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The UK Bible Students Website Christian Biblical Studies
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SAVING GRACE
By A. Prentice
I can do everything through him who gives me
strength
Philippians 4: 13, New International
Version-UK
THE UNBELIEVER professes astonishment that anyone in the twenty-first century should
still believe in God. Or, more to the point, that they should need to.
The unbeliever cannot imagine living in a world with God in it. The Christian cannot imagine living in this world without God
in it. No, more than this, for it would not be enough to have God alone: the
Christian must have a Saviour! For to have a Saviour is to have also a God who
has anticipated the craving of the sinner’s heart for peace with Him. Such a God
is much more than a ‘creator’ or an ‘intelligent designer’. What is the worth of
those expressions to the guilty conscience? Should one be brought to tears by
God’s intelligence, or consoled by His skilful design? Rather be warmed by the
realisation that His far-sightedness, moved by His compassion for the sin-sick,
anticipated the sinner’s need long ages ago and sent One to perfectly reflect
Himself, the healer of souls. The Christ of the
Cross.
Do atheists ride so high above the rest of us that they
never experience doubt? Are they never visited in the dark of night or when age
comes on, with a sense of regret, bitter disappointment, or fear of death? Do
they never yearn for Something outside of, and bigger than, themselves? No One
to thank for the sunset or the birds? No Benefactor to acknowledge for the
kindness and justice that comes to us from the ministry of
others?
Yet atheists do claim to hold all these universal joys
without the mental burden of theology. Do they never ask how an un-thinking,
blind force can produce such an illusion of happiness? Or do they merely
thank the ‘Process’? Are they content with the chemical, genetic, habitual
responses to mechanical stimuli, this idiosyncratic collection of flesh and
bones, mortality, leading to perpetual
non-existence?
Oh, for the gift to doubt! It is how the Lord draws us
to Him. Faith is strengthened by our doubts, for what is a doubt if not a cry
for an answer? And by His Word God answers our questions to our satisfaction –
about who and what He is, and how we stand with Him. Above all, He gives us the
assurance that we are accepted in Christ the Beloved.
Forgiven.
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Copyright June 2010 UK Bible Students. You are free to reproduce this article, but please let us know if you do.