Adventures in Religion

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     The greatest thrills of human existence are not those which appeal to the flesh but those which are experienced in the spirit. The body is the tent, or temporary structure, in which one dwells and it is not so much what happens to the house as to him who lives in it that really counts. And there is nothing else which can provide the same sense of destiny, the satisfaction for deep soul-hunger, the incentive for complete surrender to service, as a consciousness that one has eternal life. It is unfortunate indeed that some regard this as being merely prolonged existence and look forward to it as they do life insurance which one must die to collect Of course life insurance is not assurance of life at all and neither is the common concept of eternal life.

     Eternal life is defined as knowledge of the Father and the Son. "This is eternal life: to know thee who alone art truly God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). The word "know" has a much greater significance in the scriptures than we generally assign to it. It means infinitely more than mere intellectual awareness. It is used to designate that intimate relationship of a man and his wife which causes them to merge into one flesh and become the creative agents of a new life. "And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bore a son. To know God and Christ in the sense of having eternal life is more than knowing about them. One might rehearse fluently every detail of the life of Christ and never share in the Christ life. To know Christ is to be joined unto him in such a transcendent relationship that one's own personality is surrendered and the two become one. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit."

     It is at this juncture that legalism reveals its futility and emptiness. It is the stone given to him who asks for bread, the serpent passed to him who asks for a fish. Not only can it not satisfy hunger but it leaves one weak and faint from disappointment. It is disillusioning and disheartening. One who seeks to be justified by it can never know that he is saved. He proposes to tell others the way of salvation while living in constant doubt of his own state. It is my conviction that legalism stems from a misunderstanding of the relationship sustained by the written word to the Living Word.

     I believe that the sacred scriptures contain a revelation of God to mankind, and that they are composed of the words of the Spirit. "We speak of these gifts of God in words found for us not by our human wisdom but by the Spirit" (1 Cor. 2:13). Such words are "words you may trust, words that merit full acceptance" (1 Timothy 1:15). But the new covenant is not written with ink. It is written with the Spirit of the living God. It is not inscribed upon stone tablets nor upon parchment but on the pages of the human heart. The new covenant scriptures are not a law for justification for "it is evident that no one is justified before God in terms of law" (Gal. 3:11). We are "not under law but under grace." To take the word of grace and convert it into a law to bind upon men as a written code of acceptance with God is to doom them to certain death.

Law cannot produce life. "If a law had been given which had power to bestow

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life, then indeed righteousness would have come from keeping the law" (Gal. 3:21). The bestowal of life is outside the province of law. For that reason the new covenant is "a covenant expressed not in a written document, but in a spiritual bond; for the written law condemns to death, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Con 3:6). The new covenant system is not one which presents Jesus as pointing to a book as our source of hope, but one which presents a book pointing to Jesus as our hope. A failure to understand this has produced a generation which can quote the book but still does not know Jesus. It is possible to have a head full of scriptures and a heart empty of the Savior.

     One can possess a good knowledge of the scriptures and not have eternal life but he cannot possess the Living Word and not have that life. "God has given us eternal life, and this life is found in his Son. He who possesses the Son has life indeed; he who does not possess the Son of God has not that life" (1 John 5:11, 12). Men had the new covenant written in their hearts and possessed eternal life years before the apostles wrote the first word of the new covenant scriptures. And when they did write it was not to convey eternal life, but to confirm the fact that those in Christ Jesus already had it. "This letter is to assure you that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). It is interesting to note that John says about his letter, "It is addressed to those who give their allegiance to the Son of God." This is the thing that really counts for one who does this will view the scriptures in the proper perspective.

     Our problem today is identical with that of the Jewish legalists during the earthly sojourn of Jesus. When Jesus performed an act of mercy on the Sabbath it was more than they could stand. "It was works of this kind done upon the Sabbath that stirred the Jews to persecute Jesus" (John 5:16). One of the most poignant statements ever made occurred in connection with this circumstance. "You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they testify of me. But you will not come to me that you might have life" (John 5:39, 40). Notice that the Jews supposed that by possessing the scriptures they possessed eternal life. They diligently studied and meticulously investigated every word and phrase of the written word. They debated meanings and discussed implications. They scrutinized, examined and deliberated upon every interpretation. But they missed the whole point.

