Reflections From the Psalms
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? (Ps. 2:1)
Without a true, inward knowledge of Jesus Christ, there is little more than any of us can do than, “imagine a vain thing.” We will live in the futility of our own mind; the self-assurance of our own mind.
This is certainly true of unbelievers. But sadly, it is true of many who profess Christ. There are many whose supposed knowledge of God is a product of their imagination. They try to walk with a Jesus that they have created from out of themselves. Rather than receive the Truth, they have turned to fables. Rather than receive revelation, they are deceived by their own imagination.
God has another purpose. He wants to reveal Christ IN His people. He wants to form Christ in us — bring us into an inward realization of Jesus. (Gal. 4:19) This is the only solution to the futility of man’s mind — we must know Jesus Christ.
In the final analysis, we are either going to receive the Truth in Christ and allow it to adjust us, or we are going to attempt to adjust the Truth to suit us. The former will set us free to walk with Christ. The latter will bind us all the more under the power of our imagination, as dictated by religious flesh. But in this we are not left to ourselves – Jesus said that God would continually seek to guide us into all Truth.
Jesus Christ IS the Truth. It is only by growing to know Him that we can be set free from what the flesh is able to produce. And it is only by knowing Christ that we can discern. All discernment in the Christian life is the outcome of knowing Jesus Christ.