In attempting to address this and other subjects on this site, I have quite deliberately avoided researching and preparing a carefully crafted script. It is more or less as it has come to me.
In the right hand column of each page I have added scriptural references and I trust these will be helpful, but it has been important to me that my convictions and beliefs are represented on these pages in my own words and as intuitively as possible.
In that way, I am hoping that it might also carry more conviction with the reader.
WHAT IS TRUTH?
This question, left hanging in the air by Pilate as Jesus stood before him, (John 18. v 38) has echoed down the centuries. A plethora of philosophers, thinkers, religious leaders, psycho-analysts of various descriptions have had a go at it. People of every kind, both godly and ungodly, muse over the “Meaning of Life” and pose the question, “What is it all about?”
For me, the answer to this momentous question is quite simply, yet profoundly, answered in a few words. The answer lies in a person, the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That brings us immediately to the very nub of the matter and in accepting this truth, the Christian believes that Christ must then become, the test for every person.
“Truth” does not issue from the human mind, nor is it just doctrine or a system of beliefs, it is found complete and personified in one person alone, Jesus. That is my belief.
In him alone God was fully revealed and in him alone we see the relationship that God and man should enjoy and as the Angels and every other universal 'being' looked on, they saw, at last, God and man in perfect accord, as always intended. They saw it here, on this earth in the very place of sin, in a world long since estranged from God and they wondered at it. Indeed, the Angels rejoiced we are told as the Divine plan unfolded beginning with the birth of Jesus. The devil and the demonic world, no doubt trembled, at the sight for, for them, this was the beginning of the end…..of the end of their power, their influence and it heralded their very destruction.
To those who deal only in logic, it must be perfectly logical that where there is any measure of acceptance of the existence of a God, (some supreme being who created everything, had a purpose in doing so and knows what the “end game” is), that even logic would dictate that the only way to find out about it all and have one's questions answered, would be to be able to get close to that God and have all revealed.
But there are obstacles in the way. Firstly, the more I think about it the more impossible it seems to find him or reach him and my conscience also tells me, that such a God must have an aura, a presence and standards that would surely exclude me from his presence. I need therefore, to be able approach him on a basis other than what is material or logical and I need to be introduced by someone who is wholly acceptable to him.
As to conscience of sin, whether or not I believe the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, there cannot be anybody living who would deny the presence of sin in this world and it's grotesque consequences, nor their having been infected by it in some way. We all are sinners in a sinful world and inextricably part of it, both in word and deed and particularly in motive
The Scripture teaches us that the “Consequence of sin is death” (Romans 6. v 23) so…….. step forward the person who believes themselves not to be subject to death!
So, to continue……….Let us say that I believe in the existence of a God. I know he has all the answers but I cannot approach him. How can I ever find out then what “Truth” is? (as to those who profess not to believe in God, I believe by their very denials they entertain the possibility of his existence, if not, actually fear the probability).
The Apostle John seems to have thought very deeply about these things and right at the beginning of his Gospel in the first few verses, gives us the benefit of a most wonderful revelation which colours his view of Jesus throughout his writings.
He says “In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with God and the WORD was God. He was in the beginning with God”. He goes on to say that without him (Jesus) nothing received being, that he was the light and that he was the life".
My impression of that scripture has always been that if it were possible (and through grace it now is ) to gain an understanding of what God is, what he is thinking, what his attitude toward man is, what his purposes are, what his feelings about sin and its consequences are………………if it were possible to grasp what man's relationship with God was always intended to be and the untold blessings that would flow from that,……… then, IN A WORD, look to Jesus.
It is all, and much else besides, embodied in him and that brings us to who Jesus really was and is.
The Christian believes that he was none less than God in his person, revealed to us (so that we could comprehend his manhood) as 'the Son of God'. This was not someone sent to point the way as were the prophets and John the Baptist but the actual incarnation of God. Nothing less than God brought within the range of mankind in the person of Jesus and introduced to us in the least frightening and most attractive way as a babe in a manger.
When Jesus asked the disciples whom they thought he was, Peter responded by saying, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16. v 16). The Lord seemed delighted with that response and confided in Peter that his heavenly Father had revealed that to him. On that rock, on that revealed truth, Jesus said, he would build his Church. Not on Peter personally, but on that solid foundation as to his (Jesus) own Divinity.