     Any person, human or divine, is greater than the things spoken or written about him. No description of God can be equal with God. Just as the mind is greater than any thought it conceives or reveals, so the mind of God is greater than any revelation he has vouchsafed. The difference between the written word and the Living Word is that the latter was not only with God but he was God. He was not a revelation from God but a revelation of God. "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" (2 Cor. 5:19). The message of reconciliation, the announcement of the fact, was entrusted to men, but there is a difference between a message and a person.

     The grave danger is that men will make the mistake of thinking that in possessing the scripture they have eternal life and they will exalt the scriptures to the place of the Son. One cannot enthrone anything as absolute Lord of life without dethroning Jesus from that position. The purpose of the written word is not to give life but to testify of Jesus. One may be mistaken about many things in the written word as all of us are and still his eternal life will not be affected for the simple reason that life is not invested in the scriptures. Certainly they are essential to growth and development of maturity and one will be stunted to the extent he does not grasp them and revise and amend his life according to them, but life is in the Son. If one is right about Jesus he may be wrong about many things and still be saved; if he is wrong about Jesus he may be right about everything else and still be lost.

Jesus said to those who studied the scriptures diligently and scrupulously, "Their testimony points to me but you

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refuse to come to me for that life." God did not "throw the Book at us" but He gave his Son for us. The purpose of the book is to point us to the person. The Jews had the law of God but they rejected the Son of God. That law was "holy, just and good" (Rom. 7:12) and so was the Son. But they said, "We have a law and by that law he ought to die." The law to which they referred was the law of God and they used it to kill the Son of God. That is what happens when men mistake the purpose of the scriptures and exalt a written code to the place of a Savior.

     The fact that men could plead fidelity to the law of God as their reason for rejecting the Son of God should give us cause for concern when we see men today using what they refer to as "the law of God" to reject and exclude the "sons of God." My soul is "bound up in the bundle of life" with all who have vowed allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. The family relationship is one of grace and not of law. For me to use the words of God to drive out those who are in the Living Word of God is unthinkable. "This is his command: to give our allegiance to his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he commanded. When we keep his commands we dwell in him and he dwells in us. And this is how we can make sure that he dwells within us: we know it from the Spirit he has given us" (1 John 3:23, 24).

     Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ his Son. It cannot be purchased, bought or earned. It is that joyous state of union with the source of salvation which takes away all fear, even that of death. It is not so much extension of time as exhilaration of soul. It is more a communion than a continuation, a devotion than a duration. It is not merely an escape from hell nor an entrance into heaven. Jesus did not come so much to take us to heaven as to bring heaven to us. He did not come simply to keep us out of hell but to keep hell out of us. We need not be concerned that we are surrounded by sin so long as we are surrounded by him. "We know that no child of God is a sinner; it is the Son of God who keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot touch him."

     God did not give us his written word as a charm or amulet. It is not just by quoting a scriptural passage that we are able to resist the wiles of Satan. Indeed, some of the best informed are some of the weakest spiritually. In the final analysis it is possible that a vaunted knowledge of the scriptures may not he so much a declaration of faith in the word as pride in our own memory or achievement. Many a man basks in the adulation of those who rehearse how well he can quote the Bible while his heart is filled with wicked and vicious thoughts. One does not need to converse at length with such a person to realize that with him religion is a question of what one knows rather than who one knows. Facing death the apostle could say, "That is the reason for my present plight; but I am not ashamed of it, because I know who it is in whom I have trusted" (2 Tim. 1:12).

     The lack of assurance which characterizes the victim of a legalistic system for attempted justification is always apparent and tragic. Such a person may be high in the ranks of religious leaders while inwardly beset by doubts as to his own spiritual standing. A few months ago I asked the president of a Christian college if he was saved. All he could say under questioning was, "I hope I am." He declared that he could not know for sure until he died. He was a man who had made a reputation for opening up areas to the preaching of the gospel and collected thousands of dollars to help save the lost and yet did not know whether he was saved himself.

