WITHOUT CERTAINTY

 

Without certainty, I would have—

Nothing to say,

No words to speak,

Nothing to do,

No goals,

No values,

No commitments,

No defense against manipulations and insults,

Nothing to die for or to live for,

No truth,

No place to take a stand,

No reason or purpose for being,

No place to rest my mind,

No protection against obsessional thinking, trying obsessively to find answers,

No reason to risk my vanishing comforts,

No reason to oppose evil and the bully.

 

Without certainty, I would be a mess, and you would be talking into an empty shell, whose only protection is a mask to hide my emptiness. I would be a sack of feelings without their interpretations and meanings, a flat and barren earth without contours, fearfully awaiting my miserable end.

OUR DECISIONS, COMMITMENTS, DOUBTS, AND FEELINGS

 

 

How do all of these elements of the Christian life fit together? When we fail to understand them in a consistent manner, we will remain confused and even tormented by doubts.

 

Let’s start from the beginning with the advent of New Life:

 

·       But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. (Titus 3:4-6)

 

Through regeneration, He opens our hearts/minds to see and believe and to turn from our sinful life. However, as important as believing facts is, this is not enough to save us. Even the demons believe in these same facts (James 2:19), but this will not save them. Instead, their hearts must also be committed to these facts. This is a by-product of saving faith, which produces obedience:

 

·       By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son. (Hebrews 11:17)

 

Abraham’s trust in his God, after walking with God for about 40 years, had produced obedience, and obedience produced blessing and eventually for the world (Genesis 22:18).

 

When we trust, we commit ourselves to obey what our Lord instructs us to do. When we don’t trust, obedience is only superficial and fails to please our Lord. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him:

 

·       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. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. Hebrews 11:6–7

 

Faith and trust must precede obedience, or else obedience and our twisted motives underlying “obedience” will not please God. Therefore, our decisions to trust in Him are the all-important element. Everyone has the knowledge of God (Romans 1:18-21), but few commit to it.

 

This may be obvious, but I wonder if we understand its implications. Instead, we tend to look at our feelings and doubts rather than at our decisions and commitments. Consequently, it is inevitable that we become discouraged regarding our level of faith.

 

Instead, we should be encouraged to see that we are committed to trusting in Jesus, however difficult this might seem.

 

We all have temptations to sin and even to doubt. However, the Bible teaches that Jesus had the same types of temptations as we have, but He did not sin:

 

·       For we do not have a high priest [Jesus] who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

 

This means that temptation itself is not sin until we embrace it. Nor does it mean that there is something the matter with our faith because we experience continuous temptations.

 

Eventually, saving faith commits to trusting God by doing what He tells us to do. For example, I might be tempted to take revenge against someone who hurt me. It might be a powerful temptation, but I can still decide to honor my Lord and to not take revenge. I can also decide to disobey my feelings and pray for him. This honors my Savior.

 

What if you are lukewarm? If your feelings are lukewarm, no problem. You can still decide to put the Lord first in your life, above all other considerations. However, if you are lukewarm in terms of his commitment to the Lord, that’s entirely another matter. Jesus taught:

 

·       “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:37-39)

 

For Jesus, love isn’t primarily a feeling but a commitment to abide in His teachings:

 

·       “Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.” (John 14:23-24)

 

If you are lukewarm regarding your commitment to Jesus, you can still pray, “Lord, give me the desire to honor you before all else.” If you pray this sincerely and continue, you will receive:

 

·       But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)

 

If you pray this way and are willing to wait for the Lord’s answer, you will receive. Why? Because you are praying according to the will of God:

 

·       And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:15)

 

It’s a matter of what you want and not what you feel. Therefore, Jesus lamented:

 

·       “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37)

HYPOCRISY AND TRUSTING IN GOD

 

 

Faith is not simply a matter of believing a set of facts. The demons “believe” (James 2:19), but this doesn’t equate with Biblical faith. There also must be a decision to place our trust in Him and what He has done for us. Therefore, when Israel refused to trust in Him, He was angered:

·       Therefore, when the LORD heard, he was full of wrath; a fire was kindled against Jacob; his anger rose against Israel, because they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power. Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven, and he rained down on them manna to eat and gave them the grain of heaven. (Psalm 78:21–24; Numbers 14:11; 20:12)

 

Israel knew these facts, but they refused to connect the dots to trust in God. Therefore, David had warned his son Solomon that facts weren’t enough. He was required to add commitment to the facts:

 

·       “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. Be careful now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong and do it.” (1 Chronicles 28:9–10)

 

Our faith commitment to trust in God is more important than our performance:

·       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. By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (Hebrews 11:6–7)

 

Obedience matters, but the obedience that is pleasing to God is one that has been motivated by a commitment to the Faith. By faith – obedience. This is the essence of Hebrews 11.

When obedience is not motivated by a commitment to the faith, it is unacceptable to God. Superficially, Israel had been doing what God had prescribed but without faith:

·       “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, (Isaiah 1:11–16; 58:1-7)

 

Without faith, following these rituals, even though Biblically required, was a hypocritical abomination. The Israelite leadership were white-washed tombs. They might have looked good to the common Israelite but not to God. He saw their faithless heart. Besides, hypocrisy and self-righteousness showed its ugly face in other ways. Their “hands were full of blood.”

 

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THE SOLUTION

 

Israel’s God wouldn’t give up on them. He would pay the redemption price with an unusual commodity -- Justice:

 

·       Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness. (Isaiah 1:27)

Ordinarily, God’s justice kills:

·       For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

 

How then does justice provide the price for redemption? This mystery is echoed in several other verses (Isaiah 51:4-8), where salvation is related to righteousness and also to the equally mysterious “Arm of the Lord”:

 

·       Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 51:9–11)

 

This Arm is seemingly a person, referred to as “you.” Among other things, it was the Arm who had split the Red Sea enabling Israel to pass through to her salvation and would be involved in bringing back His people to their “everlasting joy.” It is this Arm who will also be revealed to the nations to bring them salvation (Isaiah 52:10).

If you have any doubt about the identity of the Arm of the Lord, read on:

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:1–5)