Everything I Know: God

The start of a new year is a good time to take personal stock: especially a new year bringing as many spiritual dangers as this one.  It's what Christians are commanded to do:  check ourselves to make sure we are "in the faith" (II Corinthians 13:5), and that our works show it (Galatians 6:4).
 

So what do I really know in 2017 ?

I know this much: God is sovereign.  He rules over all things.  I don't have a quick verse of scripture that says exactly that...all scripture says exactly that.  All creation says exactly that.  All experience says exactly that.

God's sovereignty grounds all creation and experience in its definitive and defining relationship: all things in heaven and earth are subject to Him.  God's supreme and unchanging I AM opens to us what reality truly IS.  So I understand Psalm 111:10, that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

The first wisdom we learn is how infinitely little we know.  How could we not, when God is the Teacher ?  But we have His promise we only need ask Him, trusting He is "in charge" (James 1:5,6).

Trusting too in His goodness.  Wisdom is more than what we know; wisdom is a moral quantity, "good" in the likeness of the One Who created it.  He is good to "give to all generously," life as well as wisdom.  "Good" would hardly seem a strong enough word: but it's the word Jesus attested describes God, and God Alone (Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19).

God alone is good.  God alone is wise.  God alone rules, in goodness and wisdom.  He is absolute and entire (the Biblical word for which is "perfect"), nothing less nor other than Who He IS.  Everything He touches, shows it: and everything shows more than His "touch:"  everything shows the infinitely wise and good craft of it's Maker.

More Truth

"The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love...God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."  (John 4:8, 16)

 I'm thinking again about what it means when Jesus says "I AM...The Truth..." (John 14:6)  That's been the core of my Christology for some years: as it SHOULD be for everyone's Christology (along with His Self-identification as "The Way" and "The Life").

I'm thinking even more about what it means that Jesus IS "The Truth," as the contrast between Himself and the "post-truth" world grows wider and more stark.

I am fully convinced (including experientially) that Jesus is God, powerful and able to do whatever He will: able even to BE an abstract noun.  But it seemed one of His "hard sayings" (John 6:60, KJV); such as when He identified Himself as the "Bread" from heaven, which we must eat to "abide" in Him.

"I AM...The Truth" seems a "difficult statement" (in the NASB's translation).  Most difficult of all, to understand how we can functionally identify with Him...the essence of faith.

It helped, as I studied, to see that in Greek there is a verb "to truth," used in Galatians 4:16 (translated, "tell the truth"), and Ephesians 4:15 (translated, "speak the truth").  In both cases, "truth" is an action we are exhorted to do.

 But the greater understanding came in testing Jesus' words.  If Jesus IS "Truth," every scriptural mention of "truth" should still make sense when His name was substituted for "truth."

It was a convincing test: and one that gave further light.  "You will know Jesus, and Jesus will make you free" (John 8:32) particularly stood out.  As it did that God's Spirit is repeatedly called "the Spirit of Jesus" (John 14:17, 15:26, 16:13).  The clincher was that He asked the Father to sanctify us in Truth/Jesus, because "Your word is Jesus" (John 17:17).

Jesus gave us a hard saying to understand, when He told us Who He IS.  But He also gave us operational understanding in which to act in identity with Who He IS.

That understanding is obvious, and simple.  Those who love Jesus love truth.  Those who follow Jesus, follow truth.

It's exactly analogous to what the opening scripture (above) tells us: God's identifies Himself as Love...and all who are His, love in identity with Who He IS.

By this we "test [ourselves], to see if [we] are in the faith" (II Corinthians 13:5).  We can know that we "...[have] both the Father and Son" (II John 1:9) when we are "truthing in love" (Ephesians 4:15).

And by that same measure with which we measure ourselves, we can unmistakably know the "many deceivers...and the antichrist" abroad in this world (II John 1:7).  They are those not merely devoid of truth and love: they actively embrace and walk in the spirit of their "father, the devil;" and Jesus said he is a murderer and a liar (John 8:44).

The deceived of today's "post-truth" world (including many "Christians") are unabashed in their desire to be ruled by unrighteousness, by love for violence and lies.  But in this world of darkness, God is making His light even brighter.

To all with Spiritual eyes to see, He is today giving increasing clarity of vision...to know Him more clearly, and more fully, as "The Truth."  To those who receive Him as "The Truth" He IS, He gives the power to become "sons of God"...as He IS (John 1:9).