The Truth of God

For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers. (Romans 15:8)

Well, each day I think I am going to go on to the next verse but I find myself riveted to this verse for whatever reason. I don't know if it is because my background is much closer to that of the Jews than the mindset of the Gentiles in Paul's day or if it is something else. But I feel like there is more that I need to hear from God before I push on to the rest of this passage. There is certainly a lot of wonderful insights and inspiration just ahead, but I want to allow the Spirit all the time it desires to do its work in my heart from this verse if that is what is going on.

What I want to understand better is the real reason for this phrase the truth of God. I can certainly think of a number of ways this could be viewed and possibly all of them apply. But my heart wants to know what God has to reveal to me about this verse and maybe what is most important might depend upon where I am circumstantially at the time I am viewing it.

Because there can be multiple meanings and therefore multiple applications for many passages, the Spirit can use the Word of God differently for different people or even for the same people at different times in different ways. So I suppose I am asking what God wants me to absorb from this verse for me in my present place in my experience. A year from now I may look at this same verse and see something radically different that will be equally relevant and true but is not the most important thing for me to notice right now.

One aspect of the Jewish way of thinking that also resonates broadly with very many people is the idea that God is somehow partial to certain people and relates to them exclusively – meaning that He arbitrarily discounts other people in favor of His chosen ones. Included in this line of reasoning is that God also employs the use of force to implement His plans for His favorites on earth. This also leads to believing that God loves certain people much more than everyone else which is also still a popular theme with many people yet today.

In many respects it is much easier to see the faults and selfishness in the thinking of the Jews back in the days of Paul than it is to observe and confess that the same faulty thinking and assumptions are lurking in our own hearts. But I have actually found it a useful instrument of insight to remember that whatever jumps out at me about someone else's character should be viewed as a strong indicator that it may very well be one of my own weaknesses that needs to be discovered and confessed to God. Paul made this very clear as well back in chapter two.

So what does this have to do with this phrase, the truth of God? Well, most of what we think about ourselves in relationship to others is founded upon what we really believe about how God relates to us. When we embrace ideas of God being arbitrary, partial and exclusive in the way we typically relate to the idea of exclusive, then we will reflect the results of those beliefs in the way we treat others around us. When we believe God favors us over others the temptation exists to treat others with disdain or condescension. In turn, those attitudes backfeed into our beliefs about God's favor for us and our deception deepens.

Likewise, we may be on the bottom side of that cycle of deception. We may start out with the false picture of God acquired from both our fallen sinful nature and the culture and people around which we live, and may feel constantly depressed and hopeless that God will never really love us because we are simply not one of His favored ones. He can love others who are more blessed than we are, but circumstances clearly indicate that we are not one of His favorites and so we feel we must resign ourselves to an inferior position with God, but maybe if we are real lucky we might still sneak into a corner of heaven someday if we don't offend Him too much.

These two kinds of thinking tend to feed off each other and reinforce each other. But they are both based on a common deception about God that distorts our relationship with Him quite seriously. I am convinced that all of our dysfunction, our sin and our confusion is firmly rooted in fundamental deceptions and misrepresentations about the character of God and how He relates to His children. This is the very core of the controversy and is the focal point of all of Satan's false assertions about God.

Satan has worked tirelessly for thousands of years to deepen the darkness in our minds and hearts about the real truth about God. He has actually caused us to believe that many of Satan's own characteristics actually belong to God Himself and that Satan is not really as bad as he really is. This reversing of truth has created the false reality in which we have to live and are forced to face constantly in this world. But as Jesus prayed to His Father for His disciples, which includes all of us, I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. (John 17:15)

A closer look at the surrounding context in that chapter shows some strong links to this verse here in Romans in regards to this thing called truth. Everything that John wrote in the Bible is probably the clearest material anywhere of the revelation of the actual truth about God and how He feels about us. And this truth is in sharp contrast to the ideas and teachings and attitudes that were so popular with the Jews in Christ's day and are equally embraced by most religious people today. Their ideas about God's prejudice in favoring the Jews blinded them to seeing the real nature and intent of His promises to their fathers. And tragically many people today still are blinded by notions of a God who favors their particular group or subculture in such a way that they excuse their own bigotry and prejudice against anyone who appears offensive to their lifestyle or beliefs or who simply does not agree with them.

