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ReVision

The Truth and the Lie

Everyone lives on one or the other side of this watershed.

The Lie (1)

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Romans 1.24, 25

Living in the light
The Scriptures are very clear about the fact that everyone lives his or her life on one or the other side of a metaphysical and epistemological divide.
On one side of that divide is the truth of God, which is in Christ Jesus. The Word of God is truth, so that, through its lens we can see things as they really are, and know things the way God knows them, at least, to an extent appropriate to our ability as creatures (Jn. 17.17; Eccl. 3.11). Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of truth; all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are to be discovered in Him (Jn. 14.6; Col. 2.2, 3).

On the truth side of the divide, the Kingdom of God is advancing, and everything is moving toward being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, Who is Himself truth (2 Cor. 5.18, 19). He enables those who trust in Him to know the truth in ways that liberate them from the constraints and guilt of sin (Jn. 8.32).

To live in the truth is to walk in the light, as Jesus Christ is in the light, to be children of God, His peculiar possession, and heirs of eternal life and glory. All who have ever known the truth have found in it the way to fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore in the presence of God – Who never fails nor forsakes those He calls unto Himself (Ps. 16.11; Heb. 13.5).

They who live in the green meadows and beside the still waters of the truth that is in Jesus, feed on His truth with joy and rejoicing (Jer. 15.16), growing daily in grace and being ever more fully equipped for lives of good works (2 Pet. 3.18; 2 Tim. 3.15-17).

Living in the lie
On the other side of that divide is the lie, as Paul explains in Romans 1.24, 25. Those who turn their backs on God – Who is their Creator and calls them to know His truth – embrace the lie. But not just a lie, the lie, a gross perversion and tragic misrepresentation of every aspect of life, a Bizarro world, where all that is solid melts into thin air. And people do whatever seems right in their own eyes.

Ensnared in the death grip of the lie, having turned away from the One Who made them, people are lost in the world and dead in their trespasses and sin. But, since they are made in God’s image and likeness, they have stamped into their very souls the need to connect with transcendence, to know and serve something greater than themselves.

At the same time, because they have rejected God, they can only look to various kinds of created things, worshiping and serving these, whatever they may be, as though they were the very fount and meaning of life itself.

They make themselves their own gods, the final arbiters of all things beautiful, good, and true. The folly and tragedy of living on this side of the divide should be evident to all.

Folly, empty, deadly hopes
Over the centuries, people have taken to themselves all manner of created things as the objects of their worship – animals, plants, mountains, lakes, wealth, sex, and power among them. Those who devote their lives to the pursuit, pleasure, and promise of created things are living the lie. They deny God His rightful place, and erect instead an idol of their own devising; although they may still know a measure of truth, and even acknowledge that God has some place in the great scheme of things.

But in their heart of hearts, they want what they want, not what God wants, and they attach themselves to all manner of material things and agreeable conditions, hoping in this, that, or the other, and clinging with all their might to what they imagine to be their greatest good and the promise of happiness it portends.

All such hopes, however, are hollow, empty, and deadly. Those who live in the lie, desperately trying to reach the high ground of happiness, are on the slippery slope that leads to disappointment, despair, and death (Rom. 1.18-32). The lie insists that God either does not exist or is not relevant to human happiness. Those who live on the divide of the lie are persuaded that God is merely a construct, a fabrication of weak and fearful souls. Every human being, they loudly insist, must decide for himself where true happiness will be found. With the speaker in William Ernest Henley’s poem, Invictus, they boast “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul!” (cf. Ps. 12.1-4)

But this is the whistling of empty hopes through the graveyard of dead uncertainty. This is the way that seems right to so many of our contemporaries, but, in the end, it is the way of death (Prov. 14.12).

It is the lie.

For reflection
1.  Do you agree with the idea that everyone is living on one side or another of a great divide? Cite evidence for your answer.

2.  What is the Kingdom of God? How do we engage it? What are its prospects in a day such as ours?

3.  Paul emphatically writes the lie in our text, not just a lie. What’s the difference? Why is it important to us that we make this distinction?

Next steps – Conversation: In what do your unbelieving friends hope? Ask a few of them, not to argue, but simply to learn. Pray that God would use these conversations as open doors for further discussion.

T. M. Moore

The Christian life is one of joy in the Spirit. We are called to be bringers of joy to the world. Our booklet, Joy to Your World!,shows why Jesus is the great Good News of Christmas. It’s the perfect stocking-stuffer for friends and coworkers. Order your copies by clicking here.

A PDF of this week’s study,
The Lie, is available by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
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