The Impossible Truth
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6 NASB
Truth – “Love and Truth are the two ways that lead the soul out of the inner jungle. Love offers an answer to the question of how to live. In Truth we find an answer to the question of how to think. This division, however, is dangerous and arbitrary. There is love at the heart of Truth. But is there Truth in our heart, in our love? Significantly, ‘love’ is both a noun and a verb. Yet ‘truth’ is never a verb . . . It is impossible to find Truth without being in love, and it is impossible to experience love without being truthful, without living Truth.”[1]
If Yeshua is the truth, does that mean He has all the answers? Heschel’s insight implies that this is the wrong question. Truth is found only in the context of love and love is the emotive, psycho-physical experience of being valued and valuing another. Frankly, it has very little to do with being right. There are plenty of people in the world who are right but are far from experiencing or giving love. Unfortunately, a lot of these people are attendees at our gatherings. I say “attendees” because without the truth-love component they are not really members or participants. They are walking dictionaries of dogma. In order to have any relationship at all with them, you must first agree to conform to their true propositions. But by the time you take the step to do that, you realize that this isn’t a relationship at all. It’s a catechism.
If Yeshua is the truth, then we cannot have an encounter with Him or enjoy a longer relationship with him until we experience love. That might sound easy, but it isn’t. You see, love is essentially vulnerability. It’s being naked and not ashamed. No, it’s not about going to the beach. It’s about letting others see into me. That is perhaps the most difficult human adventure one could ever imagine. We have lots to hide. Vulnerability requires transparency. And if that’s what love really is, then Yeshua’s claim is the most powerful human transformation on earth. He is basically saying that he is the fully human, totally transparent, willingly vulnerable man ready to enter into relationship with you and me without preconditioned belief statements. I don’t have to be doctrinally approved in order to experience love. I just have to be willing to remove my protective shell.
That’s kind of a relief. Theology is usually too much for me. All those arguments. All that debate. It’s so complicated. I long for someone to just say, “It doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong. I care for you.” I’m so tired of trying to be right—and discovering later that I still got it wrong. But I never tire of the longing to be accepted. If Yeshua is the truth, then he believes in me even when I don’t. He desires to involve me even when I want to run away. He doesn’t give up on me even when I give up on him. He loves me because he can. And that’s the truth.
Topical Index: truth, love, John 14:6
[1] Abraham Heschel, A Passion for Truth, p. 45.
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Oh Skip, this is the best piece i’ve read in such a very long time. At 55 and being raised in so much doctrine and spiritual abusive religion since 5, I’m at a point where I feel I want to go back to being a babe and have been asking God to take me back to just Him and me. Its been so blurry for such a long time. I’ve been telling myself lately it really can’t be that complicated, it just can be… All the debates and all the arguments and conflicts, the shaming, the criticizing. My heart is just saying no more. All I want is a relationship with my all mighty Father and my Saviour so that I can follow simply like a child. Thank you for explaining it plain and simple. Merci, merci merci!
4:32 am reading this- No words now; A whole new truth-or should I say a different perspective on the “relationship” between love and truth/-will have to meditate on this.
Considering the world we find ourselves in I have defined it as ” a world where the love of many has grown cold and truth is lying dead in the street” . Sad to say in some instances it defines not only the world but also those who claim to be the body of believers. I guess it is time to start the ascent- it is a long climb up that mountain to where His glory dwells. I believe this will help me as I climb- determined to get there.
Thanks Skip
Speaking right to my heart this morning. Amen and amen!
I too look for a relationship with my Father and am very weary of all “a world where the love of many has grown cold and truth is lying dead in the street.”
Well spoken Maddie.
