Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Revealed Things, Secret Things


    There are things we must know.  We must know there is one God who exists as three eternal persons, joined in such perfect unity that "the Lord our God is one Lord."  We must know that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Bible is the Word of God.  We must that the Holy Spirit is the pervasive influence for good both in the world and in our hearts.   We must know that salvation, in its inception, continuance, and culmination, is a gift of grace to be received by faith in the Lord Jesus.  We must know that God mandates a certain way of life for believers, based upon His promised bestowal of leading and enabling.  We must know that love, as defined and constituted by the God who is love, serves as the heart of His purposes and working in our lives.  We must know these and other truths plainly declared by God in His Word (Deuteronomy 6:4; I John 4:15; II Timothy 3:16; John 16:7-15; Ephesians 2:8-9; Philippians 1:6; I John 2:6; Philippians 4:13; I Corinthians 13).

   There are also things we cannot know, and that we must not seek to know.  "The secret things belong to the Lord, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law" (Deuteronomy 29:29).

    It may be that as much light shines forth  in "the secret things" as in "the things which are revealed."  Our limitations illuminate the truth that God is God and we are not.  To a race that long ago embraced the lie that "ye shall be as gods," this is a bright and essential light in the night sky of our darkness (Genesis 3:5).  Left to ourselves, we seek our own way, plan our own destiny, boast of our own devices, and seek to live as the divinities we are not.  Thankfully, our Lord does not leave us to ourselves, but rather communicates to us the truths we must know, while remaining silent regarding equally necessary unknowings.  Thus, we seek to heed Solomon - "With all thy getting, get understanding" (Proverbs 4:7).  We proceed into such Light, however, in the recognition that realities of God and truth exist far beyond our capacity and need for knowledge.  "God… doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number" (Job 9:2; 10).

    Emphasis on revealed things fosters edification and transformation into the image of Christ - "that we may do all the words of this law."  We live on a need to know basis.  This involves much light, far more than we can begin to assimilate in our present lifetime.  Much, however, will remain necessarily dark as we "walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 7:5).  Thus, we "make room for mystery," as A.W. Tozer wrote.  We accommodate ourselves to both revealed and secret things, recognizing the necessity for the illumination that shines from the things we can know and the things we cannot know.

"Let us walk in the light of the Lord."
(Isaiah 2:5)
"Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness."
(Psalm 112:4

Weekly Memory Verse
   I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless Thy name forever and ever
(Psalm 145:1)

No comments: