Farmer’s Expectation
in “Trinity” of Let Us Know Jesus by Semuon
A farmer expects fruits when he cultivates a tree. If his tree cannot bear fruit, the tree will not only disappoint the farmer, but it will become a disadvantage to him. In the same way, disciples who cannot make other disciples are actually disobeying and disappointing God. Each of us must make disciples. In order to make disciples, we must know God carefully.
When someone asks us about the faith we have, we should be ready to answer them. If we are not able to answer them, we will not be able to make disciples. It is imperative that we know the truth. One of my earnest wishes is that I can give clear answers to every difficult problem alleged against the Bible. I eagerly pray and make great efforts for this purpose.
Our faith is not ‘a blind faith’. All superstition springs from the heart of man. This is the faith of natural religion. In natural religion, man seeks after the gods of this world. He seeks them by his own efforts, devotion and mortification. Our faith is different from this. We know God – not because we make efforts to find Him – but because God reveals Himself to us.
Giving service in your church for many years does not mean you know Jesus better. If you start off on the wrong foot, you will not have complete faith – even if you serve in your church for many years. No one in this world has seen God (Jn 1:18). A baby in the womb cannot see his or her mother. Likewise, man cannot see God with his eyes, hear Him with his ears, or touch Him with his hands. God is greater than all creation. Many people misunderstand God as a conceptual being and not an actual person. This is not just a problem among unbelievers. Some Christians believe that their heart is God. God is clearly a Personal Being.
God has intellect. There is nothing He does not know. God has emotions. He feels happiness, sadness, and anger. And God has a will. He can determine and judge all things. In this way, God is a Person, though He is invisible to human sight.
God enables man to know Him through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit goes out from God. Especially in Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit did not abide inside man. You can liken this to the way a hen sits on an egg. The Holy Spirit enabled the ability to know God sprout in man by inspiring him. This was done by man receiving the testimony about God through the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is He who goes out from God.
How does man receive God’s testimony? God is a Person. Because He is a Person, He testifies about Himself and puts this testimony in man’s person. To explain it another way, God reveals the knowledge about Himself in man’s intellect, reveals His emotions in man’s emotions, and reveals His will in man’s will. Man is born with the ability and prerequisite to know God because he was created and modelled on God’s Person. Chickens, for example, are not persons. They are merely moving organisms. No matter how much you teach animals about God, they cannot know God. No matter how much you preach to animals about God’s love, they cannot receive His love. No matter how much you preach to animals about ‘the Picture of God’s Will’, they can never participate in His Will. But man is a person. Since he is a person, he can receive God’s truth, receive His love, and understand and obey His will.
Copper wire can be charged with electricity, but glass cannot. Regardless of how strong a current you put to a piece of glass, electricity cannot flow through it. In the same way, animals can never know God, even if the Holy Spirit was to powerfully work on them. Man is a person and this is why he can know God’s Person.
In a film theatre, light comes out from a film projector, penetrates the darkness, and shines on the screen which the projector is directed at. The images of the film cannot be seen in the air located between the projector and the screen. But that does not mean the light is not there! The image the light is trying to show can only be seen when it comes out from the projector and hits the screen. Animals do not have a ‘screen’ to know God’s Person. Man is a person and this is why he is able to accept the testimony given by the Holy Spirit. This is also why man alone can know God’s truth, accept His love, and follow His will when inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit goes out from God and inspires man’s person so that he can know God. We must recognize the testimony given by the Holy Spirit and accept His inspiration with enthusiasm. Heat is invisible to the eye, but we can feel whether the air is hot or cold when it touches our skin. In a similar way, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is invisible to human sight, but definitely present. Human beings are nothing more than dust, but they have received the testimony about God through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This is the testimony concerning God, who is greater than all creation. The light of a film projector magnifies the images in a small film reel and projects them onto a big screen. But the inspiration of the Holy Spirit minimizes God, who is greater than all creation. The Holy Spirit reveals Him by giving His testimony to man’s person, who is little more than dust.
Those who know God and receive the Holy Spirit’s testimony are led to believe in Jesus. Believing in Jesus leads us to believe in God. To describe it another way, those who receive the Holy Spirit’s testimony are those who know God, and those who believe in Jesus are those who believe in God.
We can live only if we believe in God (Ex 20:3). But someone will ask, “Why must we believe in Jesus?” If we do not believe in Jesus, we do not believe in God. God is greater than all creation, so He cannot be seen by anyone. Jesus is the Form of God and Being of God. This is why you must believe in Jesus if you want to believe in God. The Holy Spirit enables us to know God through the testimony He gives. But Jesus shows God by His obedience to the Father so that we can believe in Him. Jesus said, “Believe Me for the sake of the works themselves” (Jn 14:11). If someone says, “I believe in God, but I do not believe in Jesus,” that person does not believe in God.
Jesus is the Form of God. He is also the Word. If we put it another way, Jesus is the Form of God because He is the Word. A child recognizes his mother because of his mother’s flesh. If his mother’s flesh disappears and the child is asked, “Where is your mother?”, the child will answer, “I have no mother.” People exist in this world because of their flesh. In the same way, the Word – who is also the Form of God – abides with God. If the Word did not abide with God, God could not do anything (Jn 1:3).
There is life in the Word (Jn 1:4). Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world” (Jn 6:48-51). Food provides nutrition to those who eat it. When people eat their breakfast, they gain the nutrition they need for several hours until it is time for lunch. When they eat their lunch, they get the nutrition they need until it is time for dinner. And when they eat dinner, they get the nutrition they need until breakfast the next morning. Yet no matter how much food we eat in a single meal, we will not get the nutrients we need to sustain us for a lifetime. Food can only supply energy to sustain us for a very short period.
The word of God is different from food. If food could save someone who is about to die, nobody in this world would die. If it were possible to save someone from dying using food, would we not forcibly put food into the mouth of every sick person? Food only provides nutrients to sustain the activity of the body. It can never give life. The Word is life. What we call ‘life’ is not a nutrient. Life makes a person live from everlasting to everlasting. Nutrition only sustains the activity of the body for several hours. It does not provide us with life. But the Word is the Form of God’s life. He is living from everlasting to everlasting.
If God did not have the Word, it is like saying God does not have life. God is the God of life because the Word is with God. The Word is Jesus Christ. He is the Form of God. When we say, ‘we are in Jesus Christ’, it means we are in the life of God. God is living from everlasting to everlasting. When we dwell in this life, we can live eternally like God.
God the Father is greater than all creation. No one has ever seen Him. Yet having received the testimony of the Holy Spirit, we believe in Jesus. Now we are those who believe in God. The Word is with God. The Word is not a word or teaching coming from the mouth of man. There is no life in the words of man. We must be united with the Being of God’s life. He lives forever. If we receive baptism by immersion, we can be united with the Being of God’s life.
