Two Tests for Truth
Certainly, the entire Bible is a test for Truth.
It is the written authority to which we must turn.
But WITHIN the Bible there are a number of direct tests for Truth given.
Two of them will be discussed here.
1.
Jesus is Lord
The question here is whether
Jesus Christ is being presented as ACCURSED or being presented as LORD.
What is the meaning of these possibilities?
Well, first of all, Paul is
talking about spiritual gifts – which really include all that is from God
through His people. In the NT, even
teaching is said to be a spiritual gift.
Paul elsewhere lists the spiritual gifts.
In short, something is either of God or it is of man.
That which is of God is a spiritual gift.
In that context he acknowledges that the background of
those at Corinth was pagan. They
worshipped demons through dumb idols.
But his warning to them indicates that there might have been some
residual carry-over from that pagan background.
This is why he tells them that no one speaking out from the spirit of
God, “calls Jesus Christ accursed.”
Now, this ought to get our
attention. For that pagan picture
of appeasement is exactly the picture that many Christian people have of the
Redemption. Many today are openly
teaching that Jesus was the One devoted to appeasing God’s wrath.
For example, some of the most prominent Calvinists openly teach that
Jesus was actually saving us from His Father’s wrath – by bearing it all upon
Himself.
If Jesus was, “accursed,” then He was accursed of His
own Father. Is that what is
revealed in the Bible?
What in the world do people think Paul is telling us?
The answer is easy to find and easy to see.
Paul is telling us that any presentation of the gospel wherein Jesus is
accursed – Jesus is devoted to God’s wrath – is NOT of the spirit of God.
And the scary thing is, according to Paul, such a gospel is PAGAN.
There is something about natural thinking that demands
that God be angry, wrathful, and so filled with hate towards sin that Jesus MUST
have been the One to bear all of God’s wrath on our behalf.
Some folks have no other frame of reference.
To them, any other option waters down or denies the holiness and
righteousness of God. But this is a
horrible picture of God. It is the
result of taking human reaction and imposing it upon God Almighty.
It is amazing as to what some Christian teachers
attribute to God. If human beings
would have the attitudes some attribute to God we would know it was awful.
If human beings would treat each other the way some say God treats human
beings we would know it was evil.
Yet they never make the connection.
The fact is, we are to have the mind of Christ.
We are to express Christ.
Therefore, however you picture God – in attitude or actions – you must say that
this is how those in Christ ought to function.
That is inescapable.
A False
Redemption
Let’s push this false concept of, “Jesus accursed,” to
its only possible outcome. First of
all, if Jesus was devoted to destruction under God’s wrath for our salvation,
then we really have a redemption that does NOTHING to change humanity.
What we have is a redemption that actually changed GOD.
By appeasing the wrath of God, Jesus would have changed God’s attitude
from anger and wrath over to love and grace. But
human beings would still be the same – although now out from under God’s
impending wrath.
Is THAT what the Bible teaches? No.
God never needed to be changed.
Man needed to be changed.
Secondly, scripture says:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to
condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
(John 3:16-17)
Here we see that God did not love the world after Jesus
died to appease His wrath, but rather, God love the world before sending Jesus –
which is why He sent Jesus to begin with.
Do those who believe these lies about God suppose that a
wrathful God managed to work Himself up into a good mood long enough to be
loving enough to send His Son? Not
to be sarcastic, but for goodness sake, the Bible clearly states:
But God
demonstrates his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us.”
(Rom. 5:8)
Clearly, God did not give humanity His Son to appease
His own wrath – by bearing His own wrath.
That might change God towards man – if we buy into this twisted reasoning
-- but it would do nothing to change man towards God – which is the whole point
of redemption to begin with.
Let’s take this further:
What did Jesus bear on the Cross?
His Father’s wrath upon the sinner FOR sin?
No. On the Cross, Jesus bore
SIN ITSELF – indeed, Jesus bore the sinner.
John the Baptist announced Jesus Christ to the world
with these words:
Behold the
Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.
(John 1:29)
Jesus did not take away the wrath of God – He did not
deliver sinners from the wrath of God.
Rather, Jesus delivered sinners from SIN.
We have already seen that Jesus bore the sin of the
world in His own Person on the Cross:
Who his own
self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins,
should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
(I Peter 2:24)
Jesus bore OUR SINS.
He did not bear our punishment FOR sin, nor God’s wrath FOR sin.
Now, someone is going to ask, “But did Jesus not bear
the judgment of God for sin?” Yes,
absolutely. But what was that
judgment? Death.
Jesus died bearing sin, and therefore, bore the judgment for sin.
But can we see the difference between an angry God who
poured out His wrath upon His Son so that He could appease Himself – the
difference between that and a God who so loved the world that He gave His Son to
bear the judgment for sin? The
difference is so immense that God inspired this teaching in I Corinthians 12.
