Tag Archives: truth

Truth Is Intolerant

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TRUTH IS INTOLERANT

“Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.'” John 14:5-7 NIV.

Sensible question, Thomas!

Jesus had been talking about going away, and yet He had not clearly stated where He was going. Did He assume that they would know what He was talking about? His thoughts and words were on a different level from theirs. Unless He told them, they would surely get it wrong again.

By the way, one thing about Thomas, although for some erroneous reason he got the name “Doubting Thomas”, was that he was honest. This time it wasn’t Peter blurting out his thoughts, but Thomas asking an honest question. If Jesus did not tell them, how were they supposed to know where He was going and why they could not go with Him?

Although He seemed to be speaking in riddles, if they had taken in what He kept telling them, they would have realized that He was once again referring to His death. It took Thomas’ question for Jesus to make the statement that gives all believers the security of knowing that their faith in Jesus alone ensures that they will get to the Father.

It also earns for Christianity the adjective ‘intolerant’ from all the other religions that claim that all roads lead to God. ‘It’s just a different name for God and a different way of looking at things.’ Of course the devil would have people believe that their man-made way is okay because he is behind the false religions and heresies that deny that Jesus is the only way. He will do whatever it takes to deceive people into thinking they are worshipping the true God.

Why is Jesus the only way to the Father?

Sin broke the oneness between God and His human family and barred the way to Him from the first moment when Adam and Eve chose to believe that it was okay to do things their way. God taught His people through the sacrificial system that sin demanded the shedding of blood to pay the debt we owe Him. Animal blood was shed as a picture of the death of God’s pure and sinless lamb, His own beloved Son, whom He would send to live a perfect human life and then be sacrificed as the atonement for the sin of the world.

How can there be any other way to remove the barrier between man and God? The debt of sin is unpayable. Even if we were to obey God perfectly from now on, which is impossible, what of the debt of our past? Because He had no sin of His own, Jesus took the debt of all people for all time on Himself and died in our place. He cried out, ‘Finished!’ Paid in full! Cancelled! The debit column of all our sin has been erased, deleted; there is nothing to pay. We are free to approach the Father with confidence because He looks upon us as He looks upon Jesus, pure, spotless and perfect.

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who has promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:19-23 NIV.

If Jesus did that for us at such cost to Himself, how can we risk even thinking that we can add any other way to His way? No! Jesus is the only way to the Father. And the only God who is the true God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the WAY to the Father, He is the TRUTH of everything He said and did, and He is the LIFE that He gives when we embrace Him and His Words and follow His way which takes us to the Father.

The Sounds Of Silence

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THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE 

“‘Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.’

“The Jews answered Him, ‘Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?’

“‘I am not possessed by a demon,’ said Jesus, ‘but I honour my Father and you dishonour me. I am not seeking glory for myself, but there is one who seeks it and He is the judge. Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death,'” John 8:46-51 (NIV)

How difficult it must have been for Jesus to have any kind of discussion with these men! Whatever He said to them was another reason for them to hate Him and to either contradict Him or, if they could not get the better of Him, to attack His character.

What Jesus was saying to them was the truth but they did not have a clue about what He was telling them. It was as though He were speaking a foreign language. Although He was speaking in their language, what He was saying was foreign to them because He was speaking of the things of the Spirit and of the realm of God’s kingdom of which they knew nothing.

Why did Jesus even try to speak to them? Why didn’t He just walk away because it was like speaking to a brick wall? We have to understand that He was giving them every opportunity to hear the truth, whether they understood it or not. There was an important reason for doing this.

“‘If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day.'” John 12:47, 48 (NIV).

Have you ever wondered why the Apostle Paul had to stand before kings? God told Ananias, after Paul’s conversion outside Damascus, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel…'” Acts 9:15 (NIV). Paul proclaimed God’s Word to the Roman governors Festus and Felix and to King Agrippa when he was on trial in Caesarea, and finally to Nero in Rome although none of them believed in Jesus.

It was their reaction to the Word that judged them. Jesus gave the Pharisees every opportunity to respond to His words in faith but they refused and brought the guilt of their sin down on their own heads.

Although Jesus’ words may seem outrageous at times (who would have the audacity to say. “…whoever obeys my word will never see death”?), we have to read them against the backdrop of who spoke them and what evidence He gave that He had the authority to speak like that?

Had they come from any other person, we could dismiss them as the ravings of a madman (which the Pharisees did!). But they could not answer His challenge, “Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?”  Instead they side-stepped His question by accusing Him of being demon-possessed.

