11For I make known to you, brothers, that the Gospel preached by me is not according to man, 12for I neither received it nor was taught [it] from a man but through a revelation of Jesus Christ..
This passage, once again, reminds me of the importance of Truth. Obviously, as all commentators note, Paul’s opponents apparently proffered the argument that his teaching of the Gospel was not as authoritative as that of the apostles who actually learned it from Christ. “The truth he taught you,” they imply, “is not true truth.”
Interestingly, Peter engaged in the same kind of emphasis in II Peter 1:16-19: “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, … And we have the more sure word of prophecy; to which you do well to take heed, as to a light shining in a dark place,…”
“Truth” is a very delicate thing. What both Paul and Peter are dealing with is the problem that people must discern for themselves what is “truth;” and that they must do so while barraged by messages from a million different angles (and motives). Pilate scoffed, “What is truth?" as he looked Truth in the face and turned away. What is truth? What is true? In a sense we are all locked continually in a battle to discern what is truth? On the relational plane we must discern whether people are “telling us the truth,” whether it be at home, at work, at the grocery store, etc. And on the much larger plane, we must discern what is “truth” in the religious world or should I say in the world of values and motives and our entire “world-view.”
(I suppose I have to interject the people who want to say there is no truth. That mentality is a huge problem today but I will choose to ignore it here. I’ll just say it is as absurd as the fact that the very statement itself is a statement of truth. They want us to believe it is true that there is no truth. Absurdly illogical.)
See what is at stake here for the Galatians. If what Paul says is truth, then they should hang their eternal destiny entirely on grace. If what the others are saying is true, then they also need to include the practices of Judaism in their lifestyle. Heaven and hell hang in the balance. Yes? Yes. Each individual Galatian must make a choice. What is the truth? … and then order their life accordingly. And realize their choice is of eternal consequence. Such is our life every day.
Hmmmmmm. Since this is my blog, indulge me to meander a moment. Truth is very important to me. I don’t know if that is somehow my nature and/or the fact that I am an engineer. (The field of engineering is based on applied science – figuring out the truth of why things do what they do, harnessing that knowledge, and using it to solve problems). It may also be due to some extent to the fact that early in my life I read Francis Schaffer’s book, “How Shall We Then Live?” in which he emphasized the importance of not only truth but absolute truth. The thesis of that book was that the rise and fall of Western culture is entirely a matter of our having embraced truth, then abandoned it. For myself, I feel to this day that what Dr. Shaffer said is in fact absolutely true.
But what I see around me is that hardly anyone else appears to care about truth. It seems to me that all anyone cares about is what they want to be true. I study the Bible because I want desperately to know the truth. I know almost no one else who even cracks it. I know a lot of professing believers who I would think would be ravenous for truth. Yet they seem quite content to basically ignore the Bible and go on living based on what they want to be true. A tidbit or two from the pulpit is good enough. Where are the noble Bereans who “search the Scriptures daily and see whether these things be so”? And then no one is even interested in discussing “truth.” If I perceive that a person might be a truth-seeker, I might bring up some “truth” I’ve been pondering, only to get their disinterested “Oh” for a response. I’ve about gotten to the point where I just don’t even bring it up. I do my studies, think my thoughts, jot down some of them in this blog, and for the most part just content myself with trying to live these things out in my own life.
It is something I totally don’t understand. I am NOT better than anyone else. But that said, I just don’t understand why people don’t care about truth. I know, I know, people are sinners and naturally driven by their lusts not by truth (that was Shaffer’s whole point), and so it will always be true (in this world) that the human race as a whole will always be gullible, easily deceived, and even antagonistic toward truth. They would actually rather follow their lusts than be told the truth. But still, surely there are people who rise above that.
Oh, well. Love God. Love others. That’s my mission for today. That’s the truth. I will go on doing the best to seek and live out the truth as I discern it, and grant those around me the freedom to do the same (or not).
But what Paul is saying IS of monumental importance. What is Truth? To determine that is absolutely incumbent upon every individual and it is of eternal consequence what we determine.
As for me, I am convinced that the Gospel of the Bible, the God of grace and His Son Jesus Christ, of salvation totally by that grace, lived out in a life of gratitude is the TRUTH. God help me if I’m wrong anywhere that I would see it. And God help me where I’m right to live out that Truth everyday. And by Your grace, where I’m right, may I be a light in the life of someone else around me. Truth. Not from “man.” Not just someone’s ideas. But absolute, eternal TRUTH delivered to us from the absolute, eternal God.
Martin Luther: “God creates faith in us through the Word. He increases, strengthens and confirms faith in us through His Word. Hence the best service that anybody can render God is diligently to hear and read God’s Word”.
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