God’s Job Description
| By: Dr. Steven C. Riser; ©2008 |
| Over the years I have met countless numbers of people who thought that if given the chance, they could do God’s job better than He does. Listen carefully to your family, friends and co-workers and they will question God’s ability to properly do His job and imply that, if they were God, they could do better. |
Contents
Introduction
The election for the presidency of the United States is only a few months away and there are only two serious candidates left. What kind of ego must one have to conclude that they are the single person most qualified to lead the most powerful nation this world has ever seen? Have you ever wondered who in their right mind would want to be president of the United States?
There may be many good, even qualified people to serve in the office but who do not wish to be President because it is such an impossible job description. Whether you are President of the United States or not, it is impossible to please all the people all the time.
Pleasing people or at least not offending the majority of voters is the objective of most politicians who not only wish to get elected, but re-elected. Whatever happened to statesmen who used to be persons of integrity? Whatever happened to politicians who used to be concerned about the best interests of all of society rather than just a small segment or a narrow interest group? It is very hard for most politicians to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth to everybody at the same time because so few have the proper respect for God.
A story is told about a politician who was asked his position on a controversial issue and he replied: Some of my constituents are for it and some of my constituents are against it and I’m for my constituents.
I personally would not want to be President, would you? Another job I would want even less is God’s. Now I know that this sounds a little silly but over the years I have met countless numbers of people who thought that if given the chance, they could do God’s job better than He does. Listen carefully to your family, friends and co-workers and they will question God’s ability to properly do His job and imply that, if they were God, they could do better.
Explanation
How many people do you know that complain about and criticize God’s job performance?
How many people to you know who want to second guess God, question His wisdom or doubt His love?
How many want to blame God for the negative consequences of their own sinful actions?
How many people do you know who accuse God of actually being the author of evil?
When natural disasters strike, insurance companies call it, “An act of God.” But a lot of regular folks simply say, “God has it in for me.” How silly for anybody to think they could do God’s job better than God Himself could!
Have you ever asked yourself, “What is God’s job description?” What is He supposed to do? When you are God, you have to hear everyone’s prayer and you have to decide when and how you are going to answer each prayer. What do you do when a construction worker prays that it won’t rain and the farmer prays that it will rain? What do you do when a little boy prays his grandfather will live and the grandfather prays that God will take him to his heavenly home?
It’s tough being God. You don’t get to slumber or sleep. You have to keep count of the hairs on everybody’s head. You have to know when a sparrow falls to the ground and you have to clothe the lilies of the field better than Solomon. The list of God’s duties goes on and on. Unlike the politician, God has to tell the whole truth and nothing but to truth to all people because God can not lie. Do you have any idea how many people God has made mad because He told them the truth?
Human beings don’t like to hear or tell the truth. Paul says, in Romans 1 that natural man suppresses the truth by his wickedness. Never underestimate our capacity to excuse, rationalize and distort or deny reality! It’s hard being God because he isn’t allowed to lie. It is a luxury that God does not have.
I. God Always Tells the Truth
God’s job description involves always telling the truth. Because God tells the truth about all men, most decide to take their appreciation, devotion and salvation business to someone else. Adam and Eve are the perfect example. All God asked was that they trust and obey Him and they failed the test. The bottom line is that Adam and Eve chose to listen to the lies of the serpent rather than the truth of God. Even in the account of creation and the fall many think they could have done things better than God. God was honest with Adam and Eve, but they were not honest with Him. They lied and tried to blame someone else for his/her sin. In the end, they both discovered that God was telling the truth.
We could say the entire Old Testament is filled with God telling the truth and asking His people to believe Him. The entire Old Testament is filled with God’s people ignoring and rejecting the one true God in favor of idols. If God sent a prophet to tell the truth and call His people to repentance and devotion, they preferred to listen to someone they wanted to hear. If God’s ambassadors spoke boldly, His people denied, disregarded and discounted everything they said.
God always tells the truth; and because He does, people almost always reject and rebuff Him. Even so, the day came when God kept His promises. According to prophecy, Jesus was born of a virgin in the town of Bethlehem. It was a wondrous night when the angels announced good news of great joy. It was a blessed night when humble shepherds came and saw this thing which had come to pass just as the angels said. What a blessed world it would be if every one would hear and heed that good news!
Again, God told the truth but few bothered to listen. What did the people do when the King of Heaven was born? They pretty much did nothing. When the political king of the country heard of Jesus’ birth from the wise men, he sent his soldiers to eliminate the competition. People wanted a military conqueror but instead God sent a suffering servant to die in our place. God told the truth about His servant in Isaiah 53 but who believed it?
John said that Jesus came to His own people and His own would not receive Him, but to those who received Him, to those who believed in His name, God gave them the right to become the children of God.
Jesus told the truth, but in the end, the people did not hear what He had to say. He said to His disciples, “Will you also go away?” The disciples said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Only you have the words of eternal life!”
The proud and pompous Pharisees would rather trust in their legalistic superficial religious rules and their self-righteousness rather than trusting in the Savior from sin. The priests closed their minds and hearts to the many God-given prophecies identifying Jesus as the Messiah. Through the words and actions of Jesus, God was telling His people that He loved and cared for them, but who would listen? God is doing His job perfectly, but we are anything but perfect.
Jesus was telling the truth when he said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He was telling the truth when He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by means of me.”
II. God Performs Miracles to Substantiate His Message
Another part of God’s job description is that only He can perform miracles. In the beginning, God created the world through a miracle. He delivered His people from the bondage in Egypt through the use of miracles. He parted the Red Sea and provided manna in the wilderness through miracles. He sent His Son to earth through the miracle of the virgin birth. Jesus substantiated the truth of His message through miracles. Even the death of Christ and His miraculous resurrection were not enough to get most people to follow Jesus. He saved us through a miracle wrought by the Spirit called regeneration.
Although miracles are not a normal, every day occurrence, you might say, God is in the miracle business.
III. God Is In the Business of Saving His People by His Sovereign Grace
God not only always tells the truth and performs miracles, which serve to substantiate His message, God is in the business of saving His people by grace. Another reason I could not do God’s job is that I can’t save anybody and neither can you. We can’t even save ourselves, because salvation is not the result of personal decision. God’s Word teaches that “Salvation is of the Lord.” Our salvation is the result of God’s sovereign decision and His alone. Anyone that has or will be saved is by grace. Anyone who has been or will ever be born again is by the Holy Spirit. Only He has the power to make us spiritually alive and responsive to God. God is loving, merciful and gracious.
“It is not by deeds of righteousness, which we have done, but according to God’s mercy that He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
We are saved by faith in the sacrifice of God’s Son and even faith is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8, 9).
God does a perfect job:
- In always telling the truth and faithfully keeping all His promises,
- In miraculously purchasing our salvation by the death and resurrection of Christ, and
- In graciously applying that salvation to us by regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
What Is Our Job Description?
What does God expect from us? What is our job description? In general, God expects us to do His will, His way for His glory. But specifically, we need to learn to respond appropriately to God’s initiative:
- To respond to God’s truth by agreeing with whatever God’s Word says.
- To repent – to bring our thoughts and attitudes in line with God’s Word.
- To respond in faith – trusting Christ’s death to save us by God’s grace.
- To respond to God’s grace with gratitude and apply His Word to our lives.
- To respond in the power of God’s Spirit in order to do His will.
- To respond to God’s Word by developing a graced-based self-concept.
- To live a life of loving obedience – doing all for the glory of God.
- To become a fully devoted follower of Christ, one who also makes disciples.
- To cultivate the mind of Christ by developing a biblical worldview.
- To become more conformed to the character and conduct of Christ.
Some time ago a minister saw a bunch of boys standing around a small stray dog. “Boys, what are you doing?” he asked. “Telling lies,” said one of the boys. “The one who tells the biggest lie gets the dog.” The minister stood up and began to preach a mini-sermon, he said, “Boys, I’m shocked, when I was your age I never ever thought of telling a lie.” There was no argument when one of the boys said, “Here, Preacher, you win the dog; none of us could come close to telling that big a lie.”
By the grace of God may you see that what I’m telling you is no lie – it is the truth.
By the grace of God may you see the love of your Lord – the sacrifice of your Savior.
By the grace of God may you see and believe in the one who has taken your sins away.
If you want to learn more about God’s truth, it is found in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
You can’t ask a Christian to be truthful about anything that has to do with their God Jesus. Therefore, one cannot give credit to anything they say or wite because their views are bias.