How does God test man?
There is a false doctrine
that talks about God tempting/testing Christians’ faith with disease/death or
giving Christians tasks in order to determine whether we will pass or fail.
This false doctrine says that if you (a child of God) should fail, God will
discipline you by passing you over for the promotion, responsibility or
blessing that comes with passing the test and replace you with someone else who
can do the job, “so you'd better stand firm.” This false doctrine
contradicts what Christ is doing in the lives of all who believe in Him. See
Titus 2:14-
"He gave His life to
free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own
people, totally committed to doing good deeds."
Our Saviour Jesus Christ did
not cast Peter away, give him some tongue-lashing for his sin or give the
responsibility of feeding His sheep (the church) to another
disciple that did not deny Him three times after Peter fell flat on his face.
Faith is helplessly looking to Christ for salvation in trying times.
Faith is not something that
anyone can muster up by human effort. It is a gift that ensues when
a person stops depending on his human effort/will-power to produce good, live a
godly life or to stand firm in the face of trials aka when one stops trying to
obey the Law in order to be godly. “The Law is not of faith…”
Faith comes with utter dependence
on on God's saving Grace (undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour) for
salvation. And Grace is a Person. His name is Jesus Christ.
But in many places of
worship, to “have faith” is being redefined as human effort at mustering
up the strength to stay strong in trying times in order to get God to bless and
favour one. Not so. Believer in Christ, you who are under Grace, having Christ
as your Righteousness and Strength, when you are utterly weak of yourself and
your trust is utterly in Christ and not your own will-power to stand firm and “have
faith" as those who trust in their will-power to stand know it, He
will make you strong and cause you to do exploits. James wrote in James 1:
12 “If your faith remains
strong, even while surrounded by life’s difficulties, you will continue to
experience the untold blessings of God! True happiness comes as you pass the
test with faith, and receive the victorious crown of life promised to every lover
of God!”
13 When you are
tempted don’t ever say, “God is tempting me,” for God is incapable of being
tempted by evil and he is never the source of temptation.14 Instead it is
each person’s own desires and thoughts that drag them into evil and lure them
away into darkness. 15 Evil desires give birth to evil actions. And when sin is
fully mature it can murder you!”
Temptation/test/trial- they
all mean the same thing. God does not tempt anybody much less with pediatric
cancer or other diseases test or to know what the outcome will be just so that
He can pass us over for a promotion or cancel our salvation in Christ. He allows tests not to
see if we will fail. God knows that without His help, we are doomed for
failure 100%, just as He knew that Peter would fail after Peter prided
himself in his ability to not stumble. The arm of flesh (human effort at
obedience) will fail.
The measured tests that our
heavenly Father in Christ allows to come our way are for you and
I to see how useless our will-power is, not for Him to
see. He already knows the outcome as He did with Peter. The tests are for you
and I to see the futility of trusting in ourselves to do the right/godly thing
and to make us trust Him more; He Himself provides the way of escape that
brings us out of each test victoriously. See this in 1 Corinthians 10-
12 “So beware if you think it
could never happen to you, lest your pride becomes your downfall. 13 We all
experience times of testing, which is normal for every human being. But God
will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and
timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test
is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has
provided for you a way of escape that will bring you out of it victoriously.”
Peter's pride was his
downfall. He trusted in his own human ability to not break the 8th (or
9th) Commandment - You shall not bear false witness.... God
allowed Satan to sift Peter for his coarseness (which Peter did not know
that he had) to make him see the futility of trusting in the arm of flesh.
God's word says that the arm
of flesh will fail. He knows that we can do nothing without Christ. But as it
was with Peter, man's prideful desires and thoughts (e.g. "I can be
godly;" or "I can never do that") provide Satan the
tempter with a bait/lure for his hook:
if you confess that you
cannot drive but have Christ as both your Vehicle and your Driver, no one is
going to bother to test your driving skills. If it happens that you need to
drive, you will do so because you depend utterly on Christ who never
disappoints; yet not you driving but Christ in you.
Peter's arm of flesh (human
effort at obedience) failed as will that of anyone who puts any confidence in
same to do the right/godly thing, pass tests in order to get promotion from God
or remain godly. Now recall James 1?
12 “If your faith remains
strong, even while surrounded by life’s difficulties, you will continue to
experience the untold blessings of God! True happiness comes as you pass the
test with faith, and receive the victorious crown of life promised to every
lover of God!”
We see the definition of
unfailing faith in the life of Peter. He sinned, but his faithdid
not fail. God brought him out of his testing victoriously, even though
he sinned. See what Christ said to him before his test and subsequent
failure in Luke 22:31–33:
31 “And the Lord said,
“Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.
32 But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you
have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”33 But he said to Him, “Lord, I
am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.””
Christ knew that Peter would
fail in his bid to not deny Him, just as He knows that we all will fail if our
salvation, overcoming temptation or our ability to obtain godly characteristics
(be like God the Loving, Merciful, Righteous, Just, Sinless, etc)
depended on even an iota human effort or our ability to “pass tests.” Failure
has been the result since Adam and Eve first tried to do same (be godly like
God) in Eden. Peter failed, but his faith did not fail. He saw the futility of
trusting himself to do the godly thing and more importantly, saw his utter need
for God's saving Grace of Whom it is written in Matthew 1:21-
She will bear a Son; and you
shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Recall that Jesus did not
cast Peter away, give him some tongue-lashing for his sin or give the
responsibility of feeding His sheep to another disciple that did not deny Him
three times.
