Читать книгу MYSTERIES OF GOD'S KINGDOM - Kenneth B. Alexander - Страница 15

FINDING TRUTH IN THE BIBLE

In Christianity, and in fact in any search for the truth, one must look to the Word of God to gain understanding of the truth. You must seek it and find it but God promises that “if we seek and keep on seeking” we will find”.

One thing we learn quickly is that truth is not special knowledge or wisdom or concepts separate from God. Truth is not a thing or a state of being—it is a person-Jesus Christ. In the Gospel of John he quotes Jesus as saying: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (v. 14:6). In order to understand truth, we must keep this “definition” in mind. Nowhere else in the Bible is “truth” defined. It is not a moral concept; it is not doing good so you can “go to heaven; it is not a philosophy; it is not a set of church doctrines and it’s not found in your conscience. It is found in Jesus Christ, in His nature, His body and His blood.

In order to walk in the truth, we must walk as He did. This does not mean walk in some imitation of Him, like doing what you think Jesus would have done in a particular circumstance. We must have His very nature, written on our hearts as He did. Only when we have fully appropriated His nature, and done away with our human nature, do we know truth. When that occurs, we will BE like Christ; we will also BE the truth.

Therefore, it is only in a change of nature, our human nature into His divine nature, that we will find truth. The Apostle John said:

“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, WE WILL BE LIKE HIM, because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2).

And: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). We are, as true Christians, are in a process of spiritual nature change.

Paul outlined this process in his letter to the Corinthians. Change of nature means resurrection, as Christ was resurrected.

“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.

For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming” (vs. 15:20-23).

“So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable [literally corrupt] body, it is raised an imperishable body;

it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;

it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

So also it is written, “The first MAN, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.

The first man is from the earth, earthy [made of dust]; the second man is from heaven.

As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly.

Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly” [the Spirit reality of Christ] (vs. 15:42-49).

We inherited the human nature from Adam at the fall of man, the original sin (Genesis 3). Since sin is death, that one act of disobedience subjected all creation after the fall to a nature subject to death and sin. At that time, all of creation was subjected to futility (Romans 8:20-21).

Paul goes on: “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,

in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality (vs. 15:50-53).

We’ve said all this to say that: Truth exists only in Christ. In order to know truth, we must become like Him, not just after we die but in this life. Truth is not a concept separate from Christ; He is truth. We may seek and cry for understanding of truth but we will never know it unless we EXPERIENCE IT (different from knowing it) in Him. It will happen in the “twinkling of an eye”. And some still alive in this world will also be changed, never experiencing death.

Paul said: “But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH is swallowed up in victory. “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law” (1 Co 15:54-56; Isaiah 25:8; Hosea 13:14). This is truth. To dwell in Christ’s and resurrected, imperishable body.

To become like Christ, and thereby know the truth, we must be “born again” in the Spirit. Christianity today uses the term “born again” to reflect the state of anyone who has been “saved” that is has received Christ as their Savior. This is not being truly “born again”. Christ describes a total experience of actually being completely born again with a new nature, displacing our human nature. Christians who claim to be born again just because they have accepted Christ are mistaken. Basis salvation is only step 1 in the process of receiving the nature of Christ in its totality.

Jesus said in response to a question posed to Him by a Jewish Pharisee Nicodemus: “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again [from above] he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water [symbolic of the Word of God] and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again [from above].’ “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:3-8).

So how do we conduct this search for truth? Very simple. We seek Him, to know Him and the power of his resurrection.

Paul said:

“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 in 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 [participation in] of His sufferings,… in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Phil 3:10).

Since all truth resides in the person of Jesus Christ, we must seek Him in order to know Him, so we can become like Him.

Paul said: “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I PRESS ON toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:8-14).

“Knowing Him” is knowing Him as a husband knows his wife. It is an intimate relationship between you and God. When you have this you will KNOW and thus experience the truth.

Another scripture refers to this knowing and the search for Him:

“So let us know, LET US PRESS ON TO KNOW THE LORD.

His going forth is as certain as the dawn;

And He will come to us like the rain,

Like the spring rain watering the earth” (Hosea 6:1-3).

Our searching is a pressing on to the relationship God has planned for us with Him, resurrection life, an imperishable body, eternal life in His Kingdom. This is truth.

How do we seek? One way is through prayer. Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6.

“Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father who is in heaven,

Hallowed be Your name.

‘YOUR KINGDOM COME.

YOUR WILL BE DONE,

ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

‘Give us this day our daily bread.

‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]” (Matthew 6:9-13).

In Luke 11, the disciples asked Jesus how to pray. Jesus quoted the Lord’s Prayer. But He went further. He showed them by a parable that one must be persistent in prayer (seeking, searching) and not to stop praying until you have received of what you asked (Luke 11:1-13). It is not even necessarily a searching; it is an asking. He who seeks finds; he who asks receives.

Heaven is not some faraway place we reach only when we die. It is a state of being. Jesus said that we should pray that His Kingdom come both in “heaven” (the spirit realm where God lives) and in the earth AS IT ALREADY IS in heaven. The kingdom is all around us. We just need to seek God to bring it down to become real to our senses.

Paul said: “Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind [be intent on] on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3).

This is truth. We don’t look for it using natural resources in a temporal world. Jesus, the person, is truth. Jesus is the Word of God made flesh. God said “Heaven and earth may pass away, but My words will not”. So let’s seek him while He may be found.