Insightful Musings on the Scriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Greetings, dear ones.

Since there isn’t much rain out there, I think I’ll be able to follow through with the milling today that I had hoped to do yesterday. When I went out to commence the work yesterday, the weather was tolerable. But in not more than three minutes time, it turned amazingly ugly with big wind and rain. I decided to do something else.

Becki continues to do well with her hip replacement recovery. Since the little boys were returned yesterday afternoon, and Thano and Jill are off picking up more blank t-shirts for his printing project, she’s rattling around in the house alone at present.

May your day go well. Blessings.

Love, Dad/Ray.

What in the world set off Festus in verse 24 to shout, “You are out of your mind, Paul!...Your great learning is driving you insane.” I can’t see anything in what Paul just said that is worthy of such an outburst. The last words of Paul just before that eruption went like this: “I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen—that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles” (vv. 22-23). The only thing we can figure is that Paul was facing a rigid mindset that insisted that nothing that dies can ever be made to live again. So the idea of resurrection becomes an intellectual stumbling block. But Paul insists that when we understand Who is in control, “What I am saying is true and reasonable” (v. 25). Earlier Paul reasoned, “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” (v. 8). It made perfect sense to Paul—and it makes perfect sense to me. After all, if it can be believed that God is Sovereign over everything, unlimited in His transcendence over the physical world, and the Author of life itself, it impresses me as unreasonable to think that He could not reassign life where He had previously assigned it.

Another idea held by Paul’s hearers that is in conflict with the truth has to do with their view of bondage vs freedom. They would choke here as much as they do over the idea of resurrection. As implied in the FOCUS VERSE, King Agrippa expressed the illusion that he was free and Paul was bound. But in regards to the kind of freedom that God desires, Paul was freer that anyone there, and Agrippa was unwittingly a prisoner of his own NATURAL SIN NATURE. Jesus addressed the matter and made this promise: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). And Paul declared in his letter to the Galatians, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

Is it not a sad controversy that what is true and reasonable to one point of view is false and unreasonable (even stupid) to another? Insofar as truth is concerned, that which determines either/or is illumination—God turning on one’s lights. Jesus profoundly promised, “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).