language barrier

I admit, sometimes scripture doesn’t make sense to me. I struggle to understand when Jesus says he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, yet Paul says the old law of judgment has been replaced by the new law of grace. That’s just one example; I also have a hard time comprehending the Trinity and election and what God revealed about my life after death.

For that reason, Jesus’ words in John 8 hit me like a slap across the face. Jesus was responding to Jews who couldn’t understand that sin had enslaved them, and that while they put a lot of faith in their biological ancestry from Moses, they should really be putting their hope in Jesus and his Father.

Here’s what Jesus finally said in verses 43-47, the thing that jolted me (not for the first time, either): “Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."

Paul put it this way: things of the Spirit can only be understood by people who have the Spirit.

It’s a remarkably clear description by Jesus of a very common problem. When I start thinking with the world’s logic, basing my judgment on the world’s values, trying to make things align with my worldly goals, then nothing in the Bible makes sense. When I’m like that, I’m accepting Satan’s lies about who I am and what I should want.

But when I believe in the truth of Jesus, who said he is the Truth, then my values and goals and logic are consistent with his and it all gets a lot clearer.

The natural language of this world is the native language of Satan: lies. How can I ever hope to know the truth when I’m speaking and listening to lies? How can I ever hope to know the Truth?