-Well, we know that God is Truth. So if we disagree with Him, the problem is not with Him. WE are the problem. And the truth is, we have sinned. THAT’S a problem. And that’s what He says about each and every man, woman, and child on planet Earth. We have all chosen to go our own way and do our own thing at some point, freely tested and failed God in our minds and have received for our effort a mind which fails the test. We cast Him out of mind. We put something else, anything else, in God’s ordained place in our hearts. We put self in His place, first and foremost. And so we can either agree with that, or we can do one of two things - we can say that we have not in fact done that, we haven’t sinned (i.e. call God a liar), or else we can attempt to redefine what sin is. We come up with some kind of a sliding moral scale and grade (ourselves) on a generous spiritual curve. We’re not a mass murderer like that poor soul over there. We’re not THAT bad. Love wins, doesn’t it? That’s not a sin - at least not anymore, right? We’re so much more educated and enlightened today than they were back in those Bible days. We know better now, don’t we? And so we slice and dice and turn the Word of God into so much swiss cheese, an antiquated piece of parchment which gets doctored up to remove any and all parts which don’t set well with our modern progressive moral sensibilities.
-John here is talking about making God a liar. Now if God is Truth, and He cannot lie (cf Titus 1.2), how is it even possible that we could make Him a "liar"? Which is actually what the devil is. Clearly we cannot force God to lie, nor are we able to somehow turn Him into a devil. We can’t turn God into anything other than what He is and always has been. He does not lie. Never has. Never will. You will never ever be the first person to whom God lied. What John means is that in any would-be attempt to deny our sin we are essentially forced to call the Lord a liar. He in His Word says that all have sinned (Romans 3.23). There is none righteous, no one who does good, not even one (Psalm 14.1-3, Romans 3.10). Including me, first and foremost. But if God and I disagree about my sinfulness or alleged lack thereof, somebody is wrong. Guess who it is. Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar (Romans 3.4).
-And thus we come what is really at stake here, to one of the core issues of our time, of all time, in fact - God’s Word. Is it true? Is it still true? How can we trust what the Bible says - is it trustworthy? Is it binding on all people at all times everywhere? Is it binding on me, in other words? Did God really say that? A question - an accusation, really - as old as the garden itself. Has God really said that (Genesis 3.1)? If God said it, it’s probably true (no, for sure it IS true), but how do we KNOW if He said that? Just that tiny seed of doubt, a little leaven of rebellion, and if left unanswered, left to spread and fester, it will produce a crop of unbelief which will spring up to a fountain of godlessness and death. Is there a good answer to that question? Many - including this author - say, yes, yes! We believe that God’s people were sovereignly moved by His Spirit to write down His Words, and the rest of those who were truly His received this Word and obeyed it - saw it confirmed by transformed lives and societies and by fulfilled prophecies and miracles and by the empty tomb of Christ Himself - and they faithfully preserved and handed it down to us so that we too could believe and receive and enter into eternal life. If you hear His Word today, do not harden your heart, simply believe...
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