FOURFOLD KNOWLEDGE
‘I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine. As the Father knoweth Me, even so know I the Father.’
The important word in this sentence is the word ‘known’—the fourfold knowledge of Christ and His people, which forms a chain, a chain essential to our salvation. If one link in that chain be taken away, then every hope we have of heaven would fall to the ground. Observe it carefully.
I. First, Christ ‘knows’ the Father.—He ‘knew’ Him when He undertook His mission to our world. He ‘knows’ the Father’s requirements; He ‘knows’ the Father’s holiness; He ‘knows’ the Father’s heart; He ‘knows’ the Father’s will; He ‘knows’ how that Father yearns for our salvation. And, therefore it was, He did not ‘spare His only begotten Son, but freely gave Him up for us all.’
II. The Father ‘knows’ Christ.—He ‘knows’ His Sonship; He ‘knows’ His Deity; He ‘knows’ His love; He ‘knows’ His heart! He ‘knows’ His all-sufficiency! He ‘knows’ how that death of His dear Son outweighed the sins and the punishment of the whole world. He ‘knows’ the completeness of the mediatorial work.
III. Christ ‘knows’ His people.—He ‘knows ‘them collectively and He ‘knows’ them individually. He ‘knows’ their several needs. He ‘knows’ their constitution. He ‘knows’ their sorrows. He ‘knows’ their sins. He ‘knows’ their struggles. He ‘knows’ their voice. He ‘knows’ their faith. He ‘knows’ their desires.
IV. Christ’s people ‘know’ Him.—By sweetest experience, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, they ‘know.’ Each one ‘knows’ Him, ‘knows’ His brotherhood, His tenderness, His Cross, His Death, His Intercession, His Voice, His Presence, His Advent.
All this knowledge is the knowledge of the affections, the knowledge of personal experience. In all those four views, knowledge and love are the same thing. No one ‘knows’ who does not love.