God’s way: Believe in God and his Word.
Our way: Believe only what we understand. Believe only when we know the future. Trust our own mind and human understanding. God must be and do what we think is reasonable.
“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” —Hebrews 11:6 (ESV)
Believe in God
Have you ever wished that God would make it easier to believe? That he would do for you and everyone else in the world what he did for Saul, as recorded in Acts 9? Give you a vision of Jesus in dazzling light and speak with you telling you what to do? Even perform a miracle?
Before that vision Saul was an ardent unbeliever, an enemy of Christ, but that vision made it nearly impossible not to believe. So if God wants everyone to be saved, if God wants every Christian to trust and obey his Word, why not just do for everyone what he did for Saul?
The Lord requires faith
The answer: Because God loves our faith. And therefore he relates to us in a way that requires faith. He supplies abundant grounds for our faith, but he almost never does anything that makes it impossible not to believe.
For instance, he spectacularly and unmistakably displays his glory in nature, but unbelievers can choose to explain our world with something like the theory of evolution.
He puts into the heart of every human a moral conscience and an awareness of God, but unbelievers can choose to explain that with theories of sociology, psychology, genes, and DNA.
He inspired men to write his Scriptures. The Bible is the most astounding book in the world, a revelation of truth about life and reality that bears the unmistakable stamp of divine authenticity and authority. But unbelievers can choose to avoid God’s Word, and those who do read can choose to harden their hearts to it.
He sent his Son to the world as a man. Jesus taught the truth and performed astounding miracles. He fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. He predicted his death on the cross and resurrection from the tomb. Then God did indeed raise him from the dead, and Jesus appeared to his followers numerous times. They proclaimed that resurrection throughout their world, and many believed, but many more could choose to dismiss the reports and the evidence.
God still does miracles today. Yet unbelievers can always choose to explain them away as something less than evidence of God’s existence.
As God intends
So God gives more than ample reason to believe, but one thing he does not do is show up visibly, audibly, and indisputably in a way that science and all could verify. That is, not since his appearance to Moses and Israel at Mount Sinai and Jesus’s post-resurrection appearance to the disciples. And not more than occasionally to individuals or a small group, as he did with Saul.
That is God’s deliberate way of doing things. He always leaves those who do not want to believe an open back door to escape the truth. And he always gives those willing to believe more than enough reason to believe. (See Romans 1:16–23; John 3:14–21; John 18:37)
He always conducts our relationship with him in a way that requires faith.
Romans 1:17 says, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
So, obviously he must love our faith. Hebrews 11:6 (the Scripture that opened this post) shows he is indeed pleased by our faith and dislikes our unbelief so much that we cannot please him without faith. Jesus always commended people who had faith and chided those who did not believe. He talked about it regularly because it matters so much to him.
Unfortunately, if we had it our way, we would never need faith in God. We would always know what the future holds and have full control of it. And everything God does would make sense to us ahead of time. What faith requires is actually offensive to our pride, to our proud minds. It takes us out of the driver’s seat. It makes us dependent, like children. We won’t understand everything. “Unless you turn and become like children,” said Jesus, “you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).
God’s Ways: He loves our faith and so relates to us in a way that requires us to believe him.
Implications
For all who want to know God and walk and work closely with him, this means five things:
- We must never be okay with our own doubt and unbelief. (But we are to be merciful toward others who See Jude 1:22) (See John 20:27; James 1:6–8)
- We must choose to believe what the Bible says and resist our Western scientific training that has left a bias in our mind against the supernatural. This is a choice based on who we think is more reliable. (See Luke 1:37; Matthew 22:29; 1 Corinthians 1:17–31; Proverbs 28:26)
- We must believe in Jesus Christ. (See John 3:16; John 6:27–35)
- We must do the things that strengthen faith. Read and memorize the Bible daily. Attend a church weekly that believes that the Bible is inerrant and that God still does supernatural miracles such as healings. And pray continually. (See Romans 10:17)
- We must understand that for all our lives, growing in faith is God’s spiritual curriculum for us as much as growing in love, holiness, and knowledge. Therefore God will allow situations in your life to draw out more faith. So you need to respond to those situations as God intends—with faith in him and his Word. (See Hebrews 12:2)
Question: In the comments area, tell us: What would you add to this list?