I still remember being called to the Nurse’s office in third grade and being told I had failed the vision test. Mom took me to the eye doctor the next day and I drove home with glasses – for the first time realizing those blurry green blobs on trees were actually sharply defined leaves! The blackboard became visible from the back of the room. TV shows were much more engaging to watch.
Clarity makes all the difference.
But many people have blurry ideas about God, truth, sin, salvation and eternity. Even Christians sometimes struggle with confusion in this dark and broken world. The goal of our series Foundations is to provide greater CLARITY on issues of truth, creation (where did all of this come from?), design (how should we manage ourselves and the world?), the problem and solution. Our hope is that clarity about God, from God’s Word, will give us greater CONFIDENCE about the convictions that undergird our worldview. Additionally, we pray that the Lord will give us COMPASSION for those who do not share our beliefs.
Clarity > Confidence > Compassion
Consider the alternative. Without a clear understanding about God, yourself and the world, people are left with distressing CONFUSION. They do not have good answers for where everything came from, what the primary problems are in the world or how to address them. They scramble from one coping mechanism to another, often stumbling into dangerous mistakes or deadly addictions.
Confusion about truth, God, sin and salvation produces FEAR. Instead of the confidence and peace that a Christian experiences in Christ, a non-believer lives every moment with deep anxiety about what will happen each day and especially what will happen after death. The absence of peace with God creates an inescapable tension that people seek to ignore or suppress.
And fearful, stressed out people tend not to lean into sincere, sacrificial compassion. Instead, they lash out in CONFLICT, protecting what they have and cannot bear to lose; or fighting for what they do not have and feel they cannot live without. Is it any wonder that our confused, fearful country has developed a culture with deep, irreconcilable political divisions? Should it surprise us that desperate people in urban areas resort to crime? Are we shocked to discover there are radical Muslims who believe they are serving God by attacking non-Muslims?
Confusion > Fear > Conflict
In week one of Foundations (8/15/21) we learned that: to understand the world and yourself, you have to start with God. “In the beginning, God…” (Genesis 1:1). The Bible begins with the simple and inescapable truth that God exists. Creation declares this every day, from the stars in the heavens to the cells in our bodies. There is an Almighty, All-wise God who made everything, including you and me. If we seek to understand ourselves and the world apart from Him, we will have a severely deficient perspective. We simply cannot see far enough or clearly enough. The human vantage point is too limited.
But God, in His mercy, has made Himself known. He walked with Adam and Eve in the garden – in close personal relationship. Even after sin fractured the world and caused a separation between sinful people and the holy Creator, God continued to communicate with people, creating a sacrifice system through which animals could be offered as a temporary covering for sin. Ultimately God revealed His glory in the person and work of Jesus Christ. John 1 reminds us of Genesis 1 and provides a clear and helpful starting point to construct a worldview.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
John 1:1-5, NIV
Week two of Foundations (8/22/21) introduces the second layer of our foundation – God’s Word. Because God is perfectly faithful and honest, everything He says is true and every promise He makes He fulfills. God and His Word are so inseparable that Jesus – the eternal Son of God – is presented as the “Word of God.” What a beautiful picture of the Trinity. God the Father spoke the world into being. Jesus is the final Word that God spoke. The Holy Spirit is the breath of God that carried that Word to earth.
Why can we trust the Bible? Centrally because we can trust in the good and faithful character of God. But this confidence in Scripture is confirmed in several important ways: 1) the people who wrote Scripture are presented as authentic and trustworthy people; 2) God Himself made sure that the apostles and prophets spoke and recorded the words He wanted them to express; 3) Jesus trusted the Bible and; 4) we experience the truth and power of the Bible every time we read it.
“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
2 Peter 1:20-21, NIV
God exists. God has spoken. These two inseparable truths form the unshakable foundation of our worldview. God has not left us in the darkness of uncertainty, confusion and fear. Into that darkness God spoke saying, “Let there be light.” And into that darkness Jesus came. Now we are called to bring His light to those around us!