Truth Wins, Part 3: Do You Want the Truth? (Posted March 29, 2008)

"Do you want the truth?  You can't handle the truth."  We have all heard this quote at some point in our lives if you are at least over the age of 15.  Truth is something that we must all come to grips with whether we like it or not.  Many go through life not ever really thinking about what they believe for various reasons.  Maybe they just don't care.  Maybe they think they have everything under control.  They know it all.  But maybe they are scared of the truth. As my last blog said the truth hurts but sometimes we have to endure it for the sake of truth. Recently a friend and I were discussing how we both agree on what it takes for a person to discover what they believe.  You have to first think about it.  Then you have to learn about it and finally talk about it.  All of these elements help us to solidify our beliefs. But we must have the desire for truth. (hence the title...)  

 

         It was not until college that I was faced with the challenge of my beliefs.  Being that I go to a Baptist college I am not talking about non-believers challenging my faith.  I am talking about some of the tough, sensitive doctrinal issues in the church that most would rather sweep under the rug.  I have dealt with many of these such as infant baptism, women in ministry, and election or predestination.  Some might think that infant baptism is not that touchy but it is when you were baptized in the Episcopal church and raised in the Methodist church, both of which practice infant baptism.  That was one of the harder discussions I have had with my mom.  I had to decide what I believed to be biblical baptism.  It wasn't until college that I heard someone tell me they did not agree with a woman in a certain position in church.  Once again I had to take my stance on one side or the other.  And then came "election."  Yes, I said "election."  This one proved to be the more difficult of the three. Election is one of the hardest doctrines to deal with especially when you have grown up on the opposite side of the fence.  I ended up doing my senior paper on it this semester but I enjoyed it because I wanted to know the truth.  

 

         I had grown up on one side of the fence having never looked over into the other yard next door.  All I knew was my backyard.  When someone picks you up and shows you the other side it can be an eye opening experience.  Being faced with these issues I had to decide what I believed to be "truth."  I thought about them, learned about them, and talked about them.  Interestingly enough I have jumped the fence on every one of those issues.  It's not easy to deal with these issues most of the time because of our upbringing.  And it's a hard pill to swallow sometimes when you see that scripture clearly points one way when you've been pointing the other.  But that can also make it easier.  If scripture says it, I believe it and rest upon the truth of God's word and the inerrancy of Scripture.  Faith and trust in God's Word are sometimes the only things that allow us to believe what is written in the Bible.  It is not a book filled with fairy tales and happy endings everywhere you look.  There is suffering and pain, disease and sickness, murder and rape, judgment and death.  But if we believe God's Word to be truth then we accept these things and trust that God had a reason for all that happened in these 66 books.  These are what many Christians do not want to know about Scripture.  We cannot want to know some but not all of the truth.  God wants us to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.     

 

         Over the course of my short college career I have developed an appreciation, love, and desire for truth.  I believe we all need to have this same attitude towards truth.  John says that we have been commanded by the Father to walk in truth (2 Jn. 1:4).  To walk in truth one must know the truth.  But if we do not desire to know the truth what a miserable life we will lead trying to walk in that which we do not desire.  I do not believe that is the way Christ desires for us to lead our lives.  To walk in truth is to live by the commands of God (2 Jn. 1:6).  The primary command he writes is to love one another.  Truth and love are inseparable; they are dependent on one another.  We are responsible for the commands which have been revealed to us (Deut. 29:29).  We have been given truth in God's Word and we are to WANT to learn it, WANT to apply it, and WANT to defend it as Jude says.  If we do not want the truth what good is it to us?  None at all.  

 

Do you want the truth?

Truth Wins, Part 2: Truth Hurts (Posted March 28, 2008)

We have all heard the saying, "the truth hurts."  What may seem to be a cliché copout is so true.  No one likes to be told they are wrong when they really are but is that not exactly what the Word of God does to us?  It exposes our sin.  It shows our shortcomings and failures.  It is a light in the darkness.  We call this “conviction.”  It is that feeling in our soul that tells us we just messed up.  That feeling is the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the light that reveals our sin.  When we face the truth we are confronted with two simple choices: accept it or deny it.  The choice is ours but so are the consequences.

Accepting the truth of God's Word is a most humbling experience.  We stand face to face with the creator of the universe who is just and able to send us into eternal suffering.  But we also stand next to the Son of God who is gracious and merciful, pleading our case to the Father.  And we fall face down at the foot of the cross.  The human mind cannot comprehend the death of Christ.  How could one man’s death pay for the sins of all mankind? (This is debatable with those of the Calvinist persuasion.)  Christ demands that we lay down our opinions, thoughts, desires, dreams and life at his feet.  This hurts.  It is a call to deny self and accept Christ (Matt. 16:24-26).  It is recognition of the inferiority of our flesh and the superiority of Christ.  Giving up our lives to Christ is no easy task but why should we give less than what He gave us?  Paul says, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21).  Our lives belong to Christ because we have accepted the truth of God’s Word.