But every truth He told them and every offer He made to rescue them from their self-destruction and bring them back into fellowship with the Father was met with rejection and abuse, and served to drive them deeper into their own guilt and condemnation. When they stand before the bar on Judgment Day, the Word will be their judge as it will be the judge of every person who has heard the word and refused to obey.

But what of those who have never heard Jesus’ word? There is another word which every human being has the opportunity to hear: “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — His eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Romans 1:20 (NIV).

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” Psalm 19:1-4a (NIV).

Have you listened to His voice?

Selective Deafness!

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SELECTIVE DEAFNESS! 

“Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.'” John 8:42-43 (NIV).

Now that’s a penetrating question! ‘Why is my language not clear to you?’ There is nothing complicated about the language Jesus used. He was probably speaking Hebrew, and His hearers would have understood His words but there was a reason why they did not understand what He was saying. They were not able to hear what He said.

Their ability to understand was connected to their belief and their choice. They had chosen not to believe that He was speaking the truth and they could therefore not understand what He was saying. They filtered His words through their belief system which was programmed according to a certain expectation — and Jesus did not fit their expectation.

The bottom line was that they did not want to believe Him because it demanded a different way of life. It didn’t suit them because they loved the money and the acclaim they got from their exalted position as religious leaders. If they accepted the truth of what He taught them, they would have to step down from their privileged position and place themselves under His authority, and that was unthinkable!

But there was an even more fundamental problem. “‘You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet, because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me.'” John 8:44, 45(NIV).

Jesus zeroed in on the real reason why they rejected His words. There was no affinity between Him and them because they belonged to a different family. The nature of their source was completely different from His. They were the offspring of the devil because they were acting and speaking just like their father! The fruit reveals the root.

Jesus gave us the clearest thumbnail sketch of the character of Satan. He is a liar, the originator of lies and speaks only the language of lies. Therefore those who imitate him are aligned with him. That does not mean that he gave birth to those who resemble him. That would make it impossible for people to be rescued from slavery to him.

The Apostle Paul, quoting a Greek poet, declared that we are God’s offspring (Acts 17:28); we are God’s children, created in His image with the potential to reflect Him. When the devil lured Eve into disobedience, she was deceived. Adam disobeyed God, gave his allegiance to Satan and dragged the human race into slavery to the devil.

Jesus mounted a rescue from Satan’s dominion by buying us back from the slave market of sin but it demands our choice to walk away from our old master by believing and receiving our new Master, Jesus

Because these religious leaders chose not to accept Jesus’ offer of freedom, they remained under the dominion of their “father”, the devil and therefore could only speak his language — lies.

If we really want to get out of the devil’s clutches and live in the freedom of God’s loving rule, we will have to hate our sin.  As long as we love darkness rather than light because of our evil deeds, we will have the same attitude to Jesus as the scribes and Pharisees had. We will hate Him, reject Him and want to get rid of Him so that we are not accountable to Him.

The lie is that we can do that. We may be able to get away with it in this life, but the day of reckoning is coming when we will have to give an account of what we did with the lives God gave us. No one will escape that day. If we are foolish enough to believe the devil’s lies, we will have to pay the penalty of our foolishness.

Truth is truth. It cannot be tampered with or changed and it will never be destroyed. Jesus said, ‘I am the truth.’ Why not believe Him?

Free To Obey

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FREE TO OBEY

“Even as He spoke, many believed in Him.

“To the Jews who had believed in Him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'” John 8:30-32 (NIV).

Freedom! Is that not what the human race craves? Everyone wants to be free but free from what? What is freedom? Is it freedom to have no boundaries so that I can do as I please? Millions have tried that and found it doesn’t work. In fact, that kind of “freedom” produces the worst kind of bondage.

It’s the trap Adam and Eve fell into in the beginning. When the devil offered them “God-likeness” in exchange for disobedience, did they not believe that to be like God meant that they could make their own rules?

The essence of true freedom is not only freedom from…but also freedom to…There is no freedom without boundaries. When boundaries are in place, within those boundaries we are both safe and free. When God put Adam and Eve to the test, He gave them one restriction to check their compliance. Up to that point they were like God because they were in perfect oneness with Him. Would they protect that unity at any cost?

Slavery is the consequence of believing that we can make our own rules. The problem is that disobedience to God’s way produces the fear of punishment which is essence of slavery. God created human beings to be His sons and daughters who would live with Him in submission and obedience. It is self-will that had produced the spirit of slavery in the human race and the enmity against God that goes with it.

