All of mankind must answer
the ultimate question, does God exist?
This question cannot be ignored.
God has ‘set eternity in the hearts of men’. (Ecclesiastes 3:11) There is an innate desire rooted deeply
within the heart to know the living God.
There is a void, a vacuum within every heart that yearns for a knowledge
of the Holy One. How might we satisfy
this inner yearning? ‘No one has ever
seen God.’ (John 1:18) No man has ever heard his voice nor have they
walked any distance with God as though he were a man. The great dilemma was how to fill the great
gulf that separated God and man. The magnificence of his beauty and the
glorious sight of his face was enough to kill a man. "You
cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live." (Exodus 33:20) Yet, the Bible makes clear that men who fail
to believe in his existence are without excuse.
Paul wrote to the Romans these words:
‘what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it
plain to them’. (Romans 1:19)
Men may realize God’s
existence by observing the beauty of nature.
Have you not looked at the glory of a majestic mountain, have you not
seen the rush of Niagra or looked upon the vastness and depth of the great
ocean and not said to yourself, “There must surely be a God”? Paul reaffirms the revelation of God through
nature when he says ‘For since the creation of the world God’s invisible
qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being
understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.’ (Romans1:20)
We will be without excuse on
the day ‘every knee shall bow’ (Romans 14:11) before the Creator of the universe. One
will say, “I saw no evidence that you existed”.
The jury will gasp that they he
not see God in the great overflow of the Divine manifested in his
creation. Another will say, “But I
wanted so much to eat, drink and be merry and so I thought I would delay the
issue until a later date.” In the movie,
Rocky 3, Balboa’s opponent, Clubber
Lane, is asked about their upcoming match.
Lane replies, “I pity the fool!”
Will there be anyone there at the judgment to ‘pity the fool’ who
exchanged the blessings of eternity for a few short moments of earthly
pleasure? Some on that day will look
into the face of the One who came to earth, submitted himself to the torture of
his enemies, who allowed himself to be brutally nailed to a cross and took upon
himself the sin of all mankind as he died a cruel death. And they will say to him, “I just didn’t take
it seriously”. Heaven will surely echo
the gasps of the multitudes as they witness such arrogance and carelessness.
How might we believe in
God? We might consider all the evidence
and logically conclude that he exists.
We might look at the rotation of the planets and the revolution of the
heavenly bodies and come to a rational conclusion that what we are observing
has to be a result of intelligent design.
We might consider the fact that there is good in the world, there is a
standard of morality and that standard must certainly have an Origen. God has certainly made it possible for us to
arrive at a point where we have an unshakeable belief in the existence of God
because we have followed the road of reason to such a conclusion.
But those who arrive at the
door of belief by following the road of rationality might find themselves
deprived of a personal relationship with the God they believe in. God wants not only that we believe in him, he
wants us to have relationship with him.
You can’t have relationship with someone you can’t see, with someone you
can’t talk to, with someone impossible to know.
So, God sent his only begotten son to reveal himself to us. The Father sends his son as an eyewitness, a
primary witness to reveal to men the true nature of God, ‘He testifies to what
he has seen and heard’. (John 3:32) What has he seen? He has seen the face of God. What has he heard? He has heard the voice of the father.
All other prophets who shared
truth could only claim that they had a partial grasp of the whole truth. Jesus boldly declared that he was the
truth. John the Baptist came with a
message, he pointed ahead to the One who was yet to come. But Jesus didn’t come with a message, he was
the message. The apostles revealed the
way to God and to heaven. Jesus
proclaimed, ‘I am the way and the
truth and the life.’ (John 14:6)
Believing that God exists is
only the first step to having a meaningful, fulfilling personal relationship
with him. The foundation of this
relationship is provided by the reality that God chose to reveal himself to us
through his Son. The Christ that rose
out of Bethlehem revealed himself to many people. He had family and friends and followers who
saw his face, they heard his voice and walked with him from place to
place. One important thing they learned
as they walked with Jesus was that he could not lie. (Titus 1:2) Jesus told them, “I came from the Father and
entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the
Father." (John 16:28) He wrapped himself in human flesh, fulfilled
his mission and returned to the Father.
No other person has ever existed before conception. This means he was the incarnate Christ. This means that he was God.
Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.
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