We’ve talked all year about godliness being a change in our character. This daily devotional begins a look at how we test that character change.
Nuggets
Loving Jesus means we prove that by loving truth.
Our theme for the past year has been our redo for godliness. We meandered our way around until we determined that what was needed was a change in character.
I found a a sermon by Hall that talked about how Christianity is a test of character. Let’s take a look at what it says. The headings are the words of Hall.
Resource
It puts to the proof whether or not men love truth.
“Jesus told him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (Jn. 14: 6 CSB)
Loving Jesus means we prove that by loving truth.
When worldview people see the word truth, they look at it meaning something is either true or false. It is more than that in reality.
Even in Jesus’ day, truth was not accepted as such. People refused to believe in God even then.
Jesus told us that He is the truth. He fulfilled all the prophecies of the Old Testament about the Messiah. Even though some of the references to Him may have been obscure, He revealed the substance of those references.
Boardman had a great distinction between truth and facts. Mankind generally looks for facts, believing them to be the truth.
Truth impacts our morality – our character. Our character is our thoughts, feelings, and actions all added together.
Resource
The way I see it is that facts are the how-to. Truth is the why it influences us.
McCosh saw it this way. He saw truth as the connection of our ideas to the abstract doctrine.
Bersier and Aldis took it a different way. Bersier saw it as the relationship between the two. Aldis felt that the Truth was synonymous for the gospel, exhibited by Jesus.
Resource
That truth is an abstract doctrine that 1) shows us Who God is and 2) we can’t totally understand God is not contradictory. God reveals to us what we need to know about Him, not everything about Him.
In Scriptures, God gives us an introduction to Who He is. He reveals more to us as we navigate the Sanctification Road. I think that, even when we gain Heaven, He will be revealing more about Himself to us throughout eternity.
Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration, gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal requickening in us that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
Truth is the gospel. It is how we gain salvation.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart. Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
Glossary
What all that says is we are not looking for the way, the truth, and the life. We are seeking Christ. He is more than just the end result.
Jesus is the reason for seeking.
That being said, the way, the truth, and the life are the avenues in which to find Jesus. They are all inclusive.
We can’t find Jesus one way without the other two. They are all dependent on the other.
That goes back to what Pastor Steve was saying in the Christmas series. We allow Jesus just inside the door of our hearts, but we do not let him come in and abide there with us. We are content to keep Jesus standing at the door, but never let him make a home with our hearts.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
We have to make Jesus our life because He is the truth.
Jesus can’t just be the way. If He was, He would ride of into the sunset after our salvation.
That isn’t going to happen. He comes to live inside us.
The proof is in our changing our character to that of God’s. We show others that we are imitating Him.
Glossary
Why are we imitating God? He is Truth. The truth is not a part of us.
We may think it is, but it isn’t.
Making the Connections
Jesus is the truth and came to reveal that truth to us.
• Mankind broke God’s laws, which is called sin.
• By becoming guilty, our condemned state calls for judgment.
• Jesus became our substitution – even though He is sinless – to pay the penalty we deserved.
• Faith in Him brings us access to regeneration, justification, and sanctification.
We have to totally submit to God through our faith in Jesus. Selby wrote,
“Scientific truth puts us into intelligent relation with the world of established scientific fact. Historic truth puts us into intelligent relation with the facts that have determined the growth of particular types of government and civilization. Sociological truths puts us into intelligent relation with the facts that have moulded the social life of mankind. Jesus Christ puts us into intelligent relation with all the vital facts of God’s being and nature and government. He is the only possible word by which God can address Himself to a world of sinners. No intellectual activity, no induction of reason, no range of research can fill up this chasm in the mind of man. We can only know God as we give ourselves up to Jesus Christ, and suffer the energy of His spirit and presence to rule us.”
God is the only truth that will gain us salvation.
How Do We Apply This?
- Focus on Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life.
- Let Jesus take over control of our lives.
Father God. You are the Truth. You have given us Your Son as Truth. Reveal Yourself to us more so we can become more like You. Amen.
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
If you have not signed up for the email daily or weekly providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.