Have you ever heard a person comment on how preposterous the gospel of Jesus Christ is? When they do, it often can sound like this:
“So……you want me to believe that some guy was sitting on a throne in heaven… because he is God, right? And that he shows up on earth as a baby, but he is not conceived in the normal way…because his mom gets pregnant through a spirit, have I got this? Anyway, so he lives his life and does all these miracles but he gets a lot of people angry at him so they sentence him to death and they nail him to a cross and then he dies but then he comes back to life. And then…you want me to believe that because he got punished that I am not going to get punished by this God…who actually has it all set up for me to go to hell if I don’t believe all this. Am I tracking? And this father God is the one who planned all this out, even the death of his son, and he is willing to forgive me of all the bad things I have done, even the ones I’m going to do, and that if I believe all this he is going to take me to heaven where his son has prepared some sort of apartment for me or something, right? But that maybe before I die this Jesus guy is coming back with a gigantic angel-army and is going to crush this really bad dude called Satan.…is that all you really think I am going to believe all that? Sure… and while we’re at it… can we talk about that guy who flies all around on a sled pulled by reindeer one night a year and delivers presents to everyone?”
I don’t know about you but when I consider the comments of the fictitious non-believer above, I often think, it is a miracle that anyone believes in the gospel! Then of course I consider how God must work in our hearts that we would even be open to His truth.
There was a man and wife from days of old who was also asked to believe something quite improbable as well. Allow me to take a shot at what the might have been thinking:
So…God…let me get this straight. My wife Sarah and I, even though we are a zillion years old and well passed child-bearing years are going to have a baby even though we have tried and tried and tried… and that not only are we going to have a baby but that from us there will be as many born as stars of the sky?”
Now I understand that as amazing as it is that a child came forth from Abraham and Sarah, this is not nearly as hard to believe as the gospel of Jesus Christ, but God does parallel the two to some degree (see Romans 4). Not because the magnificence of the gospel is matched by the conception of Isaac but because God wanted to teach humanity that we can only be justified by faith. Consider these verses:
“What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.”
–Romans 4:1-5
And….
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” — Romans 5:1-2
Now I know that the things I am sharing may be elementary teachings of the faith to some of you but the reason why I am sending this e-mail is because I found Romans chapter 4 to be such an encouragement to me this week. My faith is strong but I recognize that we all need a “firming-up” in our faith sometimes and it is in those times that we can step back from what we have believed for decades, look at what is written in the bible about Jesus Christ and say to ourselves, “That is so hard to believe!” But Romans chapter 4 is in my experience is God’s acknowledgement that the things He asks us to believe are often perceived by the human heart to be unbelievable! Yet, belief in the gospel is the foundation of our salvation. It is almost as if God says to the human heart, “Look, the things I have said are true and to you they may seem unbelievable. Have faith! Believe! It is what I require”. So why was I so encouraged this week? Not because I was having a “crisis of faith” but because I saw Romans 4 as a compassionate and merciful section of scripture that has been provided to us by God who in His love says to us, “I know I call you to believe the unbelievable!” How much more gracious is it of Him then to be the “author and perfecter of our faith” who draws us to Him?
So in all this we can praise God for doing the unbelievable….and that we have become those who have come “to trust God who justifies the ungodly.”
For the glory of Jesus Christ,
Rob