A Troubling Thought

In John 8:45 and the second half of John 8:46, Jesus said,

But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me...If I am speaking truth, why do you not believe me?

Think of some truths, whether an essential truth of the gospel such as the substitutionary atonement or another clear teaching of Scripture.** Just why is it that some (many) people do not believe those truths? Have you had the frustrating experience of trying to teach someone a Christian doctrine only to run continuously into a brick wall of lack of understanding, lack of acceptance, or outright rejection? What is going on?

Jesus diagnoses the problem in the surrounding context. People who do not believe the truth do not have God as their father (v. 42); do not love Christ (v. 42); have an inherent inability to understand the the words of Jesus or even listen to them (v. 43); have the devil as their father (v. 44); lust after evil things (v. 44); and are not of God (v. 47).

That ought to be a troubling thought. Friend, if you are rejecting what the Bible says, you need to be troubled too.

**In this statement, I am ignoring the question of the validity of "theological triage." What I can say for now is that I do not believe it is valid to divide truth into three levels and to affirm that only the first level contains the really important stuff that must be believed. There is a lot more truth that must be believed to please God than just "gospel" truth.