The Truth
If Jesus was accursed of God to appease God’s own wrath,
then there is no provision for new life or for the new birth.
There is really no victory over sin and death.
All we would have is victory over God’s wrath – and a condition of
forgiveness for humanity in the form of a lifted punishment.
This is not the Truth. It is
pagan.
Paul contrasts this false redemption by saying that
anyone who is speaking by the spirit of God will proclaim that JESUS IS LORD.
Jesus is Lord because He became a human being, and as a
human being lived a sinless life, died, was raised, and is ascended in VICTORY
for God on the behalf of human beings.
Jesus WON the position of Lordship over all.
Certainly being seated at the right hand of God, yes, as
the Son of God, but also as the glorified Son of Man, shows Jesus Christ as Lord
of all.
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name:
That at the
name of Jesus
every knee should bow, of
[things]
in heaven, and
[things]
in earth, and
[things]
under the earth;
And
[that]
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
[is]
Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
(Phil. 2:9-11)
Since Paul is talking about spiritual gifts we can be
sure than any spiritual gift that is of God is not only going to preach the true
gospel, but is going to present the nature and character of God, the Person of
His Son Jesus, and God’s plan and purpose all within the context of JESUS IS
LORD.
This would mean that all ministry is going to exhort
each believer of come under Jesus as their personal, and individual LORD.
This will likewise mean that believers will be taught that in Christ, and
under Christ as Lord, all victory is possible.
In short, because He is Lord, to the extent that we come under Him as our
personal Lord, it is possible for His full will to be realized in and through
us.
Believers will likewise be shown that God is not an
angry, wrathful being, but is the God who so loved the world – who IS love.
The Lord Jesus
As we have seen, Jesus referred to Himself as The Son of
Man more than He did by any other name.
But after His ascension, Jesus is referred to as LORD more than by any
other name. Over 150 times Jesus is
called Lord after His ascension – in Acts and in the other books.
Indeed, Jesus as Lord was the theme of the first sermon in Acts 2, and
really, throughout the entire book of Acts.
Believers are united with the Lord Jesus at salvation.
We are joined to Him – seated in Him in the heavenlies at God’s right
hand. Can we see that in one
thought that this expresses the entire plan of Redemption – to restore all
things unto God through His Son, including humanity?
Can we see that if we are joined to the LORD and made one spirit with
Him, that fundamental to the working of the spirit will be to make Jesus our
personal Lord? Our only Mediator?
Paul said that no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except
by the spirit of God. He was
referring to more than just saying the words – heretics say those words.
He was saying that it is only by the inward work of the spirit through
death and resurrection in Christ that any person can come to see and declare and
live the Truth: Jesus is Lord.
2.
Jesus
Having Come in the Flesh
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of
God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh
is not of God: and this is that
[spirit]
of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already
is it in the world.
Ye
are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that
is in you, than he that is in the world.
(I John 4:1-4)
The central issue in this
warning from John is The Son of God become man.
But John takes it a step further.
He says that the spirit of God will always confess, “Jesus having come in
the flesh.” That is the correct
tense. Thus, John is not only
talking about the Truth of the Word become flesh in history, but he is talking
about the Living Word, Jesus Christ, coming ever since to dwell within flesh and
blood human beings.
Once we realize that, we
will see that John is talking about the very definition and basis of
Christianity: Christ in us.
This means that what he has to say on this matter is of vital importance.
The Test
The basis for John writing
this passage was a first century heresy that had infiltrated the church.
Today we call it GNOSTICISM.
But this was not a pagan Gnosticism, so to speak.
Rather it was a Gnostic Christianity – meaning it was a false
Christianity with a false Christ.
This heresy taught that the Son of God, Jesus Christ, did not literally become,
through a human birth, a flesh and blood human being.
According to this heresy, THE WORD did not become flesh -- and dwell
among us.
There were versions of
this heresy. One claimed that the
man, Jesus Christ, was a mirage.
Another claimed that Jesus was only a man but became indwelt by God when He was
baptized.
This heresy is not a thing
unto itself. John was inspired to
write these words as a proclamation that Christianity is based upon The Son of
God becoming The Son of Man – and then working a redemption for humanity.
Thus, in principle, we can find Truth in what John is writing to apply to
all that is presented as the gospel.
You'll find in the
writings of John that that truth is repeated many, many times because he's
writing against this error so often.
It is a primary Christian Truth – the entire plan of God’s Redemption
through Christ depends upon the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became a
flesh and blood human being.
The centrality of this
Truth of Jesus having come in the flesh cannot be overstated – if we deny it or
omit it we do not have Redemption.
