Alastair Begg wrote, “In our culture, it’s cool to be searching for truth, and very uncool to claim that you’ve found it.”
To be found by God, to claim a faith-relationship with Jesus Christ, to say we understand right from wrong, is to come across as proud, bigoted and close-minded in today’s society.
Yet I hasten to point some things out. That brilliant theologian Paul of Tarsus, author of much of the New Testament, wrote in 1 Corinthians 13, “Now we see through a glass darkly…” Writing of the Christian’s comprehension of ultimate things—God, sin, death, heaven, meaning—Paul spoke of our vision as being “through a glass darkly.” The Greek reads “through a dirty window.” Ours is a view, but it is not perfect. It is a vision of truth, but it has imperfections in it.
Look at the satisfying balance Paul brings in his statement: “Now!…we see!” How thrilling. “Through a dirty window…” How humble. How honest.
Yet another satisfying balance Scripture provides is found in the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20. There we are told, “Do not make a graven image.” This means we are not to reduce the majesty of God to a statue or an icon or even a fixed theology. He can be known but never fully comprehended. So our experience of Him is never to be the arrogant, “I know it all!” But rather, “I am coming to know…” We simply worship Him with ever expanding wonder and awe.
This means that the cynics in our day who say we can know nothing are wrong according to the Bible. But equally wrong are those who claim to know it all.
This, therefore, leaves us in the position of being committed lifelong learners.
I like that.
And, oh! How I long to be in that number…
