The sufficiency of Christ is supreme. The truth of the Gospel is sufficient to bear us through on every hand. Just to remember what He has done for us--for us, who defied God's sovereignty in order to do what's right in our own eyes...thus stepping under His righteous wrath wholly, deservedly, incontrovertibly, and eternally? To the praise of the glory of His grace, we who were far off and in the kingdom of darkness have been brought near, translated into the kingdom of light. Into the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Remembering the Gospel is vital to clarity--remembering who Jesus is and what He has done for us--meaning everything to those who know Him and love Him, who are called by Him, "Beloved."
Even in remembering this--reflecting upon the fact that God did not spare His own son but gave Him up for our redemption--we may be comforted in knowing that all things else which are necessary to our salvation, our lives, and our walk with Him in this world will also be given. All the more to realize that the Gospel is unavoidably central for those who would walk in truth and serve God. Christ is our focus, and the transformative simplicity of reflecting upon Him and drawing ever nearer to Him in thought, heart, word, and deed--by the grace manifested in and through us by His Spirit, even through His Word--is a joy far beyond anything we could ever ask or hope: To know Him is to have life, and to have it abundantly. And to have peace, beyond measure: Not as the world gives, but secure and pervasive and unwavering despite grief, despite devastation, despite terrors, despite confusions, despite anything which may arise around or even otherwise within, attempting to unseat the security which we have in Christ Jesus. None can dissuade, ultimately. He overcomes. He is greater than our hearts.
To have peace with God through Christ--to have the peace of Christ ruling in our hearts--is beyond comprehension, beyond all hope, and gracious beyond belief.
He is so kind. So kind.
So when it comes to confronting false teachings, false doctrines, false ideologies, false prophets, false apostles, false Christs, and false Gods...the point of ultimate discernment is not merely concerned with proof texts from the Scriptures, nor with spiritual or experiential proofs (as there are many false spirits gone out, claiming themselves of God and even to be Christ), nor even with manifest acts of seeming righteousness. But where is the Gospel of Christ, in matter? Where is love of Him? Where is love of His Word, as a whole?
Do we not see, again and again, in the apostles' epistles, and the records of Christ Himself, that the centrality of purpose and hope regards our need to repent in honest humility before our holy God, and come to Jesus Christ who is our Redeemer and King. We must humble ourselves and sincerely call out (and keep humbling ourselves and calling out) to our God and Sovereign Lord, so to receive mercy from His very hand--that very hand which was pierced, for our transgressions...coming to Him whose blood was shed, to cover our iniquities and transgressions...Him, whose death on the cross yet atoned for our sins, while His resurrection stands eternal testament that those who do come to Him pleading forgiveness stand justified before God. And thereafter, we live surrendered to Him for having come to terms with the One who created us and has granted us mercy. So our lives will consist of lovingly seeking out His will, as desiring Him above all things, then also desiring to know Him more intimately and understand His ways more completely--all for increasingly grasping the magnitude of that which was accomplished by Him for us, and as knowing Him who did this work on our behalf and loved us while we still hated Him...we will long to share this good news of repentance unto redemption through God's own Son, with all the world. Seeking Him to guide in this. By any means He ordains.
So much writing in His Scriptures attests to the need to hold fast to the faith, to the knowledge of truth. Remembering the work of God in Christ, as the revelation of the mystery of redemption come through the very blood of the Son of God--though His incarnation, His suffering, His death, and resurrection.
These things completely overturn seeming righteousness and the actual import of other ideals. Because all else is lesser, whenever detracting from or distracting from pursuit of this One whom we owe our eternal lives and hearts to...
All to say:
If proof texting is the course which is attempted to justify or overturn a doctrine, and not a centrality of focus on the Gospel--that, of itself, may constitute "proof in the pudding" that there's something off kilter. Especially given that so many false ideologies have no compunctions against agreeing with standard, orthodox doctrines and creeds. But just add to them, unofficially. And depart from them, practically speaking--all a matter of what words actually mean, ultimately. And if someone has a different interpretation of the very same word and yet continues using that word as though meaning hasn't changed...
...only practical outworkings of the underlying ideology are going to evidence the distinctions. Fruits, in other words.
Our intellect doesn't bring us to God, though. Christ does. And thereafter He redeems even our minds, then still...it's to His glory and not our own: Unto a greater deference to and reverence for Him. Unto a greater clarity of the whole of His ordained creation, and of right order.
Of which the Gospel of Christ stands forefront to the glory of our Creator, that He would have such long-suffering, merciful grace toward those in His creation who have defied Him at every turn. And being transformed and renewed in our minds as such would give us over to desiring all the more to share this fundamental, transformational, redemptive truth with those others around us who are still laboring under delusions, slaves to sin, and remaining under the wrath of God. For love of Him and what He has done for us and them, in Christ, and for love of them who are our brothers and sisters according to the flesh.
But by His grace, alone, we plead and present reasoned arguments for the faith--for the knowledge of and truth of and glory of God revealed in Christ, and in His Word, and resonant throughout creation. For the sake of the hope that we have in Christ.
Know Him. Know of Him. And be led of Him.
Truth is a narrow gate. And a strait way. To God, through Christ, alone. Few there be who find it. Press on.
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