Right from the beginning of creation man has desired to know about God. The more religiously inclined thinkers actively sought this knowledge through meditation, contemplation, and even through mystical experiences. However, human methods are inadequate to reach God, or to discover detailed information about Him. Thus human attempts in this matter have always failed.
At the same time, the Creator-God did not keep himself aloof from mankind. Rather, He made Himself known to man right from the beginning of human existence. He gave General Revelation in nature, and Special Revelation through the Bible.
All of the above can put together into three categories: Knowledge Of God Through Human Speculation, Through General Revelation, and Through Special Revelation.
I-Human Speculation: A large amount of information available about God is the result of mere human speculation. Since man's wisdom has totally been corrupted by sin, the result of human speculation about God is also corrupted by his sinful mind and method of thinking. Thus NO definite conclusion about God and His actions can be obtained through mere human speculation or contemplation.
A survey of various man-made religions would immediately reveal that there is a great diversity of opinion in them about God, often contradicting each other. What's more, even within individual man-made religions and philosophies, their viewpoints about God are often inconsistent and contradictory. Further, when man speaks about God from his human wisdom, the result is often a devaluated God. Such Gods are nothing more than highly elevated humans. Consequently one can note that in many non-Christian religions their gods are as sinful (or more) than their human creators are.
Since the human wisdom is totally corrupted by sin, not only is the consequent human speculation about God totally erroneous, but also all the religious books written by human wisdom are similarly corrupted. While an occasional statement here and there in them might correspond with what is said in the Bible, this similarity of accident does not elevate these books or these statements to the level of Bible (divine revelation).
2-General Revelation: God being love, He has not left mankind in darkness. He loves every human being in spite of human sin. He thus provides them enough information for them to realize that there is a God. This information also helps them to realize that this God is to be feared and obeyed.
General Revelation comes through the mighty creation of God seen all around. It also comes from man's observation of God's sustaining power. All of this is enough to make man aware of the existence of God, and to create in him a desire to know God. Further, when any person desires to know the real God, the omniscient and righteous God would surely make information available about Himself to this seeker.
While the General Revelation is available to every person of every generation and religion, in itself it is not sufficient to lead a person to salvation through Christ. In fact the General Revelation does not contain any information about the gospel or about Lord Jesus Christ. Thus it is not possible for any person to receive salvation merely on the basis of general revelation.
The purpose of General Revelation is to create God-consciousness in humans. While this God-consciousness fills certain people with a sense of their own inadequacy, they still need to be introduced to the gospel before they can be saved. This gospel of salvation comes to the unsaved people only from those people to whom God has entrusted the information through Specific (Special) Revelation.
3-Specific (Special) Revelation: Specific Revelation always comes directly from God. Man's human understanding or wisdom is not the source for this type of revelation. Nor can this type of revelation be obtained by the use of mere human wisdom -- howsoever great this wisdom might be.
It is a doctrinal FALLACY to believe that people outside God's chosen ones received spiritual light or revelations through their meditation or human insight. It is a false doctrine and heresy to claim that sages, rishis, or ascetics of the ancient world received "insights" into spiritual matters through their own efforts. Apart from the chosen people in the Old and the New Testament, Special Divine Revelation has NOT been given to anyone else.
In the Bible we notice that God chose people from the line of Seth up to Methuselah for passing on Divine Revelation. Once Abraham was chosen by God, all revelations came through people of the chosen race. Subsequently this information was written down by Moses and others in the Canon of the Old Testament. This Canon came to completion with the writing of Malachi. After four hundred years came the New Testament Canon which was written and completed in less than one century.
Whether during the Old Testament period or during the New Testament times, only God's chosen people were entrusted with divine revelation. NO other people, family, or religious seekers were entrusted with divine revelation. Of course, God in His mercy gave his message to many seekers belonging to various cultural groups (like the Ethiopian Eunuch), but such message was always sent through a messenger belonging to the chosen groups. The chosen people were the godly descendants of Seth to Methuselah, the descendants of Noah, and finally the descendants of Abraham. In the New Testament period the messengers were all Born-again Christian believers.