Most religions and creeds will accept that Jesus was a good man, even one of the Prophets, but unless we accept and believe that he was, in his person, God, then all we have to rely upon are the words and promises of yet another man born of the same sinful race and all that that implies. Also, as to his death and sacrifice, how could it ever have then resolved the whole question of sin to the eternal satisfaction of God?
Only Jesus the Son of God (but as a real man and on behalf of mankind) could, on the cross, possibly resolve fully these eternal issues directly with a Holy and Righteous God and only a sinless sacrifice such as his could have any efficacy. Any other death would be wholly deserved and the acceptance by God of any sacrifice, other than that of Jesus as a sacrifice for sin, would have been an unthinkable compromise, indeed an impossibility, since God cannot deny himself and his righteousness and holiness must be maintained and be seen to be so to the whole universe.
It was because of who Jesus was, his perfect obedience to God in manhood and his sinless life that he could submit himself as an acceptable substitute for us in order to take away our sin. Unlike the first man 'out of dust' now characterised by sin, the second man, Jesus was out of heaven. (See 1, Corinthians15. v 47) yet as a real man became obedient unto death and that the death of the cross.
The Apostle John, therefore, not only saw Jesus as the Son of God but also as the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice. What a revelation he had, yet how could God, in all his majesty, might, holiness and his position of absolute authority and power, leave his dwelling place to come to dwell among a sinful, failed and corrupted race of mankind, without all being consumed at his presence?
Well, apart from the motivation being his unchanging love for man, his masterpiece, created in his image and likeness and for his pleasure, the scripture in Philippians 2 verses 6 -8 is helpful. It explains that "whilst Jesus existed in the form of God he did not consider that to be something he was not prepared to relinquish for our sake (my interpretation of the passage) but emptied himself, taking a bondman's form, taking his place in the likeness of men and having been found in figure as a man, humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death and that the death of the cross”.
Wonderful, immense truth that we can scarcely take in.
So we have to hold these great truths together. In his person, he was none less than God, yet his manhood was very real. Then, as the Beloved Son, there was his relationship with his Father and also his relationship with the Father in as much as the Father represented the Godhead and was therefore also his God. There was his relationship, as he trod this earth, with the third person of the Godhead known to us as the Holy Spirit who descended upon him (comfortably) as a dove at the beginning of his ministry and remained with him throughout his life.
It has been said that Jesus never ceased to be who he was by what he became.
There is, rightly, much mystery in these things and I find it helpful to just take the scriptures as they stand and let the Holy Spirit form my thinking over time rather than try to get my mind around these things.
Sometimes I hear it said that God died on the Cross. I understand what is meant but that is clearly not scriptural. It is likely to really confuse believers, especially young believers and those searching for the truth. Scripture teaches us that Jesus was indeed, in his person, one of the Godhead and as such was never less than God. In manhood however he enjoyed a relationship with another of the Godhead with whom, as part of the Divine plan, he revealed to us as his Father. The Father remained in heaven, something Jesus made very clear in the prayer he taught his disciples.
We are also taught that the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, like Jesus, also entered into a relative position of service in relation to the Father but again, never ceased to be God. These are deep truths and more for contemplation than explanation and I have only touched upon them to correct the erroneous statement that 'God died upon the cross”. It was that person of the Godhead known to us as Jesus, having emptied himself and become in the likeness of men, that died on the cross as man.
It was as man, on man's behalf he died. It was as man on man's behalf that he was buried and as man that he was also raised and then ascended into heaven itself, there to appear before the face of God for us, and as our forerunner, to prepare a place for us which will include the eternal enjoyment of a relationship with his Father as sons. His Father becomes our Father too, by adoption, through Jesus Christ.
On the cross, we see the relationship of Jesus with his Father when he says, “Father into thy hands I commit my Spirit". ( Luke 23. v 46) but when it comes to the question of sin and sins and the wrath of God that Jesus bore when he was “made sin for us” (2, Corinthians 5. v 21) and experienced the abandonment of God, it is as man, on behalf of the whole race that he cries “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mark 15. v 34). There we see both the preciousness of his relationship with his Father and the horror, therefore, of what he endured from the same source, as he submitted himself, on behalf of the whole race of mankind to the judgement and wrath of a Holy and Righteous God.
Well, I have digressed. Let us return to how we lay hold of “Truth” if indeed we have come this far and accepted that it is to be found only in Jesus.
