It goes without argument that God has the ability to give us exact knowledge in regard to spiritual things.
We believe that the Word contains this exact knowledge in all spiritual wisdom that is necessary for our growth and development so that we may know and do the will of the Father perfectly.
Sense knowledge is born of experience and experiments. It is never perfect. It always has an element of limitation, for no one is ever positive about his experiments. There is always a chance of a mistake because this knowledge comes through the avenues of the senses.
My sight may be defective, so that I cannot be positive that the thing is as it has appeared. Or, if I have depended upon my hearing, I am not sure that I have heard aright. Or, if it came through the sense of touch, I am not certain of it. There is always the possibility of misunderstanding.
We little appreciate the tremendous effort that has been expended on gaining the knowledge that we have in the realm of mechanics, mathematics, metallurgy, chemistry, medicine, and the other sciences.
The Greek word epignosis is translated as correct or precise knowledge, or full knowledge.
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. (Colossians 1:9)
Paul’s prayer is that they might be filled with the exact, precise, and full knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
The Spirit does not suggest possibilities that are unobtainable. If Paul prayed that the believers at Colosse should have this kind of knowledge, we believe it was possible for them to have it.
In the tenth verse, he says, “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
That was the object of this full knowledge. That knowledge is here in the Word, and Jesus promised that when the Comforter came, He would guide us into all truth and give to us a revelation of the Father’s will.
We know that He gave to Paul a revelation of the finished work of Christ.
We know that we have a revelation of what Jesus did from the time He was made sin on the cross and died until He arose from the dead, carried His blood into the heavenly holy of holies, and was accepted as our substitute.
His work was accepted as a perfect redemption for us. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high because He had completed the redemption that met every demand of justice and every need of man.
First Corinthians 2:12 is a challenge to every one of us: “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”
You see, we have a right to know the things that have been freely given to us in the redemptive work of Christ. They are of no value unless we know them.
Colossians 3:10 is a suggestion of the Father’s heart desire toward us: “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.”
Notice carefully that the new birth is putting on “the new man.”
When we are born again, our spirits are recreated. Then the Spirit, through the Word, renews our minds and that renewal brings us into fellowship with the Father,
Adam was created, spiritually and intellectually, in the image and likeness of God. When Adam fell, his mind became darkness.
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
This tells us that the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they may not know the true God, or spiritual things. The natural mind is blinded to the knowledge of supernatural things.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)
There are certain things that the natural man can know about revelation. He can understand the Spirit’s great argument in the book of Romans in regard to God’s redemption for man.
The first eight chapters of Romans are written in the realm of sense knowledge, so that sense knowledge man can know how to become a child of God. But he cannot understand the letters to the Ephesians, Philippians, or Colossians, which were given that we, as believers, should be led into all the knowledge of our rights and privileges in Christ.
For instance, Colossians 1:12 says, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet [gave us the ability] to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.”
Every child of God has the ability to know the Word, whether he recognizes it or not, for Jesus said, “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).
The Spirit of truth was to guide us into the reality, into the fullness of our privileges in Christ. He was to take the things of Christ, wrought for us in the great substitutionary sacrifice, and make them real in our lives.
He was not only to make it historically clear through the revelation that was given to Paul, but He was to make it experimentally real in every believer’s life who sought to know and enjoy its fullness.
You remember in Colossians 1:9, to which we have referred before, he says, “That ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.” That is the Spirit’s prayer for the church. Everyone who desires this knowledge may have it.
“Being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:10). This is, to me, an amazing statement.
Ephesians 4:7 says, “But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” Now, every one of us has grace to enter into all the riches of our inheritance.
Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. (John 1:16)
The reason he says “grace for grace” is that our hearts shrink from the fact that this fullness, this completeness, and this perfection of Christ has become ours. His grace is there, and that grace is going to enable us to enter into all that belongs to us.
