God's Reasonable Demands

God's Reasonable Demands

From God's point of view, every demand He makes of us is completely logical. Only from our fallen human point of view is it utterly unreasonable.

What does God demand of us?

In the final verse of Matthew 5, Jesus says, "You shall be perfect..." Reading that, we may get a little hot under the collar and ask, "How perfect?"

Jesus answers, "...just as your Father in heaven is perfect." (Matthew 5:48). In other words, when you are as perfect as the Father in heaven, you are okay. When others can look at you and actually see what God is like, you are all right.

Any complaints? Is there any reason why a God who created us in His own perfect, absolute likeness and image should not have the right to expect anything less than perfection from you and me? Is there any logical reason why He should not demand that?

None whatsoever!!

Such a demand seems unreasonable to fallen man only because in the divine logic there is a hidden factor which is absent in the human reason of a fallen race. That hidden factor, in all its sublime simplicity is God Himself. He so engineered us that presence of the Creator within the creature is indispensable to our humanity.

When God made you and me, His intention was that we in normality would be distinguishable from the animal kingdom by a quality of life and behavior that would allow for absolutely no possible explanation but God within us. 

God's written Word fully establishes this standard of behavior. At Mount Sinai, God gave Moses that which we call the Ten Commandments, or the moral law. What is the substance of this moral law?

Well, among other things, "Do not lie." You might respond, "Why not lie" Sometimes lying gets me our of trouble. Was God's law given simply to make my life difficult?"

No, the law was given simply that you and I might know what the Holy God demands from the human begins He created to advertise His Deity. So when the law states, "Do not lie," God is simply saying, "You were made to reflect My glory as God, and I am NOT a liar."

When God's law says, "Do not steal," He is telling us, "I created you in My image so that all creation can look at you and know what God is like, and I am NOT a thief."

His law states, "Do not commit adultery." He is simply saying, "You are a creature to whom I have given a body to express the fact that your physical and visible form is inhabited and governed by the God who is Spirit and invisible. I designed it this way so that everyone, by looking at your behavior, will know how I Myself behave, and I am NOT an adulterer; I do not indulge in promiscuous sex."

Now that is the law. It simply represents the minimal demands of a holy God, who has the absolute right to make those demands of those He created for the very purpose of revealing His character.

These demands and the  kind of life they reflect are called in Scripture "the righteousness of God" (Romans 3:21-22; 10:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21), for it is the action of God Himself. There is no other righteousness on our part that God recognizes - only His Own.

"God is light and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5)

~W. Ian Thomas~