Tag: truth

My Truth, Your Truth, or The Truth: Who Gets to Decide?

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Defending the Faith, Imago Dei Class2 Comments

Recently I had a conversation with someone who embodied the postmodern sentiment of rejecting all universal truth claims. “There are no universal truths,” he stated plainly. “Is that a universal truth?” I asked. He stopped to think, and after a period of silence, he responded, “That’s a good point.”

This man recognized the problem with making a universal truth claim that there are no universal truth claims. In order to state his premise, he had to assume that which he intended to deny. This kind of argumentation is typical in our culture that has adopted the pragmatic theory of truth.

The pragmatic of theory of truth states that something is “true” if it works for you. It’s a deviation from the correspondence theory of truth that states that something is true if it corresponds to reality. In the pragmatic theory, everyone gets to decide what set of “truths” work for them. Truth becomes subjective instead of objective. But this doesn’t work in reality. Should each pilot decide which set of truths work for them? Or each surgeon? Or teacher? And what if “my truth” conflicts with “your truth?” What then?

We must have objective truth. In other words, there must be truth that it is what it is regardless of what anyone thinks. The question that must be asked is “who has the truth?” The Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, or atheists?

Jesus claimed to be the objective truth. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:16). He claims that the only way we can know the only true God is by knowing him (John 17:3).

Notice that Jesus doesn’t leave the door open for multiple Gods. “The only true God.” There is one true God, and the only way to know him is to know His Son. He alone offers us salvation, and with it infuses our life with meaning, value, and beauty.

What we believe about truth impacts our lives daily, because the nature of truth correlates with the nature of morality. Subjective truth leads to subjective morality, and objective truth naturally leads to objective morality. Everyone believes in some set of rights and wrongs. But who gets to decide what is right or wrong? My friend that I mentioned at the beginning suggested that whatever the consensus of the populace is should determine right or wrong. But what happens if the consensus is wrong? For example, if the consensus of 18th century America was that slavery was morally acceptable, does that actually make it morally acceptable?

There must be some standard outside of ourselves to correct us, including our misguided consensuses. Jesus is that standard. He is the lawgiver and judge. “There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?” (James 4:12).

What we must do, then, is assess Jesus’ life and words and determine if he is who he says he is. Is he the truth? Is he the only way to the only true God? Is he the lawgiver and judge? I invite you to follow along as I blog through our life group series, Defending the Faith. I’ll post here weekly the week after we discuss a particular topic. I will also include a pdf of my notes as well. It’s my prayer that these posts will increase your confidence in the Christian faith and encourage you to share it!

Defending the Faith- The Nature of TruthDownload

Start The New Year Remembering Your Identity In Christ

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn MiscellaneousLeave a comment

As the new year begins, I believe that the church at large, myself included, needs to remember our identity in Christ- as it pertains to sin. If your like me, when you think about who you are in Christ-you often think of yourself as forgiven, loved, set-apart, saved, etc. These identities are very true and important, but God has reminded me early in this year of another aspect of my identity in Christ- dead to sin.

Paul writes in Romans,

“We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” Romans 6:6-8

We as believers are told not only that Christ died for us (substitution) but that we died with Christ (identification). He not only provided the forgiveness of sins, he provided the deliverance from the enslavement of sin. Watchman Nee says, “Our sins were dealt with by the blood,we ourselves are dealt with by the cross.” The blood of Christ seals and provides our forgiveness (“without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins- Hebrews 9:22b); But the cross of Christ delivers us from what we are in Adam- slaves of sin!

You see, we were joined with Jesus on the cross. One may ask you, “who was crucified at Calvary?” Certainly most Christians would answer with Jesus, but how many would answer that we were crucified there with him, too? It is a beautiful fact–that we were united with Christ in his death and resurrection. We were united to him in death, as our old selves were crucified with him, and also united in his resurrection, as our new selves were given life!

