The Bible is surprisingly practical.
Among other things, the book is a guide to transformation. The ultimate transformation, in fact—how we move from death to life, how we move out of the finite and futile state of settling for sparks of comfort, to know instead the eternal state of living and resting in joy. The eternal can be touched right here. And in many ways, the steps the Bible offers for making this contact and achieving this transformation are plainly and remarkably clear.
Take the question, for example, of how to know whether the Holy Spirit leads you, or whether you have been waylaid by some other spirit instead. We cannot know this by ourselves—not for sure. Our hearts are deceived (Jeremiah 17:9), while enemies masquerade as angels (2 Corinthians 11:14). Yet the Bible says there are nine clues, and the clues are quite specific. They are:
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
These are the fruits of the Holy Spirit, according to Galatians 5:22-23. A heart that is growing out of the Holy Spirit should manifest this fruit.
Another such litmus test that is even more strikingly clear is found in a passage from the First Letter of John. This passage also indicates something of the very reason why God engineered the world’s salvation in the way that he did.
John writes:
Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. —1 John 4:2-3
The matter is apparently that simple. That is, when we try to measure whether we ourselves are of God—whether we are still proceeding in a way that is consistent with surrender to God’s loving will ... or whether instead we have given into whim, ego, convenience, obsession, or even something darker—whenever this is the question, the letter of John offers this basic test.
To state that test another way: Are we growing in our confidence that God has come in the flesh?
Perhaps not. We might find that we are (once again) dubious and constrained, snared within a thicket of doubt, uncomfortable with professing the relevance and reality of this truth. Recognizing that this is the case is valuable. Belief is the way to life.
Roman 10:9 states as much. We are to say Jesus is Lord, and we are to believe in our hearts he rose from the dead. Belief is the only route to this truth because logic alone can’t reach it. Nothing like the death and resurrection of God himself has ever happened before or since. Therefore, neither science nor history alone—both of which are built on precedent—can account for this occurrence. At the pinnacle of God’s plan, at the turning point of creation, is this ascienctific and ahistorical event.
That’s not to say the event is anti-scientific. Like a forensic examiner, the doubter Thomas was allowed to examine body (the risen body) in front of witnesses (John 20:27).
Nor was the event anti-historical. The historical record is marked by the impact of the event.
But the event was the assertion of God, in this case entering the world from beyond history and outside of science. That this God was born human by means of a virgin conception makes this very point. Here was a different sort of human being—a man transcending science by having no biological paternity, and transcending history by having no literal paternal ancestry. The skeptic says that nothing about the laws of science or the events of history can provide any basis for such an event. And the believer says: Amen.
Consider the distinction. We are to love God. If it is truly God we love, then the one we love is greater than the world. That same First Letter of John also says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
Our temptation is to see the world as all there is, the world and nothing more—worshiping the world to the exclusion of the Father. But the resurrection of the Son brings this very matter into focus. To believe that science’s laws and history’s assumptions are inviolable even to God is to say that God is smaller than these things, and that God is not truly greater than the world.
Is God really greater? Is he really in moment-by-moment control? Can he really transcend science and history?
Without the resurrection, all we can say is, “In theory, yes.” The answer doesn’t lift or challenge. There is no consequence to this conception of God. It doesn’t change hearts.
The way of Jesus Christ says, “Can God really transcend science and history? Answer: Yes he can—because he did!”
Thus does the event of the resurrection provide a focus for our faith. God came into the world—the world that surrounds and defines us, the overwhelming world—and he left his teachings and his blood upon it. He died here. And he rose.
And in rising, he gave us something to touch that is nearly as tangible as the body that Thomas felt. He gave us a concrete reality and a discernable history that clarifies our faith. At the same time, he gave a direction for our hearts to go. He ascended, and our hearts took flight along with him.
Among other things, the book is a guide to transformation. The ultimate transformation, in fact—how we move from death to life, how we move out of the finite and futile state of settling for sparks of comfort, to know instead the eternal state of living and resting in joy. The eternal can be touched right here. And in many ways, the steps the Bible offers for making this contact and achieving this transformation are plainly and remarkably clear.
Take the question, for example, of how to know whether the Holy Spirit leads you, or whether you have been waylaid by some other spirit instead. We cannot know this by ourselves—not for sure. Our hearts are deceived (Jeremiah 17:9), while enemies masquerade as angels (2 Corinthians 11:14). Yet the Bible says there are nine clues, and the clues are quite specific. They are:
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
These are the fruits of the Holy Spirit, according to Galatians 5:22-23. A heart that is growing out of the Holy Spirit should manifest this fruit.
Another such litmus test that is even more strikingly clear is found in a passage from the First Letter of John. This passage also indicates something of the very reason why God engineered the world’s salvation in the way that he did.
John writes:
Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. —1 John 4:2-3
The matter is apparently that simple. That is, when we try to measure whether we ourselves are of God—whether we are still proceeding in a way that is consistent with surrender to God’s loving will ... or whether instead we have given into whim, ego, convenience, obsession, or even something darker—whenever this is the question, the letter of John offers this basic test.
To state that test another way: Are we growing in our confidence that God has come in the flesh?
Perhaps not. We might find that we are (once again) dubious and constrained, snared within a thicket of doubt, uncomfortable with professing the relevance and reality of this truth. Recognizing that this is the case is valuable. Belief is the way to life.
Roman 10:9 states as much. We are to say Jesus is Lord, and we are to believe in our hearts he rose from the dead. Belief is the only route to this truth because logic alone can’t reach it. Nothing like the death and resurrection of God himself has ever happened before or since. Therefore, neither science nor history alone—both of which are built on precedent—can account for this occurrence. At the pinnacle of God’s plan, at the turning point of creation, is this ascienctific and ahistorical event.
That’s not to say the event is anti-scientific. Like a forensic examiner, the doubter Thomas was allowed to examine body (the risen body) in front of witnesses (John 20:27).
Nor was the event anti-historical. The historical record is marked by the impact of the event.
But the event was the assertion of God, in this case entering the world from beyond history and outside of science. That this God was born human by means of a virgin conception makes this very point. Here was a different sort of human being—a man transcending science by having no biological paternity, and transcending history by having no literal paternal ancestry. The skeptic says that nothing about the laws of science or the events of history can provide any basis for such an event. And the believer says: Amen.
Consider the distinction. We are to love God. If it is truly God we love, then the one we love is greater than the world. That same First Letter of John also says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).
Our temptation is to see the world as all there is, the world and nothing more—worshiping the world to the exclusion of the Father. But the resurrection of the Son brings this very matter into focus. To believe that science’s laws and history’s assumptions are inviolable even to God is to say that God is smaller than these things, and that God is not truly greater than the world.
Is God really greater? Is he really in moment-by-moment control? Can he really transcend science and history?
Without the resurrection, all we can say is, “In theory, yes.” The answer doesn’t lift or challenge. There is no consequence to this conception of God. It doesn’t change hearts.
The way of Jesus Christ says, “Can God really transcend science and history? Answer: Yes he can—because he did!”
Thus does the event of the resurrection provide a focus for our faith. God came into the world—the world that surrounds and defines us, the overwhelming world—and he left his teachings and his blood upon it. He died here. And he rose.
And in rising, he gave us something to touch that is nearly as tangible as the body that Thomas felt. He gave us a concrete reality and a discernable history that clarifies our faith. At the same time, he gave a direction for our hearts to go. He ascended, and our hearts took flight along with him.
