Hard Sayings

Today we can have full assurance that God's message has been delivered to mankind in a way that can be both understood and obeyed (John 8:31,32; 1 Cor. 13:10; 2 Pet. 1:21; Col. 1:6; Rom. 1:17; Eph. 3:5). The Bible is not a book of hard sayings, as many say it is. The average word in the New Testament is less than five letters in length, and the average word spoken by Christ is only about four. Thus, the Bible and its concepts are not too mysterious for us to comprehend them and respond. We can be saved and the gospel alone has the power to do it (Rom. 1:16)!

One thing we need to understand is that even though the Bible can be understood and obeyed, sometimes it will also deliver concepts that are greater than ourselves. For example, the idea that God has always been, is a concept that we can't easily grasp. This does not mean it is not true, it just means that we are limited in comparison to God. God is so far above us that we often fall short of His ways and His thoughts (Is. 55:8,9; Rom. 3:23). When we find difficult passages we should not be discouraged, but instead encouraged that we have a God that is so great that we must give ourselves completely over to Him when we enter into a study of His word.

Our God has a purpose in every word of Scripture, especially when a passage causes us to look a little bit deeper. Do you remember the story in John 6:22-69, when Jesus told the people that He was the "bread of life"? Some of His disciples responded in vs. 60 - "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?" The problem however was not in the teaching, but in their hearts. They could not overcome their fleshly minds long enough to see that Jesus was delivering a spiritual message about His sacrifice (see vs. 52, 63). Jesus also pointed out that they failed to understand because of their lack of faith (vs. 64). It was not Christ's fault that they didn't understand. They weren't opening up their hearts to the message! But still many of them left to follow Him no more (vs. 66).

At this moment Jesus turned to the apostles and asked, "Do you also want to go away?" (vs. 67). Then Peter spoke up with words that still call us to be more faithful and go the distance with our God - "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and to know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (vs. 68,69).

As we read the gospels we see the apostles often lacked a deeper understanding of Christ's teachings. They would ask for parables to be explained, and they totally misunderstood some things until Jesus took them aside and spelled it out (Ex: "the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees - Matt. 16:5-12). But when presented with the opportunity of leaving their Savior over "hard sayings" that exposed their own frailties, they could not and would not do it! Peter recognized something that today, many in the world need to understand - there's simply nowhere else to go!

Are there passages of Scripture that you are still struggling to understand? Are there deeper concepts of spiritual teachings that seem to be eluding you? Join the club! What we need to be doing is praying as we study that God will help us to know His word and make us grow (Eph. 3:14-21). We will never know it all unless God wishes to reveal it to us when we see Him face to face. Until then, our weaknesses should help us to do the one thing we must do to keep saved - lean on Him! "Hard sayings" don't teach us to go away, they just make us depend on God more!