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The Bible Teaching Commentary on Genesis: The Book of Foundations
Commentaries that specialize on training the teacher!
Truth's Transforming Power
"And the truth shall make you free!"
John 8:32
Paul J. Bucknell
Index
#1 Drifted Away from the Truth
#2 Developing Confidence in the Truth
#3 Being Set Free by the Truth
Can I really change? I've tried before.
How can truth free me from personal struggles?
Truth frees us by bringing our lives into harmony with the character and purpose of God.
Truths Seen In Natural Revelation
Whenever we break the principles set in nature, we court disaster. God is not in a separate action causing these plane crashes or famines to happen. These disasters result from violating the basic principles of nature whether it be not quarantining those with contagious diseases, using crop rotation, or sexual immorality.
Whenever any of these truths are violated, we should expect to see disruption, trouble, and disharmony occur.
Truths Seen In Special Revelation
God has not set any new rules by having spoken His Word to us. He is only revealing what is true. One might think the promises He made to Abraham are an exception. And yet even here, we read that Abraham received these promises because of His faith (Ro 4:20- 21). Faith becomes a road to enter the paths and blessings of truth.
Our world gets worse and worse off when it accrues the guilt of past generations upon their own generation. Judgment kicks in earlier than normal and the process of 'giving over' (Ro 1:24, 26, 28) moves on quicker. But even with this, judgment has been restrained and the total wrath of God will be stored up until Judgment Day.
The more one goes out of alignment with the principles of God's Word – truth, the more the severe the judgment. However, the more one walks according to the truth, the greater the blessings.
Blessings are only possible by God's grace. We don't deserve anything but judgment. Jesus, however, bore the full brunt of our curse on the behalf of His people. Jesus Christ, the Truth (John 14:6; 1 John 5:20), has set us free to walk in the truth through faith and thus reverses the sinful effects on our lives. This can only occur if we live according to Jesus' Word which is God's Word.
Instead of finding God's curse upon our lives, we receive all the blessings we would expect and more. Even death has in Christ been removed. God has limited how many blessings He might express to us in this world, but that shouldn't discourage us for we are storing up our eternal rewards for the new world (1 Pe 1:4-5).
"People often think of Christian morality as a kind of bargain in which God says, "If you keep a lot of rules I'll reward you, and if you don't I'll do the other thing." It don't think that is the best way of looking at it.
I'd much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself." – C.S. Lewis
We embrace the truth so that we are set free.
Living according to truth gives me an overwhelming confidence of God's good hand in my life no matter what happens. I no longer live for myself but for God according to His principles of righteousness.
