“But, all you need is child-like faith.”
Two thoughts emerge from this statement.
- If God has seen fit to give you the intellect of a child, fine... but what about when He sees fit to give you far more than that? Is it still all you need?
- Let’s say that nothing more is required of the intelligent- Your still forced to say that the deep things of God are not only ‘not necessary to know’ but also that they’re ‘not worth it’. And if that’s not a huge doctrinal problem it’s certainly a horrible tragedy. You have robbed your very self of knowing deeply and intimately the source of all joy, passion, maturity, wonder, jubilee, comfort, protection, creativity, peace & beauty that the world has ever and will ever know. You have said: “I prefer a tiny view of God” so that you can die on the hill of “Child-like Faith”.
I am in full support of the simplicity of the Gospel message. While not easy to buy into Christ and His atoning work- the story is remarkably simple.
God created the world.
Our bad actions separate us from God.
The gap is too wide for us to get back to Him on our own.
Jesus Made a way by dying on the cross.
We have to trust Him in order to benefit from it.
Five sentences...
The whole Metanarrative can be summarized in five sentences. It’s no wonder why children have come to Christ and had real saving faith before they were even able to read the account for themselves.
But not everyone comes to Christ as a four year old...
And our five sentence summary, while quite succinct, is still only a summary. It misses so many beautiful things about what God has done is is continuing to do throughout history to bring glory and honor to His name.
When I was in the fifth grade, I wrote a book report on The Red Badge of Courage by simply reading the Cliffs-notes. I got an F.
Why? Because it’s not the whole story.
Our five sentence summary does no justice to God’s genius idea of Yom Kippur and how He set up centuries before the arrival of Christ, a holiday that would perfectly teach and prepare the hearts of the Jews for both Propitiation and Expiation.
Knowing what those two words mean and why they are important may not be necessary for salvation but they do provide a depth of understanding to the character of God.
To Propitiate basically means to cancel the effectiveness of something.
Think of it like rubbing your hands with hand sanitizer- It kills all the germs and bacteria but do the organisms magically disappear? The little guys are dead and can’t affect anything but they’re still on your hands. Look close enough and they’re still there.
Expiation is the taking away of sin. To remove it from your presence.
It’s more like washing your hands with soapy water after you’ve used the sanitizer. Whatever was on your hands is removed and flows down the drain never to return again.
Silly little analogies for sure, but none the less- God painted into the culture of His people early on the need for salvation through a sacrifice. He prepared them perfectly for the coming of a once-for-all sacrifice in Jesus by revealing to them that their yearly/monthly/weekly/daily atonements weren’t getting the job done. That they needed something more.
Do you need to understand the details of an ancient Jewish holiday in order to have salvation?
Of course not!
But does it reveal something about the character of God to know that sending Jesus to die on a cross wasn’t some last minute, plan b, whim; but rather, was orchestrated and prepared for for centuries?
Of course it does!
But that knowledge is never yours until you think deeply about God and His scriptures.
You don’t need to know everything about God in order for Him to save you- That is amazingly clear. Children, men on their deathbed, and those whose mind are incapable to comprehend higher thought have all faithfully and fully come to the Father. But what shall we say of those who can but choose not to pursue Him through the intellect?
Is it not essentially relegating God from the role of close friend to mere acquaintance?
I have many acquaintances. I know none of them on a personal level. I don’t care to.
But I also have many friends. With them, I have relationships that grow and change constantly. My desire is to know them more than I currently do. It is not an easy task and sometimes I find myself learning things and unpacking things that I do not want to know but the desire remains- so I pursue. To stop pursuing would be the same as ending the relationship.
Are we content with being an acquaintance to God?
I surely hope not...
I’m not the fundamentalist guy. If you had a difficult time graduating high school, then maybe seminary is not for you. If you’re really busy and a slow reader, then maybe setting a book-a-week goal is a little unrealistic. I really don’t think God is interested in whether or not you can parse a Greek verb. But He did give you a brain for you to steward well and worship Him with.
Reading a book with pictures still gets you closer to knowing Him than not reading at all.
Needing to get somebody to help you ask and answer the tough questions is still better than running in the opposite direction.
Obviously there are real exceptions here- but if you’re reading this right now- I highly doubt that you’re one of them.
The real question is:
“Is He worth you putting in the work to pursue Him with
whatever intellect He’s seen fit to give you?”
As soon as you truthfully answer that question the rest is easy.