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The idea of being true to one’s-self, is tantamount to the
idea of coming to accept ourselves “just as we are”. Usually when this bright idea occurs to us,
we are in a much less than perfect state.
Our failure to reach perfection just looks too permanent, it is just too
hard to get there. So instead of trying
and failing over-and-over again, we just give up, and discover that being true
to ourselves means accepting our shortcomings and just embracing them. We usually take that a step farther in the
spiritual domain, by insisting that since we accept us “this way”, that God too
must accept us “this way”, after all He made us “this way”. It is then easy to believe that since God can
forgive us literally anything, we can just rely on that forgiveness, and
somehow we can save changing until He remakes us at the second coming. This philosophy then adds spiritual credence
to the idea that “my truth” is surely “OK” with God as well. But when Jesus said that He was the Truth, He
never mentions anyone else in that same sentiment. It is not like Jesus says He is the truth,
even alongside Moses, David, or John the Baptist. All of those patriarchs of the faith were
famous for their service, and their messages, but none of them qualified to be
“the Truth”.
Even though scripture is inspired by God, and is our best
method of coming to know God, Jesus is higher than our scripture. For Jesus did not say, the scripture is
truth, and I am just the author of the words in that book of truth. Keep in mind, the Pharisees had scripture,
and still managed to miss Jesus (the inspiration, author, and God of scripture)
entirely. And what happens when our
interpretations of scripture, wind up coming in conflict with what God
wants? Do we apologize, submit, and
change our way of thinking? Not when “my
truth” is more important than “the Truth”.
Not when being true to myself stands in obvious conflict with the
changes Jesus wants to bring into my life.
When I am not looking for a new way of thinking, anything that comes my
way different from what I think, just makes me mad. I would submit the angrier the response, the
more mistaken the thinking is in conflict with “the Truth”.
Case in point; the Pharisees put Jesus to death. Despite all the evidence they were warring
with God, they did it anyway. They
thought that would end it. It
didn’t. And the miracles that followed
Jesus, did not follow Him into the grave and stop. Instead, they were back in full force from
the followers of Jesus who merely used/called on the name of Jesus to see them
done. Ask yourself how hardheaded you
have to be to keep fighting that fight after all those miraculous signs that
just will not go away? But then, before
we get too critical, perhaps we should ask ourselves how hardheaded we have to
be, to keep trying to find perfection by our own strength and will, failing
every time, instead of letting Jesus do that work for us? It is not perfection that is elusive, or
giving way to “my truth”. It is the
means by which we go about pursuing perfection.
We keep allowing “self” to have a role in our salvation from
ourselves. This is not what Jesus needs. He just needs your permission, your
willingness to let Him change you however He sees fit. That’s all.
If you are willing to let Him change it, it will change. If you try to do it yourself, or try to help
God out, count on failure in your future.
It might make you mad to read these words. The Pharisees sure did not want to hear that
Jesus could end even your desire to sin, that Jesus could make you free from
sin, from the inside out. Pharisees had
the law of Moses. They believed that you
lived your life according to the Law, and that was “how” you got saved (and
rich by the way). If you sinned, that
was on you to fix. Having some upstart
Nazarene Hippy come claim to release you from sin just by freeing your very
desires, sounded like pure apostacy to Law keepers who wanted no other way to
win, even when that method only showed them the failure of our lives. The secret they could not grasp was the idea
that the Law of God points out our need of a Savior, to write it on our hearts
and minds. The Law is not the method of
salvation. It is the results of
salvation. We keep it, because we want
to, because we cannot imagine any other way to live, not because we “have to”
in order to be saved. The Pharisees did
not want any part of that thinking, it was too radical a shift for them and
would up-end their whole way of living.
So you can imagine when Peter and John perform a miracle in the name of
Jesus, then preach in His Name, convert 5,000 folks, and don’t stop doing
this. The Pharisees were angry beyond
belief.
Luke gives us the account in Acts chapter 4 picking up in
verse 1 the story continues saying … “And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and
the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, [verse 2] Being grieved
that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from
the dead. [verse 3] And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the
next day: for it was now eventide. [verse 4] Howbeit many of them which heard
the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.” The Sadducees had only one main difference
from the Pharisees and that was around the entire idea of resurrection. They did not think it was part of Gods plan
ever. You lived, you died, end of
story. So having Lazarus be resurrected
was a living, breathing, example that their doctrine was wrong. Jesus doing it too, made it worse. And all the others who were raised from the dead
just kept putting nails in the coffin of this obviously mistaken ideology. They did not respond, nor do we usually, by
admitting they were wrong. They did not
apologize and embrace “the Truth”, because that Truth conflicted with “their”
truth. So they grab Peter and John and
throw them into prison for the night.
But it didn’t matter. 5000 folks were converted by the power
of the Holy Spirit moving through the words Peter said about Jesus. The church leadership still hoped this might
not be about Jesus. They still clung to
the idea maybe something new, or something else, was driving the miracle. So on the next day they got together to flush
out the details and find out what was going on.
Luke picks back up in verse 5 saying … “And it came to pass on the morrow,
that their rulers, and elders, and scribes, [verse 6] And Annas the
high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the
kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. [verse 7] And when they
had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye
done this?” This was the last
desperate hope that the Jesus thing was dead and gone in the grave. But in their hearts, they already knew it was
not. The Roman guards at the tomb
already told them the truth about the resurrection and there was no way around
that truth.
Peter then responds, again He is filled with Holy Spirit, it
picks back up in verse 8 saying … “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto
them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, [verse 9] If we this day
be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made
whole; [verse 10] Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel,
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God
raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. [verse
11] This
is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become the head
of the corner. [verse 12] Neither is there salvation in any other: for there
is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Yikes.
Now that is an example of speaking real Truth to a room full of what we
call power. This was the head of the
church, at least the head of the original one.
These men were rich, powerful, full of influence. They could have Peter killed if they really
wanted it. And this was certainly NOT
what they wanted to hear. My guess,
these old church leaders would have rather heard that Peter was on team Satan,
than on team Jesus. At least Satan could
not claim to be the Son of God, well, without lying anyway. Jesus had a rational claim, a claim that
fulfilled scripture and prophecy, a claim steeped in truth and love.
Imagine yourself in that room of angry men. Would you tell them the unvarnished truth? Peter did not hesitate to remind these guys
that “THEY” killed Jesus. Peter does not
blame the Romans. Peter blames them
personally. As they all had personal
accountability, and frankly so do we. Each
sin we embrace requires that blood fresh upon the cross of calvary once more,
the nails driven into His hands and feet, by us. And we know what we are doing. That kind of truth demolishes the idea of
“my” truth. What Peter spoke was not
just his own words, but because he was filled with the Holy Ghost. And despite the criticism of them, or me,
here was again another opportunity to repent and be saved. Another chance to let go of my errors, and
embrace His Truth. To see that Jesus
alone is Truth. For those leaders to change,
they would have had to admit they were wrong in the first place. Not many of us are willing to do that.
But it was not certainty that fueled the obstinance of the
Pharisees, or of us. It is pride. It is pride that refuses to admit the
possibility of being wrong, of having someone else know something that we did
not know first. We sometimes harden into
the core beliefs of our spiritual ancestors instead of building upon the
foundation of faith they left us. Our
church forefathers in their day, were the champions of change, they endured
more of it than we will ever allow ourselves to know. But instead of treating the Word of God as a
living breathing document, a wellspring of relevance that never runs dry – we
treat it more the like the rocks upon which the Law was written, fixed,
immovable, when in truth it is we who have become fixed and immovable. Take the Sabbath being kept Holy for example,
in the time of Christ, the church leadership had made the Sabbath so
burdensome, that the miracle of healing someone on Sabbath was not celebrated,
it was ruled as a means to kill the healer.
Jesus sought to change that. Not
just in what we do, but in how we think about loving others and how that does
not take a holiday on Sabbath, instead it is supposed to be amplified on
Sabbath. Jesus was a radical change
agent to the common thinking about the Law in His own day. Why do try to put cement sandals on the Lord
in our own day?
Let us not become so fixed in our positions, that we cannot
accommodate the Truth when it knocks on the doors of our hearts. Let us instead see ourselves as clay, ready
to be molded into an image of the Truth who fashions us daily upon the
craftsman’s wheel. What He intends us to
be is yet to be known to us. But if we
are to hold on to certainty, let it be certainty in the love of the Craftsman
who remakes us into His own image, at our request.
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