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14For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do (A)instinctively
the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15in
that they show (B)the
work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and
their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, 16on the
day when, (C)according
to my gospel, (D)God
will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.
They
Knew Him Not
Dave Hunt
Any person of ordinary
intelligence, anywhere and at any time, can know
that God exists as the Creator of
the universe (Ps 19:1-6; Rom 1:18-20,
etc.). Such a person also has a
conscience in which God has written His
moral law (Rom 2:14-16), knows
that he or she has broken this law many
times, and realizes that there
must be judgment from God as a result.
When the gospel is preached, the
sinner knows by the convicting power
ofthe Holy Spirit that this is
the truth and is the only means of escape
from the wrath to come.
There are, however, many persons
who resist the witness of creation and
of conscience. We should be
prepared to reason with them. God offers to
all: "Come now and let us
reason together...though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be as white
as snow..." (Is 1:18). We must be
"ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh...a reason of the
hope that is in [us] with meekness and fear [of the Lord]..." (1 Pt 3:15).
We give skeptics valid reasons
why we accept the Bible as God's Word by
faith-but it is not a blind
faith. As Peter indicates, there are reasons
for our faith. There are many
proofs for the Bible, without which we
could not demonstrate to
unbelievers that it is infallible. Not that we
can understand everything
Scripture says. That God is the I AM (Ex
3:14), for example, without
beginning or end (Ps 90:2; 103:17; 106:48)
who created the universe out of
nothing (Heb 11:3) is more than our
finite minds can understand-, but
we know it must be.
Everything in the Bible that we
are able to verify (historically,
scientifically, prophetically,
etc.) has proved to be true. It is
therefore reasonable to believe
whatever else the Bible says that we
cannot verify. Statements that
are beyond our comprehension and thus
unverifiable include that God is
a Spirit (Jn 4:24), that man is made
inHis moral and spiritual image
(Gn 1:26,27) and is body, soul, and
spirit(1 Thes 5:23), that Christ
will rapture us from earth to heaven as
promised (Jn 14:3; 1 Thes
4:13-18), and that there is a final judgment
and a lake of fire-where the
damned will be eternally.
As we have often pointed out,
prophecy is the great proof that God
exists, that the Bible is His
Word, and that Christ is His Son and
man's only Savior. Prophecies
were given to indisputably identify the
Messiah. Proof does not, however,
guarantee faith. There must be a willing
heart. In spite of hundreds of
prophecies proving that Jesus was the Messiah,
the Jews rejected Him and remain
largely in unbelief today.
We've often given many proofs
that the Bible is true. We have not
emphasized, however, that, with
few exceptions, Scripture honestly
reveals the flaws and sins of the
best saints-even when such facts
could have been avoided. Such
honesty gives the ring of truth to Scripture.
One of the strangest accounts
concerns the disciples' unbelief in the
face of Christ's resurrection. In
fact, their skepticism and apparent
unwillingness to believe, even
when Christ met them face to face, seems
so unlikely that no fiction
writer would have dared to portray it.
Christ indicts His disciples with
"hardness of heart" (Mk 16:14). They
did not believe, even when Christ
appeared to them (Lk 24:36-38). Yet
one of the thieves crucified with
Christ believed in His resurrection,
or he would not have asked,
"Lord, remember me when thou comest into
thy kingdom" (Lk 23:42). The
disciples' doubts were without excuse in view of the many Messianic prophecies.
That they could be so blind to the Scripture, even after being taught
personally by Christ over several years, should cause us
to re-examine ourselves lest we
be guilty of the same.
There is a similar rejection of
truth today, even among those who claim
to be Christians. Many who say
they are "born again" (including
seminary professors and pastors)
are not even saved. A December 2003 Barna
poll revealed that 35
percent of those who claimed to be
"born again"
didn't believe Christ rose from
the dead; 26 percent said all religions
are
equal; and 50 percent said good
works would get a person to heaven.
All of the disciples as well as
the rabbis-and even John the Baptist
("Art thou he that should
come? or look we for another?" - Lk 7:19-20),
who was "filled with the
Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb" (Lk
1:15)-expected the Messiah to set
up His kingdom when He first came to
Israel. Christ's crucifixion
shattered their faith. How could He
have
been the promised Messiah?
