Ephesians

Adequacy in Christ

Now we come to the reason Paul speaks so strongly. In Ephesians 4:20-21 he says you must not live like the Gentiles, because in Christ you have a different principle of living, a different way of thinking. In Christ, you have the truth by which you can test and judge all other ideas, concepts, philosophies, claims, and assertions. You have found in Jesus Christ the simple truth about life, about yourself, about the world, about the makeup of science and nature, about human behavior. You have found the One “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” as Paul tells us in Colossians 2:3.

The Lord Jesus made the same case to the people in Jerusalem when He said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). A Christian does not need to walk in uncertainty and shadows. A Christian need have no lack of essential knowledge. Jesus is the light, and He reveals to us the light of truth.

It is very much in vogue today to claim that nothing can be known for sure. The evil god of this world has sold the lie that there is no black or white, that there are no moral absolutes—only confusing shades of gray. That is the futility and emptiness of the world’s thinking. If there are no final answers, no ultimate knowledge, no ultimate truth, then people don’t have to reorder their lives according to God’s truth. They have rationalized their way out of God’s demand for righteousness and truth—or so they think.

This illusory mindset has even infected the church. I once heard a pastor say that all knowledge is tentative at best. We can never know the truth for sure. Biblical Christianity repudiates that idea utterly. Christ has come precisely so that we might know the truth. That doesn’t mean everything there is to know, but it does mean we know everything we need to know to find meaning and purpose in life. As Jesus said to His disciples, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). Truth is absolute, it is sometimes difficult and not what we want to hear, but it is always realistic—and that is why the truth tears away the veil of illusion and sets us free.

This is not to say that everything a worldling thinks is wrong. God’s truth can be found in the realms of physics and mathematics—but it is not the ultimate truth that gives meaning to life. A worldling may have vast and accurate knowledge about how to repair a car engine or design a suspension bridge or construct a space shuttle—but that kind of knowledge, as true as it may be, does not result in salvation. To say that a worldling’s mind is darkened does not disparage in any way the knowledge he or she has in other compartments of life—but it does mean that he or she lacks the most crucial and all-important truth of all: the truth of Jesus Christ.

Paul says we must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the emptiness of their minds. Our lives are not empty, because we have tapped into vast resources far beyond the dreams of any worldling.