Galatians 1:11-12

Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the gospel message I preach is not based on mere human reasoning. I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.

Everyone has a testimony. You have a story about how God directly revealed himself to you. Now of course this doesn’t sit well with everyone. Especially when someone claims they heard directly from God. That’s understandable, it is supernatural after all. I have heard my christian brother and sisters argue unapologetically for both sides of the same argument; that Jesus does or does not directly reveal Himself.

The one side will say how Jesus spoke to them.

The other will say the Bible is the fullness of revelation.

I think the problem is, both are technically right. Let me set this up: We are totally depraved. There is no saving man outside of Christ, and that by His power. We can not reach him by our efforts. We cannot reason into faith. Before the renewing of our mind, or replacing of our dead hearts, we in ourselves could never find God.

He comes to us. Each of us. Directly. Be that through supernatural vision or experience (what same may call a power encounter) or through the supernatural means in which the Spirit illuminates scripture or the preaching of Gods word (what same may call a truth encounter). Regardless, Jesus is always above and out of our normative experiences. He is the supernatural.

Jesus was the Logos, or the word of God. The Gospel of John begins with this very definition. This term gets thrown around quite a bit and a lot of great thinkers (and not so great ones) have tried to explain it, or explain away its meaning. I believe that is the very problem we have with it. We want to give Logos meaning, as if we have any right!

There is no real mystery here, at least not if we just read what John says:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God. The Word was with God in the beginning. All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. And the light shines on in the darkness, but the darkness has not mastered it.

The Word (Logos) is in the beginning, with God and fully God. I love how John Lennox points out the importance of this understanding. He argues that the biggest difference between Christianity and Atheism is the “inversion of priorities” that our our universe, is a universe of “words”. That God is the only primary and unlike everything else. Therefore everything else, all existence, all things are derivative.

In our universe, we search for meaning. Most people who look away from God for their meaning find themselves in what might be called the “meaning crisis”. The crisis exists because in our postmodern context popular philosophers, culture gurus and yogis teach all about “following self” and “intrinsic meaning”. They suggest purpose can be found in “nature” (or some dimension of expression in the vast universe of meaningless), “self indulgence” (or some form of hedonism, doing what makes one feel better). They suggest more “upward thinking” and appreciation of arts and humanities, or “inward thinking” into the psyche. Some have meaning in their work, until they can no longer work. Some have meaning in their family, or spouse, until they are gone. The pursuit of meaning is the “meaning” of their life, at least for a duration. Then eventually, when the goal is achieved (or not, but they give up) they lose their meaning. When these things fail to provide real meaning, they fall into nihilism. Nihilism is the rejection of all religious and moral principles. It is the belief that life is meaningless. Its the sum of meaningless matter, doing meaningless things. They are starved for transcendence, yet reject the God who is the only transcendent one. Always reaching, never finding.

In the beginning of his institutes, John Calvin wrote:

Nearly all the wisdom which we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But, while joined by many bonds, which one precedes and brings forth the other is not easy to discern.

True wisdom, is the unity of true knowledge from two distinct realms: one of Spirit and one of Flesh.

You may know something true as far as your reason allows by the work of your senses and rational thinking. In this way you may know the ground is hard, or the air is sweet. You may know the taste of food, and the touch of a hand on your shoulder. You may know the intentions of another man by his words or actions. You may think you know the intentions of a government by their recorded public actions. You can ascribe some level of meaning to created things, and then of course leverage that meaning to justify whatever course of action or inaction you see fit.

You may say your purpose in life is to fight against injustice. You then put all things you can perceive as just or injust. You can say this person means this, or that, which affects your relation to them. You can treat them with contempt, or praise based upon your experience and understanding. But this understanding is marred by everything else. Your goals. Your culture. Your upbringing. Your society. Your selfishness. Your sin. This is all knowledge of the flesh. This is how you know others. This is you knowing your self.

But not the real self. Just the perceived self.

John 3:6 reads “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”

The Spiritual knowledge, of God and Self always come from the Spirit. This is supernatural. It is outside of us. It is the Logos revealing himself to us, in the manner in which dead men must be made alive. You can’t assume a casual interaction with the creator and sustainer of the universe-of-everything-of-all-eternity!

As Calvin said, true wisdom comes from knowledge of God and Self, but this is not merely percieved or reasoned knowledge (of the flesh). This is not what the yogis or modern philosophers would want you to wrestle with, and to which puts a multitude into a tail spinning crisis of meaning! No this is that supernatural, Spirit born knowledge of God and Self as He uses truth and power to change people!

Check out this wonderful article by Pastor Sam Storms, as he breaks down a few ways in which Gods power is in us. I love this part in relation to what we are talking about:

Experiencing the power of God the Holy Spirit is not an exceptional, rare, or sporadic phenomenon but is intended by God to be the routine, ordinary, daily reality in the life of every believer, regardless of their education, social standing, financial status, or role in the church. This power isn’t merely available to you this week or next year. God intends for you to live in it and draw from it every moment of every day.

So then what? Look back at what Paul wrote:

“Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the gospel message I preach is not based on mere human reasoning. I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.” (Gal. 1:11-12)

Paul did not reason Christ to be the savior. He did not contrive a religion. He did not manifest some meaning to give himself renewed vision or purpose. No. Jesus turned everything upside down.

Before Christ, Paul would have stated he had a clear picture of his purpose. He would have said he knew himself. He was to be a zealous Pharisee who found his actions just and right. According to his morals, everything he did was right. He had the support of his peers. He fought for what his culture and society esteemed. He fought for his religion. He preached from human reasoning. Received messages from human sources. He was taught.

But he was a dead man. And dead men can’t resuscitate themselves. Meaningless actions can’t become meaningful.

Perhaps you have read the book of Ecclesiastes.

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless.”

Wisdom? Pleasure? Meaningless.

The book concludes with this:

The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one shepherd.¹² Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.

Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.

¹³ Now all has been heard;
    here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
    for this is the duty of all mankind.
¹⁴ For God will bring every deed into judgment,
    including every hidden thing,
    whether it is good or evil.

(Ecclesiastes 12:11-14, NIV)

You may find temporary meaning, or purpose just like you may find temporary wisdom. But flesh will fail.

Depression is literally the “lack of meaning”. Now, I am not saying everyone who is depressed is having an existential crisis as the yogis would perpetuate. But what I am saying is if you want real meaning. If you want real knowledge of God and Self. The real God, and the real Self. It starts with the Spirit.

Logos. Our Lord and Savior. Jesus Christ. Seek Him first. Pray for His Truth and Power to change you by the only means it can: supernaturally. You cannot do it by your flesh. You can not make the gospel change lives by human reason. You cannot merely “teach” others about God. He must reveal himself to them. He must come into their lives and upend all of it.

In so few words, this is the goal of all biblical counsel. I cannot take away your cancer, dementia or resolve the conflict of a wayward child. I can point you to the core of the matter: God is bigger than all of it, and if you are faithful to pursue after Him as He has revealed, He will work in your life immeasurably more than you could every imagine. That’s truth and power.

Sometimes Jesus meets his followers, like He did Paul, through extraordinary means. Sometimes it just really ordinary means. But its always supernatural when the Logos speaks to dead men, and brings them back to life.

In this cosmic war, we need truth and power.

Peace be with you.

If you like philosophy and CS Lewis, consider reading the space trilogy, and specifically That Hideous Strength. I just finished it, and much of what I am chewing on in this series on Galatians is probably due to its influence!