The Gospel and Theology (Truth)
1 Amens
Why Do We Do That? The
Harambee
Church Part 4, The Gospel and Theology: John 17:17; Preached @ Harambee Church by Pastor Michael Gunn on September 3rd, 2006
“Whenever we meet heathen writers, let us learn from the light of truth which is admirably displayed in their works, that the human mind, fallen as it is, and corrupted from its integrity, is yet invested and adorned by God with excellent talents. If we believe that the Spirit of God is the only fountain of truth itself, we shall not reject or despise the truth itself, wherever it shall appear, unless we wish to insult the Spirit of God.”
John Calvin
Introduction
Harambee’s
Harambee exists to know and worship God by enjoying Him and joining Him in His mission to take His whole story, to the whole person, in the whole world, equipping those that respond to do God’s will and enjoy Him forever.
Every week for the next couple of months we are going to be taking a look at the missions and important values of our church in order for us to know what Harambee is all about, and why we do the things that we do. It is also important to remember that all of these values encompass our over arching value of worship, and is a response to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our value that we are exploring this week is Truth/Theology.
As we saw last week creativity is a gift from God to humanity made in His image. Subsequently a witness of the divine and gospel truth is found in all cultures. God, according to Romans 1 has not left this world without a witness. The problem is not with the fact that we do not have enough information; the problem with humanity is that they reject the truth that is revealed to them (Romans 1:18-25). God has definitely left all of humanity with a general witness to His glory (Romans 1:18; Psalms 19:1) and He has also given humanity a specific witness through the incarnation of His Son (Hebrews 1:1-3; John 1:1-14), while giving a redemptive glimpse of His being to believers through the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14). Theology (The Truth about God) appears to the skeptical non-believing mind to be irrelevant, or impossible. If we choose to drink from the well of modernism, we will eschew the truth about God based on its absurdity; on the other hand, if we choose the well of Postmodernity, we will reject the “truth” about God based on tits particularity (It’s claim of universality). Modern theology has led us to believe that God is a human concept devoid of transcendency (The concept of God comes from outside the human dimension and reason) or immanence (The concept that God, if He exists at all is too infinite for us to speak intelligently about Him). The search for truth, when defined as an absolute abstract, has always led men to tyranny even when the motive appeared pure. Christianity is not exempt from this critique. The postmodern critique of modernism and its belief that truth is absolute to human reason, has discarded the search for the sake of peace only to find out that fragmentation, tribalism and disunity have permeated our “Pluralistic” world. Truth has been relegated to opinions, and critique of opinion has been extricated from our modern world leaving us with a strange “tolerance” that has brought forth more confusion than clarity and harmony.
Jesus Christ comes to earth embodying truth (John 14:6) that will set us free from the tyranny of sin (John 8:32), and point us in the direction of its wisdom and the unity it should bring (John 17:17). Truth is more than an ideal amongst many other ideals that subsequently lead to tyranny, but is a personal reality of the God who created the universe.
From the Head…
Three views have explain what Jesus meant by “Sanctify them by Your truth”: (1) The truth found in God’s Word accomplishes our sanctification. (2) The central truth of God’s saving love sets into motion God’s sanctifying work in us. (3) The process of passing on (preaching, teaching) God’s truth would have a sanctifying effect in the disciples’ lives. These views are actually complementary, describing different aspects of sanctification: the second view highlights the initial pouring of God’s grace into our lives through the truth of the gospel; the first view summarizes the ongoing effects of the applied truths from God’s Word; and the third view emphasizes that progress in sanctification will be seen in our desire and practice of communicating the gospel. God’s Word, then, works as a divine cleansing agent that God uses to bring about our sanctification.
God’s truth is beyond propositions, and is the truth that sanctifies His people. It is to be proclaimed, but not treated like a product of rationalism. The “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:14) and the Holy Spirit has a lot to do with the truth of God in the “sanctified” heart of the believer. It is “super” natural, and transcends our own reason. This doesn’t mean that truth isn’t absolute or that we shouldn’t use reason to understand the truth of God’s word, or even defend God’s truth against the skeptical mind. What it does mean however, is the fact that God’s truth has mystery built into it, and that it isn’t to be wielded as a weapon to crush, but an instrument of healing and sanctification. God’s truth is absolute, and He does reveal Himself, but our knowledge of Him is still limited and non-absolute and must be gathered in humility not arrogance. We ‘grow” in our knowledge of the truth (This is true of every kind of truth), which tells us our knowledge of the truth is limited, yet profoundly satisfying in its journey. Our understanding of truth, while never absolute, is a comprehension of absolute truth. Subsequently we have been given logical faculties to use to determine truth, but we must relinquish our desire to suppress and crush error in any other way than dialogue and debate in the market place. The truth of God’s word is no less true than any other statement of theology or comprehensive worldview, and needs to be understood and articulated in a way that is beautiful and meaningful to those that are hearing it, in order to persuade others (Given the work of the Holy Spirit) in the lives of those hearing the truth (Acts 16:14; 17:34) to respond to the truth of God’s word.
This idea in regards to truth does not lend to the idea that the truth about God is found collectively in human experience and religion. This is a by-product of a modernist understanding of religion that says that the study of God (Theology) begins with man (His reason) and their experience of the divine (Nature) and that all religions lead us to the same truth. This may be true, except the fact that the so-called “similar” truths are often quite contradictory, and therefore must be rejected as different aspects of divine truth. Therefore the 3 blind men and the elephant illustration fails as an illustration for two reasons. First it assumes its conclusion, and secondly it assumes an “Objective” viewer exists outside of the 3 blind men to view the phenomenon.
Every ultimate (Absolute) must use a form of circularity to prove its point, and rationalism is not exempt. Every claim of truth must refer to its premise to “prove” itself true. The word of God promises to “sanctify” those that respond as the “Proof” of its claims. The goal of God’s word is a setting apart of His people in order that they, like Christ, would do His mission, namely glorifying Him on earth. As we witness the power of God’s word in our life, and recognize that truth is embodied in Christ, then we are convinced of its veracity. As Augustine said, “Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe so that you may understand.” It is the illusion of certainty created by a hyper confidence in human reason that has demanded the proofs for things that can’t exist in the closed system created by the assumption that nothing can exist outside of the tentacles of human reason.
While we certainly believe that human reason and natural theology can give us some base truths regarding the divine, we as humans are in need of the transcendent to reveal Himself if we are going to obtain a deeper and more specific understanding of the truths of God. Subsequently we believe that Jesus Christ has revealed God (John 14) and that while we believe in a continuity of the OT ad the NT, we believe that we have a fuller understanding of the old as an unfolding story about Jesus who reveals the truth about God, salvation and His mission here on earth (John 5:39, 46; Luke 24:27). Thus the three blind men are just that, blind, and unable understand the things of God without God. Human reason cannot give us the truth about God, and can only reveal the power of God and the need for rescue of His great power.
…to the Heart
If we are going to be people of the truth, it is imperative that we too are sanctified in His word, and that we are people that embody truth to a world dying to find it. We must know what we believe, and not be timid to proclaim it with the authority that we have been given in Christ (Matthew 28:19). It is not a truth for some, it is the truth of the creator, which in of itself makes it an absolute reality. We can know when we proclaim it, some do still believe, while others still reject it because of our idolatrous reliance on our own ability to know all. The truth that we wield, must be a healing truth, and not used for our own pride.
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