Lie for God's honour?
- Jacob Ninan
"Sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace" (Ro.6:14). If we know that God has placed us under His grace but we see that some sins are getting the victory over us, what would be our reaction? Can we say, "God's word is true even if my experience seems to be different. Let God be true and every man a liar (Ro.3:4). So I am going to confess that I have victory!" Or even, I have victory in Christ! Wouldn't this be a lie, a falsehood, a contradiction of reality to say sin is not ruling over us when, in fact, it is? But this is how many people are treating God's word. They seem to think that they would be willing to tell lies if that was the way to honour God and His word. And they seem to think that by confessing this kind of statement one day they will also experience the reality. What deception!
Suppose we have asked God for the healing from some sickness. If our sickness persists even after we have prayed, should we now confess that we believe in God and therefore we are healed? Then we refuse to take medicines because we think by this we are giving an occasion for God to be glorified!
Children of the devil lie, because that is the nature of their father (Jn.8:44). But can we, who have been brought from darkness to light (1Pe.2:9), and made children of God in whom there is no darkness at all (1Jn.1:5), imagine that speaking falsehood will honour this Father?
On the other hand, when we see a contradiction between God's word and our experience, can't we try to see if we have understood the word clearly? We can ask God to reveal the truth to us more clearly. We can talk to more mature, godly people and ask them for help. We can look at Bible commentaries. In this way we can begin to get more insight into God's truths which we have not had earlier.
We can also examine the possibility that while God's word is true perhaps we haven't been following His ways properly. We may get to see that most of God's promises have certain conditions that we need to meet in order for them to get fulfilled in our life. We can now ask God to show us more clearly how to keep ourselves before His face, and strength and wisdom to do what He wants us to do (Php.2:12,13). Then we see that His word is beginning to get fulfilled more and more in our life.
In the case of the prayer for healing, can't we go to God and ask Him why we haven't been healed? Perhaps He wants to heal us through doctors, and we had been presuming that He would do things the way we wanted. But do we have any right to claim what is essentially untrue and unreal thinking that we would be honouring God that way?
We will find this tension between God's word and our experience all through life. If we face that honestly, go to God and learn from the situation, we will be able to make spiritual progress. We are only likely to get confused and mislead others if we refuse to face reality. Let's remember there's no lie at all in God our Father!