Articles
Complaints to the Creator (2)
Last week, we considered the futility of man complaining about what his Creator — God — has done, or will do, and noted that it was futile and foolish because, (1) we do not know what God knows, and (2) God’s very nature makes it certain that whatever He does or will do it going to be perfectly righteous. The foolishness of questioning God is summed up well in the writing of Isaiah, when God said, “Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?” (Isa. 45:9); this parallels the question of Paul we noted last week when he wrote, “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’” (Rom. 9:20).
But despite the foolishness of such complaints to the Creator, man does it anyway. On just about every subject, man questions God’s law, His commandments, actions, words, promises, allowances, prohibitions, and whatever else he can complain about. Throughout it all, man argues as if he is somehow on equal standing with God, or that he ‘deserves’ an answer.
Before we get into some challenges man has made to God’s decisions, let us be reminded of one man who would dare say, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, that I might come to His seat! I would present my case before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which He would answer me, and understand what He would say to me” (Job 23:3-5). And when God actually did speak to him (Job 39-41), and even asked Job, “Shall the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?” (Job 40:2), Job could then only reply, “I lay my hand over my mouth” (Job 40:4). In reality, there is no man who has a right to question God, and it is the height of arrogance and foolishness to even think so. At least Job realized his error, and quit talking!
Man, though, keeps talking and keeps challenging God’s wisdom — and keeps looking more foolish. He invents ‘better’ plans, challenges the authority God holds, and questions the very character of God. If that sounds familiar, that is exactly what the serpent was saying to Eve in the garden when he was leading her to disobey God (Gen. 3:1-6), and that line led to sin’s entrance into this world. Do we think the result will be any different today?
To demonstrate the foolishness and the failure of man’s challenges, let us consider just a few.
God’s Salvation Plan. God has determined that the means of salvation comes through Jesus Christ, and those who believe in Him and submit to His will can be saved. Man considers God’s plan for the salvation of man and declares, “You do not have to believe in Jesus to be saved; you can be a Buddhist, a Muslim, or an atheist. As long as you are ‘good’ person, you can be saved.” Obviously, both cannot be true, but man argues that his plan is more ‘inclusive’ than God’s plan. Let’s see if that is true.
Again, man will argue that all one has to do to gain the eternal reward is to be a ‘good’ person. Without getting into the lack of clarity and agreement on what ‘good’ means, let us just note that this is, essentially, an argument that man can be saved by his good works. But what about those who are not ‘good’ and have nothing ‘good’ to offer God? They are excluded and have no chance at salvation, according to man’s plan.
But God offered salvation to the whole of mankind, knowing that no man is truly ‘good’ (cf. Rom. 3:12). Knowing man is not ‘good’ at all, He conceived and executed the plan by which man can become righteous (cf. 2 Cor. 5:21). So, instead of scouring the world for a ‘good’ man to be saved of his own good works and righteousness [a man who does not, in fact, exist], God offers salvation to all who will acknowledge his own sinfulness and turn to God that he might truly become righteous. God’s plan is actually more inclusive than man’s!
God’s Love. The Bible teaches us that the love of God was demonstrated “toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). We are well familiar with the words of Jesus when He said, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Man considers God’s love and says, “But you don’t have to believe in Jesus to be saved, and God is too loving to send anyone to an eternal hell.”
But this argument ignores the lengths to which Jesus demonstrated His love that any man might be forgiven and saved and escape the punishment of the guilty; they must ignore or downplay Jesus enduring such pain and torture on the cross just for us, that we might be saved. Man considers this and essentially says, “I don’t think it was necessary.” So, the thinking of man and the plans of man makes God and Jesus less loving. And this is better?
“It Doesn’t Matter.” God has determined that one must believe that Jesus is the Christ (John 8:24), and the gospel message (Mark 16:16) if he is to be saved. God also has determined that, once a man becomes a Christian, his life must be one of righteous pursuit, following God’s will in everything (Matt 7:21-23; Titus 2:11, 12; 1 Pet. 2:11, 12). Man considers the demand that one believe in Jesus and believe the gospel and argues, “It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you’re sincere.” He considers the demand of disciples to live a life of holiness and righteousness after becoming a disciple, and argues, “It doesn’t matter how you live your life, because you cannot forfeit your salvation.” So, man essentially says, regarding the matter of what we believe and how we should live, “It doesn’t matter.”
If we were to believe this, then we would also have to say the following: God’s conception of the plan of salvation, established since before time began (2 Tim. 1:8-10; 1 Pet. 1:18-20) was not necessary; God’s Providential care and instruction to the nation of Israel was not necessary; the numerous prophecies of the Messiah were not necessary; the sending of Jesus to this earth to be born of a woman, live as a man and face temptation as every man faces temptation, and to be tried and crucified was not necessary; the revelation of God’s plan for man’s salvation by the Holy Spirit to the apostles, prophets, and New Testament writers was not necessary; the suffering of the early disciples in the first century and the suffering of any disciple since then was not necessary; the Bible itself is not necessary. To everything God has done and revealed and promised, man says, “It doesn’t matter.”
I, for one, shudder at the thought of what God must think of men who make such foolish, arrogant, and blasphemous arguments. It matters.
If we are ever tempted to argue against God’s plans or the actual words God has given to us in the Bible, and if we are ever tempted to think we have come up with something ‘better’ than what has already been established and revealed, let us take a cue from Job and just put our hand over our mouths.
Let God be true (Rom. 3:4). — Steven Harpers
