Why the 'wisdom of man' fails.....
(or the failure to see God through the 'intellect of man'.)
As Jesus began his ministry the men of much intellect and religious learning seem to inherently turn against the prophecies and manifistation of the divine before them that had been foretold and should have been eagerly awaited and accepted by these leaders, Why?
... and yet there were some who believed despite them.
Matthew 9 (KJV)
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
1Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven."
3At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!"
4Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? 6But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." 7And the man got up and went home. 8When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.
The Calling of Matthew
9As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
10While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples. 11When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"
12On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
Jesus Questioned About Fasting
14Then John's disciples came and asked him, "How is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"
15Jesus answered, "How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.
16"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. 17Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."
"....At Calvary almost everyone rejected Jesus. Only a few
recognized who Jesus really was--among them, the dying thief
who called Him Lord (Luke 23:42), and the Roman soldier who said, "`Truly this Man was the Son of God!'" (Mark 15:39).
When John wrote, "He came unto His own, and His own did
not receive Him" (John 1:11), he was thinking not merely of
the crowd at the cross, or even of Israel, but of every
generation that has lived. Except for a handful, all
humanity, like that raucous crowd at Calvary, has failed to
recognize in Jesus their God and Saviour. This failure,
humanity's greatest and most tragic, shows that humanity's
knowledge of God is radically deficient.
Obtaining a Knowledge of God....
Unlike other knowledge, the knowledge of God is as much a
matter of the heart as it is of the brain. It involves the
whole person, not just the intellect. There must be an
openness to the Holy Spirit and a willingness to do God's
will (John 7:17; cf. Matt. 11:27). Jesus said, "`Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God'" (Matt. 5:8).
Unbelievers, therefore, cannot understand God. Paul
exclaimed, "Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe" (1 Cor. 1:20,21, NIV).
The way we learn to know God from the Bible differs from
all other methods of acquiring knowledge. We cannot place
ourselves above God and treat Him as an object to be
analyzed and quantified. In our search for a knowledge of God we must submit to the authority of His self-revelation--the Bible. Since the Bible is its own
interpreter, we must subject ourselves to the principles and methods it provides. Without these Biblical guidelines we cannot know God.
Why did so many of the people of Jesus' day fail to see
God's self-revelation in Jesus? Because they refused to
subject themselves to the guidance of the Holy spirit
through the Scriptures, they misinterpreted God's message and crucified their Saviour. Their problem was not one of intellect. It was their closed hearts that darkened their minds, resulting in eternal loss...."
http://www.oakwood.edu/ocgoldmine/sd...b/chapter_2.htm
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Topic: Why the 'wisdom of man' fails..... (Read 5253 times)
