April 30

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” — GENESIS 1:1

The Christian worldview and moral framework begins with God. “In the beginning God…” That’s the starting point of our understanding of the world that Scripture gives us. It’s a world that makes sense and has purpose because it is created by an intelligent, purposeful God. It’s a world where each person has significance and meaning, because we are not an arbitrary fluke of nature, but intelligently designed and created.

The fact that Christianity requires a dependence on revelation rather than just reason makes some people nervous and I understand that. Reason, of course, is good and necessary, but it can only establish certain things. Reason teaches us that 2 + 2 = 4. But on that basis, we cannot arrive at either spiritual or moral truth. We may only know that by the self-disclosure of God in revelation, for moral truth is the equivalent of His moral character.

We may speculate about morality and come to conclusions based on reasonable judgment. But our conclusions can only be tentative, subject to change and never certain. The world is continually evolving; hence, some of the wrongs of one generation become the rights of the next, and some of the rights become the wrongs. There can be no certainty and no absolutes. Non material things cannot be repeatable, observable or measurable.

The writer of Hebrews says, “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, and that what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (Hebrews 11:3). To put it another way, by His Word, God created the universe and what is visible now did not exist before. As Christians, it is purely by faith we believe and accept this, but that doesn’t mean naivety. We have looked at the evidence and come to the point of saying, “Alright, I’m going to trust this.”

For Jesus to say, “I am the truth” includes the fact that everything that is true can be traced to ‘the truth’ which is not a series of propositional statements, but is exhibited personally in Christ Himself. When we accept the truths of God as revealed in Scripture, and implement them into our lives, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirits that Jesus is the truth. There will be that invincible inner revelation God gives us that He is real; He is sovereign and He is in charge.

PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for the precious gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, who is the truth, the way and the life. His Spirit in me is all the witness I need.

TO REFLECT UPON: What do I bank my decisions on - revelation of God or human reasoning?