Thursday, October 4, 2012

Fearing the Truth

I don't have the impression that truth is dangerous & to be avoided. Are we to think that everyone that Paul wrote Romans & Corinthians to, or everyone Hebrews was written to, or everyone that 1 John was written to were all mature enough to "handle the truth"?

Paul said to the Romans "I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh" & he goes on to speak some of the most solid & amazing spiritual perfection language in all of scripture.

In 1 Corinthians Paul calls the people "babes" yet still hands out to them major things in 2 Corinthians such as "God is no longer charging people with sin" (5:19-20), & "we identify no one according to the flesh (5:16)."

2 Corinthians 5:16-20 isn't meat, it is as pure & simple as the gospel gets & Paul speaks of the new creation (spirit) in this same context.
"From now on we identify no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; look, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the service of reconciliation, which is that, "In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their (the world's) sins against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God."'

Is it dangerous for people to pick up the bible and read it? How does the truth lead someone astray? Why would we rather put the light of the gospel & our new creation in Christ under a bushel OUT OF FEAR than we would shine it?

Are we to be afraid of God's perfect love which doesn't charge people with sin & makes His children born spiritually perfect? Or are we to be so afraid of sin, whose power Christ destroyed, that we hush up about the goodness of God? Are we to be more afraid of the power of the enemy to lead people astray with the truth than we are to trust in God that He will use the truth to set them free?

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who trusts" (Romans 1:16). I trust the power of the true gospel far more than I trust that the enemy can distort its results. False gospels ruin people. The true gospel makes people whole.

I've never seen a single person ruined by the God's honest truth. People who fear the truth of grace still bask in a self-righteous mindset. They think that people shouldn't be taught about Christ's righteousness given to us until they can "handle the truth" & not go out acting however they want. They are afraid that knowledge of grace will cause people to behave badly. So what if it does? Would you rather someone believe a lie & be ignorant of the truth & behave morally for a time or someone know the truth of God's love & behave immorally for a time? The first entrusts people to themselves and their own performance. The second entrusts people to God & the power of His truth. For whatever reason people are so afraid of someone "sinning" that they'd rather keep them in the dark instead of exposing them to the light of God's love, the same love that is the only thing that truly changes people.

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