“…just as truth
is in Jesus…” (Eph. 4:21).
“Jesus said to
him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but
through Me.” (John 14:6).
“But an hour is
coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit
and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” (John 4:23).
While we see many
refractions of truth, some clearer than others, we only see the Truth in its
purity and fulness in Jesus Christ, for it is only in Jesus Christ that we see
“God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God” (from the Nicene Creed).
Knowing the
Bible is not enough, we can know the Bible, we can know our confessions and
catechisms, we can know our statements of faith; and not know Jesus Christ, or
we can know Him as infants rather than as mature men and women in Him. Knowing
what is called “propositional truth” is not enough, having a “Christian”
worldview is not enough; we must know Jesus Christ.
The scribes and
Pharisees knew the Scriptures, yet Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures
because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify
about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.” (John
5:39 – 40).
Jesus says, “It
is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have
spoken to you are spirit and are life.” (John 6:63). We can know what the Bible
says and yet not know what the Bible says if the Holy Spirit does not make
Christ alive to us through the Scriptures (see 1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:16 for Paul’s treatment
of Biblical epistemology – of how we “know” the things of God). We can know the
Scriptures according to “the flesh” or we can know the Scriptures through the
Holy Spirit. We can say the right things and yet not know life in the Holy
Spirit.
We can dot our
theological “i”s and cross our theological “t”s and yet not live life in Jesus
Christ, or again, we can be living as infants and not mature men and women. We can say the truth in the sense of saying
things that are true, but not live in the Truth, not live in the Person of
Jesus Christ. Consider what John Owen writes:
“Whatever
notional knowledge men may have of divine truths, as they are doctrinally
proposed in the Scripture, yet – if they know them not in their respect of
Christ as the foundation of the counsels of God – if they discern not how they
proceed from him, and centre in him – they will bring no spiritual, saving
light unto their understanding. For all spiritual life and light is in him, and
from him alone.” John Owen, Christologia: Learning About Christ, Kindle
edition, location 1885.
Owen is saying
that if our knowledge is not centered in Jesus Christ that our understanding
will remain in darkness, we will not have “saving light” in our understanding. In
Acts 13:27 Paul points out that the people of Jerusalem and their rulers did
not recognize the Messiah “nor the voices of the prophets which are read every
Sabbath.” Consider the image of people attending church every week, year after
year, and hearing the Scriptures read to them week after week, and yet not
“hearing the voice” of the Word, not seeing Messiah, the Christ. As Jesus says,
“the flesh profits nothing.”
Dear friends, is
this a picture of the professing church today? Are we seeking the illumination
of the Holy Spirit as we read and ponder the Scriptures, or are we trusting in
our natural human resources in our exegesis, teaching, and preaching? Do we
fear the danger of trusting in ourselves?
As the Pharisees
and scribes demonstrated, the Bible without the illumination of the Holy Spirit
will profit us nothing, in fact, it may even be a danger for it raises our
level of accountability - for to whom much is given, much is required. Unenlightened
knowledge can deceive us into thinking we know something when we know nothing. Right
doctrine does not produce right living, for right doctrine separated from the
Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ results in scribal Christianity – a tragedy in
that, like the rich young ruler, we can be so close to the Kingdom of God…and
yet so far away.
The Scriptures
are like the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz. We can either “see” the
Scriptures in black and white, as the first portion of the movie was filmed, or
we can “see” the Scriptures exploding in Technicolor, as the greater part of
the movie was filmed. Of course, we can be further like the movie in that the
film reverts to black and white in the end, with Dorothy and the others
thinking that it was only a dream as a result of being hit on the head. This is
like the pull of scribal Christianity when one of its members experiences the
power and joy and illumination of the Holy Spirit – it wants us to think it was
only a dream, not real, and that we need to come back and live in the religious
world of black and white.
When the Word of
God is illuminated within us we see the glory of the Word, the glory of Jesus, “glory
as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14); we
receive from His fulness, and “grace upon grace” (John 1:16). When the Word is
living within us, we are partakers of the Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4) and we
experience koinonia with the Trinity and God’s People (1 John 1:3).
“…if indeed you
have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus” (Eph.
4:21).
Are we hearing Christ?
Are we being taught in Christ?
It is one thing
to read words…it is another thing to hear them.
What are we
hearing today?
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