ABSOLUTE TRUTH

ABSOLUTE TRUTH

                Generally speaking the disciples were Jews living in a Jewish culture. Being largely fishermen and common folk, they may not have been able to explain every detail of the Torah. They had fish to catch. But there was always an underlying sense among Jews that they were God’s chosen people and that their faith was built upon absolute truth. They would have defended to their death the truth they believed even if they, as simple fishermen, could probably not parlay with members of the Sanhedrin or the Levitical priests.

                Jesus chose the disciples that He chose for that very reason. And the Bible shows us that Jesus faced strong opposition from the scribes the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. They were steeped in their religion and for good reason. Every inch of the Torah is God’s Spirit breathed Word. The Torah represents bedrock and absolute truth.

                But in spite of the fact that the Torah is absolute unchangeable and undeniable truth, all of that truth pointed to something so grand that those steeped in this truth, could not begin to grasp or understand or believe that there was a greater truth to which the Torah was pointing. To them the letter of the Law was perfect and it was the undeniable road to salvation. Even in their Hebrew liturgy they proclaimed that Jews are made holy through Mitzvot. (The Law-the Torah)

                The question is this: and it is a valid one. IF the Torah is absolute truth, spoken by the mouth of God to Moses and penned by Moses in the very presence of God… if the Ten Commandments were written by the very finger of God, then how can there be a greater truth than that?

                We have to come face to face with the fact that the Pharisees, from their own perspective, had an ironclad case against Jesus. There can be no truth greater than the Law… and yet there was One in their midst who claimed to know God personally and called Him Father and further took upon Himself such titles as “The Way, The Truth and The Life.” It was absurd! It was blasphemy. It had to be of the devil. This Man had to be killed before His seditious teachings infected the entire nation.

                So Jesus chose simple fishermen as His disciples and he ministered largely among the poor, the lame, and the disenfranchised. But Jesus DED bring a greater truth, not by denying the Torah or the prophets, but by showing and demonstrating in His life that greater truth to which the Torah pointed.

                Through the ensuing 2000 years many Christian religions have thought to improve upon the teachings of Jesus by reintroducing the letter of the Law, but in doing so they always diminish the Lordship and Kingship of Jesus and they infringe upon that greater truth that is the Gospel of the Kingdom.

                The Gospel that Jesus preached doesn’t in any way do away with the First Covenant, for it is the solid bedrock foundation upon which the New Covenant sits. And yet, Jesus brought us a New Covenant signed in His own blood, ”And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12

                Paul spent his entire ministry trying to describe for us this transition from Law to Grace… from the Letter to the Spirit. It is a transition that many do not understand and so they build elaborate systems of doctrine in which they try to make both work together, but it always diminishes the role of Jesus in their lives. They tend to place their faith in their doctrines and in their keeping of the Law, more than in the cross and the blood of Jesus as the New Covenant is administered in us and through us by the Holy Spirit.

                It is an unspoken thing, but they always downplay the role of the Holy Spirit in bringing the living realities of the New Covenant in the work of sanctification and they often continue to seek perfection and holiness through the Law, rather than through the Spirit.

                I tend to deal with Romans 8 a great deal because it represents my own life long struggle to move from the letter to life in the Spirit. How can a Law, that is perfect and holy and good ever be insufficient for our salvation? But in Romans 8: 2, 4 Paul explains it by saying: “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh IN ORDER THAT THE REQUIREMENT OF THE LAW MIGHT BE FULFILLED IN US, WHO DO NOT WALK ACCORDING TO THE FLESH BUT ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT.”

                Notice that there is no denial of the Law here. The Law must be fulfilled. But what Paul is saying is that it can’t be fulfilled in the flesh. Our flesh is weak and our promises are like ropes of sand. Therefore the Law can make nothing perfect. Our flesh must die. It cannot now or ever inherit the kingdom of God. It is our spirit that is being perfected by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and as for our flesh; we will have to receive new glorified bodies before we can enter into heaven.

                The Holy Spirit is not a side issue. He is, in fact, the very presence and power of Jesus Christ. It is by the Holy Spirit that Jesus comes into our hearts. It is by the Holy Spirit that we are being transformed from glory to glory “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ… so speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head even Christ.” Eph. 4:13,15

                `And once we begin to understand the centrality and the intimate role that the Holy Spirit plays in recreating the image of Christ in us, we begin to wonder why it is that we feel the need to build elaborate systems of doctrine and institution, all of which diminish the central point of the Gospel and build fences between us and Christ.

                In this the church feigns to step in and to become our mediator and to replace the Holy Spirit as our guide and our very life. It seeks to interpret the scriptures for us so that it makes truth into dogma instead of revelation that brings transformation.

                There is something very wonderful when a person begins to comprehend that the church is not the dispenser of information, but a gathering of saints who are being led by the Spirit and being formed into the Body of Christ. We are made one by the Spirit and by the Word, not by a denomination with special teachings… not by the Law… not by doctrines contrived by man, but by a new and living way… by the very Spirit of Christ who makes us one. For though the Body is made up of many parts, the parts all work together in harmony because we have one Head, even Christ and one Holy Spirit and one Word of God.

                Paul makes it very clear about our salvation saying: “…Those who are in the flesh cannot please God, indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, but if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.  So then brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh; for if you are living according to the flesh you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live, for all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” Rom. 8:8-16.

                These are serious words that require our utmost attention.  We try to replace this central issue with side issues and doctrines through which we then claim salvation, but Paul calls them all dung compared to Christ.

                “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish (dung) in order that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith I Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering being conformed to His death in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

                People may come to me and say, “What about the special doctrines on which our church stands? What about the Law? What about the things you were once taught? But if everything in the Torah pointed to Christ and if Christ sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts in order to initiate the New Covenant within me so that the very life of Christ is being formed in me, then how can I improve on that by adding back the types and shadows that pointed to these things?

                The Law is being fulfilled in me as I walk by the Spirit. It is now being fulfilled in me by the fruit of the Spirit which He is producing in me because I am connected to the Vine. I have entered into the REST to which the Law pointed. And as my flesh continues to die, then the fruit of the Spirit is being produced in me by the Holy Spirit. Gal. 5:22.

                Jesus called me out of darkness and into His light: “For whom He foreknew He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son so that He may be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Rom. 8:29) I share sweet fellowship with others who are filled with the same Spirit as me and we are being knitted and glued together in love until the coming of the Lord.

                “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter and his praise is not from men, but from God.” Rom. 2:28, 29.

                When I tried to please God by keeping the Law, I lived with constant guilt and an overwhelming feeling that I could never be saved because I could never measure up.  I was attempting to do in the flesh something that can only be done by the Spirit. I was not really benefitting from the blood of Christ or the life of Christ which is imparted to me by His Holy Spirit. But now that I have been truly born again, His Holy Spirit is at work in me conforming me to the image of Christ, causing me to fulfill the Law through love and helping me to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of my testimony.

                When I contemplate the idea of going back to what once was, Paul says to me. “Don’t be foolish Rick. Having begun by the Sprit are you now being perfected by the flesh? Does He then who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you do it by the works of the Law or by the hearing of faith?” Gal. 3:3, 5

                Paul also said in Gal. 3:23-26 “But before faith came we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

                For the Jews, the big stumbling block was circumcision, for they could not imagine how the law of circumcision could be fulfilled by the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Today the big stumbling block for many is the Sabbath, for the same reason, because they cannot comprehend how the Sabbath can be fulfilled in those who have entered into rest from our own works in Christ. “For by the works of the Law shall no one be justified. “ Gal. 2:16

                For our rest is not a rest derived from the Law, but from the Holy Spirit who gives us rest from our own works and saves us by His work in us. Heb. 4: 9, 10. For a new day of rest has been established which is “Today.” The ever present today in which we find our rest in Christ and that is what Hebrews 4 is really all about.

                So in Romans 14 Paul deals with these issues saying, “One man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.” Rom 14:5. He applies the same principle to what we eat in verse 3. The idea here is that we not judge one another because each of us must give an account of our lives to the Lord, and God has not assigned us the position of being a judge.

                So I may believe in the Sabbath, but I also have sweet fellowship with those who don’t because we share fellowship in the same Holy Spirit. I may not eat pork, but I have sweet fellowship with those that do. Those who do not eat pork, do so in obedience to the Word, but those who do eat pork also do so in obedience to the Word for Col. 2: 16, 17 says: Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come, BUT THE SUBSTANCE BELONGS TO CHRIST. Do we really believe that?

                Jesus is that greater truth that swallows up all other truth, not by denying it, but by fulfilling it and then causing it to be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

                A rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked what he must do to inherit eternal life. So Jesus answered, “Keep the Commandments” to which the young man responded that he had kept them all from his youth. But Jesus knew that the Law says nothing about a person’s heart. So He asked him to sell all he had and give to the poor and come follow Him. So the young man turned away.

                In this Jesus went beyond the letter of the law in order to reveal the heart of the man and whereas he qualified to be a disciple as far as the Law was concerned, he did not qualify when it came to his heart. Only the Holy Spirit can give us a new heart. Think on these things. We need to understand them, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. And all of creation is eagerly waiting for the revealing of the sons of God.” Romans 8: 14, 20-23.

                The Bible is filled with absolute truth. Everything in the Bible is bedrock truth, but all truth is summed up in Jesus Christ and administered to us by His Holy Spirit.

                I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave His life for me.” Gal 2:20.

                Some may think that living by the Spirit is some kind of a cop-out, or some kind of an easy way out. But as we can see from the story of the rich young ruler, life in the Spirit actually goes much deeper than the Law could ever reach. The Holy Spirit deals with our motives and the true condition of our heart. He comes to cleanse us from stem to stern and to produce the life of Jesus in and through us.

                “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and not be subject again to the yoke of slavery. But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Gal, 5:1,16.

                “For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Gal. 5:14. And this is how we know that the fruit of the Spirit listed in Gal. 5:22 fulfills the whole Law.