Salvation - An Illusion?

And if the LORD is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into that land and give it to us. It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey. [Numbers 14.8] 

There is little that I would add today to the 2024 article "In Christ" Is So Important. 

What stands out to me today is the phrase if the LORD is pleased with us. I am reminded that there is only one thing that yields God's pleasure: faith.

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. [Hebrews 11.6]

Obviously, "faith" is clearly defined as "faith in God" (that He exists and rewards those who sincerely seek Him). The qualification of believing God exists and rewards those who sincerely seek Him sets the contrast for what does not please God: believing idols exist and that they reward those who seek them.

Just get ready... this is going to get uncomfortable.

The first three of the Ten Commandments are meaningless unless we understand that God is a jealous God. The 2nd Commandment gives clarity:

You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. [Exodus 20.4-6]

"God and..." doesn't cut it with God. He is unwilling to share His glory (the glory of being our one and only God) with anything or anyone else. Ninety-nine percent faith in God and one percent faith in idols does not please God. He is either "all pleased" or "not pleased at all." This "all or none" demand is clearly repeated by God-in-the-flesh, Jesus:

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24 (also, Mark 8.34 & Luke 9.23)]

Any time man today uses the phrase "God uses..." to defend something of man's own device, he has inadvertently identified an idol. This understanding clearly sheds light on a plethora of idols in modern society! These idols may be categorized in four broad groups: debt, insurance, medicine and technology. These four groups account for the wholesale violation of the 2nd Commandment (no idols) and, every time man defensively declares "God uses..." these man-made remedies, he tags on violation of the 3rd Commandment (misusing God's name) as well. God's Word is clear on the truth of this. It is man who is unclear - God's Word shines brightly and declares loudly on the subject, but man's eyes are blind and his ears are deaf. They have been made blind and deaf by man-made idols:

Their idols are merely things of silver and gold, shaped by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak, and eyes but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear, and noses but cannot smell. They have hands but cannot feel, and feet but cannot walk, and throats but cannot make a sound. And those who make idols are just like them, as are all who trust in them. [Psalm 115.4-8]

The idols of the nations are merely things of silver and gold, shaped by human hands. They have  mouths but cannot speak, and eyes but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear, and mouths but cannot breathe. And those who make idols are just like them, as are all who trust in them. [Psalm 135.15-18] 

How can man so blindly and deafly presume that God is pleased with him when he adamantly holds to and defends man-made idols? Here's a hint: he can't. God is NOT pleased with man's idolatry regardless what man calls it. It's not man's "call" anyway (see Commandments 1-3 and Jesus' "follow Me" demands).

You know, we could think we were okay "in Christ" if only the Ten Commandments demanded singular, undivided faith. But the fact that Jesus demanded we must give up our own way and take up our cross to follow Him confirms that God is just as adamant about singular, undivided faith today as ever.

"Faith" that does not proactively turn away (repent) from idols is no faith at all in God's eyes. And, if there is no faith, then God is not pleased. If God is not pleased, then there is no salvation (regardless what we think or want to believe) - it is simply an illusion. Jesus said "give up your own way..." Idols are the way of man - solutions made by and for himself to meet needs God jealously said He would take care of. If we do not give up our idols, we cannot be followers of Christ. God in His Word simply (but adamantly) does not allow it.

Father, I know we can "ask for forgiveness" all day long. But as long as we defiantly refuse to "turn away from" our idols to follow Jesus, salvation is just a religious illusion. May those who truly wish to follow Jesus (myself included) genuinely forsake all (giving up their own way and taking up their cross) to follow Him. So be it.