Someone has said, if you tell
a lie long enough, even you will begin to believe that it is the
truth. There are at least three categories of lies. First are
outright lies, which are so preposterous that any sane person would never
believe them. For this type of lie or storytelling,
there are actual competitions for those who aspire to be champion
liars. These types of lies are essentially
harmless and are often a grand source of humorous entertainment.
An example of such is that a man told me that it had gotten so
dry that the fish he caught had fleas. Then there are lies which
are expected, such as we see demonstrated by practically all
of those in the political arena. These lies are accepted by candidate
supporters as truth, since they have itching ears, and by their
detractors as insidious evil. These sort of lies, sadly, just
go with the territory, and any man is a fool to really expect
that a candidate will actually stand by their word. Politicians
must bend the truth, that is, lie, in order to be elected,
though most would never admit to it. It's called politics.
Thinking adults should not be taken in by such. The candidates
hope that you will forget what they said when they get in office.
But there is a category of lies which are so subtle that they
go undetected by the multitudes. Yet they are so insidious that
they subvert the hearers and cloud the truth in such fashion
that even men with some spiritual understanding are caught in their
snare. By this characteristic, we see
this subterfuge to be the product of him whom scripture says is
the father of lies. He is able to transform himself
into an angel or messenger of light. Because of this, it is
often difficult to discern between those who are themselves willful
deceivers and those who are themselves deceived. In either case, to
perpetuate a lie is to subvert the truth and mislead people.
Paul warned the Ephesian elders of this reality and admonished
the Galatians, who at one time appeared to be the followers
of Christ, from being turned aside from following after the
truth. It is not uncommon for there to be a falling away from
sound doctrine in the lifespan of most churches, even as Paul
prophesied. There are many religious organizations
who have figured out a formula to perpetuate themselves after
the flesh, but there are essentially none who do not devolve into
places with Ichabod written over the door and ultimately disappear
in the course of time. This is most often the result,
humanly speaking, of disregarding sound doctrine and entertaining,
while being entertained, doctrines of devils. Some might object
to calling these aberrations of sound doctrine lies, so we
will simply label them as fables, since Paul uses that term. One
of these fables is discovered in the common use of the term
faith, as we see it set forth by the rank and file of those
who call themselves Christians, and what they believe that scripture
means when it says, the just shall live by faith. Simply put,
the scriptures put far more emphasis on the object of faith than they
do upon the activity of faith. Faith and justification go hand
in hand, but rather than faith producing justification, justification
is that which is the basis and grounds of faith. It is quite
common to hear men speak of being justified by faith as if the
activity of a man believing the gospel causes him to then at
that point be justified. Yet the justification of God's
children is the sovereign work of God, just like His predestination,
calling, and glorification of them. When we read, the just
shall live by faith, we understand that he is referring to the very
basis of his hope and expectation. This faith in which the sons
of God find rest and comfort is Christ himself. That which
he has performed for them is the sum and substance of all
of their hopes and the basis of all of their expectations.
Far be it from us to consider any righteousness which is not
completely His own, or any source of standing or recognition which
does not spring from Him as our substitute and Redeemer. This
is the faith of Christ. It is exemplified by Him. It
is provided by Him. It is performed by Him. It is
by His stripes that we are healed, by His blood that we are justified,
by His grace that we have access into the glory in which we stand,
and by His resurrection that we have hope.