Since many people moved into pagan religions after having their origin among God's people, they might have carried some knowledge of Biblical truth with them. These truths might have found a place in their religious books. But this mutilated human version (if such version exists anywhere) is NOT to be equated with divine revelation. Further, what people of other religions discovered through their efforts is also NOT to be equated with divine revelation. No amount of human speculation can discover doctrinal truths, and thus the occasional similarity between statements in the bible and statements in other books does not make those non-Christian books divinely revealed.
Summary
The human mind is TOTALLY blinded by sin. It knows nothing except rebellion against God. Thus anything that comes out of pure human speculation about God and His nature is bound to be wrong. Thus whatever people of other religions write about God on the basis of purely human intuition or (human wisdom) is bound to be totally erroneous. Any similarity with the Christian scripture is only a COINCIDENCE, and such similarities are not to be overemphasized.
On the other hand, God has provided enough indications in nature to show that He exists and controls it all. Anyone with reasonable intelligence can thus come to a realization that God exists. However, after reaching this point of God-consciousness, that person needs to come in touch with Specific Revelation (the Bible) so as to know truths about the divine way of salvation. General Revelation does NOT lead anyone to salvation (or even to information about salvation).
Specific Revelation is contained in the Bible, and Bible alone. NO other religious book in the world was inspired by God. None of them contain inspired information about salvation or Jesus Christ. There might be some accidental similarities between the statements in the Bible and books of other religions. This might be accidental, ore even the corrupt form of truth found in the Bible. Alternately it might be pure human speculation that somehow look somewhat similar to some statements of the Bible. However, such statements are a mere human imitation of divine truth, and they are NOT inspired by the Holy Spirit.
There is NO specific revelation from God outside the Bible. Information about salvation or Lord Jesus Christ are NOT available in any book other than the Bible. Claiming that books of other religions (or even parts of such books) are inspired like the Bible is an ERROR and a HERESY. Whether such teachings are spread directly or indirectly, believers should reject and even SUPPRESS such teachings. Specific Revelation from God is found only in the Bible, and nowhere outside it !!
This is perhaps the oddest passage of scripture you will find in the New Testament. There may be other passages that confuse you or that you do not fully understand, but this certainly could be the oddest.
I do not mean to be irreverent with this label. I am confident that when you hear my whole case, you will agree that I have not been. I merely want to emphasize the disparity of thought created by these two simple words when considering whom it was that was weeping. These were the tears of God.
As it is now, it was then; Jesus is God. In him and by him were all things created. All things are known to him and all things are subject unto his will. That he could weep is unsettling, almost suggesting that maybe everything was not under his control. I mean after all, God doesn't cry. He is in charge. If he doesn't like something, he can change it. And yet, it is not in dispute. He wept.
Therein is the disparity. He wept, but he had no apparent reason to weep. Though he was in man's flesh, he was very God. He knew that he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead and remedy the situation. That precluded his feeling grief or sadness over Lazarus' death. The occasion should have been a joyous one from his perspective. And yet, he wept.
Even a mind governed by faith cannot pass by this text without asking a few questions? Why was Jesus so upset? Why did he weep? What does it take to make God cry? For those answers, we must back up a few moments before verse 35 to see things from Jesus' eyes, to feel what he was feeling. We must view that moment from God's perspective, and not our own.
Previously, in the preceding verses of John chapter 11, we are told of Jesus receiving word of the passing of Lazarus and of Jesus' eventual entry into Bethany. You may read this in detail at your leisure, but essentially it tells us that when Jesus arrived at Bethany there were many weeping Jews in the house, including Mary, who alone came out to meet the Lord at his arrival.
When he observed the scene of grief and weeping, we are told that "he groaned in the spirit and was troubled". He and Mary exchanged a few words and then of course, it tells us that the Lord himself wept.
