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HOW IS YOUR THINKING?
Each person shall stand before God as an
individual and so each one must be free to believe what they will. The
problem is that men think (and act) according to their fallen nature. Men
love sin and so they think sinful thoughts. The Bible says
“...the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be,”
(Romans 8:7). The minds of men as they are naturally born cannot be subject
to God and His law unless and until the Holy Spirit births such an
individual into God's family.
And so men think God is like themselves.
God said,
“...thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one
as thyself: but I will reprove thee...”
(Psalm 50:21).
If you think God is like us, your thinking
is wrong. You need reproving: you need to have your thinking straightened
out. God is not anything like man. Adam was created in the image of God, but
he fell by sinning and that image was ruined, corrupted and defiled to the
point it is completely opposed to God's thinking and cannot remedy itself.
God stated:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways my ways, saith 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,” (Isaiah 55:8-9). We may be
sure that whatever men think about themselves, about God, sin, salvation,
baptism, etc. - whatever they have figured out for themselves – is wrong!
That is why God sent prophets to the Jews
and why He revealed Himself in the Bible. Men and women need to be taught
the Bible. Man may think he has things figured out, but he has them all
wrong! Only by understanding the Bible and bringing our thoughts into line
with that Book can we think God's thoughts after Him.
But the Bible can be used in a dangerous
way when men try to make it say what they want it to say. Peter wrote about
Paul's writings and said, “...in which
are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and
unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own
destruction,” (2 Peter 3:16). Peter warned
of people who twist the Scriptures. To do so brings them not to the truth,
but “unto their own destruction.” Men hate the idea of God being completely
in control of all things and so they deny predestination, unconditional
election, the security of the believer and other biblical teaching. They
prefer to think they have a part in qualifying for God's grace. And so they
preach that human initiated works will save the lost: the work of praying,
of being baptized, or of making a decision, etc. But God speaks of the
saved, saying: “Which were born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,”
(John 1:13).
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