The New Covenant provides access to God so that those making it are no longer cut off and can come to know Him. Eternal life consists of knowing God. God must also get to know us through obedient submission to His requirements. Those who are lawless will not be known by God. Knowing God begins with learning things about Him and continues by experiencing life with Him through study, prayer, meditation, and obedience. This process changes external knowledge into intimate acquaintance with His character, personality, genius, artistry, and power. God does not want mere information about Himself but rather a familiar relationship involving loving intercourse with Him.

Many claim to know God, but the vital question remains: does God know you? In the parables of Jesus, He often speaks of those who call out, "Lord, Lord," yet face disappointment, hearing Him say, "I do not know you" or "I never knew you." Though God knows everything, including their names and deeds, His statement reflects a lack of intimate relationship with them. The word "know" in this context, such as the Greek term "ginosko," signifies deep intimacy, akin to the bond between husband and wife, or the bridegroom and bride, as seen in the imagery of Christ and His followers. This intimacy implies a familiarity with a person's character, preferences, hopes, and dreams. When Jesus declares, "I never knew you," to those who thought they knew God, He indicates that no such close bond existed with them, as they were workers of lawlessness and unrighteousness. God reveals His nature as one of lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, delighting in these traits. He is loving, merciful, compassionate, kind, and longsuffering, yet also just, fair, and unwavering in His standards. These characteristics define who He is, and they are what He desires us to understand about Him. To truly know God, and for Him to know us, we must reflect these traits, practicing righteousness, exercising lovingkindness, and maintaining proper judgment. Those whom God knows are those who strive to be obedient to Him, growing in His love and not practicing sin. Though we may falter, God lifts us up, corrects us, and sets us back on the path of righteousness. By living in this way, we can be assured that we know God, and He knows us, as we make every effort to enter through the narrow gate.

God, in His sovereignty, knows us intimately and has foreknown us before we were called. He predestines some to eternal life, appointing them to believe, as seen in Acts 13:48 where only those ordained to eternal life believed. This divine appointment is not based on any inherent quality or merit within us, but solely on His will and choice. He summons and separates us from others, revealing Himself and His way through His Spirit, a process that underscores His initiative in our relationship with Him. His foreknowledge and predestination are evident in Romans 8:29-30, where those He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, called, justified, and glorified. This process is entirely His action, not ours, as He adapts our minds to eternal life and enables us to believe through the gift of faith. As shown in I Corinthians 1:26-29, He chooses the foolish, weak, and base things of the world, not the wise or mighty, to ensure that no flesh glories in His presence. God's knowing of us is a deep, intimate connection, reflected in scriptures like I Corinthians 8:3 and Galatians 4:9, where those who love Him are known by Him. Conversely, in Matthew 7:21-23, He declares to some, "I never knew you," indicating a lack of intimate relationship. This knowing is not a result of our seeking Him, for none seek Him on their own, but because He first reveals Himself to us, choosing us out of the same lump of humanity to be vessels of mercy, as described in Romans 9:21-24. His will is that none should perish, as stated in II Peter 3:9, yet He does not predestine every act of our lives, allowing for free moral agency. We must work out our salvation with fear and trembling, as in Philippians 2:12-13, where He works in us to will and to do His good pleasure, providing both the desire and the power to accomplish His will. This relationship, initiated by His love and choice, calls us to respond in humility, gratitude, and obedience to the sovereign Creator who has made us the special object of His love at this time.

The relationship between God and His people rests fundamentally on the reality that He knows each individual personally and intimately, not merely as part of a collective body. This truth is essential to understanding why anyone has the opportunity to be part of the church and to look forward to participation in the Millennium. Psalm 10:4 illustrates that what separates the converted from the unconverted is precisely this relationship: the wicked gives God no thought because no relationship exists between them, whereas God has already "broken the ice" with His called ones through Jesus Christ, establishing a basis for ongoing communication and trust. Salvation, by God's own standard, can only be given to those who live by faith—not mere intellectual agreement with His Word, but a demonstrated trust that flows from genuinely knowing Him and being known by Him. This personal knowledge is not limited to God's dealings with the church as a whole; He is as interested in each individual as He is in the entire body, attending to every detail in the life of every part, much as a human body's trillion cells each remain within its awareness. Hebrews 13:5 affirms that He will never leave nor forsake His people. Deuteronomy 7:6 describes Israel as a "special treasure," a term indicating something valuable, deliberately set apart, and treated with particular attention and emotional care—not coldly or carelessly. First Peter 2:9 reinforces this by identifying believers as "His own special people" in New Testament terms. Malachi 3:17 sharpens this further by speaking of "jewels" in the plural, individually treasured and spared as a man spares his own son—demonstrating that God's care extends to particular persons, not merely to a generalized mass. John 10 deepens this picture through the imagery of the good shepherd, who calls his own sheep by name and knows them personally, just as he is known by them. This is not casual acquaintance but particular, individual knowledge. The implication is that one's name is not unknown to God; being called into His truth was a personal and directed act, not a random inclusion within an anonymous flock. This personal knowing is further illustrated through the account of Isaac's birth, which was wholly God's miraculous work rather than human effort, and through God's election of Jacob over Esau while both were still in the womb, before either had done anything good or evil. This election was based solely on God's own choice, not on any merit or influence from the individuals themselves, serving as a permanent witness that everyone called by God was chosen personally and individually by Him. Recognizing that the Creator hand-picked each believer, loving them as He loves His own Son, is meant to dismantle feelings of insignificance and build confidence, peace, and security, while also calling for individual effort to know Him more fully in return—since eternal life itself is defined as knowing Him intimately.