One of the ways in which God’s authentication shines through Christian scriptures is through the splendor of his diagnosis of the disease that affects the souls of the people he knows.
This can happen in two directions. You can read something the Bible says about human nature and from there start to see that your diagnosis is more revealing than anything else, it can be confirmed in several cases or in a single case with overwhelming force.
- Or it can happen the other way around.
- You can make a diagnosis of someone’s soul disease after a long and careful observation and then read a passage from the Bible that strikes you like a ray of divine confirmation.
Jumping with disbelief
Consider the following example of how the wisdom genius of God’s self-authentication is experienced: there is someone, a partner, or friends who are much loved to you. At first, they look like Christians. They agree with all the crucial doctrines and go to church. They keep their lives sinless, so you start to notice a change. Or maybe they’ve always been like this and a believer’s speech and attitude was a front. They seem distant when the conversation focuses on Jesus or his work on history and the world. They seem to have no interest. You realize that during moments of praise, they don’t really get involved, everything seems to be done on autopilot.
You realize they don’t seem to be reading the Bible or talking about anything related to God. When there is prayer, they never participate. They’re quiet. When discussing personal or social issues, they are never related to God, Jesus, or the Bible. They speak in the same way that a person would speak without spiritual interest or discernment. The tongue of the heart disappeared from his lips.
And then you see what really makes them vibrate: famous movies, TV shows, dancers, singers and athletes. There is a strange disproportion between the intensity of its involvement and the superficiality of the subject. The shallowest (e. g. clothing and electronics). ), the more intense the interest and the incongruity impresses him.
Then you start listening to the dirty language. The reprehensible words. And then there are the verbal criticisms directed at the religious, the negligence of these legalistic people. In his ears he sounds, strangely, as if they were justified. The thought that this is the discovery of Christian freedom has long since disappeared, now you see them begin to walk in harmony with the world.
The church leaves the stage. The Bible was abandoned a long time ago. The defense mechanisms are now in full swing, if there is an effort on your part to approach them with a biblical or spiritual concern and get them to open up to you. Doubtful behavior is multiplying. Relationships no longer make sense, even marriages become crucibles of alienation. The planets of your life revolve around another sun besides Jesus and you find yoursed, even ignored.
In the midst of all this, you’re desperately trying to understand what happened. That’s amazing. You’re looking for categories to put everything into words. You analyze the situation from every possible angle in the hope of seeing something that makes sense. After a while, you realize you’ve seen this tragedy from four different angles.
From a certain angle, you see that this is an incredible twist of Christ’s heart. Although he loved and trusted Christ, his heart returned to the world. As in Paul’s case with his tragic loss of Others. There was a time when he was part of the Paulo team and had even been mentioned with Lucas: “Lucas, the dear doctor, and Others greet you too?”(Colossses 4:14). But then, in 2 Timothy 4:10 comes the following: “Why did Others, having loved the present century, helpless me?”And he thinks the diagnosis should certainly be regretted. The heart must return to Christ as the supreme and fully satisfactory treasure. Their hearts returned to the world as the new love of their lives. The need is to come back.
Looking at it from a different perspective, you see that they are acting as if they are completely blind to the truth, as if they are looking the truth directly in the eye and not seeing it, you are absolutely perplexed because they certainly know you. They used to know the truth: truths about God’s greatness, justice, wisdom, goodness, and courage; the truths about Christ and his immeasurable sufferings for sinners, about the fact that he is alive and reigning today, and about his return; the truths about judgment and hell.
And you think the diagnosis is certainly that the great need is the truth. They must come to a renewed knowledge of the truth. ” Will you know the truth and the truth will set you free?(John 8. 32). You wonder if they are among those whom Paul says, “For they did not accept the love of truth to be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10).
Looking at it from a different angle, you see they’ve lost their minds. That’s crazy. They act like they’re crazy. They need to get back on their feet. You remember the totally crazy and inexplicable behaviors of some biblical characters like Judas and Giezi. Judas steals money right under the noses of the Son of God (John 12:6)!Guéhazi is lying to Elisha by telling him that he has not gone anywhere, not to mention the fact that he is deceiving Naaman by forcing him to take silver and gold (2 Kings 5:25). Madness! You cannot steal Jesus and lie to a prophet who resurrects the dead. This is crazy. Loving money certainly drives you crazy.
And you think the diagnosis, of course, is that they have to go back to their senses, they need to awaken from the mental amazement in which they find themselves, they need to regain reason, because it is completely irrational.
And from a fourth angle, you realize it’s demonic. They sold their souls to hell. They have sinned so deeply that they are under the power of the devil. The change is so strange, so destructive and causes so much pain to the people around them that it can only be the devil. Is that how it works? Deceptive and murderous, from the beginning (John 8. 44).
And you believe that the only hope is that God will deliver you and set you free; May God crush the trap that holds them so that they may escape the clutches of the devil; one way or another, they must be freed from the prince of power. from the air? (Ephesians 2. 2).
Do you think to yourself, “What horrible condition to be in?A heart that needs repentance, a spirit with a desperate need for truth, an irrational loss of reason and enslaved by the devil. You suffer from a sense of despair when you think. that “any of these four conditions would be enough to destroy one person, but the four together!”
And then, one day, sitting on his couch with the Bible open, he stops, impressed by the following words:
In the hope that God will grant them repentance, bringing them to the knowledge of the truth, so that they may return to sobriety and escape the trap of the Devil, who imprisoned them to do their will (2 Timothy 2:25-26). )
You’re rereading. And again. Then the tears begin to fill your eyes. This emotion is totally unexpected, why am I crying?And you realize you’ve just seen the glory of God. Not only did he provide words for the same four diagnoses you made, but he did it anyway by saying, “It’s not too hard for me. I’m Dieu. Je. ” I’m sovereign. I promise I will save all the unrepentant, deceived, irrational and demonic people. But I say this: Am I capable and I can do it?” In the hope that God will grant you ??
You realize that tears are tears of hope. A barrage of despair is broken by sovereign words, “in the hope that God will grant them!”
Do you realize that everything you have seen in your beloved nonbeliever has been revealed to you by God, because everything is there in your word with blinding clarity?Next to his sovereignty. It comes to you like a ray of confirmation. And you know it: it is the word of Dieu. Il knows the disease of the human soul as no other human being knows. And only he is the doctor capable of granting repentance, revealing the truth, restoring reason, and freeing the devil. No one but God, through Christ, provides this diagnosis and this sovereign hope.
So you notice how to proceed. Is it there in 2 Timothy 2: 24-25?Now, it is necessary for the Lord’s servant not to live to fight, but to be kind to all, able to teach, patiently, gently discipeding those who oppose it, hoping that God will not only grant them repentance to fully know the truth?
These words are followed by the following: “in the hope that God will grant you repentance. “God’s sovereignty in granting repentance, truth, reason, and deliverance does not make Paul a fatalist or a ballast. This makes Paulo a hopeful, humble, kind, pedagogical, patient and kind person.
And as you meditate on this plane of sweetness and truth, you know once again: God speaks here!This counsel is the glory of the wisdom above (James 3:17). You bow with admiration, because you are in god’s presence. .