I sometimes look around at all the people living in our world, and wonder at their complete detachment from God. The majority, particularly in the Western world, go about their lives with no interest in knowing the God of the Bible. They’re far more interested in what’s for dinner tonight, or how to pay for that new car, or how to start up a relationship with that favored person of the contrary (or same) gender.
DOES THE BIBLICAL GOD INSULT HUMANITY?
Billions of people live and move around on the face of the earth oblivious to or willingly ignorant of the Creator who put them there. It seems, from a purely human perspective, almost an affront and a callous, mean, nasty suggestion that the God of the Bible will one day judge every one of us according to how we’ve lived, and how we dealt or didn’t deal with His son in our lives. How can he judge us? How dare he? Doesn’t he know who we are? Why doesn’t he just leave us all alone? After all, we live here, we run the place, and we have every right to ignore him. What does he do for us? He doesn’t come down to straighten out our problems. He doesn’t even poke his face through the clouds and wave every now and then.
TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCE
In a sense, it’s true that we have every right to ignore God, because our creator has indeed given us the free will and the dignity of choosing or rejecting Him. However, just as any other decision has consequences, there’s a colossal consequence to rejecting Him, which many, many people don’t take into account. He made us and He made everything around us. Ultimately all things, “the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) belong to Him. And not coincidentally, the future belongs to Him too. If you’re ignoring Him, where will you go when the time comes to leave the body God gave you? Where else is there to go, unless He’s created a place especially for those who reject Him? What would that place be like, considering that it will be full of all those who have turned their backs on Him?
It seems to me that even though we think we have the right to total autonomy, we can summarize the reasons why God has every right to judge us all. First, we can consider what the Bible says on the matter in its most succinct expression:
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).
Why should we have to have faith to gain God’s favor? Isn’t that our choice? Not according to the Bible, which claims to be the message of God to man. Most people fail to seek God because, they claim, there’s no evidence for His existence. They believe instead what some or most scientists say, which is that God and God’s handiwork is nowhere to be seen. So then, people do have faith, but it’s faith in the words of man and not the words of God.
NO LITTLE OLD MAN WITH A LONG BEARD
Unbelieving scientists don’t see God under the microscope, and when they look into space, they can’t see Him there either. Instead, they have their own “just so” story to explain where everything came from, and a majority of people have chosen to believe it without question. God doesn’t speak, He doesn’t appear in the sky, He doesn’t jump to attention when we call for help, and he doesn’t fix things. Case closed.
NOT SEEING THE WOOD FOR THE TREES
The truth is very different. Jesus Christ said:
God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24).
You aren’t going to “see” a physical God in space, in the sky or anywhere else. His essence is beyond our limited physical senses. However, you can see what He’s made, and you can then discern some of His characteristics. He is powerful beyond imagining. His wisdom and knowledge are without limit. He loves beauty. He is vast and uncontainable. His creativity is seemingly infinite.
If there were no God, there would be no space, nothing to study under the microscope, and nobody to study it anyway. God, says Scripture, made all things, including us. HIs handiwork is right in front of our faces every single day of our lives. It’s in our ears, in our minds, in our children, in nature, in the stars and in our families. The apostle Paul put it this way:
“… since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world Godās invisible qualitiesāhis eternal power and divine natureāhave been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20).
People are “without excuse” because the evidence for His existence and even His nature is all around us: in space, under the microscope, in the trees and the fields and in the faces of our loved ones. Since this is the case, why is it that so many people don’t see or recognize His existence? The answer is simple, and it’s expressed in the first text I shared: “…anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”
NOT SEEKING
How many people are “earnestly seeking” God? Isn’t the possibility of His existence the most profound and important matter in all of life? More important than what’s for dinner tonight; more important than how you’re going to pay for that new car, and more important than striking up a relationship with that attractive other. He made all things, He owns all things including the future, and the evidence for His existence is as plain as the nose on our faces. Why, then, do people spend no time seeking Him, while all the time seeking their own physical betterment? Could it possibly be because they don’t want to seek him or know him? Jesus commented on this:
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil (John 3:19).
THE VERDICT
The judgment of mankind is inevitable because people don’t want to know the God who made them and who sustains them, and owns everything they are and everything around them. Imagine a group of people moving into your house and living in it as though they own it, yet completely ignoring you and your wishes. They trash the place, they lay across your furniture, and they only talk about you in derogatory terms, never talking to you even when you ask them what they think they’re doing.
SUBSTITUTES
Humans clearly want to make up or adopt some understanding of a god or a spirituality which pleases them, but they have no appetite for a God who owns all things and who has standards other than their own. If they were really seeking God, they would see in nature, in their own conscience and in God’s son what God is really like, but they don’t want to see that: they want their own gods, available and on call when needed.
GOD’S RIGHTS
As God made and owns all things, He has every right to judge His creation, and to do what He wants to do with it. The sooner you see things that way, the sooner life and death and everything that goes on around you will make sense. He is seeking our humility and our submission, and humility and submission will open our eyes to Him.
WORSHIP
A man once asked me a question which he thought was going to stump me and shock me into his godless way of seeing things. He said, “Don’t you think it’s very selfish of God to expect everyone to worship Him?”
My answer now would be the same as it was then. God is God, and we are His creation. The world He has made is incredible and beautiful. He is awesome, in the truest and fullest sense of that word. In fact, there are no words to adequately describe Him-how beautiful He is, how amazing He is, and how great He is. The only way to really express how we – those of us who love Him – feel is to worship Him. In true worship is fullness of joy and peace. We are complete in our worship of Him – our maker and saviour. Some of us will gladly and joyfully praise and worship Him forever.
Those who don’t share this thought are likely the ones who have never felt the urge to seek Him. How, then, can that God take into His presence those who have no interest in Him? What kind of heaven would that be?
THE CHOICE IS YOURS
We’ve all fallen short of God’s glory, says the apostle Paul, but Jesus Christ has opened the way for all those who choose Him to be forgiven and accepted. You can be one of those people. Your first step must be to believe that He exists: look around at the world and see His glory in creation and in your own flesh and spirit. Those who through the ages have not heard the gospel of Christ have at least had the creation to serve as a pointer to the Creator.
Secondly, seek Him. His words and works can be found in the Bible. His Spirit can be experienced: He is speaking to you now. Thirdly, turn from your godless attitude and way of life, to a life which is pleasing to Him. Finally, accept His son Jesus Christ into your heart and life, believing the gospel of His atoning death and resurrection.
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 