Just Receive'Don't try to analyse... just receive. Don't come asking questions. Come as a child.' Here we have the core of the problem. We are told not to question, not to doubt, but just to accept this as from God. Yet the whole basis of Christian truth is that it is reasonable and arguable. The written Word of God is given as God's revelation to His special creation whom He made in His own image, capable of reason, deduction, analysis, and logic. Nowhere are we told to accept Christian truth without using the minds God gave us to use. Receiving Christ is, of course, a matter of faith. We are saved by faith. But that faith is the gift God Himself has given and it is not blind faith. It is faith in a reasoned argument that we are sinners answerable to a Holy God. It is a reasoned argument that God send His Son to die for sinners, because there was no other 'reasonable' thing to do. We put our faith in God because we have been shown by the Holy Spirit the beauty of Jesus that we may desire Him to be our Saviour, and that it is a reasonable, logical step to take. Paul commended the Bereans for just this reason, that they sought to discover the truth Of Paul's Gospel message: The Bereans "were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily, to find out whether these things were so." Acts 17:11 Jesus Himself commended a search for truth: "You search the Scriptures [AV—Search the Scriptures] for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me." John 5:39 We are never to abandon our minds in the search for truth, or to see whether a thing is of God or not. To 'come as a child' is a misunderstood concept. When Jesus said "Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it" Luke 18:17, He was not saying that we must abandon reason. Childlike qualities are trust and openness, but children do not abandon reason. In fact they often have the most enquiring minds—they are asking questions—they want to know answers. Parents often get frustrated at the children's insistent and incessant questions. Children can very easily understand and grasp issues which adults find difficult because their more mature minds are cluttered with conflicting information. A child is much more open and straightforward. Isn't that how Jesus wants us to be? We are to question and be discerning as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. How else can we apply the commandment, "Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world"? 1 John 3:24-4:1 We must use our minds, our intellect, our reason, to understand what God is saying to us. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Romans 12:1-2 We must not, as we're being encouraged, to close our minds to reasoning, and merely accept everything at face value, because it looks right, feels right, feels good, and it's what we want!
|
|
|
Copyright © 2002 Homerton Baptist Church. |
|
|
|
 |