Yet numerous prophecies made it
clear that the Messiah's first coming
would be as the Lamb of God to be
crucified: "they pierced my hands and
my feet" (Ps 22:16);
"they shall look upon me, whom they have
pierced"
(Zec 12:10). The prophets
declared that He would be "despised and
rejected...wounded for our
transgressions...taken from prison and from
judgment...cut off out of the
land of the living...his grave [would be]
with the wicked" (Is
53:3,5,8,9) and that He would rise again the third
day (Ps 16:10; Jn 2:19; Mt
12:39,40).
Moreover, they also had to ignore
the many times Christ himself had Told
them plainly that He was going to be crucified and rise from the dead the third
day. After Christ's resurrection, the
angels at the tomb reminded the women: "Remember how he spake unto you
when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the
hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they
remembered his words" (Lk 24:6-8). We do not have the record of every time
the Lord declared this to His disciples, but it must have been more often than
the recorded instances.
At least seven different
occasions on which He made His death and
resurrection plain to His
disciples are recorded in the Gospels: (Mt
16:21; 17:22,23; 20:17-19; Mk
8:31,32; 9:31,32; Lk 13:32,33; Jn
12:32-34). Here are some
examples: "For he taught his disciples, and
said...the Son of man is
delivered into the hands of men, and they
shall kill him; and...he shall
rise the third day. But they understood not
that saying, and were afraid to
ask him" (Mk 9:31,32); "Behold...all
things that are written by the
prophets concerning the Son of man shall
be accomplished. For he shall be
delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall
be mocked, and spitefully
entreated, and spitted on: And they shall
scourge him, and put him to
death: and the third day he shall rise
again" (Lk 18:31-33);
"And he began to teach them, that the Son of man
must suffer many things, and be
rejected of the elders, and of the
chief priests, and scribes, and
be killed, and after three days rise again.
And he spake that saying
openly" (Mk 8:31,32; Lk 9:22).
Sometimes Christ veiled His
speech: "There came certain of the
Pharisees, saying unto him, Get
thee out, and depart hence: for Herod
will kill thee. And he said unto
them, Go ye, and tell that fox,
Behold, I cast out devils, and I
do cures to day and to morrow, and the third
day I shall be perfected...for it
cannot be that a prophet perish out
of Jerusalem." (Lk
13:31-33). Obviously, He was referring to His death and
resurrection.
Another time, the Pharisees
asked, "What sign shewest thou unto us...?
Jesus answered...Destroy this
temple, and in three days I will raise it
up. Then said the Jews, Forty and
six years was this temple in
building, and wilt thou rear it
up in three days? But he spake of the
temple of his body. When
therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples
remembered that he had said this
unto them; and they believed the
scripture, and the word which
Jesus had said" (Jn 2:18-22).
The rabbis knew what Christ
meant. Yet they sought false witnesses to
twist His words at His trial
before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin: "At the
last...two false
witnesses...said, This fellow said, I am able to
destroy the temple of God, and to
build it in three days" (Mt 26:60,61). They knew, however, that He
referred to His resurrection: "Now the next
day...the chief priests and
Pharisees came together unto Pilate,
saying,Sir, we remember that that
deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After
three days I will rise again.
Command therefore that the sepulchre be
made sure until the third day,
lest his disciples come by night, and
steal him away, and say unto the
people, He is risen from the dead: so
the last error shall be worse
than the first" (Mt 27:62-64).
The disciples' unbelief is itself
unbelievable. Jesus spoke at length
with two followers on the road to
Emmaus, yet they knew Him not. Yes,
it says that Christ appeared
"in another form" to them. That phrase,
however, does not mean that He
disguised Himself. It refers rather to
the disciples' unbelief that
blinded them. Luke explains: "But their
eyes were holden that they should
not know him" (Lk 24:16).
