The Answer to Life's Questions

As we go through life we can have many questions unanswered, but all these unknowns can be overcome by faith in Jesus Christ, by trusting in Who we do know.  Many times there is no satisfaction gained by receiving an answer:  we hoped for yes, yet the answer was no.  An honest and biblically accurate answer still might make no sense to us.  Also, it is possible for one question we ask to have many correct answers, depending on the context and perspective.  Praise the LORD He is the answer for all of our uncertainties and mental and physical insufficiency, for God is able to save to the uttermost all who come to Him in faith.

Some excellent questions are asked by genuine seekers who do not hail from Christian backgrounds because they look curiously upon what we can take for granted.  I was asked a thought-provoking question recently I had never considered myself:  if God planned to send Jesus as Saviour of the world, why didn't He send Him instead of Moses?  Great caution must be taken in answering a question like this, for God's wisdom is higher than ours and His ways past finding out.  Though our understanding is limited, through the Bible God has revealed Himself to us and thus intellectually satisfying answers can be provided received by faith.  The revelation of scripture enables us to find firm ground beyond the subjectivity of self with clouded motivations.

One answer to this question lies in the fact that without clearly defined sin there was no understanding of need for a Saviour.  Moses justified the killing of the Egyptian who was beating the Hebrew slave to show he believed God had called him to deliver God's people from slavery.  Acts 7:23-25 reads, "Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel. ²⁴ And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian. ²⁵ For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand."  It was through Moses God gave the 8th commandment:  "Thou shalt not murder."  Without the Law and Prophets God's people would have not realised their sinfulness and need for atonement only Jesus could once for all provide.

It is ironic Jews who had been given the Law would cling to Moses and reject Jesus, and by God's wisdom this provided an opportunity of salvation to Gentiles who were aliens from the first covenant and commonwealth of Israel.  Are not the ways of God past finding out?  The grace of God revealed by the Gospel is the sort of thing that intrigues men and angels, for it is written in 1 Peter 1:10-12:  "Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, ¹¹ searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. ¹² To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven--things which angels desire to look into."  Supernatural beings were incapable of discovering what God graciously has revealed to sinners by grace.  What a treasure we have in the Bible and the Holy Spirit who helps us comprehend what God has said!

There is much we don't understand, but God has all in hand.  In the trillion microscopic cells of the human body unseen by the naked eye there is a command centre, vast assembly lines, means of transportation and waste plants--all operating without our knowledge to promote the health of the body.  We can only begin to explain what is happening by making comparisons to what we see, and God made it to work silently and seamlessly.  Is there anything too hard for God?  If other human beings can "talk over our heads" in their field of expertise, wouldn't God even more so when it comes to life and eternity?  Praise the LORD He has the answers and unknowns overcome through faith in Him.  We don't need to know everything because we know and trust the One who does and has revealed Himself to us by grace.

A Tale of Four Beliefs

There are degrees of belief, and not all belief translates to saving faith.  Jesus arrived in Cana of Galilee, the place where He previously performed his first public miracle by turning water into wine.  A nobleman came to Him and begged Jesus to come quickly and heal his dying son.  Jesus remarked as a matter of fact in John 4:48, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."  The man may not have come to Jesus at all unless he heard of the previous miracle Jesus had done.  It meant He believed Jesus could heal His son, not that He followed what the supernatural sign pointed to:  that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah and Son of God.  The words of Jesus would prove prophetic.

John 4:50 says, "Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives." So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way."  The man believed the word Jesus spoke to him, and his belief was evidenced by obedience to leave.  He did not continue begging for Jesus to return to heal his son because Jesus affirmed his son lives.  The burden of worry lifted, the nobleman began to head for home.  John 4:51-53 continues, "And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, "Your son lives!" ⁵² Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." ⁵³ So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives." And he himself believed, and his whole household."

After the nobleman was met by his servants with the wonderful news his son lived, as Jesus had said, he asked them precisely when his son began to mend.  They confirmed it was the same hour Jesus had proclaimed, "Your son lives."  This was a sign to the nobleman Jesus indeed was directly responsible for his son's healing, and thus "he himself believed."  The man believed at first Jesus could heal his son, then he believed the word Jesus said, and then "he himself believed, and his whole household."  Having believed that Jesus was the Christ, the man joyfully shared the truth with his son who was healed and his whole house.  They all believed as the man did, having heard his eyewitness testimony and seeing the miraculous healing firsthand.  Genuine faith makes the truth known to others so they might believe themselves.

It was a watershed moment when the man himself believed who Jesus was, for salvation through the Gospel begins here.  It is not enough to believe a man named Jesus lived, spoke the truth and performed miracles if we do not believe ourselves in Him.  Jesus gave the man everything he needed to place his faith in Jesus Christ as LORD and Saviour, and He does the same for us.  He has given us the testimony of the word of God and believers who share the truth about Jesus.  No one is without excuse to believe today in Christ, as Paul said in Acts 17:30-31: "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, ³¹ because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead."  If the Law, Prophets, and resurrection of Jesus will not convince us, then we will not believe--even the testimony of the Man risen from the dead.

Preaching to the Converted

Today I read a statement that grabbed my attention.  In describing a political speech a reporter mused, "It sounds like he is preaching to the converted."  The ironic thing is as one who preaches I can say with absolute certainty the converted need preaching as much as the unconverted, for this is a way God has designed for people to know God and grow in grace.  While a Gospel presentation may be tailored to an unbelieving audience for salvation, going on with God is important too.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:17-21, "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. ¹⁸ For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. ²⁰ Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? ²¹ For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."  Contrary to the views of some, the Gospel is not merely the starting point of our walk with Jesus but guides us in following Jesus faithfully.  Being washed in the water of the word renews our minds, reveals our need for God's grace, skewers selfishness and prompts us to seek our Saviour.  We who are saved ought to work out our salvation, exercising ourselves unto godliness.

The church needs to be under the preaching of God's word, including the choir.  The best preachers are those who sit personally under the preaching of scripture by the Holy Spirit to their own hearts first before they present it themselves.  Preachers do not sit in the place of high and lofty knowledge insulated from the folly of men, for they themselves are mere men numbered among the most foolish and weak.  If a preacher does not realise this about himself, he will be a fraction the preacher he could and ought to be.  God is able to speak divine truth through the weakest instruments even through silent, small creatures like the ant.  These faithful workers caught the attention of king Solomon and taught him lessons, a man filled with the wisdom of God.  Having responded to the word of God we read out of sheer need, we are thus equipped to present it as truth we have tested ourselves as eyewitnesses of God's faithfulness.

The converted need preaching as well as the preacher, for unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

Grief and God's Grace

Grief is a complex process, and though we may never have closure with our loved ones we can experience comfort through closeness with God.  It is faith in the goodness, grace and mercy of God where we discover rest.  Paul blessed the LORD in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4:  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."  The God of all comfort has chosen to suffer for our sakes out of love for us, and knowing Him we are sustained.

I've been reading Grieving a Suicide by Albert Y. Hsu and have been blessed with his insights, especially around the grieving process and the elusive feelings of closure:

"Suicides usually leave conversations unfinished, with many loose ends.  But ultimate closure is an unrealistic expectation.  We can close on a house, but we can't close on a person's life.  To put the past behind us and lock it up into a little box dishonors the memory of our loved one; it says that we are trying to pretend that this didn't happen.  No, instead we acknowledge what happened, and that it was tragic; we acknowledge that it has changed our lives forever.  We live on as changed people who look at life and death differently now.

Eventually we come to the point of realizing that though we may always grieve, we no longer do so continually or consciously.  In some ways grief will go on forever.  In other ways it does come to some end points.  After his wife's death, C. S. Lewis wrote A Grief Observed in a series of four notebooks.  He decided that he would not buy any new notebooks after the fourth one.  He said, "I thought I could describe a state, make a map of sorrow.  Sorrow, however, turns out to be not a state but a process.  It needs not a map but a history, and if I don't stop writing that history at some quite arbitrary point, there's no reason why I should ever stop.  There is something new to be chronicled every day..."

Healing doesn't mean that we are ever completely "recovered."  We are never fully "healed."  The human body is never in a state of perfect health; it is constantly in flux, with some cells dying while others are growing.  Every day we experience minuscule injuries and abrasions, and if our bodies are healthy, they are always in the process of healing.  It is better to speak of experiencing healing as an ongoing process than to pretend we have been healed and have arrived at a final destination...We are never completely healed.  After all, we still carry the scars.  But grief that has done its work in us will help us experience God's grace more fully." (Hsu, Albert. Grieving a Suicide: a Loved Ones Search for Comfort, Answers and Hope. Inter-Varsity Press, 2017. pages 157-159.)

To all who have experienced grief and painful loss, may you also experience the comfort and hope found only in Jesus Christ who will never leave or forsake us.  God knows what it is like to lose what is most precious when He gave His only begotten Son for us on Calvary.  God has suffered for us in the person of Jesus Christ so we could receive comfort, and by faith we can cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us today and always.