“I
was brought forth in iniquity; in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You
desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to
know wisdom.” Psalm 51:5-6 NKJV
Though
it is unlikely the tradition of infant baptism and the doctrine of original sin
stem from this passage alone, it does speak to a certain doctrinal
understanding of the difference between the human person born of the flesh and
the spiritual person reborn in water and the Holy Spirit. The question of
exactly when or how this transition takes place has been the source of study,
reflection, and contention within the Church for a very long time; and
it is safe to say that for all we may think we know, there is much more we do
not know. Believe it or not, this should be a point – maybe the
point – of discipleship. After all, how useful can it be to follow
something or Someone who no longer has anything to teach us?
Yet
that question reveals something about us we do not often wish to admit: when we
remove ourselves voluntarily from small group Bible study, personal devotion
and Scripture study, and the other means of grace meant to nurture our
spiritual growth, we are in essence saying we have nothing more to learn.
We have learned just enough to convince ourselves we are “saved” and that we
have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. From that realization that
the Spirit has indeed moved within us, we convince ourselves that our very
basic human instincts are automatically informed by that same Spirit so that
whatever it is we feel like doing, that we do. If it works out, it
was from The Lord. If it blows up in our faces, it was of the devil.
Here’s
the thing, though. It is written in the Proverbs, in the Letter
to the Hebrews, and in the Revelation that The Lord rebukes and
chastises those whom He loves. What blows up in our face is not always
the work of the devil; it could very well be The Lord rebuking us and our
arrogant spirit. Yet we will not know this if there is not an active,
ongoing relationship with The Lord through His Word. If we remove
ourselves from the study of the Scripture and the fellowship and accountability
of our fellow disciples, we set ourselves up for all kinds of misleading and
downright false teachings for this reason alone: we embrace what just seems to
make perfect sense to us. Yet it is also written that what may seem right
to us in the beginning is also the way of death and destruction (Proverb
16:25). Jesus Himself warns of the “wide gate” that seems the less
difficult and more personally satisfying choice at first, but it will also lead
to our destruction.
Studying
the Scripture is not easy nor did Jesus intend His parables to be easy.
We have much more to learn, many more rebukes and hard lessons to endure along
the wilderness journey that is discipleship. For this we must learn to be
grateful, for these are the rebukes from Above that serve to remind us we truly
have not been forsaken, that The Lord has not yet turned His back on us.
Even when we face persecution or scorn from this world, these may be good
indicators that we are indeed reaching higher. Knowing any of this,
however, is not possible apart from the Written Word, the Living Word that is
Christ.
We
must not get too comfortable or settled as if there is nothing more for us to
learn or to do until we die. Even in the face of persecution, our Lord
has assured us of blessings we cannot begin to imagine! And that, my dear
friends, is what we should desire above all else! But we will not find
these blessings in our basic human instincts. We find them only in The
Lord; and The Lord is found in the Word, not the world.
Blessings,
Michael
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