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DISCOVERING THE TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH
By
Lawrence Walkup
The most radical statement that Jesus ever made that encompasses all...is John 14:6..."I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." As C. S. Lewis says in my own paraphrase: We are left with no other options but to believe this is true or believe that Jesus was an insane human being that died for a lie. Therefore it really is easy to believe in him or not believe in him. How fitting and amazing it is that the very first words out of Jesus' mouth when he started his ministry was to quote the word of God that existed at the time...the Old Testament (Luke 4:4). His first priority above anything else was to establish and validate the Word of God at face value. For this was his authority for why he even existed. For this was his bases and authority for all that he would do. The lesson for us is that we too hold the Word of God with the same regard. We who are Christians take at face value the Bible as the infallible word of God not because it can be proven, but because Jesus said it was. And because Jesus is God, that is all we need to know.
When the Bible says that God created man in his image; that means when Adam was created with a body soul and spirit, it was the spiritual part of Adam in which God resided with his Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:26; 1 Thess. 5:23; Rom. 8:16). Another reason we take at face value the word of God is because it is a book that feeds our soul and spirit...two entities of which we know nothing about really (Heb. 4:12; 1 Pet. 2:2). And this is why in our relationship with God, faith is required on this side of heaven. We know a lot about the physical part of man. How many medical schools must there be in the world? Adam was created with God indwelling him. When God looked down upon Adam he saw the image of himself. When Adam sinned, it was at that moment that the life of God departed from Adam. God had told Adam that if he did not obey, he would surely die (Gen 2:17). Adam did not die physically, but spiritually. This is what has been passed down to every man born after Adam...spiritual death (Rom. 5:12).
Now since Adam, man is no longer created in the image of God. He is now born in the image of his father before him (Gen 5:3). The reason why Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit was so that the sinful nature resulting in spiritual death would not be passed down to him. Evidently the sinful nature that results in spiritual death is passed down through the father. Man has inherited a life void of the life of God; and Jesus has come to restore what man has lost. This is why it makes perfect sense when Jesus says he has come that we might have life (John 10:10). When Jesus says that a man must be born again; we are getting a second chance at starting over again with the life of God (John 3:7). This is the essence of what salvation is all about...life (Rom 5:10). The life of Jesus is being offered by God the Father to the entire world (John 3:16). For at this point in time the life of Jesus is still available to be received. This point in time is God's period of grace...and there is a designated time known only by the Father when it ends (Mark 13:32).
Even though the word Christianity is not even in the Bible; it is the very first religion of the world. It was already in the works at the fall of man (Gen 3:15). Everything else came after Christianity. Of course it would. What other sole purpose would the god of this world have, but to distract from the truth? So let's come up with a bunch of counterfeits. Christianity is not even a religion. It is the truth. The connotation of what the word has become is to be grouped in with all the other religions of the world. What man has done throughout his history under the influence of Satan is to make everything confusing through the establishment of all the religious systems of the world. Remember when John the Baptist referred to the Pharisees and Saducees as a brood of vipers (Matt. 3:7)? Who else in Scripture is a snake? One of the definitions of the word brood is: The children in a family. In John 8:44 Jesus speaks directly to the Pharisees and tells them that they are the children of their father...the devil. I submit to you that the head of every religious system in the world is their father...the devil. And so just as the religious leaders of Jesus' time were blinded to this truth, so are the religious leaders of today blinded to the same truth. If lost man wants to discover the truth, he needs to go back to the original.
The very first dealings of God with man of course starts with Adam and Eve who were created by him. Everyone after them are born into the world. You could say that God who is the manufacturer of the product is the one who knows what's best for the product. What is best for man is to do what God says to do. God doesn't tell us what to do to in order to restrict us; but he tells us what to do in order to live the most fulfilled life. The arrogancy of fallen man thinks he knows what's best for him. And really in a nut shell, this is the entirety of what all of the Old Testament is about, as far as in regards to man. One word can sum up the Old Testament...failure. Here is the pattern of the Old Testament: 'And again the people did evil in the sight of the Lord...And again the people did evil in the sight of the Lord.' The people of Israel were constantly in and out of good standing with God throughout their entire history. Most of the time they were in bad standing.
The law was given to them not for the purpose of necessarily keeping it (as we find out by the Apostle in Romans), but for the purpose of first receiving a revelation of what God himself is like, and then second, to find out exactly what our problem is (Rom. 3:20; 7:6-7). A problem cannot be fixed or resolved until it is first identified. The problem of the sin of man is resolved through faith (Rom. 5:1; Gal. 3:11). For the Israelites, it is understandable that it would be hard for them to exercise faith in a single event coming in the future that would deal with their sin problem. Of course they really didn't have to know of the event. They just needed to put faith in God period. Jesus' death, burial and resurrection would reach back in time and be their saving faith...just as it does for us today reaching forward in time (Heb. 9:25-26; 10:14).
The Old Testament really gets a lot of abuse from lost man. He really has a hard time with the God of the Old Testament requiring perfection from us. That's why it is so easy for them to make the choice not to believe. Their heart condems them for what they do wrong, and they cannot escape that, but instead of looking to the owner's manual from the manufacturer; they come up with their own reasons to explain their condition...resulting in never resolving the condition (John 3:18; Rom. 2:14-15; 1 John 3:19-21). Jesus being conceived by the Holy Spirit made him the perfect sacrifice of a man that God required. It is really too bad that lost man cannot get passed his religious prejudices and misconceptions to see what Jesus has done for him. That he cannot get passed the fear of the preconceived notion that he would be labeled as one who all of a sudden...'got religion.'
The lost progressive man in his mind really thinks he is moving into greater things for the betterment of mankind by getting further and further away from the archaic religous stuff that the neanderthals still hold dear. I agree. Get away from the religious stuff because there is plenty of it. But don't be so disillusioned into believing you are on the side that is right because of the great numbers that are joining your bandwagon. Jesus has already told us that only a few will find the truth as oppsossed to the many that will be on the road to destruction (Matt. 7:13-14). At least be honest with yourself and make a serious attempt to find the truth. The author of his most famous book: Evidence that Demands a Verdict...Josh McDowell, initially made a serious attempt to examine the historical evidence of the Christian faith in order to disprove it. However, he converted to Christianity after he found evidence for it, not against it.
Free choice is a wonderful thing that God has given us. The result of all that has happened in our lives has come from the good or bad choices we have made. We can experience as much of God as we want to. It has no limit. It is just a matter of choosing to go down that road. Remember the story of Jesus and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. This was after the resurrection but before Jesus ascended. Jesus walked with these two disciples, but they were kept from recognizing who he was. 'He said to them, "How foolish you are, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther' (Luke 24: 25-28). Jesus acted because God does not force us to want him. We have to make the choice to want him and that is what he wants from us. That means the world to him to freely choose him. Those two disciples made the choice that Jesus wanted to hear. They urged him strongly to stay with them (verse 29). They urged him strongly because Jesus is just too irresistible.
Notice further into the story that their hearts were burning within them while he talked with them on the road and opened the Scriptures to them (verse 32). We as Christians all know the experience of our hearts burning within us when God opens up the Scriptures to us. The Scriptures that feed our soul and spirit with such overwhelming fulfillment. What we are experiencing is the love of God because we are experiencing God. The love of God that has no end. In Ephesians the Apostle prays for us that we would grasp the love of God. He says: "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us"(Eph. 3: 16-20). God is so good to us! It is unimaginable the life that we can live!
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