The Order of Truth from 24.6.16
Personal Matters
Jesus promised, “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God…the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.” (John 7:17-18). In a world where what it means to be a person a man or a woman is being challenged the Church is called to be a hub of truth attracting lost people by the quality of truthful relationships. This is rarely happening. Whilst the Holy Spirit is “the Spirit of truth” and “the Spirit is the truth” the teaching of many self-proclaimed “Spirit-filled” churches is infantile (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; Eph 4:15; 1 John 4:6; 5:6). For Christians the substance of truth is not a set of ideas but the intimate love relationship between Father and Son (1 John 4:8). This is the truth to which the Spirit bears witness by revealing to us the order or pattern of Jesus’ relationship with his Father. A mature Church intimate with God and “speaking the truth in love” will “grow up in every way…into Christ” (Eph 4:13-14; 2 Pet 1:4). To grasp what this means however we must return to forgotten foundations.
The God who Hides and Reveals
The notion that the God of the Bibleconceals truth stirs up the rebellious human spirit. Satan proposed to Eve that if she challenged God’s hiding of the true knowledge of good and evil she would no longer need to submit as creature to Creator; ““You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Almost in agreement with the devil the Gospels openly testify that the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice was “hidden from them (the disciples)” (Luke 9:45; 18:34; cf. 2 Ki 4:27; Luke 19:42). From the perspective of Satan and a sinful humanity which always wants its own lordship over truth God is definitely not a God of truth. But Jesus never understood truth as simply open access to facts. When Christ’s disciples testify to the power of his kingdom he remarks. ““I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven….he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”” (Luke 10:18, 21). The Spirit of truth brings joy to the Father and Son by bringing Satan down from his high place and in so doing concealing the secrets of the kingdom from the proud whilst revealing them to the small and helpless. Truth is hidden by God from self-exulting spirits and humans, but the little ones who keep their proper place of humility before the Lord receive ample revelation (Matt 19:14; James 3:13-17). This is the way the Lord of truth works with all his creatures.
Dis-order amongst Angels and People
Genesis illuminates the flight of the Spirit of truth from wilfully disordered relationships. “the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were beautiful. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh…”” (6:2-3). The deep quenching of the Spirit corresponds to the fact that the “sons of God” are angels who have left their “proper dwelling” to marry human women (Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Jude 6). This shattering of divine order involves a pattern of behaviour that rejects the foundational way God has arranged relationships in creation. Just as spirits were never meant to mate with humans, so too humans were never meant to “become like God”. For as the sons of God “saw” what was “beautiful” and inflamed by passion “took” what God had prohibited to them, so Eve “saw” the forbidden fruit as “a delight to the eyes” and “took” what had been prohibited to her humanity (Gen 3:6 cf. 1 John 2:15-16). The Fall of angels and humans from their “proper place” in the cosmos was in each case precipitated by an unnatural passion to possess something beautiful that belonged exclusively to another order. Such basic violations of the true order of creation always result in spiritual blindness (Rom 1:21-22). Likewise, truthful order in the Church requires respect for right order in relationships on a cosmic scale.
In a passage about the proper glory of husbands and wives Paul cautions; “a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.” (1 Cor 11:10). The submissive position of Christian women to husbands images to the angels their due subjection to God. Counter to Western libertarianism godly submission is integral to “doing the truth” (1 John 1:6). Submission to the God-given pattern of sexuality is essential for truthful relationships. Jude warns the Church of those with “ungodly passions” who reject authority, “blaspheme the glorious ones” (angels) are “devoid of the Spirit” and share the fate of the rebellious spirits of Genesis whom God “cast down to hell” (2 Pet 2:4; Jude 8, 18-19). Through the “sensuality” of these people “the way of truth will be slandered” (2 Pet 2:2). This is a prophecy about the serious moral compromise that threatens the integrity of the Church today. For healing in the truth we must turn to Jesus.
Spirit and Truth
As submissive to the Father to the point of death and seeking only “the glory of him who sent him” Christ is the one person who has never moved out of God’s order of relationship. This makes him the Truth (John 1:17; 7:18; 14:6; Eph 4:21; Phil 2:7). When Jesus prays, “Make them holy by your truth. Your word is truth….I make myself holy for them so they can be made holy by your truth”, he identifies himself as the Word of Truth whose sacrifice will “truthful-ise” his followers (John 17:17, 19). The cross brings fallen people into union with Christ as Truth by an inversion of our normal thinking. Jesus’ dialogue with his judge makes the issue of truth central to the crucifixion, “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). We hate and crucify the Truth because we never want to submit to God as Father; which is our proper place. For the Son to bear God’s wrath against our untruth he must be handed over to a place where he cannot discern who to submit to. The anguished plea, ““My God…why have you forsaken me?”” means the glorious order of submission has been hidden from the Son, he feels he has lost his Truth because he cannot see the Father (Mark 15:34). But in reality is the place of absolute truth in love. When in resurrection glory Jesus is “justified by the Spirit, seen by angels” true cosmic order between humanity, spirits and God is forever restored (1 Tim 3:16). A Church bathed in the radiant beauty of such revelation ceases to pursue alternative “truths” and lives as “the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15; Heb 1:3).
Conclusion
The Church of today is blasé about truth because she is chasing practical outcomes rather than a desire for sharing in the true intimacy of the Son’s submission to the Father. Therefore we have largely lost the ability to “see in the Spirit” the truth of the infinite beauty of the Son’s sacrifice (Isa 53:2; Rev 1:10). The submission of the cross is the final Truth about the Father-Son love, to this the Spirit testifies Our falling away from truth cannot be remedied by more rigorous theology, better business principles or flasher marketing. Let us return to, “The Jesus, the whole Jesus and nothing but the Jesus so help us God.” When we return to the truth of the gospel the Church will once again become a hub of truth attracting lost people by the quality of truthful relationships (Col 1:5). Please pray for fearlessly submitted teachers of “the word of truth” (Gal 2:5).