(This post should be read as the second part of a post I wrote the 30th of June 2016. Actually I wrote it last July but I got mixed up and published another post instead.)
We have seen in “part one” that convictions are contingent on positive knowledge, and that the knowledge needed to develop moral convictions is to be found in the depth of Jesus Christ.
In this present post I will continue to mark the distinction between living knowledge and dead information; for although the difference between both is as big as the difference between the Sahara and the rain forests, people keep mixing them up and buy the latter thinking they have purchased the former.
The misapprehension is more dramatic than one may think since it deprives the person from moral convictions, introducing him to ethical mutabilities—an introduction that makes the devil laugh.
Hidden treasures
In Col. 2:3 we read: “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge”. Once more Paul is attesting that Christian knowledge will never be presented to us on a silver plate. It is hidden, and hidden in the depth of Jesus Christ. That is why the Scripture challenges us to seek it with all of our heart:
Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God” (Prov. 2:3–5).
The Christian who is overwhelmed by worldly affairs will have little time for such a quest; so will the person moved by the law of least effort. Such people will get nowhere as far as moral convictions are concerned. They are doomed to feed on mercurial stances while leaning on the reed of human intellectualism.
The cost of learning
The eternal Son could not have made it any clearer when he said: “Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27). And again: “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple ” (Luke 14: 33). Since the word disciple means ‘one learning’, it becomes obvious that knowledge cannot be gathered on sunny slopes. The seekers of ease and facility will find themselves cut off from the source of knowledge and thereby from the fabric of convictions.
The person who wants to go to the school of Christ will have to meet Jesus’ requirements, and these requirements are not arbitrary but necessary. Let me explain. Imagine someone would offer to teach a child how to swim under two conditions: First, his parents would have to pay 300 dollars, secondly, the child would have to accept to get wet. As you understand these two conditions are very different in nature. The first is arbitrary, by this I mean, the child could learn how to swim without paying 300 dollars. But the second is a necessary condition since the child could not possibly learn how to swim if he refuses to get wet.
Now, the conditions Jesus laid down are all necessary. Consequently the person refusing to meet them will not be able to apprehend the knowledge of the truth for the same reasons a child cannot learn how to swim if he refuses to get wet.
A person that turns down the conditions Jesus requires might be allowed to enter in a Bible school, but he will never set foot in the school of Christ. He might fill his head with Christian information, but not with the knowledge of the Holy. The tragedy of it all is that he might become a pastor passing out cold information leading to revisable opinions. Once this is accomplished, the pupil will have departed from the Christian faith, for the Christian faith, properly so called, is not open to revision.
Reaching the place of positive knowledge
We have seen that positive knowledge dwells in the depth of Jesus Christ. Therefore the one who wants to develop convictions will have to get there, for only in the depth of such a Sanctuary certainty can be engendered.
Let me give you an example to make my point clear. Let’s say Jane, a member of “The Lamb’s Church”, tells you there are twelve chairs in their meeting place with only two legs. What will you make of it? Surely the claim would appear rather unusual. But since Jane seems very honest you might be tempted to accept her claim until sister Judith, who belongs to the same church, tells you the claim is nonsensical. “All the chairs in our church have four legs,” she exclaims. “Where does this foolishness come from?” Since her power of conviction is rather phenomenal, you might change your belief and say, “of course”, at the end of her speech.
But what would happen if four months later someone else would come with a greater power of conviction and better arguments, telling you that the twelve chairs have three legs not two? In brief, you would be tossed to and fro, experiencing instability and uncertainty. In such a set-up your only hope would be to go to “The Lamb’s Church” to see the facts for yourself. Only then would you see on the stage twelve chairs having only two legs, and this, to make them fit the pronounced steps of the choir area—the two front legs reaching the lower level and the back of the chair resting on the higher one. Then, and only then, will you be convinced that there are twelve chairs in “The Lamb’s Church” with only two legs. At this point your knowledge would be positive since it would have been validated by factuality.
But what would happen if the “The Lamb’s Church” would be in Australia and your home in Canada. Such a situation would make the place of conviction costly. That’s precisely the reason why many people don’t reach a place of conviction in regard to moral truth. In brief, one must go where knowledge is to find knowledge. To lean on men’s arguments or power of conviction will always lead to mere opinions, or worse, to absolute deceptions. May the Spirit guide us downward where precious gold can be found. “For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10).
(I have written two more posts on the subject which might interest you. Here is the link of the first one: https: https://simondesjardinsblog.com/christian-knowledge-2/)
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