Firstly, we need to accept that we are estranged from God and lost, not just because of our sins but due to our sinful state. We must accept that we are, by nature, unfit for the presence of God and need to have our sins forgiven and to be freed from that condition in his sight.
God speaks to us individually and in many ways. Sometimes through our circumstances, sometimes through ill health, perhaps through someone else or the written word and very often through our consciences. Whatever route he chooses, let me assure you, he has blessing in mind, not punishment and however intense the experience might be at the time, the Christian can look back and say “It was the goodness of God that led me to repentance” (Romans 2. v 4)
If we are brought to a sense that we need salvation and we repent and accept God's solution; if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in him and his sacrifice for us, the scripture assures us that WE WILL BE SAVED and that for eternity. From that moment onward, God views us as 'in Christ' and whatever our failings from that point onward, that always remains our standing before God. It is sure and certain and it is so because it is based upon God's acceptance of what Jesus has done both for him and for us, not on the measure of our understanding. Nor does our eternal salvation depend upon our state at any given time. That teaching seriously challenges and undermines the whole basis of the Gospel.
It is after this point in our Christian experience that we often fail to grasp that whilst we are now part of God's Kingdom on earth (and as such need to recognise the guidelines and behaviour that are appropriate and govern that Kingdom, as set out by Jesus himself and by the apostles, particularly Paul),……there is something more that I need, a new and changed inward man so that the whole spring and source of my thinking and my life becomes different.
In short, I need to become like Jesus.
I can strive to be like him and that is not to be discredited in any way. Indeed we are exhorted to “Follow in his steps” and be imitators of God and those who demonstrate the truth but ………… imagine if it were also possible to be indwelt, served and supported by the same Divine Person that accompanied Jesus when he was here….. if it were possible to have the Spirit of Jesus himself within me………if it were possible to have his life within me……….If it were possible to have the same spirit of Sonship within me so that I could enjoy the same relationship (according to my measure) with his Father as though he were my own Father too ……………..would that not be so much better?
So often, young Christians revert to the old principle of law after conversion, applying themselves to it with some fervour, and then wonder, after a while, why they cannot keep it, why they keep failing and why they are still attracted by sin.
We need to grasp that as useful and good as the law was in those times the Christian is now no longer under law but under a new covenant which has superseded the old one and is given on the principle of 'Grace'.
The law worked to some extent by setting boundaries and guidelines for human behaviour and the fear of punishment and death was the primary incentive for keeping that law, but for the Christian, the Divine goal is to become so like Jesus that you no longer want to sin, nor is sin aggravated and brought to life by the application of the law. All the legislation in the world cannot change a man, woman or child as much as just a small apprehension of Divine love and grace.
Does that now render the law wrong or having no application? No it does not. Paul says "I had not known sin except by law for I had not had conscience of lust unless the law had said,Thou shalt not lust........" (Romans 7. v 7) and the same must be true of every commandment and whilst it is unfashionable today to emphasise the Commandments, they are still (to use a current expression) the only real 'Moral Compass' for believer and unbeliever alike. The believer, however, can now approach the whole question of 'Law' in a new light, having been delivered from it but still recognising it as 'Holy, Just and Good'
If you will forgive the clumsy analogy, it is a bit like having power assisted steering and the power to keep the law is greater than the demands it makes upon us and the effect of Divine Grace is that sin is no longer revived or excited under a rule of law. (Our natural sinful state includes an instinctive inclination towards disobedience to God).
“Should we then continue in sin that grace may abound?” the scripture asks? "Far be the thought" (Romans 6. v 1)
No. That is not how grace, truly accepted, works. That is not to say we never fail or sin again but my eternal salvation is already secure and when I acknowledge my wrongdoing and forsake that path, I am restored and recovered, not to a set of rules but to a person, Jesus, who quickly receives me back into his arms and in whom I find, again, all that I need in order to live and enjoy this new life.
I believe that genuine behavioral change stems from the restoration of my link with Divine Persons and that my actions flow from that. That does, of course, require an acknowledgement on my part that I have failed and been wrong.
So, it is vital to understand that simply trying to do better or trying to emulate Jesus or copy his ways, (commendable though all that is) is not the path to real happiness or the full enjoyment of Christianity and it is certainly no guarantee that your feet will remain firmly on the right path. Rather, the secret lies in deriving life, strength and, speaking reverently, personality from the very person of Jesus himself and having that take root within me and inwardly changing me.