Accepting truth is not for the faint of heart.  Accepting truth and standing upon it daily is guaranteed to bring persecution on oneself.  Jesus blesses those “persecuted for righteousness’ sake” for the kingdom of heaven will be theirs (Matt. 5:10).  Even Jesus was persecuted.  He preached the message of the messiah from the Old Testament and was accused of blasphemy.  We as American Christians do not understand persecution in the context of Scripture because we will never face such opposition.  We will never have to choose to give up our faith or die or have secret meetings.  We are almost totally free from persecution.  But we do not even withstand the softest persecution from our friends.  We downplay our beliefs to blend in with our surroundings.  The truth should be the foundation of our worldview and theology.  If we stand on God’s truth the world will surely try to knock us down.  But, “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong” (1 Cor. 16:13).

Accepting the truth ultimately brings us to salvation.  The truth reveals to us that we are sinners in need of a savior.  Rom 3:23 says that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  It is in the very moment when are face down before the cross that we accept the truth of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins.  When you were face down in the midst of your sin, remember how you felt when you were confronted with this truth.  You probably felt horrible didn’t you?  The Holy Spirit had revealed the truth of sin in your life and you accepted it.  But what amazing truth it is that Christ died for us while we were helpless and weak.  The truth of sin hurts but the truth of Christ’s death is liberating!  We no longer have to bear the burden of our sin for it has been paid for.  But we are not to “continue in sin so that grace may abound,” as Paul writes in Rom 6:1.  Remember that, “to live is Christ.”    

The truth does hurt sometimes but we must endure the pain of truth just as Christ endured the pain of the Cross.  Is the pain worth the prize?  Absolutely.    

Truth Wins, Part 1 (Posted March 27, 2008)

The word "truth" does not hold much value in today’s world.  The search for an absolute truth has been abandoned for this new idea of "embracing mystery" as Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, says.  Bell is one of the leading pastors of the emerging church movement.  The emerging church has adopted the beliefs of the postmodernist movement, which dismisses any claim of an absolute truth.  John MacArthur's book Truth War deals with this battle of truth in our world.  He says, "Postmodernism suggests that if objective truth exists, it cannot be known objectively or with any certainty.  That is because (according to postmodernists), the subjectivity of the human mind makes knowledge of objective truth impossible."  This is true.  The human mind is subjective to our thoughts, feelings, and bias.  We view the world based on those things.  But is it not ironic that a postmodernist would say that is "true?"  As MacArthur says, "Uncertainty is the new truth."  

 Though the human mind may be subjective, the Word of God is the exact opposite.  God's Word is TRUTH!  I put an exclamation point there for a reason.  It is not subjective to what we as humans think about it.  It claims itself to be true.  God has given us objective truth in spite of our subjective minds and He wants us to the truth He has revealed to us (Deut. 29:29).  Absolute truth is now looked down upon as arrogant and intolerant.  Some people probably think God is arrogant and intolerant because in fact God is about Himself and He does not tolerate sin in our lives.  That is why He sent His son to die on the cross: to bring glory to His name and free us from sin so that we may have fellowship with Him. 

 The prophet Isaiah makes one of the boldest statements about God's word.  He says in Isaiah 40:8, "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever" (NASB).  David says likewise in Psalm 119:160.  "The sum of Your word is TRUTH, and every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting."  As the church we need to stand upon these promises and preach truth to a world that denies its very existence.  But as Paul says in Ephesians 4:15 we are to speak the truth in love.  As a whole the church does not do this very well.  We have come off as arrogant and intolerant.  God's Word is not meant to be taught in such a way, rather it should be taught with humility and love.  

 You might be wondering why I chose "Truth Wins..." as my blog title.  First off the title came from a sticker that a local church gives out that simply says, "LOVE WINS" in black and white.  I just swapped love for truth.  I have noticed a trend in the Christian world that I see as having potential dangers.  This trend is focused on love; loving others for who they are.  That is a great thing.  People need to be loved.  We all want to be loved.  But it seems that while people are showing others the love of Christ they have forgotten to share the truth of Christ as well.  I could be completely wrong but this is merely my view of the situation.  Loving people in spite of their sin is exactly what Jesus did but He did not only love them.  He spoke the truth about their sin and that they needed to turn from them.  In John 8 Jesus tells some Jewish converts, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."  Jesus is the Word as John 1 tells us and the Word contains His commands which lead us to salvation.  Don't get me wrong loving the lost is great, but loving people does not get them into Heaven.  They have to be set free from their own sin by the truth.  The truth is Jesus as John 14:6 says.  They need to know that there is only one way and one life and that is through Jesus Christ, who being God does not tolerate sin either.  I believe that first we need to love the lost and then, in love, tell them the truth of Christ so that it may set them free from their sin. Ultimately it is the truth of Jesus that sets us free.  

 

Truth Wins...