Believer, by God's Grace,
beware of false doctrine preachers who say that your weakness (that Christ came
to save you from) will make God pass you over for a promotion and replace you
with someone else or that you should see pediatric cancer and death as His will
for man. Just as Satan did with Eve and Judas, they are only trying to make you
depend on your own human effort (arm of flesh) in your bid to produce good or
obtain godly characteristics. The only people that get replaced are
those who see their sin and keep on depending on their own human effort to set
things right with God- like Judas who was replaced by Matthias.
See how Peter's experience
after his denial/failure ties into James 1:
12 “If your faith remains
strong, even while surrounded by life’s difficulties, you will continue to
experience the untold blessings of God! True happiness comes as you pass the
test with faith, and receive the victorious crown of life promised to every lover
of God!”
Peter's arm of flesh failed.
He sinned against God. But his faith did not fail. Your faith is strong when
you know that your right-standing with God is 100% Christ(Romans 5:9;19) and
not your own non-existent ability to obey the Law, stand firm if your child is
sick or be godly (be like God.) The Law is not of Faith.
Peter's testing was
not from God but God allowed it. It was part of our heavenly Father's
discipline to let him fall flat on his face so that he could see the futility
of his self-confidence and his folly of thinking that he could do something to
become or remain godly by his own power. God is correcting many of us the same
way today- teaching us to be "None of Self" and "All of
Christ."
By God's Grace, let's not go
the way of Judas by following false doctrine preachers who teach that Christ
will discipline or test you by giving your child cancer, passing
you over for a promotion or abandoning you for someone else in your weakness.
His strength is made perfect in weakness.
Judas was remorseful but
trusted in his own strength/human effort to "be good again."
Depression and suicide were his lot. This is how the devourer devours: What
do we think is the major cause of depression and suicide even among
unbelievers? It is guilt for sins, fear, anxiety, hopelessness and sorrow in
the heart for sins aka not measuring up to particular standards - no different
from what happened to Judas who was full of remorse for his sin.
Christ is the Hope of
Salvation.
Understand that true
believers hate sin and do not wish to displease our heavenly Father in Christ
(only by Grace are we this way; God transformed our hearts to be so.) As it was
with Peter, as believers in Christ, our failures are designed to make us
realise the futility and hopelessness of putting any confidence in our human
effort/ability to do the right or to stand firm in the face of trials or tests.
Beloved of God, in Christ,
the measured temptations, tests, or trials that God allows to come our way are
not to harm or kill us or for Him to see whether we will pass or fail (where
failure means God giving our responsibility to a more "capable"
person.) The "arm of flesh" aka human effort at obedience in
everybody is the same, whether pastor or prostitute. God knows that the arm of
flesh will fail. The tests are part of God's discipline and correction to
help you and I who believe in Jesus understand the futility of trusting in our
own human effort in our bid to do the godly thing and get us trusting wholly in
Him alone. See Hebrews 12 for our Abba Father's correction:
9" Furthermore, we have
had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much
more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? 10
For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for
our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. 11 Now no chastening
seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it
yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by
it. 12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, 13
and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be
dislocated, but rather be healed."
Those measured tests that God
allows to come into our lives are designed to make us live, not kill
us. They are measured to make us trust Him more. They are for our
profit. What “life" is there in tests that cause children to die of
cancer? What "profit" is there for us if God abandons us in
our weakness for a more capable individual as false doctrines say? Such an
individual does not even exist! Apart from Christ, there is no good in anyone
of us. "There is none good but God" says Christ Himself.
Christ in us is the "skeleton" that keeps us upright, makes us
able to produce good and live godly lives. Plus it is what is lame and feeble
as well as crooked paths that can benefit from His discipline.
Believer, let's not be like
Judas who was also tested by Satan. He committed a similar sin of betraying
Jesus but looked to what he could do by his own will-power to right himself
with God and be steadfast. Only depression and death remain here, as it does
till this day. Since the time of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, sin and
death have reigned because man professes to be able to produce godly (good)
characteristics by his own human effort. This is the same doctrine that Satan
preached to Eve in Eden. This is the same erroneous definition of Christianity
that some churchgoers are believing to day. Believer, by God's Grace, let's not
be found believing this false doctrine that affects even non-believers- many
who seem to have it all are depressed and suicidal like Judas because they look
to themselves for the attainment of good and perfection. But the arm of flesh
(human effort) will fail.
It is Satan that tests
mankind, just as he did with Peter and Judas. The arm of flesh will fail. The
reason why many think that they can pass tests or live a godly life by their
own power is because God did not allow them to get tested beyond what they can
bear (1 Corinthians 10:12-13.) Sometimes, God uses those tests to cause His
children to see the utter foolishness of trusting in the flesh (human effort)
so we get to trust Him more.
Judas felt that he still had
some good in himself to set things right and tried to do so. Depression and
death is the result. But when we fall flat on our faces and are utterly broken
to the extent of seeing that we cannot set things right on our own (like
Peter,) by God's Grace, we get to see the foolishness of our "I can never
do that" or “I can be strong" superior
attitude. We get to trust God more and depend more on Him. With the Lord God as
our sole Source of Righteousness and Strength, we get to live in triumph over
sin and death (all earthly ills are symptoms of death)-
"And the result of God’s
gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For
Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made
right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this
one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s
wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live
in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:16-17
Comments
Post a Comment