Street Meeting Twenty Sixth

Jesus said to them,
“The reason you are wrong, is because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God."
Mark 12:24

How much of our theology, both historical and present, hath sprung from ignorance of Scripture, and from unbelief concerning the power of God? Error seldom enters displaying its own deformity, but creeps in under pretenses and smooth words, appearing harmless until you inspect its fruit. Unbelief is a monstrous thing, possessing many heads and many disguises. It turns the soul aside subtly into crooked paths and dark places in the carnal heart, leading men by gradual degrees into confusion and falsehood. From it have arisen countless heresies and distortions, too many to reckon and too grievous to number. For when men cease to believe God in the fullness of what He hath spoken, they begin to fashion substitutes of their own imagining.

It is a humbling thing that a man may give assent unto truth, and yet walk at a distance from the power and life contained within that very truth. One may confess sound doctrine with his lips, defend it with zeal, and contend earnestly for its purity, and yet remain a stranger to its living operation upon the heart. For truth held only in the mind, and not wrought into the inward man, may become as a lamp carried in the hand that giveth light unto others while leaving its bearer in darkness.

This thought hath often caused me to tremble, for there is a vast difference between knowing of Christ and living in Christ. The one rests in acknowledgment; the other in communion. The one may inform the understanding, but the other transforms the soul. For there is power in the life lived in Christ, not because the believer possesses strength within himself, but because it is Christ Himself who dwelleth and lives within him. 

The Christian life can never be sustained by the weak arm of flesh nor by the strained efforts of human resolve, for this is the very cause of its weakness in the first place. The Christian life is a life of power. It is supernatural in its very nature, for it is Christ Himself who sustains that life within the believer. What the flesh cannot produce, grace freely gives; and what human strength continually weakens, Christ Himself upholds by His power. May we not merely hold truth as a possession, but be possessed by it; not merely speak of Christ, but walk in Him, His life made manifest within us.

Truth is by its very nature unbendable and unchangeable, for such immutability belongs unto God Himself. It doth not alter according to the passing opinions of men, nor is it dictated by societal norms; it remains true because God is true. All creation stands governed beneath this reality, whether men acknowledge it or rebel against it; for no man even by the crookedness of his will can overthrow that which God hath established. We are ruled by truth even while in our folly we strive against it.

Yet I have often meditated on how truth itself may be handled deceitfully by fallen men. Truth doth not become false in itself, for truth cannot cease to be truth; rather it is man, darkened in understanding and corrupted in heart, who perverts it deceitfully to his own advantage and unknowingly to his own destruction. Truth may be misunderstood. Truth may be worn as a garment of pretended righteousness. Truth may be seized and wielded against the people of God, much as a knife prepared for usefulness may instead be turned unto violence and hurt. Thus men may hold truth in their hands and yet remain strangers unto its life and power.

For truth remains pure only as God reveals it, and only as it is received how He intends it. But herein lies our misery, that being fallen creatures we do not naturally submit ourselves unto truth, but resist it. Truth seeks to shape us, to humble us, and to conform us unto the will of God; yet our hearts are inclined to remake it according to our own imaginations. We bend and twist what was meant to bend and shape us, and by so doing turn aside into crooked paths that lead unto ruin. Truth twisted is no truth at all, but merely falsehood clothed in kingly garments. And no man shall ever find eternal life by walking in a lie. For life is found not in the inventions of man, but in that truth which proceeds from God. Lies end when the truth is revealed. Truth remains and endures forever.

Herein lies a mystery concerning the heart of man. He demands truth so long as truth serves his own advantage and purpose, yet readily embraces a lie when truth calls him unto accountability. He employs truth when it reveals the sin in others, but denies it to hide the truth about himself. So deceitful and crooked is the natural heart that it loveth light only so far as the light doth not expose its own darkness. Men desire truth that comforts, truth that flatters, truth that strengthens their own cause; but truth that rebukes, humbles, and summons them unto repentance is often thrust away as a repulsive guest.

I have often marveled at this grievous condition of man, for falsehood itself possesses no true strength whereby it may endure. The triumph of truth over the lies of men is seen even herein: that no man willingly giveth his life for that which he knows with certainty to be false. Though a man may perish for a lie, he dies believing it to be true; for even falsehood borrows its power by disguising itself in truth. For a lie hath no truth in itself, just as death hath no life in itself. It must ever steal from truth, imitate truth, and appear as truth if it would persuade the sons of men. Yet however long falsehood may flourish, and however boldly it may justify itself, truth remains untouched by its assaults. For truth stands not upon the opinions of men, but upon God Himself, who is true from everlasting unto everlasting.

There is a danger in giving mere intellectual assent unto those truths which our Lord hath spoken concerning the resurrection, to perceive them only as distant realities awaiting us beyond the grave. Such understanding, though containing truth, tell but half the matter, and by grasping only a portion, misconstrue the fullness of that which God hath revealed. For a half-truth, though clothed in the garments of truth, may still obscure the beauty and breadth of truth itself.

Indeed, the resurrection shall most certainly be known in its fullness when this physical frame passes. There awaits the glorious hope of the saints, when that which was sown in weakness shall be raised in power. Yet the mystery does not begin there alone, as though resurrection were a thing reserved only for the final crossing from this life unto the next. 

For there is also a resurrection which hath already begun in the soul of every true believer. He who was once dead in trespasses and sins, walking according to the course of this fallen world and estranged from the life of God, hath already passed from death unto life through the new birth in Christ. Christ is the resurrection, and he in whom Christ lives, is made alive unto God. Before the body returns unto dust and before the believer puts on immortality, there hath already been wrought a miracle no less wondrous: the dead heart made alive, quickened, resurrected, by the Spirit of God.

This hath often caused me to marvel, for the Christian doth not merely await life as though it were some distant possession yet to be obtained. Eternal life hath already begun its work within him. The resurrection is not only his future expectation, but his present reality; for he who hath Christ hath life, and where Christ enters, death itself to loses its dominion. 

There shall be a tangible and undeniable change wrought in the present life of those who truly believe the future promise of the resurrection. 

For the hope of that coming glory was never given merely to secure the mind in agreement, but to lay hold upon the heart and transform the whole manner of life. A living hope brings forth living fruit, and a promise truly believed cannot remain idle. There shall not merely be an agreeing unto truth, but a keeping, a watching, a doing, and an occupying in those who look with expectation unto the day of rewarding.

If a candle be truly lit, no man can deny its flame. Where there is true fire there shall be light, and where there is life there shall be evidence of life. So also where Christ hath kindled hope within the soul, there shall arise some visible testimony of His work; for a faith that expects and aspires for the glory to come cannot remain hid, but instead dispels the darkness of unbelief.

..the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. Ephesians 1:17-19a

Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.