Pieces of Truth
Jan 19, 2014 2186
One day the Devil was walking along with one of his cohorts. They saw a man ahead of them pick up something shiny.
“What did he find?” asked the cohort.
“A piece of the truth,” the Devil replied.
“Doesn’t it bother you that he found a piece of the truth?” asked the cohort.
“No,” said the Devil, “I will see to it that he makes a religion out of it.”
The Devil doesn’t mind when we find a piece of truth. He doesn’t mind when we make a religion out of it. But the gates of hell tremble when you find the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Devil loves it when people base their faith of pieces of truth, but he knows that He cannot prevail once you have placed your faith on Jesus and Him alone for your salvation.
Many people find a piece of truth and think that they have found the gospel. But a piece of truth, no matter how true it might be, is not the gospel.
Many religions are based on pieces of truth here and there, interconnected in various ways. Some religions think that that is what the gospel consists of; lots of pieces of truth interconnected together nicely. All these pieces of truth connected together may be very nice and encouraging, yet they are not the gospel.
Paul refers to the gospel as that which is to always have “first importance” (1 Cor 15:3); that Jesus Christ came to save for sinners, died as an atonement for sin, and rose again, to bring everlasting life for all those who will believe. (1 Cor 15:2–4; Rom 1:1–5; 2 Tim 2:8.) Christ has done everything that needed to be done do in order that you might have eternal life. There is nothing else that you can do in on order that you might be saved. All you can do is to accept it by faith. (Rom 3:28; Eph 2:8–9).
This is not “a piece of truth.” This is the gospel of the kingdom; this is the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:45-46). It is the key that opens all understanding; it is the lens through which all other pieces of truth finally fit together perfectly. No religion can be made out of it, because it cannot be added to or improved in any way.
You can have your pockets filled with pieces of truth, but unless you have this, you have nothing. On the other hand, you can have found the gospel, and understand the rest imperfectly, and you will have everlasting life. Jesus shows this time and time again in the gospels.
When you discover this, it is then that you also make the astounding discovery that the truth never consisted in some shiny “thing” you found, or in many shiny “things” linked together; but that instead the Truth all along consisted in the person of Jesus Christ and His monumental achievements of love for you (John 14:6).
Eliezer Gonzalez
(The opening story is taken from Klyne Snodgrass, Between Two Truths – Living with Biblical Tensions, 1990, Zondervan Publishing House, p. 35.)
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