The Undeniable Truth
April 27, 2025
Dr. Paul Cannings
I have always wondered how Israel, especially those who are well versed in the scriptures, could see good in Christ every day while needing so much, at the height of the manifestation of His supernatural power (raise Lazarus from the dead after four days), do everything possible to kill Him viciously? You would think that they would appreciate Him so much that they would do everything possible to make Him King, but to the contrary, even Judas, who saw Him first hand sought to betray Him. I also wonder how a blind man, Bartimaeus, when Jesus was leaving Jericho (Mark 11:46-52), cried out with such faith that Jesus, healing the blind man, would say, “Your faith has made you well?” He did not say this to the crowd pressing against Him.
How can the disciples, after the resurrection, hear from many eyewitnesses who reported to them that Jesus was alive and choose not to believe so determinatively that Christ; “Afterward He appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at the table; and He reproached them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen Him after He had risen.” (Mark 16:14; NASU) Jewish leaders did not lack information (John 5:39-40), and the blind man did not have as much information as the disciples, who had the best teacher and information from credible witnesses after His resurrection.
We can be exposed to the Word every day and still remain the same. We can become just as hostile as the Jewish leaders (Romans 8:5-9) or as hard-hearted as the disciples. Surrendering our hearts to Christ is led by the Spirit. He came to guide us to become just like Christ (John 14:16-17; Galatians 2:20). Transformation takes place when we completely trust what we hear and apply it to our day-to-day lives (James 1:21-26); in other words, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-26). Common sense, all by itself, can lead us to a sinful lifestyle (Proverbs 3:5-6) which in turn shapes our hearts (Ephesians 4:17-21) to become hard and a mindset that is callous. We have the potential of acting just like the Jewish leaders and the disciples and not like Bartimaeus. He was blind and poor but rich in faith. We can go to church, but are we taking church home with us and applying it to our day-to-day experiences?
We have a lot of help. The Holy Spirit came to guide us to truth (John 16:13), remind us of what we have studied (John 14:26), make what we know understandable (1 Corinthians 2:10-15), convict us when we disobey God (John 16:7-11) when we renew our minds and obey Him, He transforms our hearts (Romans 12:2; Philippians 2:12-13) and when we persist in this manner He provide us wisdom as we become more like Christ (Ephesians 5:15-18).
When we live in the light, we become the light (Matthew 5:13-16; 1 John 1:5-7).