Intimacy as the Way to Salvation

A recurring doctrinal error in modern day Christianity is that accepting Jesus as one’s Lord and Savior is the only thing one has to do in order to acquire salvation. While this is true, it is not the whole picture. I am in no way saying that accepting the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross is the wrong path to salvation, but that there is more to the process. If one were to say the sinners prayer and live the rest of their life devoid of encounter, living the rest of their life applying the blood of Jesus as a license to rot in sin, living otherwise unchanged, one would not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Matthew 7:13 tells us that “narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it”. The cheap grace gospel does not fit this description of the way to salvation.

What, then is also needed? A little further on in Matthew 7, this question can be answered. Jesus is telling the disciples of how, on the day of judgment, many will come to Him and say, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” The unsaved do not cast out demons in the name of Jesus. The heathen do not do wonders in His Name. The people Jesus is talking about here are self-proclaimed Christians. If the grace of God can be slathered on as an excuse to carry out a sinful lifestyle, why then does Jesus condemn these who did great works in His name? we all know the answer:
“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” Matt. 7:23

The necessity of a deep, saving knowledge of Jesus is never illustrated more clearly than in those three words. We can easily tell that Jesus desires a relationship with us, and that we bring judgment upon ourselves if we reject Him.
Let me here establish two things:
1.    The knowledge of God is not merely knowing ethereal facts about our creator. I can read everything I want to about George Washington, but I never knew the man.
2.    The knowledge of God and the knowledge of Jesus are synonymus. I’ll explain:

Jesus is the perfect reflection of the Father. 2nd Timothy 1:10 tells us that God, “has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ”, and again, Hebrews 1:2 says that God, “has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.” Jesus Himself testified that, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9).  Apart from Jesus, humanity has no revelation of God. How could we? We, being trapped in the utter darkness of our own sin, could not possibly attain in our comprehension even a hint of God. The apostle John attests that, “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” (John 1:5) The men who lived in Jesus time, which John is referring to as the darkness, did not comprehend Jesus correctly, for if they had, they would not have crucified Him. Men cannot understand how Jesus became like them and took on their sins as His own burden because the “whose minds the god of this age has blinded” (2nd Cor. 4:4) the minds of men. We, in our own understanding, fail to comprehend how humble God is that He would descend to our level. But, in Jesus, we have comprehended it, and thus, our eyes have been opened to the knowledge of God. This is just one way of how the Son perfectly reflects to us the Father, but it is foundational in proving that the knowledge of God is essential for salvation.

Because we now understand God through the man Christ Jesus, we must ask the question of how we learn from Jesus about the Father. For indeed, Jesus taught of the Father to the Pharisees and they did not comprehend rightly. They failed to do so because they did not seek the teaching of Jesus. They treated it skeptically. In John 5:39-40, Jesus delivers an indictment against the religious leaders of the day: “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” The Pharisees heard the words from Jesus mouth and treated them with scorn and contempt. His disciples, however, heard the same words and took them to heart. It is this concept of which Jesus spoke when, rejoicing before His Father, He proclaimed: “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.” (Luke 10:21).

We can see that it takes a proper approach to the study of Jesus’ words and life to be able to understand the Father correctly. This path is the path of intimacy. Which of the Pharisees could brag as John did, referring to himself as “…the disciple whom Jesus loved … who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” (John 21:20). His disciples saw and knew Jesus, and thus they saw and knew the Father. These are the ones whose names shall forever be inscribed on the foundations of the new Jerusalem. None need guess that they will be abiding in the city itself. Yet the religious leaders of the day heard the same teaching, and will doubtlessly be judged harshly at the Day of Judgment.

The example of the disciples proves that intimacy with Jesus and the revelation of the Father that comes through it is the one necessary way to salvation. After all, He did say that He is, “the way, the truth, and the life,” and that, “no one comes to the Father except through (Him)” (John 14:6)