A Seeker of Truth

John 22-26

            Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” (John 14:22 ESV)

I write, not because I’m gifted in that area, but because God has put a desire to leave a record of what I’m learning for my grandsons and anyone else who wishes to read them.  I would call myself a truth seeker, but I also understand that I often do not listen to truth, but let my emotions dictate my will.  At 70 years of age I’m in the process of learning to put no confidence in people, leaders, government, and for sure in the promises of this world system.  If you believe this is easy you are very wrong, I was trained like a bird dog about how to get my needs met, and for many years the game plan and the training worked.  But I ran across John 18:37-38, and it was time to examine what Jesus calls truth. 

Jesus has been arrested and is before Pilate, and Pilate poses this question, “Are you the King of the Jews?”  Listen to Jesus’ answer:   “Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”  (John 18:37-38 ESV)

 I had to ask myself this question, how should I live?  And the only answer is to live as if Jesus tells the truth, and that truth has always collided with man’s independent spirit of living life in the manner that we please.  Now there in lies a big problem, I want to depend on Truth, on Jesus, but I find myself often living a defeated Christian life; and I’m not alone, the apostle Paul also looked to his skills, his training, and it caused him to at times live independent of the Father.  As you read the following, sin is identified, it is a noun, and you will also see that the personal pronoun I is used 16 times, Paul is having a flesh trip. “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” (Romans 7:15-20 ESV)  Go back and read verse 15, only the pronoun “I” is used.  Bill Gillham gives this insight; “What happened to sin in verse 15?  Sin is masquerading in verse 15 as the “old you” that was crucified with Christ, and he’s imitating the old man.

Bill often gives a key concept in his book Victorious Living, and this is one of them; “The power of sin impersonates the old man, speaking to you – the new creation – with first-person pronoun (I, me, myself), using your accent and your tone of voice.”  Bill goes on to explain, “This is why it seems like the old man is still alive, even though the Scripture states clearly that he is dead.  He was crucified and buried with Christ (Romans 6:4-6; Galatians 2:20).”

Because I grew-up in a Baptist family, and Baptist church, under Baptist doctrine, we were not taught how to ask the Helper for help.  In fact, I was an adult before I grasp that God never expected me to live on any terms but His, and that Jesus had left me a Helper, to guide me into all truth.   This was Jesus answer to Judas (not Iscariot) and to each of us.  Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me. “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

(John 14:23-26 ESV)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice