January 13, 2011
Who Are You?
A man in a neighboring community has the same name as my husband. It’s interesting when the ‘other’ Bill Marvel makes news, because my Bill gets kudos for being a pilot (he’s not) or writing a great letter-to-the-editor (he didn’t). John the Baptist was confronted with a similar situation when the priests and Levites asked who he was. Are you Elijah? (I am not.) Are you the Prophet? (No). John, the voice calling ‘Make straight the way for the Lord’ confessed freely, “I am not the Christ.” (Jn1:19-28)
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Gail;
-----John the Baptist, as you pointed out, denied being Elijah. But Jesus said of John the Baptist, “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John; and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come.” (Mat 11:13-14) This has always confused me. The Spirit of the Lord was upon John the Baptist. I am certain that lying was not in his repertoire. And if his mind, manners, and speech were made by the Spirit so deeply insightful that great numbers followed him in preparing the way for the Lord, how could he simply miss such a detail about who he was in his ministry? For he certainly was Elijah, Jesus revealed that. Moreover, seeing Jesus the day after he had baptized Him, John proclaimed, “‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!...And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.’” (John 1:29, 34) Yet, while in prison he sent some of his disciples to Jesus asking if He was the one to come, or if they should be looking for another.
-----Having the Spirit of God within us and being in Jesus Christ and the Father, it becomes easy for the believer to be more sure of himself than he ought to be. History bears sad testimony to this: souls burned at the stake, drawn and quartered, and more mercifully dispatched with dull, rusty swords, not because they did not believe in Jesus Christ (they did,) but because they did not believe the same things about Him as did their captors. Gladly, we learned our lessons from those dark times. We no longer physically dispatch one another over differences. Regrettably, we only dispatch one another’s character, if not assailing one another’s faith, then at least assailing one another’s knowledge. Somehow, even John the Baptist was not so sure of himself (or he was just being coy.)
-----I am sure I have come to the Lord, that His Spirit dwells in me, and that we are one in Him and His Father. I am sure I have come to some knowledge about God and some good behavior. But I am more sure that I have not come to all knowledge or good behavior and that others with different knowledge and behavior, having come in all sincerity to the Lord as well, are allowed by His Spirit the same room for error He graciously allows for me. (If He allowed no room for error He would have no mercy and I John 1:9-10 would be fallacious.) The most of who we are can only be within a humility at least approaching the humility we must try to have.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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