Truth
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” -John 1:1
“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” -John 4:23
“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” -John 14:6
I am constantly amazed at how Christians have botched their understanding of truth. Discipleship, truth and worship have been boiled down to propositions, Bible memorization, systematic theology, sermons and songs.
Today, when we speak of the word of God everyone assumes one answer, the Bible. Before the Reformation, however, if I came up to you and mentioned the Word of God you would respond differently. Before the Reformation, the word of God was understood to be a person, Jesus Christ.
Theologically, Scripture is able to be trusted because it testifies to Jesus Christ. I do not worship the Bible anymore than I pick up a great work of non-fiction and worship it. It’s ludicrous to worship Scripture. It’s not our god!
Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord. He is the “word”, or logos, to whom John 1:1 testifies. In John 4, Jesus proclaims to the woman at the well that a day is coming when followers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.
What is this truth in which we will worship? Is it Bible memorization? Is it great sermons? Is it praise songs?
It is none of the above. We will worship the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ. The TRUTH is RELATIONAL. You can memorize the Bible from Genesis to Revelation but if you do not have Jesus relationally you ain’t go squat!
In John 14, Jesus announces that he is the way, the truth, and the life. I cannot stress this enough, following Jesus is not some mental challenge whereby you memorize as much as possible and know as much as possible. A heretical group of early Christians knows as Gnostics claimed that we get to Heaven by means of secret knowledge. [Their name, Gnostic, comes from the Greek verb "to know", gnosis.]
Like Gnosticism, Christianity has become belief in something instead of a belief in Someone, namely, Jesus Christ. Worship, then, is not centered on Scripture but on Jesus, not songs but the Christ, not programs but a Messiah! Until we allow our lives to be in constant worship of Jesus Christ we will not grow. In John 15, Jesus declares that He is the vine. How can we grow if we know a lot about the vine but refuse to believe in the One who IS the vine?
Bible memorization, propositions, sermons, and songs are not bad in and of themselves. We take these amoral things and creates idols out of them and make them immoral. These things are not ends in themselves but means to an end; Jesus Christ! So, in the hopes of John 8:32, may you know the Truth, and may the Truth set you free!
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