November 12
November 12
It is important to understand clearly what it means to believe in God.
In Acts 17 Paul, who has been traveling from city to city, stops in Athens to connect with Silas and Timothy. I see this scene over and over in Center City Philadelphia. I’ll walk by someone standing on a corner looking at her watch, and I know she’s waiting for someone. Or I’ll see two people greet one another, and I can tell from the convention tags they’re wearing that they’re out-of-towners making a connection. Paul, an out-of-towner waiting for his partners, is invited to speak at the Areopagus, the center of the civil and religious life in Athens. Having observed an altar with the inscription “to the unknown god,” he proclaims to the Athenians that the God of the Bible is, in fact, the God whom they seek. He then tells his listeners who God is, and in his brief public explanation Paul defines what it means to believe in God:
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. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
“In him we live and move and have our being”;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“For we are indeed his offspring.” . . .
The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. (Acts 17:24–28, 30–31)
Three inescapable commitments define what it means to acknowledge God’s existence and live in light of it. First, you must acknowledge God as Creator: “The God who made the world and everything in it . . .” You must also acknowledge him as Sovereign: “. . . having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place . . .” And you must acknowledge him as Savior: “. . . now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Acknowledging God as Creator means acknowledging that he owns you and has a purpose for you and everything in your life. Believing him as Sovereign means resting in his active control of every detail of your life. Trusting him as Savior means repenting of your sin and trusting in his resurrection grace.
Today, may God give us grace to submit continually to the one who is Creator, Sovereign, and Savior.