I Know Whom I Have Believed
I know not why God’s wondrous grace
to me he hath made known,
nor why, unworthy, Christ in love
redeemed me for his own.
Chorus
But I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I’ve committed
unto him against that day.
I know not how this saving faith
to me he did impart,
nor how believing in his word
wrought peace within my heart.
I know not how the Spirit moves,
convincing us of sin,
revealing Jesus through the word,
creating faith in him.
I know not when my Lord may come,
at night or noonday fair,
nor if I walk the vale with him,
or meet him in the air.
Have you ever met someone who is a “know-it-all?” If my name happens to pop up in any of your minds, please e-mail me so I can remove you from the “Hymn of the Week” distribution. Just kidding. What I like about this hymn is that it is an honest statement of what the author doesn’t know. He admits to not knowing the following:
- Why God redeemed him – The author admits that he is unworthy of God’s grace, but because of Christ, he has become one of His own. All of us could make that statement because we weren’t redeemed by any merit or great work that we had done. We are saved because of His wonderful grace.
- How the simple act of believing can bring peace in our heart – The simplicity of the gospel continues to confound the world. It is human nature to desire to do something to earn this salvation, but the reality is that Jesus can bring peace to our heart without all the stipulations and requirements the world tries to put on us to merit this kind of grace. Other religions around the world have lots of requirements to earn favor in the eyes of their gods. Not the case for Christianity. As the old hymn goes “Jesus Paid it all.”
- How the Spirit moves – As much as we try to put God in a box or a formula, He is not bound by our ideas of how He should work. God works in mysterious ways, and we shouldn’t try to figure His ways out. We should just follow His leading in our lives.
- When the Lord is coming back. I don’t know about you, but I get a little tired of the end-time predictors who give specifics about dates and times the Lord is coming back. I do think there are signs of the end of the age and we ought to be aware of those, but to take it to the next level and give a specific date only makes these predictors look foolish and distracts from the true reality that Jesus is coming soon, and is coming in judgment.
It is refreshing to me to meet someone who is honest enough to say “I don’t know.” Sometimes we can display an arrogance of knowing so much, and that arrogance can be off-putting to people. We may unknowingly communicate to non-believers that we have all the answers when the reality is that only God has all the answers. Any knowledge that we do have comes from studying His word and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit. I think we can and should share the insights of God’s wisdom with non-believers, but the key to that is communicating that this wisdom is not our wisdom, but wisdom that comes from Him.
In the chorus, however, the author changes his tune (pardon the pun) and reminds of what he does know, and what he is confident of. This chorus is based upon the Scripture found in 2 Timothy Chapter 1 where Paul is instructing Timothy to not be ashamed of the Gospel, but to take confidence in Christ. Paul was confident of whom his faith was placed in even during very difficult times. While in prison, Paul wrote in Phillipians 3 ” That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings…” Paul had a real knowledge of who Christ was and what he did for him.
I have attached a link to a 3 minute video at Youtube. This is a video that asks the question “Do you know Him?” I thought it fit in well with the hymn this week. It is a powerful reminder of who we serve and I hope you enjoy it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upGCMl_b0n4