Wednesday, February 8, 2023

 

Wednesday, February 8, 2023


Psalm 89:1-18

Genesis 24:50-67

Luke 4:31-44


But Jesus rebuked the demons and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Messiah.


There is a very great difference between knowing a fact, and that fact affecting your will. Sometimes this difference is referred to as “head knowledge” and “heart knowledge”.


When we read about how Jesus met demons who knew that He was the Messiah, it reveals how limited our English language is when it comes to describing “faith”. St John often uses the phrase “to believe in” when he refers to this concept in his gospel. Is the faith that saves us a question of whether we believe the facts of the Bible to be true or not? Or is it whether those facts have “done something” to us, and changed who we are? While the demons knew that Jesus was the Messiah, this knowledge made no difference to how God treated them.


It makes the modern phenomenon of mass-delusion known as “atheism” seem especially ridiculous. The question is not whether Jesus of Nazareth really was who He said He was. The question is actually whether this information moves past mere intellectual assent, and into the heart, where it can grow into holiness.


This means that saving faith is not something we have to study for. It is not hidden in ancient libraries of theological textbooks.


Saving faith comes from sitting down with God, just you and Him face to face, and having a big old talk about things. Ask God to reveal His glory to you, and your heart will be set alight with such awe and wonder that your life will be changed forever.


And if this experience has already happened to you, but that was a long time ago, and you find yourself reaching out the hands of faith in darkness, grasping nothing but gloom, understand that Jesus Himself did not allow the demons to talk about Him until something very important had happened. The cross is at the centre of God’s revelation not just to the world, but to you and me. It is at the foot of the cross that everything sitting up in our heads moves down into our hearts and changes us completely.



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