Matthew 8: Knowing Truth vs Loving Truth

"When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. And suddenly they cried out, saying, "What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?" - Matthew 8:28-29

In the book of James, James tells us that believing in God is all well and good but even the demons believe and know the truth about God (2:19). This is clearly seen in the two demon-possessed men Jesus comes across in the book of Matthew. The demons clearly recognize Jesus's Deity by referring to Him as the Son of God and they even are aware that there is an appointed time of judgement in which they will be judged by Jesus. So it is obviously clear that the demons are not ignorant of God's Word. They know that Jesus is the Son of God who has come to give His life in order to save a fallen, sinful, cursed world and that one day He will sit on the judgement seat and execute His perfect justice upon this world. They understand the gospel message. They know God's Word (Satan uses Scripture to tempt Jesus in the desert). They know all about Jesus and the things of God. However, it is one thing to know the Truth and quite another thing to love Truth and embrace Truth.

Michael Jordan is the best basketball player of all-time. He went to the University of North Carolina where he won a national championship. We went from there and won an olympic gold medal. He was drafted by the Chicago Bulls and eventually led the Bulls to three consecutive NBA championships. He was also on the greatest team ever assembled, the original Dream Team. After his father passed away, he decided to retire from the game of basketball and actually go play baseball. After a couple of not too successful minor league seasons, Michael Jordan decided to return to the NBA. He came back wearing number 45 but would later get his number 23 back. He then led the Chicago Bulls to three more consecutive NBA championships in which the last one he hit the game winning jumper. He retired again but would later come back and play for the Washington Wizards and ended his playing career there. He has his own NIKE logo and was in the movie Space Jam. I could go on and on because I know a lot about Michael Jordan but you know what? I don't know Michael Jordan. I don't have any kind of intimate personal relationship with him. In fact, I have never met him or have spoken to him. I can tell you all you want to know about him, but I have never known him personally. Are you starting to smell what I'm cooking? Knowing ABOUT Jesus is quite a different thing than actually knowing and loving Jesus. If you actually know Jesus, then you have an ongoing intimate personal relationship with Him in which you talk to Him frequently and you know what He desires from you and for you. Now think about this because there are so many people out there who have read Jesus' bio (the Bible) and can tell you all about HIm who don't actually know Him. And a lot of these people are probably leaders within the church community. They lead small groups, Bible studies, youth groups, who knows? It means absolutely nothing to have known a lot ABOUT Jesus, but to have never known Jesus.

Jesus said it HImself that there will come a day when people come to Him pleading their case about how they led Bible studies, they spread the Gospel, they shared with others about Christ, they pastored entire congregations and yet Jesus will say depart from Me because I never knew you. You knew a lot about Me but you never took the time to know me personally. We never had any relationship. I was just simply a subject that you knew a lot about and wanted to teach others. I was never your friend, your counselor, your mentor, and most importantly your Lord, King, and God. Depart from Me because I never knew you (Matthew 7).

So lets get this right because I personally feel this is a serious problem in the church today. I know that I wrestled with this whole concept early on when I was trying to figure out salvation. I personally feel that the church has squeezed everything it can get out of verses like John 3:16 and given it way too much air time. What I mean by this is that the whole idea of... "All you have to do is believe that Jesus is who He said He was and you will be saved" is a flawed interpretation of the Gospel. The reason that I am confident in saying this is that this idea of easy believeism doesn't flow with the rest of Scripture. To simply "believe in Christ" is not enough to inherit salvation. We have already made it perfectly clear that even the demons believe and understand God's Word. Just because you believe that the things about Jesus Christ are true does not mean that you are good to go. To "believe in Him" means more than mere intellectual assent to the claims of the gospel. Truly "believing in Him" includes trust and a commitment to Christ as Lord and Savior which results in you becoming a new creation which produces a change in heart and obedience to the Lord. Truly "believing in Christ" is to come to know Him and love Him through a deep personal intimate relationship with Him. Do you know Jesus Christ? Have you met my Savior, Lord, and King?

-TEvans