Welcome to the special Holy Week edition of “Take It In.” I hope you are spending the last leg of your Lenten journey well. I encourage you to finish strong. Stick to your vows, stick to your convictions. That brings me to the topic for this week- holding onto truth. Truth is the substance of our reality. It existed before us, before the universe. God holds the truth, for he is eternal. In Him we find truth, truth that sustains and illuminates even in the darkest of times. It has been a very dark week for me. I’ve had to cling hard to the truth of God’s presence and goodness in the universe.
As we reflect on the Passion of Jesus Christ, think back to when Pilate asked Jesus the all important question, “What is truth” (John 18:38). This was Jesus’ hour of tribulation. He was facing the greatest task any man had ever known — defeating Satan, sin, death, and hell. He did not resort to arguing or lashing out in righteous rage, though he certainly was in his rights to. He knew the truth, that he is the truth. Truth is self-evident as the other God-ordained governing forces of our universe such as logic or reason. It only needs to be discovered.
If you have discovered God and his full revelation in Jesus Christ, congratulations, the truth lives within you. However, dark times make us doubt, make us wonder if it truth truly is. The good news is that it never leaves, just as God never does. Fear, doubt, and anger only blind us from it. Whatever you are going through — a sick loved one, broken relationship, lost job, or profound loneliness, truth remains.
You are the pinnacle of God’s creation and the very reflection of his glory. Your personality, will, dreams, and talents are all his divine fingerprint on you. You were created for eternal, intimate fellowship with him. You were not created for death or hell. We marred our image in the garden and have been sinking lower into destructive depravity ever since. The good news of this Easter season and of all times is that God fixed it. How and why you might ask (well, I have)?
I’ve spent sleepless nights on the topic, but here is my synopsis. In order for us to truly be made in God’s image, we had to have a will, a free will to make choices just as God can. God knew we were going to make the wrong choice, but he did not want us to not exist. Rather, he made a plan where we could receive everlasting salvation. A salvation that he and he alone would carry out. If we had any part in it, there remains the possibility we could mess it up. Our eternal destiny means to much to God for that to be a possibility. God paid the penalty on the Cross and offers his complete forgiveness once we repent of doing things our own sinful way. Pretty amazing God.
There are things I still question, and that I desperately want to understand. There are things I struggle to make peace with and want to go back in time and change. God is big enough to handle my inquiries and my concerns. He invites me to spend time with him and grow. I hope this Lenten season that you have grown in your knowledge of the truth and in closeness to God. Cling to the truth and to him in all the days ahead. Have a victorious, joyful Easter.
“What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it – the fact that He knows me.” ~ J.I. Packer
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Take it in 