In Ephesians 4:11–13, Paul declares that the church has apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”
You see, it is the desire of the Father that we should graduate from this higher university of spiritual knowledge, that we may be able to bring forth fruit unto the praise of His glory and walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing.
It does not glorify Him for us to be buffeted about by every wind of doctrine, or by the power of the enemy.
His heart is set on full-knowledge men and women who will be able to stand against the cunning artifices of the adversary, able to pray the prayer of faith for the sick and the needy, and able to unveil the Word of His grace to those who are hungry for spiritual things.
First Timothy 2:4 gives us the Father’s desire for His children: “Who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth” (ASV)—that is, this perfect, precise, and exact knowledge of the truth.
Not only that they may be saved, but that they may grow in Christ, that they may spiritually come to full age so that the Word will become a living reality to them and prayer will not be begging, but a joyful cooperation with the Father.
We are taking Jesus’s place here on the earth, and prayer should be simply a conference with the Father, laying before Him the needs of men and women about us. Our prayers will be a requisition for food, healing, and strength for those in need
We will not be as those mentioned in 2 Timothy 3:7 who are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” or of the reality of the Word.
There are those who are just flitting from one church to another, from one Bible teacher to another, dabbling in this course and in that one but never settling down and becoming proficient as teachers of the Word and helpers of those who are in need.
I believe it is the Father’s will that we have an exact knowledge of His will. We will become exact, precise, full-knowledge teachers of the Word. That means more than just what our church or our creed has accepted. How few well-rounded teachers of the Word there are!
If I am a Methodist, or Baptist, or Presbyterian, or if I belong to the Pentecostal folk, I can only teach the message that their creed permits. Anything outside of that is questionable.
You see, we have locked Christ up in a creed, so that He is no bigger than our creed will allow Him to be. We have made it impossible for Him to help folk beyond the limit of our doctrines. This is very unfortunate.
One body of believers, which has given to the church perhaps more truth than any other one sect, has closed the doors against any further knowledge than that which they possessed a hundred years ago, so it is impossible to help them.
The old-line denominations that have creeds, written or unwritten, have not admitted a new truth in fifty years. They have nothing but the things that their forefathers gave them.
In the realm of science, mechanics, and the arts, there has been marvelous development and growth. Chemistry has revolutionized the modem world, but Christianity has lain utterly dormant. No one among the leaders has dared to go beyond their creeds, for if they do, the leaders will read them out of their denomination. This is unfortunate.
In Hebrews 10:26, we have a significant warning: “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.” That means exact, precise, full knowledge of the truth.
This willful sin is the denial of the deity of Jesus and the denial of the blood of the new covenant wherewith He was sanctified, calling it the blood of a common man.
That is the only unpardonable sin and it can only be committed by those who have come to a full knowledge of the truth.
A babe in Christ may prattle about the things he doesn’t believe, but he is only a babe and it is the prattle of an infant in Christ. It is unfortunate that he talks as he does, but the Father understands it and forgives him.
There isn’t much danger of anyone who has received the full knowledge of the truth ever denying the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.
In 2 Peter 1:2, he says, “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.”
This is a wonderful invocation.
Grace and peace is multiplied in this full knowledge, this full revelation of the Father and our Lord Jesus. How that would revolutionize the church! How that would revolutionize your life!
The third verse says, “As his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue.”
Exact knowledge would not be demanded unless it could be attained.
We have a perfect revelation. We have a perfect teacher, the Holy Spirit. The Father chose His own instrument, the apostle Paul, a man who could receive a perfect revelation from God and not adulterate it with his own philosophy.
It was necessary that we have exact knowledge of the Father’s will so that we might be well-pleasing to Him.
He gave to us a perfect new creation, imparting His nature to our spirits. He made Jesus to be our wisdom, the Holy Spirit to be our teacher, and this revelation to be our textbook. In this textbook, we have His exact will revealed.
You remember that Paul said the revelation was not of man nor through man. Sense knowledge did not color it, nor rob it of its perfection.
This absolute knowledge builds faith and assurance in our redemption.