“…Who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the things formed
say to Him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?” The Christian faith is not built on “why,” for that is a word that usually asks a question. It is built on “that,” for that states a fact. The Bible does not often tell us why certain things are true, but it does tell us that certain things are true. God does not feel the need to explain Himself to us, for He wants us to live by faith instead of by sight. I want to look at a few examples of “why” and “that.” We are not told why God created us as He did but that He created us as He did. God created us in His image. This does not mean that we look like God but that He created us in His spiritual image. We are more than skin, bones, tissue and organs. We are more than warm bodies. We do not know why we are created in God’s image, but we know that we are created in His image. God created us to have fellowship with Him. Someone wrote, I think it was Martin Buber, that there is a God-shaped vacuum in every person. Saint Augustine wrote: “ Oh Lord, you have created us for yourself and we are restless until we find our rest in you.” The fact is that God created us to need Him. God created us to want to know Him and long for His presence. God created us to need to converse with Him, i.e., to pray. It has been said there are no atheists in foxholes. This is because most people instinctively reach out to God. We do not know why this is mostly true, but we do know that it is true. We are not told why God loves us but that He loves us. This is stated in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." No explanation is given for this love, and if one was given we would probably not understand it. The fact is that God loves us and that it is our responsibility to believe it. We are to believe that God loved us enough to give His Son in order for us to have eternal life. We are told of this love again in Romans 5:8: “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” It is a fact that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” It is also true that when we look at our sinfulness; we cannot explain why He did that. This is a good example of God’s grace, which is also beyond explanation. . We are not told why God wants to use us in His service, but that he does use us. it seems odd that an omnipotent God would need us. We know that God put Adam in the Garden to “dress and keep it.” He sent Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. God could have done it, but He chose to use both Adam and Moses. It is not clear why God uses us, but it is certainly true that He does. In Acts 10 when Cornelius and his family and staff needed to be witnessed to, God sent Peter to do it. When God needed someone to witness and minister to Gentiles, He sent Paul to do it. The Bible is full of such examples. God doesn’t need us, but we need Him and we need to be used by Him. We don’t know why He does, but we know that He does. It is not our lot to know “why”, but it is our responsibility to know “that.” Stop questioning and obey. Bro. Joe
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
All
Archives
September 2021
|