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Nesher Tracts
What Does God Require of Us?
There is a
God
Many people today deny the existence of God, but, despite their
protestations, this is an untenable position to hold. All we need do is
look to the Creation around us, the sky, the sea, the hills and
forests, and we can do no other than come to the conclusion that there
is an all-powerful Creator God who designed it all and keeps it all in
being. God's eternal power and Godhead can clearly be seen from the
things that are made by Him.
We are therefore
without excuse
The reason that many people in our day deny this to be the case is not
because science has proven otherwise, but rather it is because they do
not want to believe
it. Many people are violently against the idea that
there is a God who created everything, because the consequence of
admitting such a God exists must lead to the conclusion that all of us
are therefore answerable to Him. We cannot escape this conclusion. If
God exists, then we are answerable to Him because we were created by
Him. Therefore if we continue to ignore the fact that God exists, we
are without excuse when it comes to the judgment to which such a God
must hold all his rational, created beings accountable.
The Conscience
Creation tells us that there is a God, and by inference that we are
accountable to Him. This is all that Creation can tell us in and of
itself, but it is enough for us to be without excuse if we neglect to
then find out what God requires of us. It is therefore our duty to find
out what God requires of us, and we should not be able to sleep until
we have not only found this out, but once having found it out, put it
into practice in our lives. God has also given all men a conscience,
which will not give them rest until they have done this. Men do all
sorts of crazy things of their own invention in order to try to placate
their own consciences, but in the end none of them work, because of the
very fact that they have invented these stupid ideas themselves, rather
than gone looking to God Himself for the revelation that He has given
mankind to show us what He requires.
God's Revelation
Creation shows us
that there is a God and that we are all responsible
to then find out for ourselves what God requires. In fact God's
revelation as to what He requires of us is not very difficult to find
at all. Most people know it. At least three major religions all
acknowledge what this revelation of His law is. It is summarily
comprehended in the Ten Commandments, which are common to Christians,
Muslims and Jews alike. The problem is that most people in today's
world simply do not want to be told what to do and how to behave,
because they are happy with making their own rules up, and not being
responsible to anyone for their behaviour. So they deliberately forget
God. The one thing truly needful to solve all the problems of mankind,
and to create a world of good, humble, God-fearing, caring people has
been lost sight of completely. Without this, the world will never get
any better, rather it will get worse, and no amount of man-made ideas
will change the situation, just maybe cover the problems over for a
time.
The Solution
If everyone kept
the Ten Commandments, i.e. God's revealed law for man,
the world's problems would be solved at a stroke. No longer would the
world be full of people out to get what they can for themselves, living
selfish lives and not bothering much about other people less well off
than they. A world full of people loving God with all their heart,
soul, mind and strength, and their neighbour as themselves would solve
everything at a stroke. So why don't we do it?
A further problem
Here is the proof
of the sad fact that none of us are able to keep the
law of God, even when we know what it is. None of us can live up to
that standard. Indeed, our natural instinct is to rebel against God's
law and deliberately hate it, wanting to live for our own pleasure and
invent our own morality instead. We think that we shouldn't be
responsible to a God, especially one who gives us a law that demands of
us more than we can do. This, we say, is the ultimate in unfairness.
How can we believe in a God that is so cruel?
God's Final Solution
First of all, God
created man upright, but Adam, the first man (this
fact is common to all three major religions. It is the evolutionist,
who doesn't believe in a first man, that is out of step here), sinned
by eating the forbidden fruit, and all mankind descending by ordinary
generation from him, i.e. you and me, inherited a totally corrupt
nature as a result. This is why we cannot keep God's law no matter how
hard we try. Try keeping the Ten Commandments in thought, word and deed
for a day, or an hour. All I have to say to you is the phrase "dirty
thought," and you have had one. Don't pretend that you haven't. This is
the wretched condition we are
all in by nature.
Again, it is argued that it is unfair of God to subject all men to
being born into such a condition, when it was only Adam that fell in
the first place. Well, for a start it is not unfair of God. He can
create a world any way He likes, and it is not up to us to complain.
But more than this, God has
provided a way of escape from our
condition. So there is
a way out. Even so, most men prefer not to
believe the problem exists in the first place, than to believe a
problem with a way out.
Remember what we have learned so far:
- The fact of Creation shows us there is a God.
- The fact there is a God means that we are responsible to Him.
- The fact that we are responsible to Him means that we must search out
what duty this God requires of us.
- When we find what duty He requires of us we find out that we cannot
keep this law in and of ourselves.
- When we find out that we cannot keep this law in and of ourselves we
must search out to see whether God has a way of escape, and if so to
take hold on it with all that we have, or face the consequences.
Cry for Mercy
No longer do we now have Islam and Judaism with us. Both these
religions believe that, despite Adam's fall, we are still able to keep
the law in and of ourselves. They will not see that the real problem is
within us, so they will not see the need to go searching any further
for a solution. We need to see the depth of our own inability to keep
God's law, and to cry out for Him to have mercy on us. God has no
obligation to answer. If God sent you or me into eternal conscious
torment in body and soul in hell fire forever, it would only be what
every one of us deserves as the just punishment for our sins. God is
always perfectly just, He cannot be otherwise.
But God is also a merciful God. He sent His Son Jesus Christ into the
world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might
be saved. Cry to Him for mercy. He is our only hope.
"Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his
judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid
in the day of the LORD'S anger." – Zephaniah 2:3