6.Too Impressed by Their Own Logic

Ponder this context:

Luke 9:37,43,44 . . . a large crowd met him. . . . While everyone was marvelling at all that Jesus did, he said to his disciples, “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.”

They saw Jesus, highly popular and displaying great power. What Jesus was saying did not make sense to them because their own logic, based on current circumstances – and, as already mentioned, their current understanding of Scripture – was screaming so loud in their heads that it drowned out what Jesus was trying to get through to them.

Other than to give us a push if we are stalling, the Lord has no need to tell us something that is already obvious to us. Any revelation that we desperately need will therefore clash with our current understanding and expectations.

This puts us continually on the wrong foot. We are always biased towards dismissing as nonsensical whatever new revelation the Lord is trying to get through to us. And the more impressed we are with our own intelligence or grasp of spiritual truth, the more closed off to God we will be.

We think we love God too much to be continually dismissing what he is trying to tell us, but love isn’t the issue. When mixed with his inadequate understanding, Peter’s love for Jesus was so exploited by Satan that Jesus had to tell Peter, “Get behind me, Satan!” The problem was that Peter thought he knew better than Jesus. If we had asked Peter if he thought he was wiser than Jesus, he’d have sincerely denied it. And yet here it was for all to see.

Our ability to discern spiritual truth hinges on our awareness that our current understanding is incomplete. At best, to use Paul’s famous expression, “we see through a glass, darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12, KJV). Since God’s understanding is infinite and ours is not, at any moment the Almighty could be trying to reveal to us something significant that does not gel with our present understanding. This tests two key areas in our lives:

1 Our humility

How willing are we to admit that our understanding has been wrong or inadequate? 2 Our faith

Is our faith rooted in our current understanding of Scripture or is it rooted in the Spirit’s ability to go beyond our current limitations and lead us into all truth? How much do we trust our loving Lord to lead us deeper into truth, while protecting us from spiritual deception?