Unbelief is paralyzing the Church, destroying the effectiveness of Christians, and excluding men from the kingdom of God. It has been characterized as a “capital and fountain of evil,” and probably no generation more than our own has been guilty of this offense against God, an offense which goes to the very heart of man’s relationships with God and God’s revelation to man.
That unbelief is a grievous sin, an offense of the greatest magnitude, we are loathe to admit; but such is the case, and it rests as a pall across our world today.
We are prepared to accept the discoveries of science and to avail ourselves of the advantages proceeding therefrom, but only too often we ignore or reject the God of Creation. In so doing we live in a jeopardy of our own making.
Unbelief is based on man’s rejection of God’s revelation of Himself. It consists of evaluating Him by our own limitations and, yet more serious, sitting in judgment on God and his Word.
“Your God is too small” is an accusation which can be leveled at every human being, and in a very special way at those of us who have limited him by our own unbelief.
Unbelief stems from ignoring the nature of God—his sovereignty, power, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, love, and mercy, to mention but a few of his attributes.
Probably our greatest mistake is a concept of God which, because of this age of science, rejects his supernaturalness and continuing miraculous manifestations.
Unbelief is seen in our treating prayer as a mere “pious exercise” rather than as a God-given privilege whereby the very battlements of heaven are stormed and captured for God’s glory and man’s immediate and eternal benefit.
Unbelief runs rampant as man ignores or rejects the clear promises of God. Not for naught has God filled his Word with specific promises and principles having to do with the contingencies and problems of life. By our neglect of these we make God a liar and lose immeasurable comfort and blessing.
Unbelief is highlighted as we forget that the supernatural God can and does act today in supernatural ways. What man considers “miracle” is merely God acting naturally, either within or beyond the capabilities of our understanding. Nowhere do we fail more than in our refusal to recognize the power of God, even though we cannot comprehend the scope of that power.
We live in a time when “honest doubts” are often considered an end in themselves, rather than a state which must be resolved by surrender to the Living God. “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief” is still a valid prayer. The capitulation of Thomas’ unbelief in the affirmation “My Lord, and my God” is the only God-blessed end of doubt.
The Bible makes it clear that unbelief restricts the work of God. Confronted with Christ and his mighty works the people of his own country rejected him, and we are told that “he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matt. 13:58). Unbelief is restricting God’s work today, an unbelief which gives to anything the priority in the place that is rightfully His.
The disciples found themselves powerless because of unbelief; only too often the Church and individual Christians find themselves equally powerless because they trust in man-devised methods and programs without reference to the Holy Spirit, who alone can make them effective.
Unbelief in the face of divine revelation in his day caused our Lord to “marvel.” How much more must he marvel at an age of sophistication and discovery which ignores the fact that creation itself is day by day and night by night declaring the glory of God and offering his handiwork for all to behold.
Our Lord’s resurrection was contrary to every man-accepted law of nature. But it was a glorious reality on which man’s hope of immortality rests. Because of their unbelief in the testimony of those who had seen him, Christ “upbraided them with their unbelief” (Mark 16:14). Does he regard an unbelieving world with any more tolerance today? The fact and presence of the risen Lord is a current reality, and to ignore or reject it insures to the unbelieving the righteous judgment of God.
One truth of desperate importance is that unbelief in no way invalidates the faithfulness of God. It is a grievous fallacy to hold that God’s truth is valid only as man accepts it. Paul meets this squarely in writing to the Roman Christians: “For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith [or faithfulness] of God without effect?” (Rom. 3:3). A favorite pastime of some theologians is to argue the pros and cons of some of the key doctrines of the Christian faith as though truth could be converted into error, or the finality of God’s revelation held in abeyance pending man’s decision in the matter.
Abraham stood the test in a marvelous way. He was confronted with a situation and a promise impossible from a human standpoint. Faith in the faithfulness of God made him the “father of the faithful.” When tested about Isaac he acted with faith and obedience, “accounting that God was able.” How puny is our faith today! How far removed from an understanding of the God with whom we have to do!
Paul catalogues some of the acts of the “children of unbelief”—immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthiness, silly talk, and the like: “It is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 5:3–6).
Our day is characterized by just such a situation. Because of unbelief in the pulpits and in the pews, in the corporate life of the Church and in the individual lives of so many of her members, the world sees too few who exhibit the evidences of the living and indwelling Christ, who bear faithful testimony to his saving and keeping power.
The Bible records the exclusion from God’s presence of those who failed to “enter in” when the Gospel was preached to them, and rejected it by unbelief. That which He required of them and which he requires of us today is faith in who he is and what he can do.
But unbelief is not a binding state from which man cannot escape. Those who have become unshackled are legion and continue to develop as trophies of God’s grace. Faith can develop just as the light of day reveals things hidden by the night.
Faith does not have to be large, nor is it fully developed from the beginning. It is often the unspoken “Yes” to God, feeble but real, searching but honest.
True humility can be the first step from unbelief to belief, the change of attitude which enables God to reveal himself as he yearns to do.
Many of us know by experience that unbelief has faded away to be replaced by a quiet faith as we have yielded our minds and hearts in obedience to God’s revealed truth. Yielding has been the key.
