Faith Beyond Description

When Paul speaks to the Romans, he portrays his relationship with Jesus.  And while we might all be in different things, or be in different situations, each of us should move towards the same relationship to God through Jesus.  Paul addresses

Paul ends his letter to the Romans by saying that he does not care if they understand what he believes, but he know what he knows because he knows Jesus.

This passages seems to say that those who are saved no longer sins.  BUT this is not what it is saying.  It is speaking of the new spirit inside that is of Jesus cannot sin.  But it continuously struggles with the flesh.  Without the Spirit, we would be at the mercy of sin.  We might even think we could “beat” sin without Jesus.  But the enemy is clever and is very skillful at getting us to fall.  But Satan has no power over the Spirit of Jesus.

The world, without God, is under the control of Satan.  But while we feel for the lost, we have to realize that we cannot just try to get them to experience what we experience.  But we want to get them to the point where they begin to taste God’s offered relationship.  But until we get them to that point, they will not believe our experiences because they are blinded by the evil one.

Sometimes when we give our faith statements, we struggle because we feel we have to give proof of what we know.  It might even depress us because we just cannot express it fully.  An illustration given is that of a man standing before another man eating an apple.  He describes the sweetness, the texture, the taste.  But the second man just cannot know an apple fully until he tastes it himself.

When people fail to taste the life given by Jesus, they just cannot get the whole picture.  They might even try to fill the gaps they have with their own theories and conjecture.  But we know that when they are on the outside, they cannot come close to the reality of what it means to be His.

When the world demands proof, we can take comfort (at least in ourselves) by saying we know because we know.  And while we wish that they would come to know the same thing, we understand that until that point, they will not be able to connect or understand the truth of Jesus.

Why did John close with a line to keep away from idols?  He is simply telling us to guard our hearts away from that which will distract it from Jesus.  It is a massive struggle for us to guard our hearts from the idols that wish to push Jesus aside.