As a result of this background and context, I believe that the main reason for Jesus' life and death and the focus of this verse is a reminder that the truth about God is quite possibly not what we are so often confident that it is from our distorted perspectives. It is so easy to fall into the trap of thinking we have the scoop on the truth simply because we are so familiar with our own customs or we have spent years researching and filling our minds with facts, proofs and arguments to defend our own ideas and prejudices. Of course we don't consider our own ideas as prejudices, but when the light of heaven shines into our hearts, if it can ever reach there to do so, it will expose the diabolical nature of many of our notions about God. It is then that we are faced with the choice of clinging to our own familiar ways and beliefs or allowing God the freedom to introduce Himself to our hearts in radical ways that sharply clash with our lifelong beliefs that we have cherished about Him.

This was the issue that faced the Jews in times past as well as today. But it is also the same problem with Christians and Muslims and really everyone who is under the delusions inherent from living on this planet. This verse reveals that Jesus came to challenge our assumptions about God. And for those humble enough to respond positively to His drawing them into His way of living and thinking, His Spirit will synchronize them with the very heart of God. All of the promises God gave to mankind through the Scriptures when seen in the light of the life and teachings of Jesus take on a whole new meaning and dimension.

Prophecy can almost never be properly understood until the light of its fulfillment reveals the true nature of the One who inspired the prophecy. So to deny the validity of a new view of God as well as His prophecies because they do not agree with our long entrenched opinions is to chose to resist the truth about God that Jesus came to reveal to us.

One of the main reasons that the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah both back then and yet today was because He did not fulfill their expectations and fit in with their bigoted beliefs about their selfish desires to be God's favorites in the way they wanted to be. Their counterfeit picture of God led them to desire power instead of God's gentle Spirit. They wanted a God who would use force and fear and suppression against their enemies instead of a God who would demonstrate love and forgiveness and acceptance of His enemies. They believed in a God who inflicted severe punishments against those they didn't like while wanting Him to bless them unconditionally even when they refused to allow Him access to their affections or give Him the submission of their wills.

They helped to develop much of what is now world-wide and almost totally pervasive counterfeit religions that keep billions in darkness about the real nature of God. They worked hard to refine the art of performance-based religion believing that God was demanding of their external conformance while ignoring the more important arena of the condition of their hearts and their spirits. The Jews firmly believed that their connection to God through their ancestry gave them automatic leverage over others and that just because they were Jews that God was obligated to give them whatever their selfish hearts craved. In essence, they wanted God to be their servant to fulfill their selfish desires just as masters selfishly exploited the slaves within their culture.

The great surprise comes when Jesus indeed shows up as a servant. But instead of pandering to their selfishness and reinforcing their nationalistic bigotry, He showed them the superiority of real servanthood offered from a heart of completely selfless love and passion for the good of others. He revealed to them the true nature of their God who was nearly opposite of the one created in their minds that reflected their own sinful desires. And He came to show them the real nature and reason for all the promises made to their father's that they had misconstrued to support their bigotry and prejudice against those they hated.

How much of our own study of the Bible is designed to reinforce our biases and selfish exclusivity instead of leading us to question our own blind spots? How much do we wrest the Word of God to fit our picture of God that makes Him out to be more like us than the God that Jesus revealed and that John came to so clearly understand? It is our false ideas and beliefs about God that keep us from experiencing the power and transformation that Jesus came to give us. It is our entrenched opinions about God's character that leads us to discriminate against others and excuse our lack of real love for our enemies.

Christ has become a servant...on behalf of the truth of God. I want Christ to reveal that truth of God more clearly both to my mind and especially to my heart. And I know that as that truth of God permeates more and more of my thinking and displaces my false assumptions about Him that I will find myself reflecting His beauty and loveliness more easily and more consistently. Maybe I should say that others will find me doing that more than I will, for the closer I get to the perfect beauty and attractiveness of God the less I see myself as good. Anything truly attractive about me can only be a reflection of the attractiveness of God being reflected off of me, for as Jesus said, only God is good.

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