OUT OF THE DITCH

Driving can be a tricky business. It's not an easy thing to stay in the right lane. When you're just learning to drive, you have to keep your eyes on the road, on the straight and narrow, so to speak. And where you look can make all the difference.

When I first started driving, my eyes focused on the strip of road directly in front of my car. But I ended up waving back and forth in a curvy path rather than going in a straight line. And I couldn't keep up with traffic because I was so focused on keeping that car going straight.

It wasn't until we had the Highway Lesson that things turned around. You'd have thought, I'd be scared spitless going so fast when I've been barely creeping along. But I wasn't! As I looked down that big stretch of road, my focus totally changed! My eyes looked farther ahead and I didn't drive in a wobbly line anymore. I drove straight ahead just like everyone else. It was definitely the turning point in my driving experience! And guess what? I passed the course!

Where is my focus as I drive along in my journey with Jesus?  If I'm driving down my street, I come to open fields where farmers plant soybeans, corn and wheat. On almost every side are deep ditches. I'm sure they're designed to catch the run off when it rains. We live on low-lying ground which floods easily in the spring. Those ditches are probably there to drain off some of the water. They're pretty deep. And if you're not alert, you could fall into one of them. There's no guard rail to stop you. And if your car slid off the road, there's no way you could get out--without a tow truck, that is.

So how do I stay out of the ditches? How do I stay in the middle of the lane without swerving to the right or the left? I think it all goes back to my Highway Lesson. It depends on where my focus lies. If I look too long   at one of those ditches, my car follows my eyes and off I go--into the ditch! But when my eyes look forward, I keep moving forward, and I end up going in the right direction.

Why is it that we're so prone to end up in ditches? Just this morning, I was reading a new book I had just ordered. It was on how to revive your walk with God. Definitely part of my Living Way Journey. This morning, I turned to the chapter, "The Importance of Knowing God." And there was that catchy phrase that I know all too well. "It's not what we know, it's who we know." From a writer's standpoint, it sounds great. It's short, it's catchy. But it's  not so good when you use it to know God or how to be saved. It makes you think that belief doesn't matter, that knowledge of God is antagonistic to a relationship with Him. Later in the chapter, the author even goes on to say, "We don't get to know God through doctrines or teachings about Him."

Now I know there are some people like the Pharisees whose focus was solely on orthodoxy in doctrine. And I mean solely. That's all there was in their journey with God. They struggled over paying tithe on the mint and the cumin but neglected the weightier matters of the law, such as mercy and faith (Matthew 23:23). They put greater importance on washing your hands (being clean on the outside) than what you were on the inside. As a result, Jesus said they were  "like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness" (Matthew 23:27). They had fallen into the ditch of knowledge without the Spirit. Knowing about God without knowing Him personally. Possessing the truth without the truth possessing them.

But the problem wasn't at all with the knowledge of God. What we believe about God matters! When  Eve ate the forbidden fruit, she believed it wouldn't matter if she listened to the serpent. God had said not to eat this fruit, but Eve bought into the devil's lie and thought he knew more than Jesus. Perhaps she thought God was withholding something good from her all along. Or this was such a little sin, God wouldn't be that particular if she disobeyed. But it mattered what she believed and what she did with that belief. For Eve ended up outside the garden and losing her innocence. Knowledge of God mattered for her!

And what about the children of Israel? As they waited for Moses to come down the mountain, they decided to take matters into their own hands. They'd have their own worship service. So they built a golden calf and danced and sang around its image. And they soon declared, "This is your god, O Israel, who took you out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 32:4). And they offered burnt offerings and gave peace offerings, thinking all the while they were worshiping the Lord. Right at the foot of Mt. Sinai--where God's holy presence was revealed! Did it matter what they believed about God or about true worship? When Moses came down from the mountain, he ground that calf into powder and 23,000 men were killed that day. Because their skewed knowledge led them into idolatry and brought apostasy into the camp of God!

"The Israelites had been guilty of treason, and that against a King who had loaded them with benefits and whose authority they had voluntarily pledged themselves to obey" (Patriarchs and Prophets, pg. 324). And what led them to such treason? Was it their knowledge of God? Was it their doctrines which led them astray?

Think about it for a moment. Every day, the Israelites saw with their own eyes the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. They knew that God was personally leading them to the Promised Land. They knew He was the One who opened the Red Sea, protecting them from the army of the Egyptians.  But when things didn't go their way and they couldn't understand why Moses was still up in the mountain, their focus changed. It moved toward the faith of the Egyptians--worshiping what they could see rather than the Lord Himself. Their knowledge of God became skewed as their focus of God changed. And as their focus changed, so did their worship. They danced before a golden calf and the Bible says, "they rose up to play" (Exodus 32:6). They even blended impure sexuality with their prayers and offerings!

Knowledge of God--right or wrong--makes a difference in who we know. Theology isn't a dry and boring subject. It is a knowledge of God and His truth. And truth matters. Why else would the Scriptures say, "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth"? (1 Timothy 2:1) Why would Christ commission His disciples to carry the gospel round the globe, "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20)? Knowledge, doctrine, teachings, truth--they are all the embodiment of what the Scriptures are. They are a saving knowledge, a sanctifying truth, and a pure doctrine. For through them we discover the truth as it is in Jesus.