Shalom indeed 🙂
Dear Dawn, I read “I too look for a relationship with my Father…”. May I counsel you to ask Yeshua to lead you to it. He had and has the best relationship with the Father. When He was here in the flesh, He said that He came to lead us to the Father, to reveal the Father to us. Decades ago, shortly after coming to adult faith, I became jealous of Yeshua’s relationship with His Father as it was being revealed to me in the Book of John. I wept as I confessed that though I was a Believer, I did not know the Father. Although I knew His protection, His provision, His faithfulness etc. toward me, my heart did not know the security of the Father’s love. My heart was starved for something deeper which I ‘saw’ in Yeshua’s way and relationship with His Father. I asked Yeshua to make good on His promise. He led me in a way that brought me into an encounter which had me on ‘cloud nine’ for over a year. When it began, the Father spoke into my heart and spirit saying – ‘Yes My Daughter, this is what you have longed for…’. My life has never been the same since and my deep settled security in my Father’s love has been the basis of my obedience to Him especially when He has asked me to do things which ‘make no sense, goes against the norm, makes me vulnerable etc. As long as I know my Father is leading me, I can face anything. This is what I saw in Yeshua’s life and walk when He was here in the flesh. He has enabled me to experience the same quality of trust and rest, the very things He promised. So, I encourage you, go to Yeshua! Who else is qualified?!
With love, Arnella
Dear Arnella, Not all who wander are lost. I think you mistook my statement above. I have a relationship with my Father and that is what I look to. My statement could have been worded better. Theology is usually too much for me as Skip stated so well.
I can appreciate your enthusiasm but your words are so many. I am a simple person and I thank you for the love you have shown me.
Dear Dawn, online versus actual person-to-person communication has its limitations. Speaker and hearer are often separated by worlds in between and better wording may not have made a difference. It is wonderful your are enjoying a relationship with the Father. Continue in the Father’s love. No worries, my post may have been helpful for someone else – that is not unusual. In His love, Arnella
This is why i have taken the hard and fast stance that people chooseTHEIR truth, and it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with what YHVH’s ‘Truth’ would be, it has much more to do with what they want truth to be.
And they will be all to willing to destroy you if you don’t agree.
They will, of course, soak you for any bit of understanding, knowledge, reference points, etc., first. They will want to use that in their future presentations that qualify theirselves as immutable points of reference.
Five years ago I began my quest for the truth whatever that was as I would find it. My paradigm was the same as Descartes. Greek. It slowly dawned on me that there is no “truth” just my best understanding of what I assimilated and learned during my quest. I had no interest in the OT because I didnt understand it. Hardly surprising when you think like a Greek.
With the massive help of Skip and so many others I am still learning. Thank you one and all for what you contribute each and every day. A post like this today goes miles and miles and miles.
Does Skip control the tides? Your attendees, participants, and blog fellowshippers, are your little “sea” being pulled in and washed out with the mysterious sway of your heart and the food for thought that lacks any testimony or conviction from one month to another. What you have described in this post is the fruit of your labor as you are seeing it with your own eyes. You are THEM. Your journey is cyclical, going around the mountain but never climbing up it, You said “you can’t encounter Yeshua until you experience Love” But Yeshua is LOVE!
You have experienced and participated in something so fierce and powerfully destructive, it is not theology, arguments or debate that weary you, it is the fear of the men you admire and love their company, and what they would say about you if you had an encounter with the living Yeshua and could not support it sufficiently with theological dogma. You are standing where you fear already. Wouldn’t it be better to risk it all for a moment in His courts to look upon His beauty?
Love is so worth it!!
I might not control the tides, but I sure do love the ocean.
Sorry. I couldn’t help but ask, “Where did you read that Yeshua is love?” Seems to me that verses of this kind all point to YHVH. Perhaps your experience has so overwhelmed you (a good thing) that you have overlooked the distinction between YHVH and His Messiah. Then again, I’m not sure what you meant by your analogy. We pretty much all agree that theological debate for the sake of debate is a waste, but that doesn’t mean investigation is useless, does it? Are we to rely on experience alone?
You can “read” it here-
1 John 4:10-13 in light of Hebrews 1:8
I trust your question was an honest one.
Love has a signature,
Abigail
But the question is an honest one. 1 John does NOT say that Yeshua is love. It speaks of God’s love, that God is love. There is no statement in this letter that God = Yeshua. And even Hebrew 1:8 doesn’t make that claim. Now, I am not saying that we don’t experience the love of God in the Messiah, but you made that statement that Yeshua is love, and that sounds to me like a confusion of Trinitarian thought with a Jewish text.
1 John calls God Love
Hebrews 1:8 calls the Son God
Yes, I got the first one. 1 John 4 does say God is love. But your exegesis of Hebrews 1:8 is paradigmatically Trinitarian. It assumes the answer before you get to the text. Lots to read on this one. Try Uriel be Mordechai, Anthony Buzzard, C. Harold Brown, etc.
