The Obedience Question

Christian faith is often described as comprising – knowledge, assent, and trust.  We must have the knowledge of the Bible and then assent or agree with this knowledge.  But also there’s the important step of trust for true faith.  In all three steps Jesus is the object of our faith, he is the one of whom we learn as we gain knowledge that he is the Christ.  Jesus is also the one whom we must trust as Lord.  But is obedience required for true faith? 

We can look to Scripture to understand faith and obedience and see Jesus taught in John 14:21, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.  And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”  Faith at this point is to know, accept and trust the doctrine of obedience as Jesus taught.  God calls all Christians to obedience to him through Christ as a matter of faith and love for him.  This is an obedience of the heart as well as the mind.  It is not legalism to an external code or man-made set of rules.  It is an expression of true faith and love for the God of creation and our salvation.    

Obedience is the key to loving God with both the heart and the mind.  And obedience to God’s commands also prevents many of the troubles and sins that beset people in their faith.  To be truly faithful and to truly trust in Christ, we are called to obey him in every aspect of his teaching.  This includes the command to love God as our first priority, and then to love our neighbor as ourselves.  We are called to obedience to all doctrines and it is for all people of faith.  It is a paradigm of trust for the Christian faith that all people of faith need.  

To develop this in our everyday life I believe we need to have a premeditated obedience to grow in faith and sanctification.  We must decide ahead of time that we will seek to obey the teachings of Christ because the tyranny of life will distract us if we don’t.  Granted no one can obey the teachings of the Word perfectly, but the Bible is the key to knowing our calling.  With a goal of obedience, and with a mind that actively seeks after God, we can achieve far greater obedience than if we don’t.  

Our lives will also be more consistent if we are focused and determined ahead of time to keep in step with the Holy Spirit as we know in the Scripture.  It’s more than, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.’  It’s a life of commitment to God through obedience to his teachings, and receiving the Spiritual blessings of walking faithfully to his Word.  Being filled with the Holy Spirit will lead us to live in obedience.  There's no question we need His help to live in obedience and faithfulness.  

FAITH TODAY:  John 14:15, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

The Ancient News

In comparison to the daily news as I described last time, the Bible is a great book for many reasons, not the least of which is that it is not new.  There are two great qualities of this book and that is that it's timeless and it's true.  To show how we need this book for growing in our faith let's take a look at Genesis 1-3.

The creation account is often overlooked in our contemporary world because the theory of evolution reigns so much in our culture.  But after watching a great documentary recently called, "Is Genesis History?", I'm convinced there's so much more we can learn from Genesis.  Our thinking has been so clouded by modern philosophies that often we can't imagine the creation story in the Bible is actually a true historical account.  But it is, and the Bible is trustworthy in its content and worth our complete attention and devotion.

The Book - to highlight just a few important ideas we get from Genesis we see there is the creation by God, the purpose and provision of God, the protection from God, the brokenness by the enemy, and the promise of redemption.  This ancient story is just as relevant today as it has always been.  It's imperative that we learn how to think biblically for that is exactly why God gave us the Bible, for our instruction, salvation, edification, and sanctification.  We need this book to understand reality.

Creation - we see this from Genesis 1-2 how God created the heavens and the earth in six days.  Each day had a specific design for what was created, for there was order and structure as life was brought forth.  The length of the days is a huge debate as modern philosophies teach us a very old earth and universe that came out of nothing.  But don't miss that God created all things in a particular order and with great design.  This is not a random collision of chance and matter.  In 1:26 we see that God created humans with specific dignity, "Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness."  Mankind is not the same as the animal kingdom as we are image bearers of God.

Purpose - God not only created the heavens and the earth but as we also see from 1:26, "And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."  This command to have dominion is repeated in 1:28.  We see at the outset God gives man a calling and a purpose to have dominion over the earth.  This includes many things but essentially it is to work for God in filling and subduing the earth.  We have a calling to work, as we also see in 2:15, God put man in the garden to work it and keep it.

Provision - the story moves quickly as we see in 1:29, "And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit.  You shall have them for food."  God gives great provision with every kind of food as he also describes in v.30, and also in 2:9.  There was an abundance of food, vegetation, and animals in the garden of Eden.  But, even more, God gave Adam provision with a wife as he created humanity male and female, both in the image of God, as we first see in 1:27.

Protection - not only did God give Adam and Eve a purpose and provision, he also gave them instruction not to eat of a particular tree in the garden.  This may seem like a restriction on mankind and that God gave them something that is not good, but in reality it was good.  In 2:16 God says they are to eat of all the trees of the garden which were given for food, but in 2:17, he says, "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."  God gave this commandment to them so that they would not die.  It was so they would live abundantly in the garden that he had provided for them.  It was for their protection.

