Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life... John 14:5-6
Jesus also said this to Thomas and the others. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10
Hmmm, you might be pondering all of this and saying, "here we go...this guy is taking me down the road to religion, not another one of those." Hang in there with me, as I've come to discover that Jesus didn't come to take anyone down the road to religion. I really believe the thief is involved in leading people down that road, not Jesus.
Below you will read a famous verse quoted all the time in the context of going to heaven. John 3:16 I have included the verses that follow because there is something for us here in the pathway to freedom from hiddenness.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
Did you notice the references to light there and contrasting light with darkness? In my understanding at this point, I think darkness = hiddenness. We all like the darkness, because we think we can't be seen. The labrynth of hiddenness is a place of darkness.
Jesus is referenced by the apostle John as Light.
Could it be that a way out of the labrynth of hiddenness be found in following Jesus? We will explore this possibility next time. Your thoughts?
2 comments:
I think you're onto something very important. It is all too easy to interpret the scriptures about light and darkness in a concrete manner. I believe that hiddenness is something that we as Christians have much trouble with. Having a knowledge of God's laws written on our hearts has placed mankind in an awkward position of needing to hide sinful behavior while struggling to change it. Only the reprobate are free from this. From hiddenness it is all too easy to be moved by pride into hypocricy. In hypocricy we misrepresent ourselves; pretending becomes predominant. It's as if we are hiding openly. This seems especially common in people who are in positions of power and influence.
So Vic, do you think there is such a thing as hiding openly? Are hiddenness and hypocricy different?
Thank you Saint Salvo! Where we get into trouble is thinking that we can manage sinful behavior. This sends us into denying the only One who can handle our sin, that is Jesus Christ and the finished work at Calvary. With sin management we can't help but hide, compare, compete and judge. Sin management theology is killing the church.
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