When journalist Rita Cosby was a child, she noticed scars across her father’s body, and she asked about them. She quickly learned not to ask questions like that. Parts of her father’s life were off–limits. Years later when her mother passed away, Rita found a tattered tan suitcase in the closet with memorabilia from her dad’s early life, including a Polish Resistance armband, rusted tags bearing a prisoner number, and an identity card for a POW named Ryszard Kossobudzki.
Recognizing the Quiet Hero
Digging Beyond the Familiar
Knowing Who Jesus Is
Knowing Jesus Personally
Knowing Jesus Better
Reading Jesus’ Journal
Using her training as an investigative journalist, Rita learned as much as she could. Then she decided to approach her father for the full story. “I wanted our relationship to be better,” she said. “I had decided to make an attempt at a deeper bond, to somehow break through his tough shell, hoping to find a soft center.”
One day she appeared at the door of her dad’s small house in Virginia, and he greeted her warmly. After chatting a few moments, he said, “Okay, what do you want to know?”1
Recognizing the Quiet Hero
Little by little, Rita learned the remarkable story of how her dad became a Polish resistance fighter when he was little more than a boy. What he experienced and endured was beyond anything she could have guessed. She finally understood his physical and emotional scars. Her heart went out to him and she helped him find healing, even accompanying him back to Poland where, in his old age, he was honored as a national hero.
The two formed the father–daughter bond Rita had long desired. “By assembling the pieces of this puzzle, I have forged a new and precious bond with my dad, deeper than either of us ever could have imagined. I’ve learned that sometimes the quiet hero is someone we may have known all our lives, but never really knew at all.”2
It’s something like that with Jesus Christ. Even if you’ve known Him all your life, there’s still much to learn. There are clues in the Bible to explore. There are conversations that will deepen our bond with Him. We’ll never understand all He endured for us or the depth of the scars He bore. And we’ll never uncover the deepest mysteries of His infinite wisdom, power, love, and grace. But by knowing Him better, we’ll have the kind of relationship with Him we crave.
Digging Beyond the Familiar
The apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:10 that his ambition was “that I may know Him.” Since Paul already knew Christ as Savior, we can only assume he meant he wanted to know Christ better.
The Amplified Bible, Classic Edition renders this verse: “[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly].”
But Jesus is infinite! There’s always something new to learn. The more we study Him, the more insights we gain, and the closer to Him we grow.
How, then, can we “progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him”?
Knowing Who Jesus Is
We come to know Him by studying His life and learning about Him, especially His death and resurrection. Pastor Dan Lloyd said he grew up believing that attending church, participating in the sacraments, and trying to live a morally pure life would help get him to heaven. When Dan was a senior in high school, Billy Graham held an evangelistic campaign in Seattle’s brand–new Kingdome. Dan decided to attend. He enjoyed the music and listened to Dr. Graham’s message.
When the invitation was given, he told his sister he was going down to see what the view was like from the AstroTurf. As he stood on the field, a young man named Roc Bottomley approached him and started a conversation. Roc asked Dan about his eternal salvation, and Dan told him he was all right with God because he was a church member.
Roc replied, “If going to church makes you a Christian, why did Jesus die on the cross?”
Dan had no answer, and Roc proceeded to share the facts and significance of the death of Jesus. When Roc asked Dan if he wanted to pray, Dan began reading a prayer from a tract Roc had given him: “Dear God, I know that I am a sinner…”
Knowing Jesus Personally
“That’s as far as I got,” Dan recalls. “Never before had I said those kinds of words to God…. I was overwhelmed with my conviction of sin and guilt. I fell to [my] knees realizing that I was a spiritual wreck…. Roc helped me regain my composure and prayed with me. He helped me work through the commitment I needed to make as I surrendered to Jesus Christ as my Savior.”3
The facts regarding the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ provide the basis for a relationship with Him. Once we receive Him into our heart, there’s so much more about Him to learn! I’ve been a follower of Christ for many years, but as I worked on The Jesus You May Not Know, I learned things about my precious Lord I hadn’t yet fully realized.
Do you know, for example, that when He called Himself the “Son of God,” He was actually using a Jewish phrase claiming to be God Himself? Do you know that in John 17, Jesus gave us an incredible preview of the intercessory ministry He’s pursuing for us right now on the heavenly throne? How about this:
The more we study His life and works, the more we’re in awe like those disciples who exclaimed, “What manner of man is this!” (Matthew 8:27, KJV)
Knowing Jesus Better
The life of Jesus isn’t merely an academic study. The Lord once told a parable about two men who had listened to His teachings. Both these men had sat on the front row, as it were, listening to every word. One of the men heard “these sayings of Mine,” but didn’t put them into practice. He was like a foolish man who built a house on the sand. The other heard “these sayings of Mine” and put them into practice. Jesus likened him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. When the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew, the house stood firm (Matthew 7:24–27).
Both men heard, but only one put the words into practice. Our Lord’s teachings are often simple, but they require practice—a lifetime of practice. For example, Jesus told us to humble ourselves and become as little children (Matthew 18:4). In a world of proud people, that’s not easy. We have to ponder what that looks like in our life. We have to learn to treat people graciously. We have to ask ourselves how we can serve our family, our fellow students, the clerk at the store, our employer. Putting that command into effect is a long–term process, but as we study all the Bible says about humility, we begin to get it. We begin to understand, and, with the Holy Spirit’s help, our life becomes increasingly like Jesus.
Reading Jesus’ Journal
Getting to know Him more deeply only happens over time as we combine biblical information about Jesus with serious prayer. J. I. Packer wrote, “How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is simple but demanding. It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.”4
Recently a woman complained to an advice columnist that she had used her diary to express and ventilate her frustrations while she and her husband were in marital counseling. They were making progress until he found her diary and read it. Now the relationship is back on the rocks.
Jesus has a journal—it’s the written Word of God. And He invites you to read it. It’s full of personal information, but its aim is to draw you into a closer relationship with Him, not into a troubled one. As you grow in your knowledge of Christ, asking Him for illumination, guidance, and wisdom, you’ll develop the kind of relationship with God you crave. May the greatest priority of our life be—that we may know Him like that!
This article is an excerpt from David Jeremiah’s The Jesus You May Not Know study guide.
Sources:
1Rita Cosby, Quiet Hero (New York: Threshold Editions, 2020).
2Rita Cosby, “In ‘Quiet Hero’ Rita Cosby Uncovers Her Father’s WWII Secrets,” HUFFPOST, May 25, 2011, https:///www.huffpost.com.
3Dan Lloyd, “How I Met Jesus,” Pastor Dan, https://pastordanlloyd.com/about-dan/how-i-met-jesus.
4J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 23.