     This is typical of all those who regard the new covenant as a law book and condition their hope upon a knowledge of scripture rather than upon a personal relationship with the Savior. If I know that I am one flesh with my wife why should I not know that I am one spirit with my Lord? No law can give life and no legalistic concept can ever bring real assurance. One does not know where he stands with God under such a program. How does he know if he has learned every

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verse he is capable of memorizing? How does he know that he has done everything up to the present minute that he could have done? All he can do is to hope that he will be conscious in the last few minutes before death so he can "comply with the law of pardon." The apostles stood in jeopardy every hour from forces without; these stand in jeopardy every hour from fears within. They have to live to settle the question of sin because they do not believe that He settled it by His death.

     It is such a cold, calculating system offered to a distraught and disturbed world which makes the "Christian" more frustrated and frightened than those around him. The wings of faith have been clipped and the soaring pinions shorn of power. No longer do "we mount up like eagles." We fill our days like domestic fowls pecking in the mud of our own fenced in enclosures, fleeing in fright at every fleeting shadow flitting across our pathway. The spirit of adventure which comes from encounter with Christ has disappeared. The party hero is one who can get half as many people back in a building on Sunday night as were present Sunday morning. This is our test of greatness! This is our criterion of nobility!

     We must resort to gimmicks and gewgaws to hold the members "in line." Sunday school pins become our decorations for service above and beyond the call of duty. We must award prizes to get the children of God to read the Bible. Rivalry between classes must be used to stimulate the study of the sacred scriptures. We are now forced to apply "the hard sell." The gospel must be dressed up in the trappings of the hucksters and adorned with the livery of pressure groups. All of this is but the rattling of dry bones from which the spirit has departed. It is the rustling of the tattered remnant of a window shade in a house from which the living tenants have removed. "You study the scriptures diligently, supposing that in having them you have eternal life, yet, although their testimony points to me, you refuse to come to me for that life." This stern indictment of the Pharisees of yesteryear comes with equal force to the Pharisees of our own day. Pharisees come and go but Pharisaism goes on. We are victims of that misconception which causes us to mistake the means for the end, to worship the testament instead of the testator, to substitute menial service for the sacrifice of love. We build our hope on knowledge when it is love that builds; we seek to be acknowledged because of what we know when it is love that brings divine recognition. "Of course we all have knowledge, as you say. This knowledge breeds conceit; it is love that builds. If anyone fancies that he knows, he knows nothing yet, in the true sense of knowing. But if a man loves, he is acknowledged by God" (1 Cor. 8:2,3).

     We will not need to brihe men to study the words of the Spirit when they are conscious that "God's love has flooded our inmost heart through the Holy Spirit he has given us" (Romans 5:5). But the attempt to secure spirituality by filling an empty heart with random scriptural quotations, rattling around amidst the impulses to do evil, is foredoomed to failure. Let men come to know Jesus in a rich and full experience of his blessed Person in their lives and no amount of money on earth could tempt them not to learn of his will. We need to bring Christ to men and men to Christ.

     The great adventure is not the mastery of a chapter in the Bible but the beginning of a new chapter in the history of your existence by a mastery of self through allowing Jesus to enter the wide open portals of your very being. He did not come to bring a new religion to the world, he came that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly. He was not another religious leader, he is the Way, the Truth, the Life. He does not point us to a systematic theology as the ground of our hope. He is our Theology. Our "Theos-Logos" is a person. "And the Logos was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

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     "We know that the Son of God has come and given us understanding to know him who is real; indeed we are in him who is real, since we are in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, this is eternal life" (1 John 5:20). The "understanding to know him"--this is what we so sadly need in these days. What power would be unleashed in our lives, what vitality would be brought to bear upon a decadent world, what showers of blessing would fall upon the parched desert of human strivings. Do you have what it takes to rise above the narrow bigotry of partisan religious politics, to renounce the misplaced loyalty to unwritten creeds, and come "to know him who is real"? What an experience awaits you when you leave the treadmill of triviality and enter the realm of reality!