Light Comes Gradually

    It is striking that some, in their zeal for precision, speak as though the gospel were preserved only by flawless articulation, and as though those who labored faithfully in earlier generations must now be regarded with suspicion for failing to express every doctrine in the terms we presently employ.

    The certainty with which such judgments are made feels strangely out of step with the gospel itself, which teaches us that light comes gradually, and that salvation rests not upon precision of expression, but upon Christ Himself.

    Reasoning of this sort shifts assurance away from Christ and places it in comprehension.  It overlooks the fact that we were once opposed to God in our own minds, and that any true apprehension of the gospel we may now possess came not from our ability to understand rightly, but from God mercifully teaching us Christ. Ephesians 4:20. This way of thinking seems to overlook the patient manner in which God brings His children into the knowledge of His Son. It assumes that clarity is the result of having arrived, rather than the fruit of being taught.