One of the men of our church was in a shelter the other day and saw a sign in the office that said, “I am God and I am here to solve your problems.”
This is all that God is to the majority of people – how can this be? Because this is the way those who occupy the pulpits present him. God is made to be all things to all people. Whatever your problem, “god” can handle it. If it is a health, financial, marital or anything else . . . even a sick pet! Just ask god . . . he can solve your problem.
This is atheism in practice; this is imagination run amok; and the best the natural man can come up with in its view of God.
Is this the view the scriptures give of God? The God of the Bible is sovereign, immutable, eternally holy and righteous, and can do nothing for anyone without doing it righteously. He doesn’t reveal himself as the solver of problems but as a “Just God and Savior.”
There are those who make heaven and hell the issue. The word of God makes Christ and sin the issue. The majority make “god is love” to be paramount, but the Holy Scriptures make His righteousness and how sinners are made righteous to be paramount. The scriptures make the gospel of God’s free grace in Christ as the only way God will save sinners as it is preached. Scott Richardson has said many times, “God will not speak to, or be spoken to, by any member of the human race apart from His Son Jesus Christ”.
What is man’s real problem? It is sin, rebellion, and self-righteousness – how is this to be solved? It already has – by the Lord Jesus being “made to be sin, by bearing that sin to the cross, and there bearing the judgment and justice of God against sin, once and for all.”
By God given grace and faith, God will justly justify the sinner who believes on His Son.
– Don Bell, Pastor of Latana Grace Church, Crossville, TN USA
