What truth can we be so settled into that despite the Devil’s most convincing efforts to the contrary, we cannot be moved? Is it the truth that God exists and that He is infinitely powerful? Well, the devils believe that and it scares them (James 2:19). Is it the truth that the end is coming soon? Satan agrees that it is coming soon (Revelation 12:12), and he works all the harder. He is settled into those two things. Is it the truth that the seventh-day is the Sabbath? Is it the truth that we should keep all ten of the commandments, that we should read our Bibles faithfully as God’s word? Is it the truth that we should pay a careful tithe, be very careful about what we eat, and be very careful how we associate with sinners who might lead us astray?

I don’t want to minimize those matters, but they are not enough in themselves. All of the above were believed and practiced by the very ones who put Jesus on the cross. After Jesus died, they rushed home to keep the seventh-day Sabbath holy, with their tithe paid up and no forbidden food in their stomachs. Evidently the truth into which we must be sealed is far more than just the list of beliefs I mentioned above, important as they are.

Throughout the Bible, the all-important truth, the saving truth, is above all else the truth about our God. Jesus came to bring us this truth about His Father, so that we might be won back to God in love and trust. It is the truth that God can heal and save all who trust Him. When the Spirit comes, He will bring to our remembrance the things that Jesus has said about the Father (John 14:26). The Holy Spirit comes so that we may know God better (Eph 1:17). That’s the consistent picture of the truth that runs all through Scripture.

Do we really accept Jesus’ picture of the Father? Jesus is very specific. In John 16 He makes a statement about His Father that has no symbols, figures of speech or parables in it. He says, “The time has come for Me to tell you plainly and clearly about My Father. There is no need for Me to pray to the Father for you. For the Father Himself loves you” (John 16:25-27). Do you accept that? Do you accept it to the extent that it’s an integral part of your whole theology and understanding of the plan of salvation? Or are you still unable to accept what Jesus described as a plain, clear statement of the truth about His Father? There is no need for the Son to plead with the Father in our behalf, because the Father loves us just as much as the Son does.

Let’s recall other things that Jesus said. The Spirit brings these sayings back to our remembrance (John 14:26). “If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father” (John 14:9). “If you know Me, you know the Father” (John 14:7). Do we really believe that the Father is just as gracious as the Son? Is that an integral part of our Christian theology? Did anyone need to reconcile Christ Jesus to us as sinners? Did anything need to be done to assuage and appease the wrath of Jesus and win Him to our side? Then if we believe Jesus’ testimony about the Father, nothing had to be done to reconcile the Father to us either. He loves us just as much as the Son does. Are we so settled into this truth about our God that we cannot be moved? Or are we still easily swayed to and fro by every wind of doctrine? Back to Ephesians:

We are no longer to be children, tossed by the waves and whirled about by every fresh gust of teaching, dupes of crafty rogues and their deceitful schemes. No, let us speak the truth in love; so shall we fully grow up into Christ (Eph 4:14-15, NEB).

We should ask ourselves: Are we still such children in the faith that we need emergency measures in order to be reverent toward God and to do what is right? If we still need those emergency measures, we are still babes in the truth. That’s why Paul, in the book of Hebrews, wrote:

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity. . . . Heb 5:13-14; 6:1, NIV.

What are the elementary teachings about Christ? Well, let us ask ourselves. Do we still need the law in order to love God and love each other? Do we need it to keep us from hating and murdering our enemies? Would we murder them if there was no law to say we must not do it? If it’s the law that keeps you from murdering your mother-in-law, then you are still very much a child and not ready for the awful “time of trouble” that is coming (Dan 12:1; Rev 7:14).