That they knew Him not didn't
mean that He was unrecognizable but that
He was the last person they
expected to see. Had they known the
Scriptures, they would have been
certain that He had resurrected. For
that ignorance, Christ rebuked
them sharply: "O fools, and slow of
heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken: Ought not Christ to have
suffered these things, and to
enter into his glory? And beginning at
Moses and all the prophets, he
expounded unto them in all the
Scriptures the things concerning
himself" (Lk 24:25-27). Would He reprimand us as well for our ignorance of
"all that the prophets have spoken"?
What a Bible study these two
experienced as they walked with this
amazing stranger! Yet having
learned the prophecies concerning the
Messiah from the Lord himself,
they still knew Him not! Faith is a
matter of the heart, and they
were "slow of heart to believe...."
We
need to ask the Lord to search
our own hearts to be certain that we,
too, are not blinded in certain
areas by unbelief.
At supper, "their eyes were
[at last] opened, and they knew him; and he
vanished out of their sight. And
they said one to another, Did not our
heart burn within us, while he
talked with us by the way, and while he
opened to us the
scriptures?" (Lk 24:31,32). Faith, though inexcusably
slow, came at last through the
scriptures Christ had revealed.
Not to know the Lord Jesus Christ
carries serious consequences. It
Means a false view of the Savior
and thus a false hope of salvation. We must
believe in the true Christ of God
if we are to have eternal life and be
in the Father's house of many
mansions for eternity. As Christ declared
in His high-priestly prayer to
His Father, "And this is life eternal,
that they might know thee the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent" (Jn 17:3).
He said to the rabbis,"Search
the scriptures; for in them ye think ye
have eternal life: and they are
they which testify of me. And ye will
not come to me, that ye might
have life" (Jn 5:39,40). He still extends
the offer to all, "Come unto
me...and I will give you rest" (Mt 11:28).
Though so grateful to Christ for
casting out of her "seven devils" (Mk
16:9), Mary Magdalene remained
ignorant of prophecy and blind to
Christ's many assurances that He
would rise from the dead. In spite of
Christ appearing and speaking to
her beside His empty tomb, she didn't
recognize Him because she was
blinded by a needless grief caused by
unbelief: "She turned
herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew
not that it was Jesus. Jesus
saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom
seekest thou? She, supposing him
to be the gardener, saith unto him,
Sir, if thou have borne him
hence, tell me where thou hast laid him,
And I will take him away. Jesus
saith unto her [with mild reproof],
Mary. She turned herself, and
saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say,
Master. Jesus saith . . . go to
my brethren, and say unto them, I
Ascend unto my Father . . .
" (Jn 20:14-17).
Mary Magdalene "went and
told them that had been with him, as they
mourned and wept. And they, when
they had heard that he was alive, and
had been seen of her, believed
not" (Mk 16:9-11). The two disciples
with whom he walked to Emmaus
rushed back to Jerusalem "and told it unto the
residue: neither believed they
them. Afterward he appeared unto the
eleven as they sat at meat, and
upbraided them with their unbelief and
hardness of heart..." (Mk
16:9-14).
The key to our lives as
Christians today is how clearly we "see" by
faith the resurrected Christ.
Those who saw Him physically during His
time on earth did not necessarily
have an advantage over us. Remember
Christ's words: "Thomas,
because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed:
blessed are they that have not
seen, and yet have believed" (Jn 20:29).
Yes, "Now we see through a
glass, darkly; but then face to face" (1 Cor
13:12). Then at last, "when
he shall appear, we shall be like him; for
we shall see him as he is"
(1 Jn 3:2). Nevertheless, our desire even
now should be to see Him ever
more clearly with the eyes of faith. As we
behold Him, we become more and more like Him.
David, who only had a fraction of
the scriptures we have, nevertheless
"foresaw the Lord always
before [his] face" (Ps 16:8; Acts 2:25),
"behold[ing] the beauty of
the Lord" (Ps 27:4). Surely we can do the
same: "But we all, with open
face beholding as in a glass the glory of
the Lord, are changed into the
same image from glory to glory, even as
by the Spirit of the Lord"
(2 Cor 3:18).
Like David, Paul's passion was to
"know him, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship
of his sufferings, being made
conformable unto his death...[to]
press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:10-14). What better
passion could we embrace for the
year 2005, or for whatever portion
thereof the Lord will grant us?
TBC