Some have erroneously supposed that Jesus wept because, like so many others before him, he really was nothing more than a self-proclaimed, powerless prophet. Others claim that maybe he was a true prophet, but when faced with a challenge that required divine intervention, he was not able to enlist God's help and was reduced to tears of frustration.
Those in this camp of thought quantify their fraudulent charge by alleging that when Lazarus was raised, it was not a raising at all, but rather an awakening. Although there is no historical evidence or record to support their view, they suppose that Lazarus suffered from a medical condition that made him appear to be dead and awoke at just the right time to make Jesus look good.
This idea that Jesus was either a fraud or opportunist is not only pure, unsupportable nonsense, it is scripturally foul. Ideas like these emanate from the hearts of unregenerate souls who neither seek nor care to know spiritual truth. To the truth-seeking heart, to the honest mind, there can be no doubt but that Jesus was and is everything he claimed to be. He is indeed the Son of God and the only salvation for mankind.
Still, Jesus wept, and I think it is important that we try to understand why. This was a very profound event. Later, at Gethsemene, he would drop tears of blood, but this was understandable. He was taking the sins of the world upon himself, when he himself was innocent of sin. He was submitting to the Father.
Here at Bethany, the situation was not the same. Jesus had complete control. He knew he was going to raise Lazarus in just a few moments. Earlier, on the road to Bethany, he had even acknowledged this when he told the disciples "I go that I may awake him out of sleep" (verse 11). There simply was no reason for heaviness of heart. Or was there?
Too often, when we hold God on the high pedestal that he so richly deserves, we somehow forget that one of his characteristics is love. Jesus, as the God-man, was the epitome of compassion. It is no stretch of the imagination to think that all that was going on caused him deep, personal grief.
Consider that he had just spent several days traveling with disciples who had largely expressed a lack of faith and whose mood was, at best, somber. Then, as he moved into the burial area, he was overwhelmed by the prevailing air of grief. As he moved among the people, he saw their sorrow, he saw their defeat, their weeping fell upon his ears and he was deeply troubled by it.
The only breath of encouragement that found its way to the Lord was that of Martha, one of the sisters of Lazarus. As he came near to the city, she came out to meet him and greeted him with her now well-known, persevering faith. But even her faith was framed in grief and sorrow.
Again, Jesus knew he was about to raise Lazarus. He knew that in a few moments there would be great joy and that the sorrow of the moment would be gone and forgotten. He knew that he would turn their tears to smiles and their heartache to praise. Soon all would be well?for them.
But for Jesus, there was more than that going on in his heart. As he surveyed the scene of mourning due to the passing of Lazarus, he was thinking about the cause rather than the effect of death. Jesus was looking beyond the obvious, beyond the weeping crowd and mourners and lamenting how much evil sin had brought to his creation.
For just a brief moment, he thought back on man's history. He remembered the very moment when Adam chose to sin and how Adam's disobedience had broken his heart. He remembered when Cain rose up in jealousy and anger against his brother and how Abel's blood cried out to him from the ground.
He recalled the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and how Abraham could not find even ten righteous people in the whole of the city. He thought of all the evil and wickedness that had taken root among those he had made in his own image, of the ravages of sin on his perfect creation, and he groaned in his spirit and was troubled.
As he thought back on man's infamous history, he also looked forward to the cross and the price he would have to pay for sin even though he had never sinned himself. Surrounded by the unbelief of his closest followers and immersed in this scene of sorrow, no doubt the burden was great as he considered all these things and moved among the mourners.
He saw their pain, he felt their sorrow, and their weeping stirred his heart. The sting of death, brought upon man because of sin, was doing its evil work. He saw the pain, he saw the misery, he saw the wages of sin being paid out and the heart of God was broken for the people he had created. And my friend, Jesus wept!
His heart was broken for his creation and our sin brought Almighty God to tears. In retrospect, I suppose this verse is really not that odd after all.
Both Johnson Philip & Gary Kurz are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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