He has done for us when He died in our place.

Third, we look for His glory. We see His glory talked about all through Scripture. His glory frames the entire world, as the angels proclaim: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3). It is there for us to see when we open our eyes of faith and look intently for His glory. The more we see how great He is, the more we grow spiritually.

Fourth, the growth we experience now will continue into eternity, for the knowledge of God will never be exhausted. He is infinite by nature, and eternity will be required to fully plumb the depths of His glorious being.

Lord, I want to grow in the knowledge of all that You are.