When Jesus offered His disciples freedom, He was saying that true freedom is to come back under His authority and do life His way. Real freedom is returning to God and becoming one with Him again. That means recognizing that His way works and submitting to Him in love, trust and obedience.

Living in obedience to Jesus is like playing an instrument in an orchestra under the direction of a conductor. Imagine the cacophony if every instrument played a different tune! Every musician plays his own part but, under the master musician and when each part is played under his direction, the orchestra produces beautiful and harmonious sounds.

It takes the greatest power in the world, the power of the Holy Spirit, to control our self -will and submit ourselves to God’s authority and God’s will. Strangely enough, submission to Jesus is the only way to experience freedom. Real freedom is freedom from the beliefs and behaviour that produce shame, guilt and fear. The problem is that that more we try to be free by doing our own thing, the more we are enslaved by emotions our behaviour produces.

Jesus’ offer includes setting us free from those enslaving emotions by forgiving and removing our sin and reconciling us to the Father. It is our rebellion that has alienated us from God and set us on the path of self-destruction.

As we read on we see that even Jesus’ followers did not understand the nature of their slavery. There are many of Jesus’ so-called followers today who are just as much in bondage as unbelievers because they do not understand that true freedom is to be one with the Father and with His Son. Jesus was a true son because He refused to do anything that would break His union with the Father.

Imagine the impact the church would make on an unbelieving world if it returned to the simplicity of Jesus’ invitation, “Follow me.” Just as He protected the love and unity He had with the Father by His submission and obedience, it is our task to protect love and preserve unity with our Father and with His children at all costs. Then we will truly be free.

The greatest freedom of all is peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and the peace of God which transcends all understanding when we allow Him to direct our paths.

Are you free to obey Jesus?

Truth Is Its Own Witness

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TRUTH IS ITS OWN WITNESS 

“The Pharisees challenged Him, ‘Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.’ Jesus answered, ‘Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I came from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, my decisions are true because I am not alone. I stand with the Father who sent me. In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am the one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father who sent me.'” John 8:13-18 (NIV).

The Pharisees must have learned their lesson well. They had tried to catch Jesus out by bringing a woman caught in adultery and demanding that He authorize her to be stoned. According to the Law of Moses, stoning was the penalty for adultery. Jesus applied another law to rescue the woman from their cruel plot — the very same law that they were now appealing to, the law of two witnesses.

They pointed fingers at the woman while they were equally guilty of sin. When Jesus allowed their consciences to speak against them, they left and the woman was without witnesses against her and He was able to show her mercy and set her free. Now they accused Jesus of being His own witness.

Jesus was not fazed by their accusation. He knew that truth did not need witnesses. Human beings can never claim to know the truth in absolute terms because our witness is flawed by our faulty understanding and opinions. At best we can only judge by what we think we know or have seen. Jesus, on the other hand, IS the truth — His judgment is perfect, based on perfect knowledge because He is the embodiment of truth. Therefore His witness is true.

Jesus knew both His origin and His destiny. He knew that He had been sent by the Father and was returning to the Father. Because the Pharisees rejected Him, they did not believe that He had come from God. Therefore they kept asking, ‘Who are you and where do you come from?’

Jesus had many witnesses that testified to the validity of His claims. John the Baptist bore witness to Him as “the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The Father audibly acknowledged Him at His baptism; the Holy Spirit visibly descended on Him; and His miracles testified that He was from God. Only Nicodemus, of all the Pharisees recognized that there was something different about this rabbi. He had both authority and power that no other rabbi had ever displayed. His conclusion was that God was with Him.

Unbelief is a powerful and effective block against the truth. On the other hand, faith is the only link we have with the knowledge of the truth. Faith opens the highway between us and God. Our faith is so precious to God that He continually tests us to strengthen and verify that our faith is genuine.

“In all this you greatly rejoice, though for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith — of greater worth than gold, which perishes ever though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:6, 7(NIV).

How often, in our ignorance of God’s ways, do we attribute our trials to the devil instead of recognizing the hand of the Father working in us to strengthen our confidence in Him. How else can faith grow and become strong if we have no opportunity to exercise our trust in God when we cannot see one step ahead of us?

Because of the Pharisees’ hidden agenda, they refused to receive the witness to Jesus that was all around them if they had only wanted to believe. It comes down to one thing again — choice. They chose not to believe because Jesus interfered with their unholy ambitions.

We are also faced with the same choice. We do not need more proof that Jesus is the Son of God. We need to choose whether we want to be part of His kingdom or continue to be part of the kingdom of this world which is destined to perish along with everything that is not eternal.