For
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and
unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has
shown it to them. (Romans 01:18-19, NKJV).
We live in a world filled
with lies like the sea is filled with water. There is no escape.
Truth is rare and precious and to be valued as a priceless gift from
God, sought after and held onto like a rope dangling over the edge of
an abyss.
For without truth, there
is only darkness.
One of the things I
remember most vividly when I first became a Christian was the fury I
felt when I realized that my whole life up until that time had been
based on deception. The things that I was taught by the world, lived
by, and believed, were lies originating from the Father of Lies.
What was most infuriating
was that most of these falsehoods were how I defined myself; they
were the basis of who I thought I was and for 40 years I had been a
willing dupe, an effective and compliant participant and
coconspirator in my own blindness.
I believed that humans
were accidents of chance over time, that the earth was an ancient
piece of luck and nothing more. I believed that unborn babies were
parasites, not persons, and that we adults were doing them a favor by
allowing them to be born. Or perhaps it was no favor at all.
I believed that God, if
He existed, was uninvolved and cruel, whether intentionally or
because He lacked the ability to meaningfully control anything or
anyone.
I believed that every
human was born, lived and died, blinking out of existence at the end
like a meaningless blob of incidental life that just happened for no
reason, and no purpose.
And above all I believed
and lived as if I knew the real truth of things, and all who thought
otherwise were either ignorant, insane, or childish.
There was deep inside,
however, a small part of me that rebelled against these beliefs, that
longed for something different, that frantically searched for
something that would give me the one thing that my religion of lies
could never provide: hope.
Looking back, it is a
wonder that I survived as long as I did, for I often behaved as if my
life, and the lives of those around me, had no value at all, and I
would be better off dead. Or more precisely, that it really didn't
matter whether I lived or died.
To emerge from that
entrenched darkness into the light of the knowledge of Christ is a
miracle. It is a release from prison, a gifting of sight to the
willfully blind, and when it happened the scales of deceit fell off
and I saw, for the first time as an adult, Truth.
You must not think that I
had anything to do with my own transformation. There was nothing
special or redeeming about me that enabled my release from the prison
I was in, nor did I seek some “better” path. For what I did was
exactly what Paul describes above. I “suppressed the truth in
unrighteousness”.
Everyone, everywhere, has
an innate knowledge of God. It is part of our essential being. He
builds it into us. For want of a better word, we call it a
“conscience”, and there is no naturalistic explanation that
accounts for its existence. It does not aid our physical survival, or
the survival of our species. In fact, acts of conscience are very
often diametrically opposed to mere survival.
We have it from our
beginning, and it is placed there by a merciful and gracious Creator
who desires that we come to know Him, and walk with Him so that we
may live forever, and not die.
But because we are also
born as rebellious sinners, descendants of our sinful forebears,
genetically incapable of righteousness and godliness, we practice
burying that part of ourselves that knows right from wrong, that
speaks to us in the language of God.
And the world helps us do
that in every way it can. It promotes deceit, removes God as far away
as possible, and aids us in believing the lie that we are accountable
only to ourselves.
Its methods are subtle
and ingenious. When it cannot completely destroy a person's innate
awareness of God, it undermines that awareness by misdirection and
illusion, appealing to the one ally that each us carries around like
a congenital (from birth) tumor – our self pride.
In and of ourselves, we
are no match against this campaign of deception, and as we mature, we
become willing traitors, crushing the impulses of our conscience,
searing them with the fiery heat of practiced sin and encouraged
lusts.
Instead of resisting, as
we age, we feed the enemy, allowing it to gain more and more ground
in our hearts and minds until we reach the point where we cannot
do anything different, when we are confirmed in our evil alliance
beyond hope of redemption.
For every man, woman and
child, that point of no return is known only to God. We cannot know
it in ourselves or in anyone else, and often the person whom we deem
to be utterly beyond salvage is the very person that God transforms
before us in the miracle of rebirth.
For it is God who opens
the eyes of the blind, who gives light in the darkness, who replaces
a hardened heart of sin and pride with a new heart that longs to
follow after Him. Our part in this transformation is that we come to
the end of ourselves and admit that we are beyond help and hope.
It is only then that we
begin to cease suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. It is only
when we catch a glimpse of who we really are in ourselves that we
seek a Savior, and everything we encounter in the world fights
against such self-surrender, and rabidly seeks to prevent it from
happening.
Understand the three
primal forces arrayed against you in this life, seeking to turn you
away from God who is your only hope. Each of these enemies has one
powerful weapon in common, deception, and is practiced in using it
with ruthless effect.
First, and most intimate,
is your own “old nature”, the being who you are “naturally”
without God in your heart. It is she that haunts your every waking
thought and can invade your dreams, and who will be at war with you
all the days of your life on this earth. She is what the Bible calls
the flesh, and she desires dominion.
Her two allies, the world
and Satan, will use every lie at their disposal to embolden your
flesh, to strengthen it in the battle, to provide her with ammunition
and power to overcome that part of you made new in Christ.
The battle will sometimes
seem hopeless. It will often be that you will feel utterly defeated
and helpless, but that is also a lie, for you are never alone in the
fight. Christ has promised never to leave you nor forsake you. He has
promised to be with you even in the darkest night, and is far more
powerful than all of your enemies combined.
But it is a war waged
every moment. You will be tempted to turn away, but He will provide
an escape for every temptation (1Co 10:13).
And remember this above
all else, that the only protection against this pervasive deceit is
immersion in the truth, and the only source of truth is Christ, who
is “the way the truth, and the life.”
So my beloved...
Put
on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the
heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you
may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to
stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having
put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet
with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the
shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with
all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end
with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints--
(Ephesians 6:11-18, NKJV).
Love,
Dad
