The Second principle of authentic Christian discipleship is When God says something He means it. Believe Him and always take God seriously
This Blog Will Discuss:
- All of God's promises are true. This includes the promises and blessings as well as promises of judgment.
- You should notice that the consequences of sin are always far more reaching then we expect.
- Our walk with God and our destination is a matter of our choices. We get to choose whether we want wisdom or idiocy.
Many people neglect to remember this, but the very first promise which God made to humankind which was to be fulfilled, was a promise of punishment. You see, in Genesis 2:15 God gave an explicit command to the first human beings:
Genesis 2:15-17 Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." (Genesis 2:15-17 NASB)1Galatians 6:7-8 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8 NASB)
English does a poor job of translating Genesis 2:15. In this case, the original languages is somewhat more precise, but I digress. Let's take a look more closely at the verse:
The Command: "From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat."
The Promise: For in the day that you eat from it you will surely die."
Some Clarification: This is one of those verses where the word of God suffers in the English translation. On the surface it appears that God is saying that within the 24-hour period that Adam eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he will die. A more precise rendering of what God said would be: "From the day that you eat of that tree, your death becomes a certainty." Not only is that language more precise, it is in fact more accurate to what actually occurred.
The fact is that in the next chapter (Genesis 3:1-5), Adam and Eve did exactly what the Almighty commanded them not to do. They obeyed the devil instead of God. Sin became part of the human genome ever since. Just as God promised, ever since that day, Adam's death did in fact become a certainty. Not only did Adam's death become a certainty from that day forward, but every human being which would descend from Adam and Eve would eventually suffer death because of their sins, (1 Corinthians 15:22; Romans 5:14-18). Tragically, death became such a certainty as part of the human experience that within a generation, Adam and Eve were the first parents to actually outlive one of their own children, when one of their sons Cain, murdered his own brother Abel, in cold blood. Not only was death now a certainty as a result of sin, but sin itself was escalating fast in the human tradition. It didn't take much time at all to go from listening to the devil, and letting our appetite rule, to being ruled by the one who was a murderer from the beginning, (John 8:44). Adam lived a total of 930 years, but his death eventually came, just as God said it would.
The bottom-line:
When God says something, He means it. So ALWAYS take God Seriously.- Adam and Eve did not take God seriously. They obeyed the devil instead of God, and humanity has been paying the price ever since.
- God warned Cain to deal with his sinful character and to repent (Genesis 4:1-16). Cain did not take God seriously. He did not deal with his sinful character. Instead, he chose to murder his brother Abel, and if you examine the biblical record, Cain's family line suffered ever since.
- Sins had multiplied so greatly on the Earth, that God promised He would destroy the earth with a worldwide flood. He warned Noah about what he was going to do. God gave Noah instructions about what to do. Noah did in fact take God seriously (Genesis 6:1-22) he obeyed God, and it led to rescue and deliverance for him and his entire household (Hebrews 11:7).
- When God revealed Himself to Abraham, Abraham took God seriously (Genesis 12:1-4; Acts 7:2-4). God then established Israel as His people.
- When God revealed to Abraham that he was going to judge Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham took God seriously. He interceded for the city of Sodom (Genesis 18:22-33), and God spared Abraham's nephew Lot who lived in Sodom at the time (Genesis 19:1-29). Now the angel of the Lord gave lots family explicit instructions not to look back upon the destruction of Sodom as they were fleeing away from it (Genesis 19:17). Lot's wife did not take God seriously (Genesis 19:26). She looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt (Luke 17:32).
Are you sensing a theme yet? Those are just five examples from the first book of instruction (the Torah), but there are countless more throughout Scripture. The fact is that taking God seriously is the difference between salvation and damnation. Taking God seriously is the difference between deliverance and destruction, or between life and death. The reason we need to define everything the way that God does is so that we understand what His standards truly are. Once we define things the way that God defines them so that we understand what God's standards truly are, the next step is to take God and His standards seriously.
When God says something, please take Him seriously. He means it. God made promises to send a Savior by Virgin birth (the seed of the woman Genesis 3:15). He made that promise on the day that humankind first sinned, but the fulfillment was not seen until 33 A.D. This was thousands of years later, but God still fulfilled the promise that He made. When God makes a promise it is certain.
Things to Consider:
At the end of your life, where do you want to be? What would you like Almighty God who is perfect love and who gave you your life to be able to say about you when you're done with his life? Consider, are you purposely and intentionally cooperating with God to develop your character, so that you will make the choices which will allow God to be able to rightly say those good things about you which you would like to hear and receive from God at the end? It is today's decisions that determine your course and destination.Let me use a human illustration: Right now, the price of gasoline runs between $3.13 & $3.30 nationally. With prices that high most people are smart enough that they don't drive aimlessly through the countryside for hours endlessly. They decide where they want to go and they take the shortest route to their destination, because the price of gasoline is too dear to fritter it away aimlessly.
The thing that is so odd to me is that the human spirit and soul are worth infinitely more, and yet people tend to walk aimlessly through their lives for decades on end without considering their final destination. My challenge to you is to consider your ways.
Is it your goal to be a person that obtains true knowledge, understanding and wisdom? The only way to arrive There is by first obtaining holy, reverential, fearful respect for the Lord. In other words, the only way to become a person who truly knows anything at all is to fear the Lord and take Him seriously. For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 3:7).
On the other hand if your goal and aspiration in life is to become a foolish idiot, then simply refuse to take God seriously, and you will arrive at that destination in no time flat (Romans 1:18-32; Proverbs 12:15; 14:12; 16:25).
The good news is you get to decide where you want to end up at the end . you get to choose what road you will take, and God will allow you the grace to change course if you take a wrong turn; provided you care enough to check the roadmap and change course is necessary. Choose Life. is
All Scriptures which are designated (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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