To be like him where he was, I must have a link with him where he is. Only then will I bear fruit.
So, I come back to my conviction that whether saved or unsaved, a young Christian or a mature one, the answer to the question “What is Truth?”, lies in Jesus, Son of God, Son of Man, and the centre of God's world now and eternally.
The presence of the Holy Spirit is crucial to us in order to grasp these things and I find I need to constantly ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit. I do so, not because I believe he comes and goes, so to speak, (for if we are forgiven we are sealed by the Spirit until Christ's day) but because I am very conscious that I need to feel afresh his power and influence within me and in my life and that, whilst I am still here on earth, he is the means by which my link with God and Jesus is maintained. He is the channel through which I receive every spiritual blessing from a risen Christ and if I am to be effective in prayer or take part in the worship of God as led by Christ, it is in his power that I must do so for I “Must worship God in Spirit and in Truth” (John 4. v 23)
Finally, to those who feel that science, rather than faith is the doorway into “Truth” I appeal to you, “While it is still today, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 4. v 7) and to forsake the wisdom of man for, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11. v 6)
The Scripture tell us that “The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men and that God has, by the foolishness of the preaching, saved those that believe”
(1, Corinthians 1. v 18-22).
I have had many years to think over these matters. I have experienced both closeness to and distance from God. I have studied many things, both helpful and unhelpful but as I approach my latter years, I have never been surer that Jesus IS “The way, the truth and the Life” (John 14. v 6).
In that same hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said
" I praise thee Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes".
Luke 10. v 21
...Our Saviour God who desires that all men should be saved and come to a knowledge of the Truth. For God is one and the mediator of God and men one, the Man CHRIST JESUS, who gave himself a ransom for all.
1 Timothy 2. v 4-5
And the Angel said to them, "Fear not for I announce glad tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people, for today a Saviour has been born to you in David's city, who is Christ The Lord.
Luke. 2 v 10-12
Therefore, having been justified on the principle of FAITH, we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5. v 1
For there is no difference for ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 3. v 23
Even the demons believe and tremble. James 2. v 19
Philip says to him (Jesus). "Lord, show us the Father and it will suffice us". Jesus says to him, "Am I so long a time with you and thou hast not known me Philip? He that has seen me has seen the Father; and how sayest thou, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?....The words which I speak to you I do not speak from myself but from the Father who abides in me.
John 14. v 8-10
....For in him, all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell.
Colossians 1. v 19
..but when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law ,that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive Sonship. And because ye are Sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying "Abba Father".
Galatians 4. v 4-7
For if the blood of Goats and Bulls and a Heifer's ashes, sprinkling the defiled, sanctified the guilty, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Eternal Spirit offered himself, spotless to God, purify your conscience from dead works to worship the living God.
Hebrews 9. v 13-14
...and the Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a Thorn Bush and he looked, and behold, the Thorn Bush burned with fire but was not being consumed. And Moses said, "Let me now turn aside and see this great sight.
Exodus 3. v 2-3
Grace and Truth subsist through Jesus Christ.
John 1. v 17
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus as Lord and believe in thine heart
that God has raised him from among the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Romans 10. v 9
God commends his love to us in that we being still sinners, Christ has died for us.
Romans 5. v 8
There is now then no condemnation to Those IN Christ Jesus.
Romans. 8 v 1
The law of the 'Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus' has set me free from the law of 'sin and of death'.
Romans 8. v 2
But if the spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that has raised up Christ from among the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies also on account of his Spirit which dwells in you.
............for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are Sons of God.....and ye have received a Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry "Abba Father"
Romans 8. v 11-15
For I am crucified with Christ and no longer live I but Christ lives in me; but in that I still live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me............for if righteousness is attained by law, then Christ has died for nothing.
Galatians 2. v 20-21
For ye were going astray as sheep but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your soul.
1 Peter 2. v 25
I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me not bearing fruit he takes away and everyone bearing fruit he purges it that it may bring forth more fruit.
John 15. v 1-4
Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in you, the good deposit entrusted.
2, Timothy 1. v 14
We speak God's wisdom in a mystery, that hidden wisdom which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory; which none of the Princes of this age knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.
1, Corinthians 2. v 7-8
For the mind of the flesh is death but the mind of the Spirit, life and peace, because the mind of the flesh is emnity towards God.........
Romans 8. v 6-8
