Jesus' Impression On Men

"The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ"  (John 1:17, NIV).
Jesus said, "He who is of the truth hears My voice."

No matter who Jesus talked to He left a deep impression as the personification and embodiment of truth, enlightening everyone along His path.  Pilate asked the question, "What is truth?" (John 18:38). He was a little ahead of his time, as people in this postmodern era echo similar queries. They teach us today that you can know nothing for certain, and they are certain of that one truth!  Just saying, "Truth is relative" has little truth-value, since it is also relative, that's a truth claim.  If some posit that something is only relative, just inquire of them, "Relative to what, to you?" or "Is that statement relative?"   In antiquity, there was no worldwide or international truth that was accepted because each nation or peoples seemed to have their own gods and their own turfs where they reigned.  Romans let the locals have their own gods, especially the Jews, to whom they acted in deference to their laws and traditions, such as no images on coins.

"If there is no God, all things [including truth itself,] are up for grabs," and truth is a meaningless concept indeed (as Dostoyevsky said).  Actually, truth is what God decrees and agrees with Him. Francis Schaeffer called God's Word "true truth."  God cannot lie and is called the God of truth, while Jesus claimed to be "The Way, the Truth, and the Life." In antiquarian times might was considered right and they had not conceived of monotheism, except in the Jewish world, even though there had been a diaspora or dispersion of Jews being scattered around the known world.

One cannot arrive at the truth unless one admits his ignorance and that he could be wrong. Many searchers for truth never find it because they've got their minds made up and don't want to be confused with the facts.  The truth of the Bible is not something we would've imagined or thought up on our own, but it is revealed truth--we postulate that the veracity of the Bible is at stake in our dependence on supernaturally revealed and inspired truth.

Pilate didn't perceive Jesus as any threat to Caesar until the weak-willed, wishy-washy procurator was blackmailed into crucifying the Lord of glory.   It was obvious to him that the Pharisees were jealous of His popularity and were trying to keep job security and protect their turf.  Even Herod saw Jesus as nothing more than a dreamer, bumpkin, or magician that was no threat.  Herod and Pilate became friends that day on their mutual convictions.

No one is the same after an encounter with Jesus, he is transformed or hardened, there is no neutral territory or reaction.  When Jesus wanted to make a pronouncement, He said, "Amen, amen!" which means "Verily, verily, I say unto you."  It introduces a vital truth not to be ignored.  Jesus would say, "You have heard it said, but I say unto you" to shock them out of their comfort zones and as a spiritual wake-up call reminding them of His identity and credentials that matched.   Jesus didn't bother to footnote His sermons by quoting the rabbis as the Pharisees had done (i.e., the "Rabbi So-and-So says this" formula!"). He never "prefaced" his decrees as the prophets did ("Thus saith the LORD, etc. which is not self-attesting) and is not known to have quoted anyone.  It was known that Jesus spoke as one who had authority no by authority (cf. Matt. 7:29).

Jesus is the highest authority and to rely on someone to prove someone compromises this trait.  Jesus spoke of His own authority and like no other man before Him.  They were also unable to withstand His wisdom and He was so able to answer all their questions, that they dared no ask anymore.  If Jesus had quoted people, He would not have been coming in His own authority, speaking on the Father's behalf, but would have been a scholar offering opinions.  Jesus only said what the Father told Him to say.

Absolute Truth with a capital T does indeed exist and we can encounter it and have a relationship with it by knowing Christ as our Lord and Savior.   Statements can be true, and logical conclusions can be valid, but only God's Word can be called truth.  Jesus told Pilate that he who is of the truth hears Him.  Things that are wrong in the Bible are still wrong and haven't evolved with the times to be right in today's modern age.  If something is wrong, it is always and everywhere wrong. Something is objectively true whether one believes it or not and believing something doesn't make it true, nor denying it makes it false!  Man cannot achieve total objectivity apart from revelation from God.

Jesus is the source of all wisdom and knowledge and Proverbs 1:7 says, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge."   It is not a matter of some people having faith and others having facts. It's not faith vs. reason, but faith vs. faith (faith in science is still faith).   All knowledge begins in faith and assuming something you can't prove--you just decide which set of propositions you are willing to accept as a foundation to your thinking and mental outlook or belief system. Augustine of Hippo said that all knowledge begins in faith and "I believe in order to understand."  He also said that all truth is God's truth, and Thomas Aquinas added that all truth meets at the top.

It has been wisely said that nature forms, sin deforms, education informs, prison reforms, but Christ transforms.   Jesus said that we shall know the truth and the truth shall set us free and He is not talking about knowledge of facts or education, but of knowing the truth in Him and being set free by it--only Jesus can set a soul free from its bondage to sin.  Jesus is still in the business of changing lives and God is still in the resurrection business, and the Bible is not for increasing our knowledge but transforming our lives as the living Word of God.  However, "to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge" is the key to victory and assurance (cf. Eph. 3:19).  Soli Deo Gloria!

