Only Sinners have Faith and Understanding

     "Faith in the New Testament sense is the way by which the past phase of redemptive history becomes effectual for me.  In this connection it is, to be sure, necessary for me to believe that this entire process concerns me personally, me as the individual, as sinner and as redeemed in Christ.  This presupposes that the consciousness of sin and guilt is not only a 'general' thing which applies to 'mankind,' but that it is real, and it is real only when I am conscious of my own sin and my own guilt.
      The faith of Primitive Christianity in the redemptive process presupposes such a consciousness of sin and guilt.  Only on this basis can the redemptive history be related to the individual.  The entire redemptive history, indeed, is intelligible only on the basis of this consciousness of sin; for it is on account of the sin of man that this entire process is necessary.  Here is the reason why redemptive history not only can be related to the individual but must be so related.  Without this relation it cannot be understood at all."

-Oscar Cullmann, Christ and Time (London: SCM Press, 1946) p. 219 

 

In Him was life, and that life was the light of men

John 1:4 is saying that creative life-giving power comes from Jesus.  That life itself resides in Jesus.  A little later on in John's Gospel we will hear Jesus say, "I am the resurrection and the life."  It is hard for us to see the one on one correlation between life itself and Jesus himself.  What does it mean that Jesus gives life?  I think that God has necessarily brought about the existence of Jesus because of the very nature of life itself, but what does it mean?  John adds the application at the end of verse 4, "and that life was the light of men."  Jesus' life is the thing that provides spiritual illumination, understanding, comprehension, or in our modern language: good information about God. This is profound, it means that the life of Jesus is the source of spiritual information for everyone.  This isn't such a far fetched exclusivist idea as you would think, because people from many religions have a place for Jesus somewhere, as a great prophet, a holy man, or other things.  Even so, to have true spiritual understanding one cannot ignore, but rather must accept, Jesus' own self-disclosure that was so clearly preserved in the Gospels. Spiritual darkness doesn't necessarily mean that a person has no knowledge about God, or has not heard some really good information about God.  Spiritual darkness can be like a dark cloud of circumstance that envelops our life, that hangs over our head like a blanket, so that we neither see, nor even breathe!  An understanding and acceptance of Jesus will dispel this.  A realization and communion with the Lord will pull the blanket from our head.  Coming to Christ is like coming out of the spiritual fog, out of the darkness.  But, with John's Gospel, we sometimes see that "the light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

Is the Bible Too Complicated for You?

I had a friend one time say, "Why can't I just believe it?"  Perhaps they were saying they wanted to have faith in God through the Bible.  I wish.  What they were most likely saying was "Why do I have to understand what is in a particular passage and struggle to apply it in a valid way?" 

We want to wear armbands and wave flags.  The Bible is one of them.  "I believe the Bible" has been a cover that enables unscrupulous people to shut down further inquiry from those who would make them accountable.

Christians have to be more responsible, more enlightened, and yes, less simplistic.  Many a Pastor has been matched with an unsuitable church by smiling real big and saying, "I have Jesus in my heart."  No further inquiry necessary.

I challenge people to remember that they aren't the first ones to read the Bible.  They aren't the first human in history to ask any particular question of the Bible.  And, they aren't the first one to answer the question arising from the reading.  Humility is in order, and lots of it. 

Below is a link to an article that may challenge your preconceived notions about interpreting Scripture. 

3 Wrong Ways to Read the Bible

Read for inspiration and embrace Truth!