In
my last post I said something that I have come to see in a slightly different
light. The way I stated it needs to be
clarified. Here is my statement: "We believe He is right in every area, and because
He is right, (and I am wrong), then
I will do whatever God says. Belief
comes first (faith), and as a result of that belief I then do what is right
(the works being whatever God commands)."
This statement sounds like I do something because
of my belief in God. But that is only
partially correct. I do not have the
power to do anything at all. Jesus says
"Without Me you can do nothing".
(John 15:5) So it is
impossible for me to decide to do something God requires, and then do it on my
own. When God speaks, His word creates
the action, and His word contains the power to carry out what He
creates. You probably need to stop and
think about that for quite some time.
Let's roll that thought around a little. Go back to the beginning of creation. The Bible tells us "God spoke, and it
was done. He commanded, and it stood
fast". (Psalm 33:9) When God
spoke, His word caused something to come into existence that did not exist
before. Whatever was in His mind came
into existence once He expressed that thought by His words. But that was not the end of His power. What was created did not then run on its own
power. God does not create something and
then leave it to exist under its own power.
When God creates something, no matter what it
might be, He takes upon Himself the responsibility to maintain it in fulfilling
the purpose for which it was created. If
it is an inanimate rock, then His power maintains the atoms and molecules to
hold together and be what we call "solid as a rock". If it is water, then God's power causes the
molecules He made to bind into the elements we call hydrogen and oxygen, which
in turn His power binds together in a way that produces that wonderful liquid
that refreshes and cleanses. At no stage is anything "left to its own
power". Nothing works "on its
own".
As in the physical world, so with the
spiritual. Humans are the only beings on
earth created with a spiritual nature.
This is so we can interact with God, Who is Himself Spirit. Even though
we have abundant evidence as to the necessity of God's sustaining and
constantly active power, we think when it comes to us things are
different. We acknowledge that we were
created by God, and also that we have to be born again in order to become a
Christian. We know all this is God's
power at work in us.
But then we get the idea that in order to live
as a Christian, in order to overcome sin in our life, we have to work
really hard. We read a text like James
4:7 that says "...resist the devil
and he will flee from you". So we
try really hard not to give in to some temptation to sin. Is it possible we have overlooked the first
part of that text that says "Submit
yourselves therefore to God,"....?
Can it be that our resisting of the devil should be done by focusing our
attention on God, rather than the devil? Instead of focusing on what the devil wants us
to do, we should be focusing on God's greatness, and submitting to His love and
will for us.
We read Philippians 2:12 "work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling", while we overlook verse 13 which says: "For it is God that works in you both to
will and to do of His good pleasure."
Of course sometimes we put all our attention on verse 13 and ignore
verse 12. The point is we often know what
the Bible says, but it doesn't automatically follow that we have a correct
understanding of the meaning. The Jews of Jesus' day knew the Scriptures inside
and out. Even His own disciples, after
listening over and over to Christ's
plain words as to what was going to happen to Him, were totally unprepared for
the reality when Jesus was crucified.
Are we in the same boat?
Could it be that we also need to lay aside our
own thoughts and humbly and sincerely ask for the Holy Spirit to be sent to
help us understand this topic as God understands it? Could it be that we need
to pray to understand God's way of seeing this topic? I believe so.
We must be empowered to think God's thoughts in God's way. "Rest in God" is the phrase that
keeps pushing to the front of my thinking on this matter of Righteousness By
Faith. Next time we will look at it
again.