Indeed, if we deny or omit it we do not have Christianity at all. Notice why:
If Jesus did not actually become a flesh and blood human being then
through His redemptive work He has not come to dwell in His people.
In that case, we are not saved.
The very core of Christianity, “Christ in us,” is null.
The reality of Jesus
Christ in His people by the means of the Holy Spirit is fully dependent upon the
fact that Jesus Christ Himself was the Word become flesh – dependent upon Jesus
becoming a flesh and blood human being.
It is because Jesus was God the Son, born into this world from the
outside of this world – lived, died for us, was raised, and ascended – all as a
human being – this is what made it possible for Jesus Christ by the means of His
spirit to come and dwell in His people.
The two are as one truth.
“Christ in us, the hope of
glory,” (Col. 1:27) is the core of Christianity.
It is this reality of Christ in us that John is defending in this
passage. He's saying that the
spirit of God will always confess this great reality.
And when John says, “confess,” he is talking about revealing,
proclaiming, or manifesting.
Indeed, the very presence of the spirit of God IS the confession of this core
Truth. But even more importantly,
the spirit of God will actually make this happen in our experience – God will
work by His spirit to bring us into an inward realization of Jesus Christ, Who
is in us.
Joined to the Lord
The Spirit of God will
always confess that Jesus Christ, having come in His flesh, presently IS come to
dwell within those in the body of Christ.
1 Corinthians 6:17 says, “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit
with him.” When Jesus Christ comes
to dwell in us, we are joined together with Christ in spirit in resurrection
union. But we are not joined with
Christ in soul or natural man in this age.
No. Rather, Christ is joined
with our spirit, but within our body and soul.
Paul’s picture of the believer as an earthen vessel in which dwells the
Treasure is perfect.
John says, “Hereby you
know the Spirit of God.” The Spirit
of God will not only reveal the fact that Jesus Christ dwells within His people,
but the spirit of God will actually reveal Christ in His people -- the purpose
for which the Spirit of God was given according to Jesus was to reveal the
living Christ to us in an inward way.
The very essence, the very
core, the very definition of Christianity is being addressed here.
The Spirit of God will always reveal Christ to the believer in an inward
way – will reveal that Jesus Christ IS come into our very being.
If you read John 14, 15, and 16, every purpose for which Jesus said the
Spirit of God was given centers on a revelation of Him.
But not just in doctrine; not just in concept.
That's all there, of course.
But the purpose of the Spirit of God is to actually reveal Jesus Christ to us in
an inward way so that we may know Him and inwardly realize Him.
The Spirit of Antichrist
How often is this
mandatory revelation of Jesus Christ as dwelling in His people even talked about
in Christian ministry today? John is saying that the Spirit of God will always
confess this Truth -- and yet we almost never hear it spoken of, let alone
preached, as the core truth of Christianity.
We don't hear it preached as the test for Christianity; as the test for
where the Spirit of God is at work.
We don't even hear it mentioned.
Can we see a terrible
blindness here? I don't think most
Christian people are deliberately and knowingly neglecting this.
But I do think that Christian people are blind to it -- Christian people
don't know and they don't know to know.
But if we read on in the passage, it is this blindness – merely the
omission of this Truth – that is exactly the work of the spirit of antichrist.
John writes in verse 3:
“And every spirit that confesses NOT Jesus Christ having come in the flesh is
not of God. And this is the Spirit
of antichrist.”
Now, let's note something
very essential to see: We just read
in verse one and two, what the Spirit of God WILL confess; what the Spirit of
God WILL DO. But did you notice
that in verse 3 that John doesn't mention ANYTHING AT ALL that the Spirit of
antichrist WILL DO? He doesn't. All
that he mentions is what the Spirit of antichrist WILL NOT DO.
He tells us only what the spirit of antichrist will OMIT.
The Spirit of antichrist will NOT do what the Spirit of God WILL do:
Confess Jesus, reveal Jesus.
The spirit of antichrist will do anything necessary, or preach as a substitute,
that which will OMIT this reality, HIDE it, or BLIND people to the reality of
Christ in them.
This tells us that what is
NOT preached is as important as what IS preached.
If, “Christ in us,” that is, “Jesus having come in the flesh,” is NOT
being revealed – is not central to either a person’s life or a church’s life –
then the spirit of antichrist is at work.
The omission of this core reality is a sufficient identifying mark that
antichrist is at work.
How many understand that
antichrist blinds? The term itself
suggests that possibility.
“Antichrist,” means, “instead of Christ,” and so a primary device of the enemy
is to preach anything BUT, “Christ in us” – to preach anything else as the
substitute. This substitute will
often blind believers to the real Truth.
And so even though there are millions of Christian people who don’t
necessarily believe horrible error, there are millions who are blind to the
Truth. But that is a set up for
real deception – because if we do not know Christ there will ultimately be no
standard against error. Where
Christ is not realized, the enemy can easily fill that void with that which is
of darkness.
