Hebrews Chapter Eleven, A Living Faith

 

God is a Being, three persons in one, or what the Christian church calls the Trinity. Many professing Christians have stumbled at this doctrine, clearly taught in both the Old and New Testaments. Jehovah’s Witnesses, a cult that denies the Trinity, was founded by Charles Taze Russell, who couldn’t fathom the Trinity. To him it was incomprehensible nonsense, and so using flawed human reason to trump Scriptural authority, he apostatized. 

Unitarians believe likewise. They believe that the Trinity profanes the nature of monotheism by claiming that God is three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yet in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, we read, “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness,” Genesis 1:26. The Holy Spirit, determined to ensure that this could not be misunderstood, adds, “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created Him; male and female He created them,” Genesis 1:27. The “Our” of verse 26 turns into the “His” of verse 27. The plural, when spoken amongst the Godhead, is the singular from an outside perspective, simply referring to God. Even one of the names of God, Elohim, constantly used in the Hebrew, literally means Gods, plural. The singular, which could have been employed but was not, is El.

 

God is the Creator of the time/space/matter universe, of earth within that universe, and of us (humanity) on earth. And this was not over the course of millions of years; God spoke, and with power established the Heavens and the earth. He translated Enoch. He preserved Noah and flooded the earth. He called Abraham, and from Jacob and his sons created the twelve tribes of Israel. From Israel came Judah, and out of Judah came the lineage of David. From David’s bloodline came Christ, God incarnate, born to redeem Adam’s fallen race from the very real judgment God pronounced upon sin, and upon those who refuse to relinquish it. Christ said of Himself, “I and My Father are one,” John 10:30. The Greek behind that little word, “one” means unity or essence. Christ is equal to the Father, Philippians 2:6. Later in John’s gospel Jesus tells Philip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father,” John 14:9. Though a perfect, sinless Man, Jesus Christ was also (and remains) God Almighty, God the Word that existed in perfect fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit before time began. Jesus is a deeply personal, relational, loving God, revealing God’s character in a way that leaves utterly nothing to the imagination in any regard of His intentions toward us, if there was ever any doubt.

 

When someone says, “I believe in God,” I must immediately question what that means. Many counterfeits exist, have existed, and sadly, will exist until our Lord returns to set up His kingdom. The God I know defined Himself elegantly in Jesus, and is the only way to be saved. He is exclusive; one must by faith come to Him, or one may not come at all, as Cain and Abel learned. He is a God with boundaries, because He is jealous for the objects of His love, wanting them to avoid the pain and misery willful decisions and sin inflict us with. What good parent doesn’t provide barriers that are not to be crossed? And if we insist, like a wise parent, God permits us in our pride to run into iniquity and incur its consequences, being faithful and just to forgive us, should we repent and acknowledge our error, 1 John 1:9. The God Scripture declares is a personal Being, the Triune God, perfect in love and fellowship, lacking nothing. He is a holy, just and merciful God. But His mercy comes with a choice we must make. God put forth His Christ as the world’s Savior, and only through Jesus may we have forgiveness and eternal life. His holiness will not suffer sinners to enter His presence, unless they are pardoned in His Son’s name. To Christians that confess Christ but live like the Devil as the saying goes, do you know Him whom you claim to believe in?

 

What then is the reward God offers for those that diligently seek Him? First, why is this mentioned? The first criterion one must clear is that we believe there is a God. James says we have done well, but so too do demons. The kind of faith that differentiates us from the demons is a living faith, one that actively seeks out the source of our faith in a bid to know better, to draw closer. Returning to Acts 17:27, it says, “So that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.” God’s reward is not the bucket list of prayer requests we each carry. It is Him, Himself. The diligent seeker that passes on from idle faith to active pursuit is richly rewarded with God’s presence in the Holy Spirit, who indwells us and seals us for the day of redemption, Ephesians 1:13, 14. No greater reward could the saints have, then for God to be with us, living in us, conforming us and animating us to the newness of life we have received. This life, this second birth, is a supernatural event, whose foundation returns to God’s invading presence as He makes us His temple, as Jesus spoke of His own body, John 2:19. Paul also related, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? …The temple of God is holy, and that is what you are,” 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17, NASB.