It's not that doctrine is wrong. It's our focus that is out of whack and how we teach or live that doctrine. Our doctrine of the Law could be understood like a Pharisee, thinking that my obedience is what saves me. Salvation would then be based then on externals alone, such as correct Sabbath-keeping, tithe-paying, modest dressing, passing out tracts and the like. But when I see the Law as a reflection of My Father, I begin to see that  keeping the Law is learning to love--to love God with all my heart and mind and strength and to love my neighbor as myself (Mark 12:30,31). "We  love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). I keep the commandments because I'm in love with Jesus. Not in order to earn my salvation or to make God love me. When He is my focus, His Law is my delight. I will say like Jesus, "I delight to do Your will, O my God; and Your Law is within my heart" (Psalm 40:8).

But if we begin to look at the Bible as a list of do's and don'ts, without knowing the God of the Bible on a personal level, our focus will only become foggy or even distorted. And we could end up in a ditch. On one side of the road will be Jesus and on the other side of the road will be Doctrine. And we could end up thinking it's Either-Or. We have to choose between the two of them. But that's because we're looking too much at one side or the other  rather than  looking at the whole picture.

 Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). He is the embodiment of all doctrine. He lived every teaching that He's passed on to us. And He's found within those teachings. In every doctrine we see a picture of who He is--of His love for the lost, His grace for the sinner, His delight in spending time with us, in His purity and mercy. So in promise and prophecy, in story and commandment, we see a snapshot of Jesus. He's there if we'll open our eyes to behold Him.  And if we refine our focus.

When I was in college, I  heard one of the Bible professors say,  "I wish I could make my own Bible. At the top of every page, I would print a picture of Christ. It would be a constant reminder that every verse, every chapter is a revelation of Him." I've often wished he could have made that Bible. It would have saved many of us who have lost the picture of Jesus within His Word. We'd be able to see Christ in the Old and New Testament and in every doctrine that we find there.

"Christ as manifested to the patriarchs, as symbolized in the sacrificial service, as portrayed in the law, and as revealed by the prophets, is the riches of the Old Testament. Christ in His life, His death, and His resurrection, Christ as He is manifested by the Holy Spirit, is the treasure of the New Testament. Our Savior, the outshining of the Father's glory, is both the Old and the New...The Old Testament sheds light upon the New, and the New upon the Old. Each is a revelation of the glory of God in Christ" (Christ's Object Lessons, pp. 126, 128, italics supplied).

It's not about one or the other--the old vs. the new. Neither is it about law vs. grace. Or doctrine vs. relationship. Every Word that comes from God is essential in the Christian journey. Christ says, "Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). "All Scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16,17).

So why do we have doctrine? So we can be complete. The Greek word artios can also be translated as 'proficient' or 'perfect.' But perfect in what way? The last phrase qualifies what the apostle is aiming at. He says, "that the man of God may be...thoroughly equipped for every good work." I like how it's put in the Basic English Bible. It says: "That the man of God may be complete, trained and made ready for every good work."

This kind of focus aligns doctrine with discipleship. For Jesus says, "A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40). The 12 disciples were trained by Jesus. They spent 3 intensive years of training, listening to Christ's doctrine, observing Christ's life, and joining with Him in Christ's work. But even then, their training wasn't complete. Not until they were converted and received the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost were they fully trained.

"Under the training of Christ the disciples had been led to feel their need of the Spirit. Under the Spirit's teaching they received the final qualification, and went forth to their lifework. No longer were they ignorant and uncultured. No longer were they a collection of independent units or discordant, conflicting elements. No longer were their hopes set on worldly greatness. They were of “one accord,” “of one heart and of one soul.” Acts 2:46; 4:32. Christ filled their thoughts; the advancement of His kingdom was their aim. In mind and character they had become like their Master, and men “took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus”" (Acts of the Apostles, pg. 45).

The saving knowledge of Jesus comes through the proper training under the Spirit of God. And make no mistake--He is the Spirit of Truth, the same Spirit that inspired holy men of God to write the pages of the Bible (2 Peter 1:21). And those pages contain the knowledge through which we come to know God. Jesus said of the Scriptures, "these are they which testify of Me" (John 1:29). The problem isn't the Scriptures or the doctrines it embodies. The problem is as Jesus said on that day, "You are not willing to come to Me that you may have life."

God's Word contains the very life that would raise us up from the dead and transform us so  men will take knowledge of us, that we have been with Jesus. "The words that I speak to you," Jesus says, "are spirit, and they are life" (John 6:63). There is life in doctrine, reproof and correction. There is life in instruction in righteousness. If we are hungry for that life today, "grow in the grace and  knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). Pick up your Bible and read.

You don't have to be a Pharisee. You don't have to jump in a ditch. You can love God's Word and still love Jesus. You can come to Him every day and discover a closer walk through doctrine. For Jesus is "the Way, the Truth and the Life" (John 14:16). Discover the Living Way through the Truth as it is found in Jesus.