My exegesis does not “assume” the answer before the text, since people were there to actually hear His words and the audience were the Jews of the day.
They understood Him perfectly-no trinitarian confusion-
I agree with their interpretation of the testimony of Yeshua, the difference is I BELIEVE HIM.
I think everyone understood who He said He was- The crowd who wanted Him to die- and the crowd who wanted Him to live.
So to this day, the question remains, who do you say He is?
Without faith it is impossible to please Him- that is a miracle how God requires the same thing from all of us, wether we are looking forward to the coming of the Messiah, in the midst of His time here on earth, or today looking back and having the option to explain it all away?
You might ask honestly for scripture to read:
John 5:18
John 10:30
I know you have probably read them before, but you should try reading them like a Jew.
Thank you for letting me be part of your conversation today, I love the ocean too! I can stand for hours admiring it, but my knees give out and my breath is taken in the presence of the one who created the oceans.
May you live to tell of your face to face with the Lover of your soul, and may I live to hear it:)
I also pray you hear Him before you hear from me again.
Abigail
Let’s try again. The question of the divinity (as defined by Christian theology) of Yeshua was not adopted by the Church until about 350-430 AD through various councils and creeds. For the history (not the theology) of this 100 year debate and the political and social factors that influenced it, please read Richard Rubenstein, When Jesus Became God. For the theology and the exegesis of the verses you mention, and dozens more, read Patrick Navas, Divine Truth or Human Tradition, or Anthony Buzzard, The Trinity: Christianity’s Self-Inflicted Wound, or (from a Jewish perspective), Uriel ben Mordechai, If: the End of a Messianic Lie, or Eric H. H. Chang, The Only True God. Of course, I don’t have to mention the dozens of Christian books defending the Trinity, but you might look at Millard Erickson, The Word Became Flesh. If you are interested in the ONGOING debate within Christian circles, then I have an audio series of more than 100 hours by a man who traces the various CHRISTIAN theologians who reject the Trinitarian doctrine.
When you get through some of this scholarly material, let me know if you still think you haven’t assumed a Trinitarian position before you come to interpret the text. Don’t despair, the journey is long because the Western Church has embraced the influence of Athanasius for more than 1500 years. It takes serious effort to rethink what the Church has taught for so many centuries, but once you see HOW they came to this conclusion, you might discover that no JEW in the first century would have ever held that Yeshua was God.
I am not saying the Jews believed Yeshua, but they all understood His claims and considered Him a blasphemer for making himself the Son of God and equal to God.
They either had to worship Him or kill Him- they chose to kill Him. It was their mistake.
Like you have said, doctrines and theology will get sorted out in the end. Faith does not require you to decide who He is before you ask Him, it does require you to believe Him.
Simple
Sorry I know not my place, a thought on scriptural exegesis…
God saves.
Jesus is the servant defining the will of God which is salvation now and here.
Christ is the result of this manifestation the power and wisdom of God being that which saves.
As Rich explains so where else being the called or set apart when God reveals these realities in individuals.
Not a reality of eons ago a reality within our grasp should we just reach out and permit it to manifest… But the great I am is withholding me and making us weak. A lack in faith towards the will of God…
Do crucify me if I am totally out of line here.
Sorry for the delay seeker, I had to tend to my Italian Greyhound who got sick.
It is not the great I AM withholding you, He is the one encouraging you to be strong and of good courage!!
Yeshua is approachable, He is alive and He will answer you. Would you stay up all night to hear His voice? Would you say no to all others to meet with Him? Will you wrestle until He makes Himself known to you in a real and life changing way?
Reach out and touch Him. Call Him by name, the name that is above all names.
Speak to Him and don’t stop until you hear His voice.
Ask Him who He is and then you can tell Skip!!
You are commishioned to find Yeshua alive and the invitation is written with your name on it.
The great I AM has made a way for you, by the blood of the Lamb you can come boldly to the throne of grace and find King Yeshua in love with you.
There is nothing hidden in Love, just come as you are He will fix everything with your permission:)
come seeker, come to the one who knows your name.
Abigail thank you for the serious response and plea. Just a correction when I referred to the breast I am I was not referring to YHVH or Yeshua I was referring to human attitude and perceived convictions…
Great I am sorry – Auto correction not in my favour….
