Does God Care about Who and What We Think He Is?
Eric V. Snow, sermonette, 7-26-08, Ann Arbor, MI, UCG
Today some in (or associated with) the Church of God deny
that Jesus is God, [such as Ken Westby, Anthony Buzzard, Gary Fakhoury, etc.,
who are associated with the “One God” movement]. Should this controversy matter to us? Does God care about who and what we think He is? Of course!
In particular, God cares about what ideas and the words we sincerely use
about Him and His attributes, essence, character, and personality. Sure, talk is cheap. But words still do matter, not just good
works.
S.P.S. Since we have
to have the right ideas about God to be saved, the words and ideas we use to
describe Jesus are important.
We have to be aware of the effects of our nation’s culture
on us in this area: Especially we
Americans, and the English speaking peoples in general, are a very pragmatic,
non-reflective people. We tend to care
about what works rather than what is actually true. When issues of high level politics, philosophy, and theology are
asked, many Americans reflexively ask, “Well, how does that idea affect my
life? Does that idea matter? Does it work?” Given this cultural background, it’s no coincidence that the only
native school of philosophy that America has ever produced is called
“pragmatism,” such as expounded by the philosophers William James and John
Dewey. By contrast, the French are very
different from the Americans and British.
Even average French people will think about and be much more concerned
about the fundamental questions of life and the theories their philosophers
propound, such as Descartes, Pascal, Sartre, and Camus. They aren’t as practical, as their political
history over the past 210 years certainly demonstrates, but they are less apt
to drift through life without thinking things through and considering the big
picture. Think of the big public splash existentialism once
made with the French public. They
even teach philosophy to everyone
attending the lycees (academic high schools) in their senior year. So why am I making this cultural comparison
to you today during a sermonette? Well,
we have to be alert to how our cultural inheritance from the world influences
our perceptions of what matters to us as Christians. Hence, true Christians of different nations will have somewhat
different problems and sins to struggle with as they live in the world of their
own nations. Since “the world” varies
from place to place, even as it is still opposed to God’s ways, we have to be
self-conscious of these influences on how we interpret the Bible and live the
Christian life.
John 4:20+
V. 20: The Samaritan
woman makes a doctrinal point vs. Jesus.
V. 21+
To have correct knowledge about God is necessary for
salvation. Since God chose to reveal
Himself to Israel first, they got the knowledge of the true God far better than
any gentile nation had. Furthermore,
since the promise of the “Scepter,” of the Messiah, of the Savior, was to
Abraham’s descendants by the way of Isaac and Jacob, salvation came from the
Jews to the world for this reason also.
Jesus was a Jew, thus salvation came
from the Jews for that reason also.
Verses 23-24
We have to worship God correctly when that knowledge is
available. Being nice and doing good
works aren’t enough. For example, the
good works and self-sacrifice of Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India in helping
the poor are enormously impressive from a Christian viewpoint. But the errors in Catholic belief and
practice in other areas are proof enough that she wasn’t saved despite all the
good works she did. Salvation is by
faith, and true faith requires having correct beliefs about who God is and what
He requires of us. If someone has good
works, but wrong belief, they are no more saved than someone with no works, but
right belief. (This is not the place or
time to hash out salvation theology in detail, such as the implications of the
parable of the sheep and goats).
Matt. 12:36-37
Jesus said words do
matter. So shouldn’t they matter to
us? You can’t be saved if you don’t
know or deny that Jesus is the Savior.
Furthermore, consider this: If
Someone is God, but a man denies that Person is God, isn’t that blasphemy? Blasphemy occurs when God is insulted,
disrespected, or treated contemptuously.
That means using the wrong words about God. So if Jesus is God, but someone denies that He is God, can he be
saved? I don’t think so. Hence, Unitarians, Arians, and those
religious liberals who say, “Jesus was
a great religious teacher, but he wasn’t God,” can’t be saved because they
don’t identify who and what Jesus was correctly.
[Skip if lack time] C.S. Lewis explains why no middle ground
is possible about Jesus’ identity, because of His claims about Himself: “A
man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a
great moral teacher. He would either be
a lunatic‑‑on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg‑‑or
else he would be the Devil of Hell. You
must make your choice. Either this man
was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.”
Not the time or place to work through John in citing the standard
texts proving Jesus is God. I’m merely
saying today that as Americans we shouldn’t let our culture’s pragmatic
tendencies mislead us into thinking it doesn’t matter. The debate between the Trinitarians and
Arians over which of two very similar Greek words could describe Jesus in the 4th
century wasn’t an exercise in hair-splitting.
“Homo-ousios” (same substance) vs. “homoi-ousios.” One commits blasphemy, the other doesn’t.
Acts 17:29-31
Paul speaks on the Areopagus to the Athenians, who had erected
an altar “To an Unknown God” (v. 23).
God now commands all to repent since there is a witness to all the world
of the truth since He resurrected Jesus from the dead. If you deny Jesus’ resurrection, you can’t
be saved, even if you were a nice person and did lots of good works.
Conclusion: In order
to be saved, we must uphold the right beliefs about God. Since these beliefs are ideas that are
expressed by using words to symbolize them, we have to use in sincerity the
right words about God in order to be saved.
People who deny that someone is God when He actually is God commit
blasphemy, and can’t be saved until they repent of it. Therefore, let’s remember that we have to
believe that Jesus is God in order to be saved. For although talk is cheap, words do matter.