I’m filled with contradictions about God. Yes, “I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to” (2 Timothy 1:12), but how real is God to me as I go about the day’s activities? How is it for other church people?
“In short, the modern world quite literally “manages” without God. We can do so much so well by ourselves that there is no need for God, even in his church. Thus we modern people can be profoundly secular in the midst of explicitly religious activities. Which explains why so many modern Christian believers are atheists unawares. Professing to believe in supernatural realities, they are virtual atheists; whatever they say they believe, they show in practice that they function without practical recourse to the supernatural…. The call to follow Jesus Christ runs directly counter to this deadly modern pressure toward secularization.” (Os Guinness, The Call, 149)
I’m deep into study and beginning serious writing for the Concordia Commentary on 1 Peter. He wrote to people like us, Christians being strongly influenced by a culture that gave, at best, lip-service to the gods. Here’s part of Peter’s advice to us who sometimes play the hypocrite. First, you are being judged right now for how you are living “You call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds.” Therefore, second, make it your business to obey His commandments. “Be holy in all your conduct.” Third, fear God. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Fourth, there’s more to the fear of God: “Knowing that you were ransomed…not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot (1 Peter 1: ). Finally, because of Jesus, be filled with hope. “Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13-19).
Martin Luther: “It is impossible to hope in God unless one has despaired regarding all creatures and knows that nothing can profit oneself without God. Since there is no person who has this pure hope…and since we still place some confidence in the creature, it is clear that we must, because of impurity in all things, fear the judgment of God” (Heidelberg Disputation, 11). “Soon, and very soon we are going to see the King.”
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