As is usually the case, upon hearing something with which I cannot agree I spent the better part of two weeks fighting the pendulum swing to the other extreme. It was an extreme, I now know, that my soul was wrestling with. Thankfully, God delights to have patience with me, and teach me, and remind me of my very limited nature. The past two days have been very refreshing when instead of fighting a thing I heard and disagree with, He brought me to a place of seeing what I needed to see.

“See.” Isn’t that a curious word. I used this word in many of my papers written for classes in my Master’s program. Many times I was reminded by my professor, Dr. John Morrison, that I was using words like “see” and “show” incorrectly. To see is usually something we do with our eyes, to show is to display something for someone else to view with their eyes. Jesus did not often conform to this usage, much of our visual world He used as parable for the spiritual realms, the unseen. I’ve been hopping through the book of John, studying how Jesus spoke about His words, His Word, His teachings, His commands, the prophets and the law. This began as I was irritated by someone’s words about not wanting “doctrine, theology, Scripture…” but wanting Jesus. My heart sinks when people try to separate the Word of God from the Word made flesh. Unless you know Him, it makes no sense–but if you do know Jesus then you must admit He claimed to be the Word of God, He alone made God manifest to His people. Why does it make no sense? And why do we challenge it when we are in the midst of some of life’s troubles?

Without the light of Christ in our hearts, we are in the dark, we cannot see let alone understand. If we cannot see or understand, then our best efforts to interpret the world around us are in vain. Yes, we can understand how life seems to work; we have a sense of what ought to be but isn’t (“that’s not fair!” etc) and we have longings that lead us to believe life has a purpose. But in the dark, that is all we have.

“I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” John 12:46

“Whoever sees Me see Him who sent Me.”  John 12:45

“For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6

“And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts…” 2 Peter 1:19

To see Jesus, we cannot choose either side of the pendulum, this is what the Spirit reminded me of this week as I studied, pondered, and eventually let go of my pride (which I mistook for a desire to love what is right). One side says it loves the Word so much that our concern is for the Word; but they end up separating the words from their God, and worshiping their understanding of the words found in Scripture. The other side of the pendulum swing is to fight against the so-called-Pharisees who “love” the words so much by walking away from the Word. They want to hear from Jesus but demand to do so apart from His words. They crave experience and closeness and think it can only be had away from what they deem “head knowledge.”

To see Jesus is not to take either side, but to realize our God created us as rational beings with faculties for understanding knowledge and then Who spoke in understandable ways. We do well to read His words and cling to them, to hide them in our hearts, to let our mouths never be without them, to study them and meditate upon them and love the God who spoke to us in so many ways. To see Jesus we also need to admit humbly that without the Spirit of truth, we know nothing, and we will twist His words. He is at work in us to shed understanding on the words we read, to speak so lovingly to us in that still-small-voice of His as we pray; but never in contradiction or addition to His Word. We ought not to crave an experience more than we crave Him.

For a little light reading, I highly recommend a sermon by Jonathan Edwards, on “A Divine and Supernatural Light…” (free to Kindle users!). I cannot agree with his dualism, but this is a very encouraging read.

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