Again, I think your presuppositions cloud the textual interpretation. Yeshua is crucified for the crime of sedition, not blasphemy. And the charge of blasphemy leveled in the pseudo-trial is not about him claiming TO BE GOD, but rather an assessment of the priest about the priest’s interpretation of his claim to be Messiah. Obviously MANY Jews accepted him as Messiah and none seems to have abandoned the Shema.
Skip, Many Jews are looking forward to THE Meshiach during the many trials they went through. Meshiach is theirs, and our HOPE for peace and restoration.
So then, NONE would have abandoned their Shema, until….. “Messiah” died. Their hopes were dashed. Years, centuries, have passed by with NO imminent sign of his “return” to finish the job in bringing in peace and building of the Third Temple spoken of in Eze …. whereas… Jews are hearing the footsteps of THE Meshiach COMING, with the preparations for the building of the Temple already in the advance stages.
Shalom!
Skip,
Yes, Jesus/Yeshua was ostensibly crucified for the crime of sedition; but, this was because the Ioudaioi (“Jews”) had no authority to kill Jesus (John 18:31), and so they devised a plan to induce Pilate to kill him. John 19:7 plainly states the reason the Ioudaioi wished to kill him: it was because they had “a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed[/made himself out] to be the Son of God” (NIV 1984), which is tantamount to a claim of being God. The “law” to which the Ioudaioi refer is apparently Leviticus 24:16 – blasphemy. As Abigail notes above John 5:17-18 is clear precursor to the Ioudaioi’s desire to kill him, as is John 8:58-59 and 10:30-33.
For an indirect claim of Deity in the Synoptics, in which Jesus makes a claim of preexistence, see Yeshua’s words to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:29-38, as Jesus expresses his desire to have been as a ‘mother hen’ gathering chicks with these Pharisees’, teachers’ of the law, and scribes’ forebears (“how often I have longed…” – v 37).
Your claim above that the Deity of Yeshua was adopted ca. 350-430 is only partially true. As Dr. Larry Hurtado has taken pains to illustrate, Jesus was shown worship on par with that of YHWH in the first century (see especially Hurtado’s One Lord, One God). But, yes, there were some dissenters then, as there are today.
I, myself, have read Chang’s work and some of Buzzard’s and found them wanting, as I’ve commented on various posts here.
When you throw out a question Like “are we to rely on experience alone?” Do you know anyone who has had an experience with the Living Yeshua? I mean where would you find people who have seem Him?
Collaborate their stories and see if they are confused about who He is.
I am trying to introduce you to the Rabboni of all Rabbi’s! There are people all over the world who have seen Him and heard Him, why don’t you sit down with these eye witnesses and hear their testimony of Yeshua? It is the spirit of prophesy. If Yeshua is willing to meet with others, He will surely be happy to meet with you.
This should be the no.1 thing on everyone’s bucket list.
Have you seen Yeshua? Who is He?
Abigail how we long for this experience. But be warned 9/10 of those healed generally proclaim the experience then forget to live out the cure…
Abigail, I have seen Yeshua and I have seen (well…more like “seen”) YHWH on His throne. And I can most definitely tell you that they are not the same being. It is my experiences with YHWH and Yeshua that drove me to truly study the Trinity concept. But what I have found is that whether or not you believe in a Trinity, if you don’t worship YHWH (the Father in the Trinitarian language), you have placed an idol before Him…even if that idol is His own Son and our Messiah.
Keith,
Wow. Took a lot of guts to post this. I hope you are blessed for your courage.
Thank you for the kind words. It’s not nearly as difficult to share these things in this community as it is in my local church. Part of that is the, somewhat, anonymity of the internet, but the other is that this is a community that can share conflicting ideas without inflamed rhetoric and personal attacks. And even though my local church is of the charismatic persuasion, even these experiences are difficult to share. Especially if the experience doesn’t jive with their long-held doctrinal beliefs.
It really makes me wonder at the source of the vitriol surrounding doctrinal agreement. I understand the differences in paradigms and how those paradigms drive our interpretations. But I’m beginning to think that the outrage at doctrinal disagreements is driven by our insecurities and, ultimately, by the idea that truth requires consensus. Truth needs no consensus…instead, all it requires is testing…and that is the one thing that we (the western church) refuse to submit too.