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As
crucial as facts are, and as stubborn, the search for truth does not
end there. Poetry, music, art, philosophy, and perhaps even
architecture are efforts to get beyond mere facts.
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Such
as the meaning of being human. Once the scientists list all the
known facts about man, we know that the truth about being human goes
beyond that. So with our universe. The biologist can write volumes
about life processes, as can the botanist about plants, the
zoologist about animals, and the astronomer about stars. But facts
are not the whole story. This is what makes for mystery. Even after
a lifetime of being human, and with our own facts about life, we are
still awed by the mystery of the nature of things. We do not even
understand ourselves, however many facts we have.
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The
Scripture referred to above shows how facts and mystery are
strangely intermingled. Jesus is praying, “Father, glorify thy
name.” A voice comes from heaven in response, “I have
both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” The text says
that the crowd heard the voice — or something. Some said it
had thundered, while others said an angel had spoken to Jesus. But
Jesus heard the voice of God.
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We
have no way of knowing
how
Jesus
heard the voice of God. He heard such a voice at his baptism, at his
transfiguration, and sometimes when he prayed, as in this instance.
The voice was not as clear to others.
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Some
said it thundered. Perhaps there was thunder. Others heard more, an
angel’s voice perhaps. But Jesus received a message from God.
Even if we could list all the facts in this episode, it is evident
that its meaning transcends what is actually written. Herein we have
the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Facts provide the
knowledge, while wisdom is the gift of God. We are to pray for
wisdom, not knowledge, for knowledge comes through learning facts.
Wisdom reaches beyond the facts. Paul implies that this “spirit
of wisdom” comes when “the eyes of your heart are
enlightened,” which is the mission of the Holy Spirit in the
believer (Eph. 1:17-18).
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We
are to teach faithfully the facts about baptism, but we must realize
that the Bible gets beyond the
form
of
baptism to its deeper meaning, using such terms as “a
circumscision made without hands” and “the working of
God” (Col. 2:11-12).
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So
with the Lord’s Supper or singing or prayer. And so with all
of Scripture. The facts may be simple enough. Indeed, we have a
thunderstorm of facts. But what do they really mean? Prayer is
words, yes, but more than words. Shakespeare said this when he had a
character say, “My prayers go up but my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” And we all know
that there is more to baptism than getting wet. There is the fact of
baptism and the essence of baptism. If the fact is somehow confused
but the “circumcision of the heart” is there, is the
meaning still there?
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We
see how meaning reaches beyond the facts in the story of Jesus. The
gospel narratives are filled with facts, but isn’t the Christ
far more than all the facts? The facts may be clear enough on what
happened in the upper room when Jesus washed his disciples feet, but
when the reality of “God of the towel” impacts our
hearts and scores our pride we know the truth is more than words on
a page.
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This
may be what it means to be taught by the Holy Spirit and that the
Scriptures must be “spiritually discerned” as 1 Jn. 2:27
and 1 Cor. 2:14 indicate.
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It
is in order for us to be “people of the Book” so long as
we are also people of the Spirit. It is our peril when we come down
hard for the letter while neglecting the Spirit.
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At
a recent conference for Church of Christ people a woman described
her frustration of not being able to share in the teaching ministry
in her congregation,
because
she was a woman.
She
could run a business, lecture in a university, and take part in the
performing arts, but in a Church of Christ she could not as much as
pray.
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We
all felt her frustration, and it was evident that our people needed
to move into the 20th century on this matter. But one brother,
obviously smitten by the fact that the Church of Christ is “a
man’s church,” made a sobering plea. His words reminded
me that truth is not as easy to come by as we presume and that
arrogance is oftentimes our master.
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“Something
is obviously wrong,” he said, “We must find some way to
interpret the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law.”
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He
was saying that meaning is not simply what is written. There is a
spirit
to
what is written. We can handle this with such injunctions as “If
thy hand offend thee, cut it off,” but we are slow to see that
all of Scripture is to be interpreted in the light of the Spirit of
Christ, for Jesus is Lord of the Bible as well as Lord of the
Sabbath. If the letter of Sabbath laws sometimes yielded to the
spirit of those laws, which is always love, then the letter of
biblical laws may sometimes yield to the spirit of those laws, which
again is the law of love.
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The
meaning of Scripture always in some way touches the love of God. If
that spirit is not there we have missed the meaning. This is why
Paul assures us that “The goal of our instruction is love from
a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1
Tim. 1:5). When our interpretations produce hate and fear and
insecurity we can know that we have not found the true meaning. —
the
Editor.