Fellow believers, we are set free from sin! We are not only forgiven from our past, present, and future sins, but we are a new creature! (2 Cor. 5:17), able to have victory over sin, and to say “NO” to temptation. C.H. Spurgeon once said, “You cannot be married to Christ until you are first divorced from sin.” You may ask, “How can we be divorced from sin?” The answer is that Jesus provided the very divorcement papers! He declared us divorced when we were crucified with Him at Calvary.

Does this describe your walk with Jesus? Can you say that you have accepted this great truth by faith, and leaned on the Spirit to live by it? This is God’s desire for us: to trust in Christ, receive the forgiveness of sins, and to walk a new life in the Spirit, a life characterized by freedom from sin. Throw yourself upon Christ! Trust in Him! This was our greatest need- to be made dead to sin, and alive to God- and He perfectly provided for us. Our old self has been crucified, and our new self has risen with Christ in power. Will you join me in pursuing a life that lives out this identity this year?

John 2: Jesus Turns Water To Wine: Amazing Symbolism

On By Jarrett Ray FletcherIn Miscellaneous1 Comment

slide-8-water-into-wine

**Please note: I originally wrote the below post many years ago as a part of a project at the University of Georgia. I am leaving up the original post in case something in it may prove helpful to anyone. However, I have had the opportunity to teach on this subject more recently and I believe my latest presentation of this passage is more nuanced and substantive.

Here is a link to my more recent blog on this passage:

Why Did Jesus Turn Water Into Wine?

Most people have heard about Jesus turning the water into wine, but do they really know what it means? Do you really know what it means?

If you have not read this portion of scripture, please read John 2:1-12 now so that we may be taught of the Spirit together as we analyze this passage! This miracle of Jesus packs a deep meaning that radically sets the stage for the rest of his life, ministry, and purpose.

First, its important to know the setting for where He performed his first miracle. We see that he performs it at a wedding feast (John 2:1), one of the most treasured celebrations in 1st century Jerusalem. He is attending with his mother and a few of his disciples, and it is brought to his attention that there is no more wine to be served. To us, this doesn’t seem like a big issue, but the point of all Jesus’ miracles is to demonstrate spiritual truth, and what a amazing truth he reveals through this miracle!

Key Point: Jesus uses the ceremonial cleansing jars to create the wine. (John 2:6)

We need to note what Jesus used to turn the water into wine. He used ceremonial cleaning jars, which probably already had a decent amount of old water sitting in them. The Jews would use these water jars to purify themselves: to wash themselves, and make themselves “clean” before God. By using these jars, Jesus is giving us a sneak peek of what is to come. Jesus is showing us that the cleansing of His blood (as we know, in the Bible, the blood of Christ is represented by wine -Matt 26:28) is far greater than any ritual washings – and the transformation of this very water into wine symbolizes the transformation of Judaism.
The fact that Jesus changed the ceremonial washing water into wine proves that he will do away with the rituals of Judaism, and that we will be made clean before God through his blood. Jesus filled the containers to the brim (John 2:7) to show that no space is left for ritual washings after his sacrifice.

Jesus instructs the servants to take a pitcher of this water to the master, and so they did. We don’t actually know when the water turns to wine, but when the master of the feasts takes a sip, he says, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now” (John 2:10). Is this recorded just to show us that Jesus should start a new career as a wine-maker? Certainly not. The Spirit is showing us something here:

The statement made by the master of the feast implies this: That typically, the best wine is served first, so that the people “get their fill” (get drunk) and can’t tell when a cheaper wine is introduced. In the same way, The Jews had been “drinking wine” (aka. performing their ritual washings) for so long that they weren’t able to recognize when something better came along (Jesus)!

Jesus conveys this truth again in the same chapter when he drives out the temple. He exclaims, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). Jesus was talking about his own body, and it was through the “destroying of it” and his rising from the dead that was able to accomplish this new system, where his blood covers our sin, not our ritual washings or other works.

Jesus came to make everything new, and he clearly demonstrated that by turning old water used for bathing into brand new wine. He also came to make the heart new. We will see that tomorrow in John 3!

(please email me at jrfletch@uga.edu for further explanation or questions)