“TRANSMITTING THE TRUTH”
How does God get truth to mankind? Are we left to believe some voice in our head or some feeling in our heart? How can we know that what God has given man is the complete truth. Earlier on the promise was of something good which was to take place in the future. It is said to be the “unity of the faith” (Ephesians 4:13). This unity of the faith was something that was yet to come. Until such time as it did come, the direct action of God would take place. God would “set” those in the church as He saw fit. As per the parable of the talents it was that each was given “...according to his several ability” (Matthew 25:15).
These “gifts” from God would continue until we reached the unity of the faith. How can we come to the unity of the faith until the messages from God cease? Paul reveals that the gifts would cease or be reduced down to inactivity (I Corinthians 13:8). They would cease when we came to that which is perfect (verse 10). There would have to be a time when the messages from God would cease and, hence, there would no longer be a need for miracles, wonders and signs. It was God’s plan to show us all a more excellent way (I Corinthians 12:31). It was a better way than the way of the gifts. How could that be? Something better than the direct power of God acting upon the lives of individual Christians? The assumption is that all Christians had some kind of gift from God.
A simple question concerning this period when God was acting directly, why did Paul leave Trophimus sick at Miletum? Paul, being inspired by God and used by God in a great way, surely had the power to heal. Why then did Paul leave this beloved brother, sick at Miletum? God was going to show us a more excellent way. As great a time as when the gifts were in operation, there was something coming that would be more excellent. You have this beloved brother who remains sick. How can that be in a time when God was acting directly? The direct action of God never led to all men in every place be healed of every disease.
The gifts were there until we could reach the unity of the faith. Had the issue been the removal of all pain and suffering, no Christian would have been left hurting. That was not the purpose of the gifts. They were in place until such a time as the messages from God would cease and man would have something better than the direct gifts from God. It was a period of time in which the Lord was working with them and confirming the Word with the use of the signs. Once the Word was finished then the purpose of the signs would cease.
God was working to transmit the truth to mankind in a final form. The book of Leviticus opens up by showing us Moses at the door of the tabernacle. Beginning in verse two of chapter one, we see the work of Moses in that he spoke to the people. Many chapters later we find that Moses told Aaron and his sons and they unto all the people (Leviticus 21:24). We find then this means of God transmitting the truth to Israel, God to Moses, Moses to Aaron and his sons, and Aaron and his sons to the people. Though each action took the message farther away from the direct source of God, at no time did it cease to be the truth of God. What Aaron received from Moses was understood to be the Word of God.
Peter stating about the period of the Old Testament said holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (II Peter 1:21). God spoke to the prophet and the prophet in turn spoke to the people. The Spirit of God then used men to transmit the truth by giving them the words to write down. Paul said that what he taught others was by a direct transmitting of the truth to him and then to others. It was done in words not grunts, groans or mysterious feelings (I Corinthians 2:12,13). Once the Word was finished each Christian could through proper study and application come to an abiding faith in God (II Timothy 2:15).
Today we have the finished product. There are no more messages coming from God. God did what He set out to do by giving to man the absolute and complete truth. The truth is now in written form and the responsibility is ours. We move the truth from the written page and put it into our lives. Our lives can be the Bible which some men read, daily. It is a “Bible” that would not be there unless God had not transmitted the truth to us. May we ever live it.