14 – A word about faith

Being able to prove that God is real and that Jesus is alive doesn’t reduce the role of faith in submitting yourself to the Creator and putting Jesus in charge of your life. The reality of God and the resurrection of Jesus are matters of scientific and historical fact, not matters of faith. 

Faith is what or who you trust with your life and destiny. Some people trust religious ritual. Some trust good works. Some trust a philosophy or way of life. Many trust only themselves. But none of those will save you from yourself, from your irresistible compulsion to live your way rather than God’s way. Saving faith is deciding to trust Jesus with your life – today, tomorrow, and forever.

Even people who agree that God is real and Jesus is alive will not necessarily entrust their lives and destinies to Christ, because doing that means giving up control and living their lives in a way that honors the Creator and obeys Jesus’ teaching, rather than doing whatever they want to do.

Adam and Eve knew God face to face, but that didn’t stop them from sinning. No amount of scientific and historical evidence, no argument or debate, will convince the self-centered, self-willed soul to turn over control of his life to Jesus and start living in a way that honors God. Only God’s spirit can draw the hungry soul to the Bread of Life and Living Water.

So why do some people feel so strongly that God can’t be real?

Some have had horrible experiences. Others are aghast at how much violence and suffering there is in the world. They wonder how a loving God could allow such things to happen. Overcome with cynicism and despair, they lose the sense of wonder we all felt as children when we marveled over a butterfly or a dandelion puff or a sunset.

Such people don’t need to be – can’t be – argued into the Kingdom of God. They need to recapture a sense of awe about life’s mysteries and wonders. Many people, even some Christians, would say “Oh, wow!” doesn’t count as an argument for the reality of God. The truth is, it’s the only real argument.

Living separated from God leaves people filled with pain and cynicism. When you get past the emotions, you find a person who actually knows God is real but has come to doubt whether he is a loving God.

In all my conversations with skeptics, I have never had a single person offer scientific evidence that God is not real. They offer arguments of logic. They share disillusioning personal experiences. They argue that macro evolution can explain the world without a Creator. But they never say, “Look, here’s a fact that cannot be explained if this world is the work of a Creator God.”

That’s because the real issue in rejecting the reality of God has nothing to do with science. The skeptic wants a world without God because he knows admitting God is real would keep him from living his life the way he wants to live it. A God who is able to create a world as marvelous as this is a God who cannot be ignored.

Everyone knows, deep in his heart, that every heartbeat is a gift from the Creator. Everyone knows he owes a debt of gratitude to the Creator for his life. And we all know that pretending the Creator isn’t real is an insult to the One who gives us life and breath. In fact, it might be downright dangerous.

What if you had a medical condition that required someone to stand beside you – 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year – and hold down a button to keep your heart beating? How would you treat that person? Would you pretend she wasn’t there? Would you tell others you didn’t believe she existed? When something bad happened to you, would you complain that she shouldn’t have allowed it? Would you use her name as a curse word?

When a skeptic insists God isn’t real, I ask him to check his pulse. I ask him exactly how it is that he keeps his own heart beating. I ask him what he could do to keep it beating if it suddenly stopped.

Say your heart beats about 70 times a minute. If you only live 70 years, that’s more than 2.5 billion heartbeats – every one of them a free gift from God. It’s a gift he continues to give more than 36 million times a year, even to the skeptic who denies God is real and uses his name as a curse word.

The fact that God continues to freely give the gift of life – no strings attached – to people who use his name as a profanity is a powerful testimony to his love and mercy.

Whether or not someone is willing to admit that God is real is beside the point. What matters is why people would deny a truth so obvious. The pressing question is what pain or compulsion keeps them from turning to him and experiencing his love and forgiveness for themselves.

Think about it!
How does it strengthen your faith to know that Christian truth is based on proven fact?

Get involved!
Share the “medical condition” illustration with an unbelieving friend and ask him how it affects the way he thinks about his relationship with God.

Next installment
15 – A word about doubt

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