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“Knowing God Through Saving Faith in Christ Alone”
John 14:1-7; 17:3
In a former church, a man asked me to do the funeral for his wife. This man did not attend church, but he was good friends with a member of our church. His wife had terminal cancer; he recognized that his wife would soon die, and he wanted a minister to conduct the funeral even though he and his wife did not attend church.
I told him that I was more than willing to do the funeral but that I wanted to meet his wife. She was in hospice care and I wanted to talk with her about the gospel, eternity, and the necessity of saving faith in Christ alone.
But her husband objected. He said, “There is no need to meet with her. I can assure you that she never broke any of those ten commandments. When she dies, she will be in heaven for sure.”
He saw the commandments as only outward, not inward. After all, his wife had never murdered anyone; she never robbed a bank; she was true to him and didn’t commit adultery with a neighbor’s spouse. Why wouldn’t she be received by the Lord?
When I explained the inward aspects of the commandments, that murder includes hatred in the heart, that stealing has many applications, even the theft of time when we do not use it wisely, and that adultery is committed by thoughts in the hearts of both women and men, he left angry. He found another pastor to do the service, someone who would “preach her into heaven” because of her self-righteousness.
You see, that man knew about God. He had some awareness that there is a God, there is a heaven and a hell. He knew that much about God. But sadly, he and his wife did not truly know God. They never sought him out. They never dug deeply into his word. They never joined a church and never found the blessing of growing in grace, knowledge, love, and service with brothers and sisters in Christ.
They knew about God, but they did not truly know God. They did not have saving faith in Jesus Christ. They disregarded the clear teaching of Jesus, in John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” And that is the only way to know God. As Jesus said to Thomas in verse 7, “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.”
There is no way to know God the Father without saving faith in the Son, Jesus Christ. But this couple, like so many others, thought they could enter heaven on the merits of their life, not by the merits and redeeming work of Christ alone. They thought that many roads lead to heaven, including the road of self-righteousness.
And there are so many like them. We have all known people who think they are right with God, but they have a false assurance. The golfer says, “On a beautiful Sunday morning I can see God’s handiwork all around me.” The fisherman says essentially the same thing. “I worship God by seeing his creative power in the beauty of the lake, the majesty of the mountains, and the flowing cadence of the river. I know he exists, just from what I see around me.”
And they are right that they can know that God exists by what he has created. God has revealed himself through the created world. We call that his general revelation. The entire cosmos reveals to us the identity of God. As Psalm 19 exclaims:
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
3 There is no speech or language
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
3 There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard
4 Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
their words to the ends of the world.
But the knowledge of God that we see all around us leaves us without excuse for acknowledging God’s deity and power – his true identity. It leaves us without excuse for truly knowing God through saving faith in his Son, Jesus Christ. Romans 1:19 and 20 explains: “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”
As Guido De Bres wrote: “…The universe is before our eyes like a beautiful book in which all creatures, great and small, are as letters to make us ponder the invisible things of God: His eternal power and his divinity, as the apostle Paul says in Romans 1:20. All these things are enough to convict (people) and to leave them without excuse.” (Belgic Confession, Article 2).
The atheist and evolutionist, and all others who deny God’s existence, have no excuse. Instead their denial of God’s identity proves the truth of the Psalmist, who declares not once, but twice – Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1 – “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”
You can know about God through the beauty of the cosmos he created, yet not truly him. Or you can deny his existence altogether, and show yourself to be a fool without an excuse for knowing him.
But there is a third alternative. You can truly know God as your Savior from sin and the Lord of your life through saving faith in Christ alone. As Jesus said in John 14:6. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
In My Father’s House…
In the verses leading up to that statement Jesus was comforting his disciples. In the passage from John 14, Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure. He knew that his trial and crucifixion were drawing near. In the previous chapter Jesus had prepared his disciples. In John 13:33 he said, “…Yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me, and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’”
And verses 36-38: “Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.’”
So in this passage he comforted his disciples – and comforts us – with the promise of heaven. In John 14:2 he says “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”
That promise of heaven – a place in our Father’s house – is a truly awesome promise. 1 Corinthians 2:9 declares:
“No eye has seen,
no ear has hard,
no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. —
but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit has not revealed all the details of heaven to us, and that is for our good. We would be miserable on earth if we truly knew just how wonderful heaven will be. But this much we do know: We will see Jesus face to face “For now we see in a mirror dimly – through a glass darkly” – 1 Corinthains 13:12 – “but then face to face...”
We will see the One who suffered and died to cover our sins with his precious blood, the One who arose from death for our justification. And our sanctification will be complete. We will no longer struggle with the old sinful nature with which we were born. We will live in perfect harmony with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and with all believers from every race, tribe and tongue, living and reigning with Christ over the new heavens and new earth in the glory yet to be revealed.
What an awesome, wonderful promise Jesus gives in John 14:2, 3 as he says “In my Father’s house are many rooms – many mansions. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
But Thomas – and the undoubtedly the other disciples too – were confused. In verse 5 Thomas said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” And that is when Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
In the response to that that well-known statement of Jesus, we see several distinct groups of people: The first group are those who do not know about the one true God. They have never heard about the one who is “the way the truth and the life.” They have never heard about Jesus. That is why as Christians we tell others about Christ. We support missions here at home and around the world. We strive to live our lives as letters from Christ known and read by everyone (2 Cor. 3:3) so that we have open doors to tell others of the hope that we have within us (1 Pet. 3:15).
A second group think they know God; they think they know the way to heaven. They say, “Look at my life, I never robbed a bank or killed anybody or did any “big” crimes. I tried to do what is right. I have lived by the golden rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.’ Admittedly, I have some sins and short comings, but on the scale of God’s justice he will see that my good deeds outweigh my sins and shortcomings. Surely God will accept me because I’m a pretty good person...”
But the Bible reminds us that our self-righteousness and our good deeds can never save us: Isaiah 64:6 “For we are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Romans 3:10 “There is no one righteous, no not one.” Romans 3:23 “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?”
God is perfect; he requires perfection. He is a holy and righteous. He requires us to be perfectly holy and righteous. In ourselves we can never measure up to God’s perfect standard. I’m a sinner. You are a sinner. All humanity has sinned and continues to sin until the day we die a physical death.
Yet, all who repent of their sins and look to Jesus with true saving faith are forgiven of their sins, guaranteed eternal life in the glory of heaven, and credited with the righteousness of Christ – and then presented before God, spotless and without blame, arrayed in the garments of Christ’s righteousness.
And when you truly know God – not just know about him but know him personally through true repentance and saving faith – then you have eternal life. In that high-priestly prayer of Jesus, in John 17:3, Jesus prayed to his Father: “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
It is only through faith in Jesus Christ that we are accepted by the Father. It is only through saving faith in Christ that we truly know God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The reason why we can only be accepted by the Father through saving faith in his Son, Jesus Christ, is because when we have saving faith in Jesus, we are not only forgiven of our sins, but we are also credited – imputed – with the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
That is sometimes referred to as the greatest exchange as “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Through saving faith in Christ alone we exchange our sin for his righteousness. And through his sacrifice on the cross of Calvary he exchanged his life of glory for the curse of our sin as he took the curse and punishment of our sin upon himself.
And in that transfer – in that great exchange where Jesus bore the curse and punishment for the sins of believers and those with saving faith become the righteousness of God – there is a change of clothing, spiritually speaking.
Clothed in the Righteousness of Christ
Have you noticed how clothing in Scripture is so significant? We see the significance of clothing already in the third chapter of Genesis. You recall how after Adam and Eve sinned, they tried to hide from God. And they tried to hide their nakedness by making clothing of fig leaves. But God sought them out; and seeing their nakedness, he killed an animal, shedding its blood, to make garments for Adam and Eve.
That gracious action of God, way back at the dawn of history, was pointing to Christ, to his shed blood and the clothing of sinners with the righteous robes of Christ. The righteousness of Christ is imputed – credited – to everyone who has true saving faith in him alone.
Isaiah writes about the blessing of being spiritually clothed in the righteousness of Christ in Isaiah 61:10, “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness…”
Likewise, Zechariah 3:3, 4 describe how Joshua, the high priest, was standing before the Lord, and he was dressed in filthy rags. Right beside him was the devil, accusing him before God. In Zechariah’s vision, the Lord rebuked Satan, and then removed the filthy clothes from Joshua, and put clean clothes on him. Zechariah 3:4 declares: “Then he said to Joshua, ‘See I have taken away your sin, and I will put rich garments on you.’”
It is only by God’s grace through saving faith in Christ that we clothed in the righteousness of Christ, that we truly know God, and can enter heaven, as we are “clothed…with garments of salvation; covered…with the robe of (his) righteousness.”
There is a parable about being clothed in the righteousness of Christ; it is a parable that puzzles many people, and angers many others. Perhaps you remember the Parable of the Wedding Feast in Matthew 22. In that parable Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.” And then he describes how many of those who were invited, refused to come. They were too busy with life. The had no interest in the wedding feast of the King’s Son. One went off to work on his farm, another to attend to his business.
So the king sent more messengers. He said, “Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.” Finally the wedding hall was filled with guests. But Matthew 22:11 explains “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth’” (Matt. 22:11-14).
Some people hear that parable and say, “How unfair! People were invited in off the street. That poor man couldn’t help it if he didn’t have wedding clothes. This is totally unfair!”
Others point out that it was a custom in the Near East – a custom known by all the people of Jesus’ day – for the host of the banquet to give a fine robe to each guest as they arrived. If someone did not accept the robe it was like saying, “I don't need your robe. Mine is just fine.” It would be similar to me, when I’m asked to conduct a wedding and told to rent a tuxedo from a certain place, or to wear a certain color suit, to then show up at the wedding in my blue jeans and flannel shirt, and say: “I really like my flannel shirt and my blue jeans. I don’t need that suit or tuxedo to be at the wedding feast.” That is essentially what this man did in the parable.
And that is essentially what the man who asked me to do his wife’s funeral did. He rejected the righteous robes of Jesus Christ, credited by faith. He was like the man in the parable who appeared at the wedding feast clothed in his own good works, his own perceived obedience to the law – his own self-righteousness, instead of the imputed righteousness of Christ.
Whoever tries to approach the Father – whosever seeks to be at the wedding feast of the Lamb – will never be admitted apart from saving faith in Christ alone. Jesus truly is the way, the truth, and the life. No come comes to the Father except through him. And then we come, clothed not in our righteousness, but in the righteousness of Christ Jesus.
Responding to Christ
There are many responses to that well-known statement of Jesus, that he alone is the way the truth and the life. That no one comes to the Father and enters into heaven, apart from saving faith in him.
Some have never heard. Others hear, and by God’s grace and Spirit’s power, they believe. Others hear but rely on their own self-righteousness. Many others are skeptical of that statement and believe that all roads lead to heaven. Still others show themselves to be fools, denying the very existence of God that is clearly portrayed in the world he has created.
But do you know what is sad – truly tragic? There is a large group of people, by far the majority of people in our country today, who think they will be saved because they believe – they know in their mind – that Jesus existed. They know about God but they don’t truly know God. They have what is called “historical faith.”
They may believe there is an eternal God who sent his Son into the world to save sinners from their sin. They recognize that the evidence for God’s existence far outweighs the evidence for the theory of evolution.
They understand that all of history is marked by the cross of Calvary. We are in the year 2025, and why is it referred to as 2025? It is because our calendar is designated as AD and BC. AD is the Latin abbreviation for Anno Domini – the year of our Lord. And BC refers to the expanse of time before the eternal Christ – who is one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, true and eternal living God – was born in human flesh in Bethlehem so long ago.
Many people know these historical truths about Jesus. But they get so busy with their own lives – or so entranced with the allurements of the world, just like those people in that parable in Matthew 22 – that they never take the historical truth of the birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension and certain return of Christ to heart.
The knowledge is in their head – they know about God – but they do not know God in their heart through true saving faith in Christ alone. Romans 10:9-11 explains the importance of having faith – not just in our head, but in our heart: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’”
So many people are content to know Christ just as a historical figure. “Oh, yes, I believe in Jesus,” they might say. They believe the historical facts in their head, but they don’t know him in their heart – the center of their being, the essence of who they are – as their Savior from sin and the Lord of their life.
The Bible warns us about a faith that is professed on the lips but shows no evidence of truly knowing God in the heart. The Bible warns us about faith that is based just on the facts of history, but is not deeply rooted in the heart. The Bible warns us about a faith that is just historical and doesn’t build a relationship with Christ. James writes, in James 2:19, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”
Why do the demons shudder? The demons shudder because they know the judgment of God is eternal and horrific in the reality of hell. But it is not just demons who should shudder when they think about God’s judgment. Everyone who does not have true saving faith in Christ alone should fear that day of judgment, the day when Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.
But for those who have placed their faith in Christ alone, who have repented of their sins and look to Jesus alone for salvation, there is no fear of judgment. As Romans 8:1 puts it, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Everyone who repents of their sins, and looks to Jesus with true saving faith, will be forgiven, they will be guaranteed eternal life in the glory of heaven, and they will be credited – imputed – with the righteousness of Christ, and then presented before the one eternal triune God, spotless and without blame, clothed in the rich robes of Christ’s righteousness.
Jesus Christ alone is the way, the truth and the life. There is no other entrance into heaven. Your church membership won’t get you into the heaven. Your baptism doesn’t guarantee that you will be in heaven. Taking the Lord’s Supper doesn’t guarantee you will get through the pearly gates.
The only guarantee of being forgiven of your sins and getting into heaven is saving faith in Jesus Christ. As Peter declared in Acts 4:12, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
___
The memory of that man who asked me to do his wife’s funeral has often crossed my mind; and it has crossed my mind with great sadness. He and his wife knew about God, enough to want a minister to do her funeral, but only to praise her self-righteousness. They had not taken to heart their sinful condition. They had not taken to heart that Jesus alone is the way, the truth and the life, the only way to God the Father, the only way to be forgiven of our sins and to enter the glory of heaven.
Christ is revealed in the pages of the Bible, Old Testament and New, and in those pages, God promises, in Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” If you have never committed yourself to Christ, if you have just known about him but never truly known him and trusted him as Savior and Lord in your heart, know that now is the day of salvation. In 2 Corinthians 6:2 the Lord declares: “‘In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
The man who asked me to do his wife’s funeral did not attend church. But you can faithfully attend church and be dressed in self-righteousness, or clothed in tradition, or social standing, or any number of other personas – you can be in church week after week, but without the righteous robes of Christ.
But if you come to Jesus in humble repentance and saving faith, he will receive you. Jesus says in John 6:37, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me…For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
It doesn’t matter what sins are in your past. It doesn’t matter what sins you are presently struggling with. Every true Christian struggles with sin. Christ came not for the self-righteous but for sinners. He himself said, in Luke 5:31, 32: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
And when we come to him in true repentance and saving faith, he changes us. Romans 1:5 describes “the obedience that comes from faith” And Acts 26:20 describes how we are to prove our repentance by our deeds. If our faith and repentance is real, it will be evident by how we live our lives.
Those two actions – repentance and faith – equal conversion. They are evidence of new life; they are evidence of the Holy Spirit’s regenerating work, evidence of the redeeming work of our triune God within us. They cannot be separated; they go hand in hand.
When we come in humble repentance and saving faith to Jesus Christ, he does indeed change us. We become new creations in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). Not that we are perfect in this life, far from it, but we increasingly grow more like Christ and less like Adam.
If we truly know God through saving faith in Christ, then we will strive to live lives of grateful obedience to the only one who is the way, the truth, and the life – to Jesus Christ – the only one who can clothe us in his righteousness and present us to the Father spotless and without blame.
It is my prayer that each one of us knows not just about Jesus, but truly knows him in our heart of hearts with true saving faith, and that our repentance and faith – our conversion – is shown to be genuine by the way we live our lives, today – and always. Amen.
bulletin outline
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom you have sent. – John 17:3
“Knowing God Through Saving Faith in Christ”
John 14:1-7; 17:3
1. Many people know about God, but they do not truly know God.
a. Creation leaves humanity without excuse for knowing God’s power
(Psalm 19:1-4; Romans 1:19-20)
b. Those who suppress the truth of God’s identity show themselves to be
fools (Psalm 14:1; 53:1)
c. To truly know God, you must know him through saving faith in Christ
alone (John 14:6-7; 17:3)
2 True saving faith differs from “historical faith” which just believes Jesus
exists:
a. Even demons have that faith; it leads to eternal judgment (James
2:19)
b. Faith in Christ must be in our heart (Romans 10:9-11) and evident by
the way we live our lives (Romans 1:5, 16:26; Acts 26:20)
c. Now is the day of salvation (2 Corinthians 6:1, 2). Christ will receive
all who come to Him in true repentance and saving faith (Isaiah 55:6-
7; John 6:37-40)
Questions for discussion:
1. What is the difference between knowing about God and truly knowing
God?
2. Why is Jesus the only way to the Father?
3. According to Genesis 3:21, Zechariah 3:3,4, and Isaiah 61:10, what
is the significance of clothing in Scripture, and how does it relate to
the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ? (See also Matthew 22:1-14).
4. How does “historical faith” differ from true saving faith in Christ?
Faith Bible Church, 07.20.2025
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Ted Gray, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright, Rev. Ted Gray
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