A Dangerous Knowledge

You've probably heard it wisely said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.  Some people also know enough to be dangerous, especially knowledge of the Bible.  No one has a monopoly on the truth and can speak for the Church ex-cathedra all by himself, of his own authority--the Bible is the sole authority and arbiter of truth.  We must be careful not to acquire an exclusive mindset and think we have arrived at the truth that no one else knows--that they need to be clued in or privy to it. The Gnostics were one of the original cults who thought along these lines.  The Bible doesn't beat around the bush as to the way of salvation and requires no secrets.  No one has cornered the market on truth and can say that they are right and everyone else is wrong if they don't join their church or sect.  We still see some churches with this Bible-club mentality today as they cling to one translation and call themselves "King James-only" readers.

We've got to be careful not to think that because we are better informed that we are a cut above other Christians.  Ignorance isn't bliss (Proverbs 24:5 says that "a man of knowledge enhances his might" (ESV) and Sir Francis Bacon also said, "Knowledge is power."), but knowledge can puff up according to 1 Cor. 8:1.  No church has exclusive rights to your mind and you don't stop questioning authority or give up thinking when you join a church but are advised to be as noble as the Bereans of Acts 17:11 who searched the Scriptures to see if the things were so that Paul preached.

Knowledge should not be an end in itself but have purpose and application, or it leads to arrogance, and, worse yet, intolerance of those with other views.  Remember the dictum of Augustine:  "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity."  We are never to judge our brother solely because we disagree with him on a questionable or disputable doctrine--agree to disagree and disagree without being disagreeable.  We need biblical savvy, however, to confront error and heresy in the church (and this polemic fight is not popular in today's church). In the last days, many will bail out theologically according to 1 Tim. 4:1.  The best line of defense against being led astray is to have a sound foundation in doctrine and not to drink of only one fountain or preacher, so to speak--get other opinions and views and don't bail out theologically, but learn to "contend for the faith" (cf. Jude 3, ESV).

Hosea said, "My people perish for lack of knowledge" (cf. Hos. 4:6).  In v. 14 he says, "[A]nd a people without understanding shall come to ruin" (ESV).  Also:  "Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge" (Isa. 5:13, ESV).  God puts no premium on ignorance and "fools despise wisdom and instruction" (cf. Prov. 1:7, ESV).  Doctrine is not mumbo-jumbo gobbledygook but all Scripture is profitable for it; another name for it is teaching or what the Bible teaches about a subject. I'm hoping to whet your appetite so that you will realize that doctrine gives a point of view or a frame of reference to interpret things.  We must know the scoop, the lowdown, or the skinny, as it were, and be in the know, theologically, to be protected from the onslaught of the doctrines of demons--going on to maturity and leaving the elementary doctrines of faith and repentance per Heb. 6:1.

In summation, beware the brother who is overconfident in his superficial knowledge of the Bible and becomes contentious, judgmental, argumentative, or divisive.  Education is really going from an unconscious to a conscious awareness of our ignorance, and the more we learn the more humble we ought to be.   

We all need to know the scoop, the lowdown, or the skinny in the world of theology to navigate faithfully through the Word, i.e., to know our way around the block in the Word with correct interpretation and application. In the last days, according to 2 Tim. 4:3, many will bail out theologically, and 1 Tim. 4:1 says even believers will give heed to seducing spirits, or doctrines of demons.

Today's Eastern philosophy predominates with the New Age (the Age of Aquarius) and its many Buddhist and Hindu applications are stealing people away from the truth of Scripture by an experience with the occult or Eastern religion. We need to be informed of a balance of doctrine and know what we believe (the problem with today's youth is that they largely don't know what or why they believe). A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing and when we think we've cornered the market or have an exclusive mindset (no one has a monopoly or has all the truth!) or if we seek knowledge for its own sake, we've misused it. Knowledge must not remain theoretical but must have an application and become real to the person's experience.

Not many are mighty in the Scriptures, but we all need to train to show ourselves approved unto God (cf. 1 Pet. 3:15). The Bible warns that "knowledge puffs up!" (Cf. 1 Cor. 8:1). One of God's peeves is that man perishes through lack of knowledge or ignorance (cf. Hos. 4:6). Ignorance is not bliss, but it binds you and opens you up to being led astray. Don't you sometimes just thirst for the unadulterated truth of God: sometimes there's no knowledge of God in the land as Hos 4:1 says.

The biggest error Christians have in acquiring knowledge is to be over-influenced by one teacher and drink of only one fountain, as it were--this is a good way to lose perspective and to be led into error. Indeed, there are Christians who are like bulls in china shops, or more accurately, like Dennis the Menace! Their middle name is trouble and their head knowledge is way above their application of it.

How Big is Your God?

