In Paul’s last epistle, in Timothy 3:7, he wrote of certain people who would be “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” In our age we see the same problem – students of the Bible, even scholars, who do not grasp some of the simple truths of God’s word. Then, in the next verse the apostle states the reason why, “… so do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds…” They could not learn the truth because they resisted it. Their own concepts and ideas took priority over the truth when the two were in con-flict.
In our modern age some religious teachers regard the first eleven chapters of Genesis as a myth. Of course, this is to accommodate the evolutionary, bil-lion-year, geological-age system of earth history. On the other hand, many who believe in the Creation record turn around and ignore various plain, doc-trinal truths. In spite of numerous biblical texts that demand obedience, com-mandment keeping and works, they ignore them in order to accommodate their “faith only” philosophy. They just cannot correlate faith and obedience. Grace nullifies works in their thinking. And yet, every instance of conditional grace was accompanied by an obedient faith (cf. Hebrews 11)
Jesus said, “If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doc-trine, whether it is from God…” (John 7:17) , He said to those Jews who be-lieved Him, “If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:31,32) Knowledge of God’s truth depends on a heart genuinely desiring that truth and a willingness to believe and obey it, regardless of previous concepts. Such a heart does not try to twist God’s word to accommodate a human philos-ophy, or one’s own personal will. It is submission to God’s will and doing that which is always consistent with God’s word. And God’s word is written to be easily understood by anyone who is willing to believe and obey it (cf. Ephe-sians 3:4; 5:17).
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