I want my first article on this site to show my heart clearly. I am a full-time missionary committed to a lifetime of serving my Lord and King, and I must say I love this idea. I love Jesus, and it is because I know Him. I want to submit that this mindset is the core of salvation.

I will never pretend to be a scholar. Nor will I attempt to impress anyone with fancy words I have learned. I will, however, have to occasionally make some references to Biblical Greek. Once again, not to impress anyone but to make some concepts clearer than they can possibly be in a readable English translation of the Bible. With that said I want to look at Jesus’ words in John 17.

Jesus was talking to the Father right before He was to be crucified, and we must assume He was talking about things of most importance to Him. He spent an evening talking with His disciples and then prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.” Then He makes one statement that changed the way I lived and thought. “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” This is eternal life.

This is what it’s all about. This is what salvation is. He did not end the statement with “Heaven”. “And this is eternal life, that they may all be saved from Hell and go to Heaven.” No! Jesus was intelligent. He knew what He was saying. This is where the Greek comes in. “This is eternal life, that they may know You.” The word “know” here is the Greek word “γινώσκω” Strong’s number 1097. It is the same word used for how a man knows his wife. It means to experientially know.

There is a restaurant in my hometown of Anderson, South Carolina that sells one of the most amazing foods I have ever tasted. I tell people around the world about their food. It is called Skin’s Hotdogs, and they sell hotdogs. Now I can describe the flavor, the smell, the texture, the colors, even the exact weight and dimensions of it. If I do this, you will know about the hotdogs. You will not experientially know it though. You will not γινώσκω it until you have experienced it for yourself.

According to Jesus, salvation is knowing God in this way. Once again, salvation is not a ticket to Heaven. Salvation is knowing God. It is having an experiential love relationship with the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He sent. I now know God. He is my friend. I know Him to be infinitely loving, infinitely intelligent, and, the most mind boggling part of God – interactive. For this, I choose to give Him my whole life. He deserves it.