Brokenness - often we look at the world and see its brokenness everywhere and we think how could there be a God if there is so much suffering and death?  How can we understand the evil in the world?  The Genesis account explains it completely.  God said we "would surely die" if we broke his commandments, and we surely did.  We have an enemy that is seeking to destroy us and everything that God created to be good.  In 3:4 we read, "But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die."  From this first deception, we have all fallen into sin and death.  The brokenness of the world confirms as much as anything the truthfulness of the Genesis account.

Promise - here's the good news.  Despite the fall into sin with its many devastating consequences of brokenness, we have the greatest news in the world with the promise of redemption from God.  In 3:15 God curses the serpent and says, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."  God gives us the first description of the gospel of Christ, as he would be born of a woman, and he would bruise or crush the serpent's head.  Christ has defeated Satan by bringing the death of death in his own life and resurrection from the dead.  The gospel of Christ brings redemption back to the initial purpose and provision of God to fill the earth and subdue it.

This ancient news is really good news.  It is not a deception, it is not a myth, it is not a legend without evidence or fact, nor is it a virtual reality in our imaginations.  It is the very word from God that explains the truth of life.  There is no technology, philosophy, or artificial intelligence that can explain life like this.  This ancient news is timeless and has more relevance than the morning paper as each of us are children of Adam and Eve.  Each of us needs redemption in Christ, and without the Genesis account, there's no need for salvation.  Let's not be deceived again to believe, "You will not surely die."

FAITH TODAY:  Genesis 1:28, "And God blessed them.  And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.""

The Daily News

Have you read the paper today?  It really doesn't matter which one you read but if you look carefully you may be able to recognize the worldview that each paper promotes.

For instance today, June 2, the USA TODAY newspaper opened with a front page article entitled, "Apple could alter reality" and states, "The reality is augmented reality is slowly seeping into the everyday use of technology by millions of Americans.  Now it just needs an iPhone power boost."  This sentence took me by surprise and I had to read it a couple of times.  Sadly, many people may actually believe this.

This worldview is quite amazing in my view for it makes some pretty big assumptions about reality.  It brings into question the nature of what reality really is or could be.  For starters I believe the author should have placed a comma between the words, "is augmented," for he is distinguishing two different types of reality.  

It's a play on words and causes us to stumble at first as we aren't sure which reality he is referring to.  Perhaps it could have been written, "the reality is, augmented reality..." to emphasize he is talking about a different reality.  He's first referring to the real reality we live in, and then the not-so-real reality that can be developed through computers and the Internet.  Not only is augmented reality "slowly seeping into everyday life," but so is the belief that there are many "realities" seeping into our thinking.  Just how many realities are there?

The development of technology is advancing quickly throughout our society, and AI - artificial intelligence, is on the cutting edge of this evolution, so to speak.  But as we learn about "augmented reality" and virtual reality, AI, the Internet, and the Cloud, we need to step back and take a deep breath and ask, what is reality, anyway?  What is their reality, and our reality, and ultimate reality?  Is there an ultimate reality?  The answer to that question usually comes down to which worldview, or perspective of reality you accept.  But we should also ask, which reality is ultimately real despite our worldview?

I believe all the "realities" that can be imagined or developed come from the one true, ultimate, and objective reality of the universe, and that is the reality of God.  That's more than a worldview, it's more than a philosophical and epistemological necessity, it's the universal reality we all live in.  If there was no ultimate objectivity from a supreme being that doesn't change or evolve then we couldn't understand anything.  But we are not going to get that perspective or worldview in the daily news, they just assume that reality behind the scenes.  Instead, we are going to hear of an evolving idea of reality that opens the doors for anything real or imagined.

Contemporary culture and especially the daily news and media, loves novelty, change, and evolving reality.  They love to try to change truth paradigms so that "reality" takes on new meanings.  The truth is, we humans can discover and engineer the reality and science that exists in the universe, but we cannot create it.  Technology cannot alter ultimate reality, and that reality is the one reality that defines all other realities.  We should try to learn more about that ultimate reality that would then lead us to the Creator, which is exactly what all the truth of the universe is proclaiming.

We need to always compare the worldview of the daily news with the timeless truth of God because that's the ultimate reality that we need and the one which cannot be changed.  An augmented reality augments something, it cannot stand alone nor can it redefine reality, as it is dependent upon the ultimate reality just like everything else.  We can see however that the reality of the Bible is verifiable because its truth is consistent with our everyday lives and the ultimate reality of the God of the universe.  The reality of an unchanging and ultimate God is a great worldview.

FAITH TODAY:  Romans 1:20, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse."