I am the way the truth and the life (I) Offenses

There are essentially two reasons the Christian can be persecuted, firstly we can be persecuted simply for believing what is true. Secondly we can be persecuted because we are obnoxious. I want to deal with this second reason first. We need to see our divisions through the eyes of the unbeliever. There are over 10,000 registered Christian denominations, most of whom are essentially saying “We are the way the truth and the life, and if you want to get saved you have to come through our church or our little group!” It is pure arrogance, and it does not adorn the gospel. When we are in this place, we need to hear what Paul says, namely “If anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know” (1 Corinthians 8:2).

In fact to the unbeliever the gospel itself can be a stumbling block, or foolishness, or both (1 Corinthians 1:23), and we need to make very sure that we do not get in the way! But coming to the second point, the exclusiveness of Christianity can be the source of the offence. It seems so intolerant, so narrow minded and even bigoted. But if truth is truth, it has to say this is right, and that is wrong. Two plus two equals four, it is not equal to five, or seven, or twenty one. This common sense truth however is rejected outright in our “modern” way of thinking. We hear that all truth is relative, but actually this statement is an absolute statement, and self-contradictory. For if it is true, then the statement itself is a relative truth, and this implies that there are exceptions. In particular absolute truth does exist contradicting the statement! This is not to say that all truth is absolute, and it is a different question to ask how we can know.

We should think of this morning’s verse from John 14:6 as a challenge. Let me say that if what Jesus is saying here it is not true, then we should not be making statements such as Jesus is a really good teacher. C.S. Lewis suggests, that Jesus is either a lunatic to be compared with somebody who thinks of himself as a poached egg, or He is a Liar, or He is who he claims to be, He is the Lord of all! If He is not a liar or a lunatic, then He must be Lord! Those of us who follow Him in absolute surrender, have found Him to be everything He claims to be. And I invite you this morning to taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8), put Him to the test, I challenge you!

Lord Jesus, the more I know, the more I realize how little I know. And I want to confess this morning Lord, that we in Your Church have been arrogant and self righteous at times. Please forgive us and cleanse us. But as this morning’s verse implies, it’s not about knowing propositional truth, it’s about knowing You, it’s about relationship with You the One who is the way the truth and the life, it’s about following You, it’s about proving what is that good in perfect and acceptable will of God (Romans 12:2), it’s about finding life in all its fullness (John 10:10b). I’m not quite there yet Lord, bur I am finding life and health and peace and joy in following You, and with me there is no turning back in Your precious Name Amen Archives in philheathsblog.blogspot.ca