A recent book by J.B. Phillips, Your God Is Too Small, was popular in Christian circles a while back and it was concerned with the fact of confining or defining God and putting Him into a box or limit as if we can analyze Him to spec.  God is without definition or limit and is infinite as the Greeks said, "The finite cannot grasp the infinite."  This is called the profundity or incomprehensibility of God and we will never fully know Him throughout all eternity simply because we are finite creatures.  There is always more than we can apprehend.  What can be known, however, is given us in the person of Christ.  Christianity is a revealed religion, not speculation or imagination, myth or fable, but history and revelation in the incarnation of God Himself.  All that we know about God is in the Scriptures, not in our own fabrications or subjectivism.

C. H. Spurgeon said, "The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father." We cannot plumb the depths of God.  He goes on:  "Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity." He says nothing so humbles the mind!  If we have a high opinion of ourselves, then our idea of God must consequently be small.

In The Knowledge of the Holy, by A. W. Tozer, he entertains the idea that an "inadequate view of God is actually idolatry."  We gravitate toward our image of God and our worship is no deeper than our understanding and concept of Him.  C. H. Spurgeon said that nothing so humbles the mind of man than thoughts of God--it boggles the mind and is a mental gymnastic workout that blows your self-perceived concepts away. The query is not what can we imagine of God to be, but what He has revealed of Himself.  Thales, the first of the Greek philosophers, was asked to describe God, and he couldn't!  Eventually, Greeks said He had to be immutable, immaterial, and eternal or undefined by time.

There is only one necessary being in the cosmos, and that is God; we are not necessary for the existence of the cosmos, because we don't sustain it and didn't create it.  The Greek philosophers also described Him as the first cause, or the unmoved mover, because something or someone had to be behind it all and get the ball rolling.  Nothing happens by itself or can be its own cause, according to the fundamental law of causality, or cause and effect.  God is not an effect and needs no cause and that is why He is eternal. However, we cannot know what God is like personally unless He chooses to show Himself in person and reveal His propositional truth.

It is important to have a big God because we have big problems and we must have the faith that our God can meet them all.  No situation is too big a problem for God!  Everything is small to Him and nothing is too trivial either because of that fact.  It takes great faith in a great God to meet these desperate times, but it isn't so vital how big your faith is, but in whom it is--the object of the faith.  It is better to have small faith in the right God who is great, than a big faith in a false God.  The bigger our faith the more we can accomplish with God as our partner, because Christ said, "... 'According to your faith be it done unto you'" (Matt. 9:29, ESV).

It is important to note that we are not judged by our faith, which is a gift of God (cf. Rom. 12:3) and we are stewards of this faith to produce fruit, or it is a dead faith.  Men of old were approved by their faith (in what they did with it), as we see throughout Hebrews 11.  We are judged according to our deeds done in the body as to whether they deserve a reward (our sins have been dealt with on the cross and are paid for in full).   "He will render to each according to his works"  (Rom. 2:6, ESV).  The hall of faith in Hebrews 11 mentions that these saints were commended for their faith, but note that it was faith in action that mattered;  "By faith Abraham obeyed ...."   Anyone can say they have faith, but the faith you have is the faith you show!  Jesus rebuked the disciples for their small faith, but at least that is better than no faith.  He also said it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains.  To move a mountain, so to speak, we need a big God who has power over everything, or who is almighty.  God is plenipotent or omnipotent, as theologians say.  Nothing is a problem, hassle, or a big deal to God, you might say.

Thoughts of God are meant to humble the mind because we will never grasp Him fully.  When we say things like, "I like to think of God as a kind, old, sentimental grandfather who dotes on his grandchildren, even spoiling them," I am putting God in some prefabricated box and making Him out as one-dimensional.  While we live in four dimensions of the space-time continuum, God may live in many more than that.  We can also do this by believing He is primarily a cosmic killjoy, kind Father Time, a mean judge, the man upstairs, the Great Spirit in the sky, cosmic energy or force, or even a genie who gives us our wishes in prayer.  We must not limit God in this way, but must see the whole picture as revealed in Scripture, and put God into the full equation of our reality. Having a biblical conception of God will give faith in any circumstance and be big enough for any problem we encounter without being unbalanced.

Will Durant, a historian, has said that the "greatest question of our time is whether man can live without God."  Solzhenitsyn has said that man has forgotten God!  We must put God into the calculus to live right and any worldview without Him is bleak and gives man no dignity:  Without God we are nothing; with God, we have extrinsic dignity, being created in the image of God, and not being glorified algae that came to life by some fluke of nature.  If we don't have a big God we have a small image of ourselves and the answers to the questions:  How did I get here?  Why am I here? and Where am I going? go unanswered and man has no purpose and meaning in life but to avoid pain and seek pleasure as animals in heat.  And so there is value in knowing God:  We can truly know ourselves because the God who tells us what He is like in the Bible tells us what we are like too.            Soli Deo Gloria!