Really?

So, I have been noticing a slogan that seems to be catching on and it had me puzzled.  We were riding through a rural area today and I saw a church with a nice marquee sitting in front of it.  When I read what was on it, it threw me for a loop.  The marquee read, "Jesus believes in you."  My initial thought was...really?  Where did this line of thinking come from?  If this is really the case, truthfully, we are all doomed.  Why would God "believe" in anything other than Himself?  Does God need man?  Not really.  He's sovereign and does not need any one or any thing.  Does God use man in the earth to accomplish His will?  Absolutely.  Acts 17:24,25 says it this way: "The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything."  It's not God that needs us...we need Him!  This twisted theology is part of the reason that the world is on a downward slide and Christianity is on the decline.  We are looking for a God that we can control and manipulate- a God that is not sovereign but bound by the limitations that we place on Him.

Let's look through the bible for a second just to show how foolish and illogical it is to believe that God would put His trust in man.  If you simply walk with me through these scriptures, it will become evident that this though process makes no sense whatsoever.

From the beginning of time, God gave man free choice/ free will but knew omnisciently that man would ultimately fail.  When the bible speaks of the lamb "slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:9), that blood offering of Jesus Christ had to be made in order to atone for sin.  Although chronologically (hours, minutes, seconds etc.), Jesus died around 33-35 AD, kairologically (an opportune moment) His death that was to take place in a fleshly body was arranged in eternity.  Peter says that He was "chosen" from the foundation of the world but revealed in the latter times for our sake ( 1 Peter 1:20).  Had God the Father "believed" in man or had Jesus had faith in man...the atoning sacrifice of Jesus would not have happened.  According to this backward line of thinking, God the Father and God the Son would have "believed" in man to work through that sin problem that began in Eden.

Let's take a look at Genesis 6:5-8: "The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.  So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”  But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD." 

Here, we see that man's wickedness was so great and that man's heart was so corrupt because of sin that God was "sorry" that He even created man.  But there was one, Noah, that found favor in God's eyes.  Why did he find favor?  Because he honored God.  Does this mean that God "believed" in Noah?  No, Noah was flesh just like every other man.  The only difference in Noah and those that were to be wiped from the earth was Noah's obedience and his faith.  It is quite sobering to me to think that God's heart was grieved with His creation.  This puts us in a quandary because it seems as if God had made a mistake and we know that God cannot make mistakes, right?  There was no mistake made...sin was running rampant.  God's grief was not in the creation, but what His creation had become and WHY they had become that way.  Sin dominated every thought of man.  Why would a holy God "believe" in sinful man?

Jeremiah 17:9 says that the heart of man is desperately wicked and cannot be understood.  God searches the heart.  God knows every thought and intention of man (Psalm 139) and God knows that sin has made man imperfect, although Adam and Eve were created in perfection.  If God knows what's in the heart of man, and God knows that man's heart is wicked...again, I ask, WHY would He "believe" in us as if we are His God?  The bible says in Psalm 100 that we are His people, the sheep of His pasture and it is He that has made us and NOT we ourselves! 

Here is the greatest indictment against this "Jesus believes in you" mumbo jumbo.  John 2:23-24: Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.  But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man."  The word here used for "entrust" is from the same root in the Greek language, pisteuo, that we use for faith!  In other words, Jesus had NO FAITH in them because he KNEW what was in them!  The disciples spent three years with Jesus and they all (with the exception of John) deserted Him when He was arrested.  Peter denied Him three times, and he was the "leader" of the disciples.

To say that Jesus believes in man is to reduce Jesus down to a man.  It's foolish to believe that God would put faith in anything other than Himself.  EVERYTHING that is outside of God is fallible.  Man is not always trustworthy, God is immovable, unshakable and does not change.  Man is wicked and we have evil intentions but God is the giver of all good and perfect gifts.  Man is flesh and will die, God is immortal!  Do you see my point?  It is very simple.  The equation works better the other way around.  We need to place our trust in God, we need to "believe" in Jesus!  God needs nothing, man needs everything- we can't even breathe without God's permission!  Put your faith in God knowing that we are too weak and frail for God to put any trust in us.  Does God ENtrust things to us?  Yes, but He does so knowing beforehand when we will mess up, when we will blow it and when we will get it right and with the expressed understanding that without His Spirit guiding us, we are totally lost and clueless!  

I couldn't serve a god that placed faith in man.  I am glad that not only does God not "believe" in us, He changed the game and made "belief" in His Son, Jesus Christ, the ONLY way back to Him.  He also let us know that, on our own, we are not trustworthy and we need a way out- once again, salvation through Christ alone is our way out.  Renewing of the mind, putting off the old man, receiving a new nature to contend with and combat the old, sinful nature are all a part of the process that God has to sanctify those that believe in Jesus...a process that has everything to do with God's grace and nothing to do with His faith in man.  God bless you and may His peace be upon you.