Logos (II) - My sheep hear my voice (5)

Continuing our discussion of the places where “word” translates “logos,” I want to look at two verses this morning. The first is “Sanctify them with Your truth, Your Word (logos) is truth” (John 17:17). The second is a promise “If you abide in My Word (logos), you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8: 31, 32). In a world that is not even sure of the existence of truth (i.e. all truth is said to be relative), these two claims that the Bible is truth, and that we can actually know the truth, can sound like arrogance. But if something is true is it arrogant to claim that it is? Is it arrogant to say that one plus one equals two?

Taken together, these two verses claim that if we fulfill the condition of the promise, then we will know that the logos is truth. Part of this claim, is that there is a way for an individual (you) to know the truth. In particular the one who abides in His Word, is the one who will know the truth. There is much to say about this knowing, but for now I needed to say that Biblical knowing is much more than intellectual knowing. At the risk of being misunderstood by the world, I want to say we also know with the heart. In particular, knowing truth has an experiential component. It includes rational and intellectual knowledge, but it is much more than that, it has a soulish and a spiritual component. And because knowing truth is multidimensional in this way, it is difficult to communicate it to a world that regards the rational, or scientific truth as the only way that we can know.

I did not always believe that the Bible is the Word (logos) of God. I came to know it in process, as I read and understood over and over “This book knows me.” I can give but one example this morning. At the breakup of my first marriage, I was convinced that she was 100% to blame. I had murder in my heart, and was fully convinced that I would have been justified had I followed through. The scary thing for me, is that I’m not at all sure that I would not have followed through if I thought I could have gotten away with it! And then as part of my journey to salvation, the Holy Spirit convicted me of my own wickedness, and how I had rationalized it away. Then when I read “The heart is deceitful above all and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9) the above thought “This book knows me,” came to me loud and clear.

Father, there is a sense in which the scientific method can be used to authenticate the claims discussed here this morning. In particular, the above promise from John 8 can be tested. There is much to say about what it means to abide in Your logos, but when we do, then either Your truth will set us free, or it will not. And this can challenge each and every one of us to “taste and see” in this way that You are God (Psalm 34:8). I want to thank You Lord this morning, that as I continue in Your logos, I am progressively coming to know the truth, and it is progressively setting me free. And I praise and thank You Lord in Jesus Name Amen