We concluded our last blog posting by recognizing our addiction to the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil In the Garden of Eden. That addiction grips us all, because we all very naturally are driven to be “good” and not “bad,” “right” and not “wrong,” in the particular life system we have chosen to adopt. That may be Christianity, Islam (Sharia Law), Marxism, the law of my gang, or just “what is right for me.”
However, just as I was “in Adam” when he ate of the fruit that got me addicted, God has placed me “in Christ” to die with Him on a Roman cross and SET ME FREE from that addiction! Dead men can’t try to be good!
Then He raised me up to live as a new creature: “…Even when we were dead in trespasses, (God) made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:5, 6).
These verses tell me clearly that I (yes, “this Robert Andrews”) also rose from the dead in Christ Jesus, ascended to Heaven in Him, and am right now seated in Him at God’s right hand, ruling with Him over the earth!
We earnest Christians know this truth in our minds, and believe it. We call it, “positional truth,” which means, “Yeah, yeah, its true because the Bible teaches it and I have to believe it, but it’s just ‘positional.’ How can it be true, in any real way, in my experience? It’s just theological jargon,” and we continue to live captivated by our unrecognized addiction!
This attitude is an example of Isaiah 55:8, 9 writ large: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
The concept of “positional truth” illustrates beautifully how I thought and believed “man’s way” for the first several decades of my Christian life. It was certainly not “God’s way.” It was a way I could “believe with my mind” (Gk., eido – “intellectual truth”) and not really “believe in my heart” (Gk – ginosko – “experiential truth”). To illustrate the difference, I can believe “man’s way” as I remain standing while believing that a certain chair will comfortably hold me up, but I can never believe in that chair in “God’s way” while STANDING UP!
This is a classic example of John 1:17: “For the law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” We have seen in previous postings that this verse tells us that the Law of God is different than the Truth of God
For example, I know, INTELLECTUALLY (eido), that Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascent into Heaven, as well as the Holy Spirit being poured out at Pentecost, are all the true, inviolate Law of God. Since I was “in Him,” I know and believe all these things happened to me as well, though not in the physical world as it did with Jesus. They happened to me in the spiritual world, EXPERIENTIALLY (ginosko). Do we really believe in that spirit world we cannot see?
How can I make this adjustment to the way that I think? How can I know that I am learning to think God’s way and not man’s way—experiential rather than intellectual only—and break free from my addiction. Jesus tells us how to make that transition very simply:
“Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.’ And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them” (Mark 10:13-16).
There is this story, or a very similar one, in each synoptic gospel. Jesus says that in order to live in His Kingdom, (i.e., “live by faith,” “live in the Spirit”) one must become as a “little child!” Unless we do, Jesus says we will “by no means” even enter that Kingdom, much less be furthering it!
What does it even mean to be “as a little child,” “thinking God’s way,” and walking in repentance from a now-recognized addiction? Next week we will see what that might look like when we follow Jesus’ instructions to “receive the Kingdom of God as a little child.”
