September 12, 2020 -- John 8:42 -- At the outermost edge of understanding
/Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.”
John 8:42 English Standard Version
Currently I am reading a book giving scientific evidence for a young earth. This books examines proof that the Triune God created the heavens and the earth about 6,000 years ago. Some of the proofs include the unreliability of radiometric dating given the assumptions surrounding radioactive isotopes and their daughter isotopes. Stay with me here. I don’t understand it all either. I understand each word individually, but stringing them together and learning about Alpha and Beta decay and that 14C beta-decays to 14N, well, I can tell I am in way over my head. Yet there are gifted men and women who are sifting through this all unto the glory of God.
Why mention this at all? Understanding the Trinity—One Being: God—Who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, is difficult to understand. I am at the edge of understanding. I know the individual words and terms, but putting it all together is richness and beauty that takes long examination and prayer.
Jesus spoke as directly to His critics then as He does to us today through the Bible. He is sent from God the Father. He is united with the Father in purpose and love. This already distinguishes Christianity from all the other religions and sects and cults in the world. Co-eternal the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit live in perfect community and love.
There are not many ways and paths to God. Jesus is it. He is sent by the Father to make the way plain. There is no chance of “achieving heaven by basically living okay, or at least living better than your neighbour”. Our hearts are sin-blackened, pus-filled cesspools of evil. Only Jesus Christ, sent by the Father, can address our sins. Only the Spirit of the Living God can take us from our dead-in-sin condition and raise us to life in Jesus Christ.
Thanks be to God, the Blessed and Triune, for life that begins now and stretches into eternity. Life which is full of wonder and searching to understand, life that is rich with inquiry and answers. Thanks be to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for stooping to our weakness and dullness and making Himself known. Today if you hear His voice, humble yourself, admit your need for Him. Jesus will raise you to new life in the power of His Spirit.
Tomorrow is Sunday. Get to a Bible believing and preaching church and hear the glorious Good News. Find a Christian friend whose faith you admire and ask your questions! Learn more about God, the great and glorious—He sent Jesus, His Interpreter, He sent the Spirit so that we could grasp the glorious knowledge He is giving. Go ahead, ask!
O LORD our God—As is written in the Bible, so we declare: You are the Redeemer, the Holy One! Faithful God, You declared: “I AM the LORD your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go.” We confess, there is no god beside You! You declared the end from the beginning. Those who run to You, obeying Your commandments, find peace which never dries up, but is like a river flowing in them. Those governed by Your Spirit in the way of Jesus grow in righteousness that is as dependable and constant as the waves on the shore. Blessed are You, Triune God of glory and splendour, radiant and power. Amen.
(Isaiah 48:17-18 forms the basis of today’s prayer).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjOGX5zT8KU
