The hope of future knowledge of God is the purpose and plan of our Creator. One day, the impact of sin upon the mind and heart will be reversed. Our brains, body, and soul will completely serve and honor the Lord. One day, we will reach the finish line.

Why? Because knowing God is the goal of creation and through him to know all things: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14).

Ezekiel associates the restored knowledge of God with future redemption and cosmic renovation. “They shall know that I am the Lord when: I break the bars of their yoke, deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them (36:11). Or, “They shall know that I am the Lord when: the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land” (34:27). At that time God’s people will know with certainty their true identity, for “they shall know that I am the Lord their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people” (34:30).

In Jeremiah the Lord pledges divine enablement to know him. “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart” (24:7). More significantly, God proclaims an entirely new relationship with his people based upon a new covenant that enables a universal knowledge of God: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord” (31:33b–34a).

It is essential that the agent of insight, understanding, and knowledge is none other than promised Messiah, Jesus Christ. Isaiah stated that: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” (11:1–2)

Finally, the Messiah will fulfill Adam’s broken mandate (Gen 1:28). He will “work and keep” God’s creation (2:15), bringing order, beauty, safety, and purity, and productivity to the entire earth. He lives forever because he gains all knowledge and wisdom from the only authenticated course, God himself. The “last Adam,” Christ (1 Cor 15:45), will not fail as the first Adam or Israel or the church, for he will reject all knowing apart from listening to and obeying God. And, most importantly, all this will be accomplished because (“for”) “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

This is our finish line and the end of our marathon―knowing God.