1Jn 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
The Son of God is come.
Yet today so many would have us believe otherwise.
I really love this excerpt from C.S. Lewis' work 'Mere Christianity'-
'Then comes the real shock. Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a
man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He
says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the
end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among Pantheists, like the Indians,
anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God: there would be
nothing very odd about it. But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean
that kind of God. God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world
Who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else. And when
you have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite
simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips.
One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have
heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim
to forgive sins: any sins. Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so
preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives
offences against himself. You tread on my toe and I forgive you, you steal
my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself
unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on
other men's toes and stealing other men's money? Asinine fatuity is the
kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus
did. He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to
consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He
unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person
chiefly offended in all offences. This makes sense only if He really was the
God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. In the
mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only
regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in
history.
Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when
they read the Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and
conceit. Still less do unprejudiced readers. Christ says that He is "humble
and meek" and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man,
humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute
to some of His sayings.
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that
people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral
teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we
must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus
said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a
level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the
Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the
Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a
fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His
feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising
nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to
us. He did not intend to.'
1Jn 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come…
The Son of God.
Too many people would have us believe that God doesn't even exist, and if He does exist it's in such a way that He has either abandoned the world or is very indifferent to it. It's so easy for people to believe that the story of our Savior is a fairy tale, not reality. The concept people create is how THEY perceive the world should be run should they be GOD. They imagine a GOD who could create a world and all that is in it and then go about making suggestions as to how THAT God really should run the world if He truly existed. They love to take the state of the world from history's beginning till now and point out that no real God would let it continue like this, they would have snuffed it out of existence as a failed experiment long ago- otherwise it's a very sadistic God if anything. They absolutely love to place themselves and their perceptions in place of the truth, because they believe just because they happen to exist they have this right to not believe in the truth. They believe just because they exist they have the right to place themselves and their ideas- as God.
Guess what? We do all have that right not to believe in the truth.
We have the right to choose to believe 'cunningly devised fables', we have the right to believe in ourselves and our own ideas, we have the right to believe in madmen, we have the right to believe in nothing at all choosing simply to exist without committing to any sort of belief in anything. We have this right- it was given to us.
Having the right to choose.
Ask any person who has ever been enslaved and had their right to choose taken away how awful that existence is. One thing they might tell you is that while their body was enslaved and they had no power over their own actions, they always retained the mental power to choose to believe in things- NO ONE could take away their power to choose what to believe in- no one. Imprisoned for believing contrary to another, the only thing that can be imprisoned is the flesh, no spirit can ever be imprisoned, not without our own consent.
That power to believe is a mighty, mighty thing! That power to believe has brought many a man to the end of their lives because their oppressor couldn't strip that power from them. If they couldn't kill the spirit to believe in a man they'd rather just end the man's life so there would be no witness to the spirit choosing to believe when all physical choice is left in bondage.
1Jn 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
The Son of God is come.
The Son of God has given us an understanding- that we MAY know Him that is true-and we are in HIM that is true- even in His Son Jesus Christ.
This is the true God.
This is eternal life.
The Son of God is come.
If we believe this then we must believe that the Son of God has given us an understanding- that it is possible to know Him, to know that we can be in Him, and this is eternal life- KNOWING God, KNOWING the Son of God.
Joh 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
The Son of God is come.
Yet today so many would have us believe otherwise.
I really love this excerpt from C.S. Lewis' work 'Mere Christianity'-
'Then comes the real shock. Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a
man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He
says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the
end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among Pantheists, like the Indians,
anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God: there would be
nothing very odd about it. But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean
that kind of God. God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world
Who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else. And when
you have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite
simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips.
One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have
heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim
to forgive sins: any sins. Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so
preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives
offences against himself. You tread on my toe and I forgive you, you steal
my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself
unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on
other men's toes and stealing other men's money? Asinine fatuity is the
kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus
did. He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to
consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He
unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person
chiefly offended in all offences. This makes sense only if He really was the
God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. In the
mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only
regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in
history.
Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when
they read the Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and
conceit. Still less do unprejudiced readers. Christ says that He is "humble
and meek" and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man,
humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute
to some of His sayings.
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that
people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral
teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we
must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus
said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a
level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the
Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the
Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a
fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His
feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising
nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to
us. He did not intend to.'
1Jn 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come…
The Son of God.
Too many people would have us believe that God doesn't even exist, and if He does exist it's in such a way that He has either abandoned the world or is very indifferent to it. It's so easy for people to believe that the story of our Savior is a fairy tale, not reality. The concept people create is how THEY perceive the world should be run should they be GOD. They imagine a GOD who could create a world and all that is in it and then go about making suggestions as to how THAT God really should run the world if He truly existed. They love to take the state of the world from history's beginning till now and point out that no real God would let it continue like this, they would have snuffed it out of existence as a failed experiment long ago- otherwise it's a very sadistic God if anything. They absolutely love to place themselves and their perceptions in place of the truth, because they believe just because they happen to exist they have this right to not believe in the truth. They believe just because they exist they have the right to place themselves and their ideas- as God.
Guess what? We do all have that right not to believe in the truth.
We have the right to choose to believe 'cunningly devised fables', we have the right to believe in ourselves and our own ideas, we have the right to believe in madmen, we have the right to believe in nothing at all choosing simply to exist without committing to any sort of belief in anything. We have this right- it was given to us.
Having the right to choose.
Ask any person who has ever been enslaved and had their right to choose taken away how awful that existence is. One thing they might tell you is that while their body was enslaved and they had no power over their own actions, they always retained the mental power to choose to believe in things- NO ONE could take away their power to choose what to believe in- no one. Imprisoned for believing contrary to another, the only thing that can be imprisoned is the flesh, no spirit can ever be imprisoned, not without our own consent.
That power to believe is a mighty, mighty thing! That power to believe has brought many a man to the end of their lives because their oppressor couldn't strip that power from them. If they couldn't kill the spirit to believe in a man they'd rather just end the man's life so there would be no witness to the spirit choosing to believe when all physical choice is left in bondage.
1Jn 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
The Son of God is come.
The Son of God has given us an understanding- that we MAY know Him that is true-and we are in HIM that is true- even in His Son Jesus Christ.
This is the true God.
This is eternal life.
The Son of God is come.
If we believe this then we must believe that the Son of God has given us an understanding- that it is possible to know Him, to know that we can be in Him, and this is eternal life- KNOWING God, KNOWING the Son of God.
Joh 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
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