Not of This World

"O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me." (John 17:25 ESV)

In Christ's high priestly prayer, He acknowledges a fundamental truth that illuminates the meaning of Christmas: "the world does not know you." Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones observes that this statement explains why the incarnation was necessary and why it remains widely misunderstood.

Lloyd-Jones emphasizes that humanity's fundamental problem lies deeper than moral failure or social dysfunction. Our core dilemma is epistemological—we do not know God. Though created for communion with our Maker, sin has severed that relationship, leaving us alienated from the Source of wisdom, goodness, and truth. Christ's words "the world does not know you" diagnose our condition with painful accuracy.

The phrase "I know you" highlights Christ's unique qualification as mediator between God and humanity. Because He knows the Father perfectly—having existed in eternal communion with Him—Jesus can reveal God authoritatively to those who do not know Him. The incarnation represents God's response to human ignorance—not merely sending a message but becoming the Message.

Lloyd-Jones observes that Christmas confronts our spiritual blindness. Like the innkeeper who had no room, like Herod who perceived only threat, like the religious leaders who remained indifferent despite their knowledge of prophecy—humanity consistently misses God's self-revelation. "He was in the world... yet the world did not know him" (John 1:10).

The expression "these know that you have sent me" identifies those who recognize Christ's true identity. Lloyd-Jones emphasizes that genuine faith begins with acknowledging Jesus as God's authorized representative—the sent One. Christmas celebrates not merely a birth but a sending, not merely an arrival but a mission.

This sending separates Jesus fundamentally from all other religious figures. He does not represent human wisdom about God but God's wisdom for humanity. He comes not from below but from above, not from earth but from heaven, not from human imagination but divine initiative.

This Christmas, consider whether you truly know God or merely know about Him. Intellectual knowledge of theological propositions, biblical stories, or religious traditions cannot substitute for personal knowledge of God through Christ. The purpose of the incarnation extends beyond providing information about God to facilitating relationship with God.

Christ came that those who "do not know" might come to know—not abstractly but intimately, not theoretically but experientially, not partially but fully. The baby in the manger represents God's determination to be known by His creation. Through Him, those once alienated can approach the righteous Father with confidence and joy.