The Truth Continued

[HKHaugan]

The Truth Continued

I can still see Jack Nicholson as he sat on the witness chair in “A Few Good Men” leering out at Tom Cruise and snarling ‘The truth? You can’t handle the truth.’ You know something? He’s absolutely right. None of us can. That is why we were given the Holy Spirit. Jesus went to the Cross, died for each one of us because all have fallen short of the glory of God. No one could handle Him, not His family, not His closest friends, and certainly not the religious establishment, the Romans, the politicians and the fickle public. When He ascended to Heaven the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of truth, came as the promised gift paving the way for Jesus to come into our mind, heart and spirit enabling each of us to ‘handle’ the mind, heart and Spirit of Jesus. That was and is God’s will for us. “This is my Son, my beloved, listen to Him.’

It is not that we ‘handle’ Jesus. That is really impossible. It is allowing Him to ‘handle’ us. What the Lord has blessed us with is the ability, through the Spirit, to reason spiritually from His Word, trust Him in our heart and have faith to act in His name. The idea is the same as when you hear people say they can’t get their mind around God. Why not let Him get His mind around us? That is the ‘handling’ necessary to be fulfilled spiritual beings who are having a human experience. How do we live in this flesh and blood body separated from God and one another if it is not by believing, trusting and having faith in the God who made us in His image, the spiritual image of God living in a human body? That is a legitimate question and one only each person can answer. The other question that naturally follows is this. If not God is what you are believing, trusting and having faith in, working for you?

Again, truth is spiritual, personal and revealed in the ‘package’ of Jesus. So how does it work, what does it look like, when we let God wrap His mind around us, when we rely on His Word to transform our intellect? Jesus says the Holy Spirit will convict us (John 16:8) of guilt in regard to three things, sin, righteousness and judgment. But let’s just start with the phrase ‘convict of guilt.’ Does your mind, heart and spirit ever get that check, that ‘hold on’ sense, when you are faced with a situation demands a moral response (and all responses are moral choices)? And when you don’t act on it but shove it aside does it linger? Does it cause guilt, shame, remorse or defensiveness for inaction or impulsiveness or fear or anger or neglect or the need to ‘kick yourself?’ Do we rationalize, self-justify, retreat, avoid or deny in order ‘to get a way from it all?’

That’s right, we can’t handle the truth.

Is it any wonder in this vast recovery program we call faith in Jesus Christ that grace is the necessary quality of God that covers us through faith, that is letting the mind of Jesus ‘handle’ us? That is why the Gospel of John tells us that the law came through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (1:14).