How are every day judgment calls and faith in Jesus related?
The reality is that we all put our faith into something (or someone). Whether you believe that God exists or are a skeptic, we all will express a measure of faith in a variety of ways today, as well as every day of our life.
For example, how do I know with 100% certainty that when the light turns green in a very busy intersection, that it will be safe for me to enter and not get creamed by someone who perhaps misjudged the timing of the yellow light and ended up running a red light at full speed? We can’t possibly know every single detail surrounding the soundness and reliability of every driver on the road. Making dynamic (literal moment-by-moment) judgment calls while driving is very much a risk/reward proposition.
As we consider where we place our faith surrounding the question of whether Jesus came to this earth as God incarnate (in the flesh), we’ll have to make a judgment call despite what we don’t know … because of what we do know. Even without an absolute understanding (or proof) that we can know with 100% assurance that the God of the Bible is very much alive and desires a very personal relationship with each one of us, we would be well served to follow the evidence and act on what we do (or can) know.
Hebrews 11:6-7 says, “But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him. By faith Noah, being warned by God about events not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his family. By this [act of obedience] he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which comes by faith.”
A biblical definition of faith goes well beyond mere belief. Many people say they believe that God exists, yet for those of us who choose to look to Jesus as our baseline for what’s true, our faith is more in line with putting complete trust in His promises clearly laid out in Scripture.
Habakkuk 2:4 says, “Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by faithfulness to God.”
Consider for a moment the cosmological evidence:
- Whatever begins to exist must have a cause for its existence.
- The universe began to exist.
- Therefore, the universe must have a cause for its existence.
- The attributes of the cause of the universe (being timeless, existing outside of space) are the attributes of God.
- Therefore, the cause of the universe must be God.
Let’s continue this whole fascinating faith & judgment call question in the next post.