This week’s post is a follow-up to last week’s post which dealt with 3 eras in our relationship with the Trinity. The three eras were: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This week I want to explore these eras……particularly the current era, the era of the Holy Spirit…..The Spirit of Truth. Be forwarned, you may not like all of this.
Each of these eras has a dominant theme. I believe that each of these eras is there to teach us something…….to help us to grow in our relationship to the Trinity.
The Father era, the Old Testament, was a description of the early history of God’s people. It was loaded with rules. The Father was majestic and powerful, but distant and often punitive. This era was the foundation of our relationship with the Father. It was all about authority. We are taught that the Father is in charge, absolutely and completely. Like it or not. The Father operates on an entirely different plane than man. He makes the rules. He is the boss. We are subject to him. We do not get to approve or disapprove of his actions. We oppose him at our peril. This was the era of authority. God’s authority, God’s sovereignty is the lesson of the old testament.
The Son era, the New Testament, is a description of the life and teaching of Jesus, the Son. Jesus teaches that all of the old rules are superseded by two new rules: Love God…….love everybody else. The Son was human and he was very close……he was with us. He embodies the authority of the Father but emphasizes love as our highest aspiration. He teaches that love is the central theme of all relationships. Love is the primary reason for our existence. This was the era of Love. Love is the lesson of the New Testament.
The Spirit era is today. The Spirit is our guide to living in the modern world. I have struggled to identify the overarching theme of the Spirit era. This is probably because the Spirit is kind of hard for me to get a grip on. But, I will give it a shot. The theme of the Spirit era is truth. The Spirit was given to us at Jesus’s departure……at pentacost. It was even called the “Spirit of Truth”. Somehow, the truth part has been lost. Every day, our culture whittles away at the truth. We come to accept ideas that daily become more outrageous. Each new lie is built on the foundation of yesterday’s lie. We even refer to our culture as “the post truth era”.
But, the Spirit lives in us. The truth lives in us. It is “written on our hearts”. We rail against it. We fight it…..every day……every one of us. You shouldn’t be surprised. God’s people resisted his authority in the Old Testament. Christians resist acting on love in the New Testament. The sad truth is that we ignore and deny the truth…just about every day…….every one of us.
Like it or not, we are called on to seek the truth and and act on it. Sounds good. But, every day we fail. Why?
We ignore or deny the truth when it interferes with our appetites. We toss out the truth when it keeps us from getting something that we want very badly.
If you don’t believe me, consider:
A person with a Y chromosome and a penis doesn’t like maleness and all that goes with it. He identifies himself as a woman, uses the women’s locker room, and dominates women’s sports. This satisfies his appetites…..but it is not true.
A preacher who is offended by the guy in the women’s locker room preaches a fiery sermon and damns him to hell from the pulpit. He satisfies his appetite to vent his rage in the name of Christianity…….but this is not true.
The truth in other areas is more complex:
Abortion: every abortion does 2 things: It allows a woman to control her body. It kills her child. Both of these statements are true. And yet, both sides of the debate ignore or discard half of the truth. Both sides are dishonest.
Guns: guns primary purpose is to kill. Even shooting games like skeet are designed to improve our skills…..at killing. I am a shooter and I enjoy it……..but the fact that guns are for killing is true. Guns are good when they protect us from evil. But, they are bad when they are used to commit evil. Both of these statements are true.
The wall: the purpose of the wall (both the physical wall and our entire failed immigration policy) is to keep people out. This is true. It protects our appetite for our standard of living. But it traps a lot of families in poverty and corruption. It is good when it keeps gang bangers, traffickers, and drugs out. It is bad when it keeps a family that is fleeing a corrupt government and seeking a better life out. Both of these statements are true.
We have decisions to make. Some are straightforward, some are complex. But we must begin with the truth. And the truth is written on our hearts…….put there by the “Spirit of Truth”. Truth is the lesson of the current era…..the era of the Spirit.
The truth must take precedence over our appetites.
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Jesus, John 14: 15-17, ESV
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
Jesus, John 16: 7-14, ESV