It’s time that we have a serious talk about who God is, what it means to “believe”, and step on some toes in the process. Too many of us take this idea of God as this old man with white hair living in the sky. He’s this evil God that sits up there and watches us run around like watching some sort of anthill suffer. Why would a God that loves us let us have so much pain and suffering? I’m not sure who started this whole picture of God like this. Maybe it was Satan that started it so that our idea of Him would be shaken and we would change our thoughts of how powerful and mighty He actually is. Regardless of how it came about, it could not be further from the truth.

The world has forgotten how absolutely huge and amazing God is, and it is time that we remembered.

Only a few people that have lived ever actually got to see God. Moses asked that God would present himself so he could see him, and God told him he could not let him see his face or else he would melt and die. However, Moses did get to see His backside as he walked away, and the bible says that Moses’s face glowed after seeing only God’s backside. To talk about what God would actually look like, we must mention the time that Isaiah actually saw God in Isaiah 6. Isaiah said that there was a being sitting on a throne that was so huge that his robe filled the entire temple. Then above Him were angels that had six wings, two covered their faces, two covered their feet, and with two they flew.

These were the high angels and they would cover themselves with their wings because they didn’t feel worthy enough to be looked upon by God. All of these angels were shouting to one another saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, the whole Earth is full of His glory.” Isaiah said that when these angels shouted the entire temple began to shake and fill up with smoke. This is who you are going to stand before, whether you want to believe it or not. One day you will die and be standing in front of the Lord God Almighty, just like Isaiah, and in that moment what will you do? Let’s look at what Isaiah did. Isaiah responded with, “Woe is me,” which is to say I am ruined, cursed, and going to be killed. Isaiah knew that he was about to be destroyed, because he knew of all the sinful things that he had done on the Earth.

I must mention for those that don’t know who Isaiah is, he was someone we would have considered to be a “good Christian person”. He was a prophet of God, and was considered a friend of God. For Isaiah to stand before Him and think “I am about to be destroyed” should tell us how mighty and powerful our God is. In verse 6, it says that one of the angels flew toward Isaiah carrying a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched Isaiah’s mouth with the coal and said to him, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” Instead of God destroying him, he takes away the sins and guilt of Isaiah because someone else is paying for Isaiah’s sins.

God is a fair and just God, so he has to punish us for our sins. However, instead of doing that he sends his own son Jesus to die on a cross and become sin itself, so that all of our sins may be atoned for. We have to understand that there must be punishment since God is God. God must be consistent with the contents of his character, which means that justice must be served. If it is not paid for, then God would no longer be God. However, he stacks everything in our favor, which is why he only made one tree that Adam and Eve could not eat from. (If you’re wondering why he even made that one bad tree, it is because he made us with free will choice. If everything was good then there would no longer be free will, and he would be a puppet master controlling us.)

Yes, we failed because we were overcome by sin and evil. Yet, God with his perfect love sent his son for us. How much did we deserve it? Not at all.

I know that most people would say that they believe in God, and that he sent Jesus to die on the cross for them, but what does that really mean to you? In James 2:19 it says, “You believe that there is one God; good. Even the demons believe that- and yet they shudder!” So you are right there with the demons if you just merely intellectually believe that God exists, and that is not enough. True belief in God would have actions behind it - if you really believed this then there would be a change seen in your life.

Most of America would say that they are Christians and believe in God, but if we take a look at a lot of their lives, would we actually see a life that God is the central theme of? How can we not be absolutely blown away and in love with God for what he has done? We have not done anything to deserve his love, yet he paid with His own life. If you believed this then it would somehow manifest itself in your life. My biggest fear is that people who claim they are Christians because they grew up in the church or their parents made them go to church, will one day stand before God just like Isaiah, and be sentenced to a life of torture.

Jesus said in Matthew 7, that on that day (of death/judgment) a lot of people are going to say “Lord, Lord” and still will not be able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. That they will try to justify getting into heaven based on the good deeds that they did on the Earth. Jesus says that “only he who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven will get in. Not just the one that calls me Lord, but the one that treats me as Lord while he is on the Earth.”

If you are one of these “Christians” who is proclaiming to be a Christian and taking no action with it, then it’s time to wake up. If you don’t, then that being on the throne will look at you and say, “depart from me; I never knew you”.

I’m deeply concerned for my friends and other people who say that they are Christians and “believe” in God. Anyone can say that they believe in God, but what about when times start to get tough? God doesn’t want us going through life wondering what will happen when we die. He wants us to know that He has already sent His son Jesus Christ to die on that cross for whatever sin we commit today and that there is grace sufficient for all of us. That means that we can repent and all of our sins will be forgotten, immediately. Which is to say that we can go into the presence of God on the day that we pass from this Earth, and he will smile and say, “Well done!”

So what does it really mean to you when you say that you believe?