The "everlasting gospel" is such GOOD Good News that we sinful human beings have a difficult time believing how good it is. In fact, when Jesus tells us that His "yoke is easy, and [His] burden is light" (Matt. 11:28-30), He is trying to tell us that our main problem is learning how to believe. Ancient Israel could not enter their Promised Land because of unbelief (Heb. 3:18, 19; 4:6, 7). And Jesus speaks to all of us when He told the distraught father of the devil-possessed child, "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23). A few minutes later, He had to tell the disciples why they couldn't cast out the devil in the child: "Because of your unbelief" (Matt. 17:20). He had already told the multitude that had gathered to watch that they were "faithless," which means, they didn't have it, and then He added that their unbelief was associated with "perversity," meaning of course that unbelief is serious business (vs. 17).
This is a dangerous subject, for fanaticism lurks just around the corner. We so easily think that if we had proper "faith," we could work miracles, speak with the tongues of angels, pick up poisonous snakes and let them bite us (Mark 16:17, 18), "move mountains" (1 Cor. 13:2), and ride around in new Rolls Royces. But to be content to live in a humble home, endure pain and poverty, and drive an old Honda Civic, is not necessarily "unbelief." Genuine, healthy faith is willing and happy to share with Christ His humiliation and sufferings.
If you haven't succeeded in reducing Mt. Everest to the level of the Sahara, that doesn't mean you necessarily lack "faith." If you do work miracles, cast out devils, "prophesy" in Christ's name, and move mountains and do all kinds of "wonderful works" (see Matt. 7:22), you may still be "faithless" in that you have no genuine faith. Satan is a genius at "deceiving the whole world" with "signs and wonders" (Matt. 24:24; Rev. 13:3).
So, what is that genuine faith, true believing? It is "comprehending" the grand dimensions of the love that led Christ to His cross (Eph. 3:17-19), identifying with Him there (Gal 2:20), getting "married" to Him because you want nothing else (2 Cor. 11:2; Rev. 19:7, 8), taking up your cross to "follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth" (Rev. 14:4, 5).
Do you see why unbelief is the sin of sins? It's the only reason anyone will not enter heaven (John 3:18, 19). Why? Because if he did enter in, he'd be miserable there.
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 16, 1999.
Copyright © 2010 by Robert J. Wieland.
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