The known unknown

Matthew 6

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon

earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and

where thieves break through and steal:

20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,

where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and

where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21 For where your treasure is, there will your

heart be also.


There are some things we know that we don't know

anything about and there are some things we don't

know that we don't know anything about. Some

would say that it's presumptuous to claim that

you are in a state of grace, or in common terms,

that you are 'saved' and you are going to heaven.

They would say that you can't know for sure

whether you are 'going to heaven' or not. They

would say that we can't know for sure.


I'll admit that there are things unknown, things

that can't be known. But I'd say that there are

also things that we can know, about what we don't

know completely. We can know something about what

we don't know. And that's a starting point.


You see, if you don't know, if you don't have any

idea about the things that you don't know, then

you are set up for being fooled again. But you

have an advantage by knowing what you don't know.

Or in the immortal words of Dirty Harry, A man's

got to know his limitations.


"...Asked if she knew she was in God's grace, she

answered: 'If I am not, may G-d put me there; and

if I am, may G-d so keep me.'" The question is a

scholarly trap. Church doctrine held that no one

could be certain of being in God's grace. If she

had answered yes, then she would have convicted

herself of heresy. If she had answered no, then

she would have confessed her own guilt..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc


Joan of Arc answered the question well during the

course of her mock trial for heresy. The focus

of her response lies in the action of Providence

rather than the action of herself. She's saying,

in effect, that there's really nothing that I can

do in order to obtain Divine favor. The grace

that I've received has been given based on no

merit of my own. She knew about what she was not

able to know -- whether or not what she had

experienced was 'salvation', only that the exact

knowledge of her soul's destiny was in the hands

of Providence.


In my own view, this is exactly what occurs in

the course of salvation. That we come to the

place in our knowledge that we realize our only

hope of grace is to place ourselves into the

position of trusting in Jesus as our only hope,

rather than hoping to rely on our merit.


That brings me to the next point. From here we

exercise faith in the hope that we are 'saved'.

In the words of scripture, '...if thou shalt

confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt

believe in thine heart that G-d hath raised him

from the dead, thou shalt be saved...' Romans

10:9 What we can know is what we find in the

text of scripture. What we can't know is what

lies beyond this mortal existence. We can only

rely on the message of scripture and know that

the unknown is beyond our reach.


But I think we find a clue in the words of Jesus

taken from the three verses above. He said,

where your treasure is, there will your heart be

also. What we can know, to a certain degree is

where the affections of our heart lie. If we

find that our heart is drawn in by the

enticements of this world and the modern world

system, then we might expect that our treasure is

not in heaven, with the implication that heaven

is not our final destination. If on the other

hand, we find that this world holds little

appeal, and we find our heart longing for a

better place, then our heart is telling us that

we treasure the promise of heaven. The most

explicit clue is when we find that our heart

longs to know Jesus -- the treasure of heaven,

and the greatest of the known unknowns.