Read again 1 John 4:3:
“Every spirit that confesses NOT Jesus Christ having come in the flesh is
not of God.” Let’s talk a little
more about what John means by SPIRIT.
Certainly included in what he means is the spiritual environment that is
governing a church. Is it the
presence of Christ in his people?
Is it the reality -- the knowing of him in an inward way -- the realization of
Christ? Read the New Testament.
That's what governs a church according to the mind of God.
Where that's absent, what is governing? Well, maybe it's theology.
Or perhaps it is a focus upon church life -- a nebulous idea of church as
a family; as a society; as an institution.
Folks get together, they study the Bible, they listen to sermons, they
sing in the choir, and they have fellowship, and they have friends and they have
family activities and they meet certain challenges.
They try to raise the money to pay the bills.
And all of it may be innocent enough; it may be honest, moral, and good.
But yet, what is the spiritual environment? Is it what John says it must
be to be a living, dynamic church according to the mind of God?
Paul says, “Christ, our life.”
(Col. 3:4) That is
essentially what John is teaching.
Is Christ the life of our church?
Not merely in word, but actually – in experience?
When all the religion and
posturing is skimmed off, what is the spiritual environment that governs this
church? What is the life blood?
What is the pulse of this church?
Is it Christ in us -- individually and collectively -- the hope of glory?
Is it Christ our life? Is it, “Yet not I but Christ?” Is it Christ
crucified and raised – but also US crucified and raised in Him? Well, it's
supposed to be that. And if it's
not, what is it? Is it just dead
religion -- or maybe just a big blank space? A blank space is a very dangerous
thing. What I mean by blank space
is I mean all the areas in our Christian experience that are supposed to be
filled with Christ but aren't. There is an omission or a blindness there – which
is evidence of antichrist.
There are many sincere
churches that don't know the Truth and don't know to know the Truth.
They may not be deceived into horrible error and heresy right now, but
the fact that there is a huge blank space regarding experiencing Christ as our
life is dangerous. that makes them
ripe for deception. That makes
people by the tens of millions everywhere just ripe to be picked for deception
because they don't have a living experience with the living, resurrected Christ
that can hold them and keep them out of it.
They're not under the work of the cross.
They're not in the process of losing life to him in order that he might
be their life. Again, not a
criticism, not a condemnation, not a put down, not taking a superior position
here -- but simply repeating what John is saying here because it is vitally
important. It's a warning right
from the Bible. Every spirit that
confesses NOT Jesus having come in the flesh is not of God.
The blindness or omission is evidence that antichrist is working.
John states:
THIS is the Spirit of antichrist.
WHAT is the Spirit of antichrist?
Every spirit that confesses NOT, “Christ in us the hope of glory.”
You can't get any clearer than that.
The Spirit of God focuses upon Christ in you, the hope of glory, on a
personal level. The Spirit of
antichrist blinds people to that and will confess anything but that.
John doesn't even mention
one thing that antichrist will confess – although there is ultimately going to
be great error. But what does
matter is what is NOT being confessed.
Where Jesus Christ having come in the flesh -- his flesh and then ours
today -- where that's absent -- the Spirit of antichrist is at work -- at least
to have blinded people. THIS is the
spirit of antichrist.
Antichrist Already at Work
John writes, “THIS is the
Spirit of antichrist. Whereof you
have already heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the
world.” Note the
wording: John calls antichrist IT.
IT. IT should come; IT is in
the world. And IT was already out
there in John's times. So like I
said before, you may look for an individual called antichrist.
If you do, I think you're going to be deceived.
And I say that despite the fact that there could be representatives and
main representatives as we approach the end of the age.
But regardless of that, antichrist is a spirit, a spirit that ultimately
will deny and redefine the very core definition of Christianity.
IT will deny, and blur, and redefine Christ in you the hope of glory as
Christianity -- and offer something instead.
John wrote, “Whereof you
have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. “
Paul likewise wrote, “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work.
(II Thes. 2:7) These words
were written 2000 years ago. Yet
both apostles are telling us that the spirit of antichrist was ALREADY at work –
at work in the church. Could it be
more clearly stated that antichrist is NOT an individual, but a spirit?
That antichrist is NOT a political figure, but a religious figure?
The entire Word of God is the written standard for the
Truth. But these are two, “tests
for Truth,” directly given to us by the apostles.
It is not by accident that the two direct tests for Truth given in the NT
– “Jesus is Lord,” and, “Jesus having come in the flesh” – both have to do with
the reality of Jesus Christ as the Son of Man; The Last Adam.
For if this Truth is distorted, then the Redemption itself will be
distorted. Indeed, the very meaning
of Christianity will be corrupted.