Is God Fair?
Acts 10:34-35
I recently had a discussion with a woman over the phone who used the text for a
prop to brace a contemporary belief among many religious people. Many good folks
believe that since God is not a respecter of people, that he can not look out
into the sea of denominations and pick the one he thinks is best. If people are
illustrating lives of reverence for God and good, moral lives, then he simply
must accept all of the religious beliefs because he is "no respecter of
persons". I thought this was a clever approach, but the unrelenting truth is
that no person has ever been accepted in favor with God separate and apart from
obedience to the word which he revealed and has commanded man to obey. Cornelius
is a perfect example of a person who reverenced God and lived a good, moral
life, yet was not saved or accepted into God's favor until he met the conditions
of salvation. Erwin Lutzer, in his new book, "Ten Lies About God", mentions that
a common thread among religious people today is that if God does not have some
special arrangement for non-believers or non-Christians, then he is less loving
than humans.
Therefore, if you extend this logic it would only demand that humans have
transcended their Creator in character. However, upon this logic, it would
demand that since God allows earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, and such
like to be a part of natural law coupled with the fact that people die by the
masses in such tragedies, that he is just as unloving. And if this is true, then
he has always been less loving than humans because natural disasters have been
occurring since the beginning of time. Remember the flood in Genesis? Does the
modern logic of men imply that God created man with a superior character since
natural disasters have been occurring since the beginning? Dear reader, if there
is any common thread at all it leads directly to the spool of humanism! Those
who are born into an existence of living in poverty will be justified in
complaining of unfairness as long as God is considered to be unfair in some way.
And if fairness (man's wisdom), is a criterion for man's direction, then when
man arrives at judgment he can reply to God, "My environment was not fair, I did
not get a fair shake in life". He may claim that he was abused or born into a
penurious home life and never had a fair chance to prove what he could really
be. In Matthew 7:21-22 we see an illustration of a judgment scene where people
are pleading their cases before the judge. In this example, the pleading and
indicting by these people could not sway the mind and justice of the Lord. When
men look at this passage and claim the unfair nature of this scene, they are
failing to see the irrelevance of whether it is fair in the wisdom of men or
not. Call upon your memory of Isaiah 55:8-9, "For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts
than your thoughts". We have never been granted the liberty to become more broad
minded in our thinking than our Creator is!
Men have for centuries tried every unorthodox method to reach God from the tower
of Babel to assembling to babble! I watched with amazement on the television
program 20/20, charismatic people who were drinking strychnine, handling snakes
and other strange practices in order to create a proper fellowship with the
Lord. I wonder if Paul had the same amazement when he entered the city of Athens
and viewed the scores of figures representing the concepts of men and even to
the point of erecting an image for the primary purpose of reaching a being that
transcended all other gods (Acts 17). It is argued in many circles that religion
is simply different perspectives of the same reality. In denominationalism, I
have no doubt this is true. However, the Lord's church is not a part of man's
devise or innovation. It is not part of the big picture, it is the picture! And
standing alone amid the sea of religious beliefs, it is ambiguous to many
because of their determination to rely on their gods whom they deem fair. Paul
told the Athenians that God is not far from us (Acts 17:27). Yet the more we
depend upon our own wisdom, the farther we wander away from Him, the true and
living God.
How will God deal with the present religious world? I am convinced that he will
handle all things in judgment. Man's flawed attempts to reach God and seek his
approval will be made manifest in the day of sentencing. The record bears this
out in such passages as 2Corinthians 5:10 and 2Thessalonians 1:7-8. The bottom
line to all of this, is that fairness is not decided by man. The characters in
Ezekiel 18 were reminded of this. God is truth and all that are in conflict with
him and his divine revelation are in danger of eternal punishment. All of the
arguments and complaining of men will not change the absolute precepts of the
Holy One. And if God sends people to hell, it will be because people have
prepared to go there, not because he is unfair.
By Tony Ripley
From Expository Files 7.8; August 2000
