What Are God’s Expectations of Us?

September 18, 2023

Atheist evolutionists accuse creationists, like me, of defaulting to a position of “God of the Gaps.” That means that whenever I can’t explain some scientific problem in evolution, instead of believing that science will one day solve it, I appeal to God as the solution. But that is not my argument. My argument is that I do understand how complex the cell is, for example, and therefore I look at the coded information in DNA. Coded information doesn’t come about by physics, chemistry, and biology. Coded information comes about because there is someone, a mind, that writes the code. This is what science teaches us. To expect a supremely complicated code, like DNA, to spontaneously form randomly on the earth requires lots more faith than to believe our all-knowing God, creator of the universe, created and wrote the DNA code.

Over the last four weeks, I have shared tidbits of a growing mountain of evidence that Origin of Life scientists are being overwhelmed by the complexity of the cell. Yet they labor on, year after year, trying to support their atheism without any meaningful progress. Why? Why commit one’s life to prove life can form without the help of God when, for the past seventy years, they have not only not made any progress, the chances of success have gotten progressively worse?

I think, at its foundation, the answer to this question is rebellion. The modern atheist arrogantly declares that the God of the Bible is not worthy of praise, therefore does not exist, and people are fools for believing in a bunch of “sky god fairy tales.” I think they have turned atheism into a religion where their own intelligence is their god because they don’t like what God, their creator, expects of them. It is easier to rebel against God and pretend He doesn’t exist.

But the problem is much bigger than what atheists think. I believe that many agnostics, and even Christians, are living rebellious lives because God does have expectations of us and how we use the free will He gave us. In the first article of this series, I stated that the greatest gift God has given us is free will, so we could freely choose to believe in God or not. Having given us this gift, God’s clear desire, as expressed in the Bible, is that we freely choose to believe in God.

Jesus best summarized God’s expectations of us with the two greatest commandments. In Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” To love God with all our heart, soul, and mind is to love God with all we are. It is to love God with every ounce of our being. Everything. It means we love God at work, in our family, in our quiet times, and while we are trying to figure life out. It includes trusting God with every aspect of our lives. This is not an easy way to live, but the rewards are out of this world. However, many Christians choose to live for God when it is convenient and comfortable.

God has given us free will, but God desires us to relinquish our free will back to Him in order to experience life to its fullest. I think this is what Jesus meant when He said, “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:25).

The Second Great Commandment is to love others and love ourselves. God expects us to seek justice for others, serve others, and teach them how much God loves them. Most people will do this when it is convenient, but not when it can be complicated. It is easier to give God lip service, deny God’s existence, or pretend they aren’t sure if God exists.

It strikes me that, if I realize I have a creator, I would need to know what that creator wants for me and from me if I am ever going to understand anything about how to love myself. Most people take better care of their dogs than they do themselves. They would never think of denying their dog a medication their veterinarian prescribed, but the majority of prescriptions written people don’t even buy, much less take them.

How are you doing loving God, others, and yourself? Are you loving God with your whole self, or just the easier parts of yourself? What do you do to love others? Do you know how to love yourself? Are there changes you need to make to show God how much you love Him? (To find out more about Al Earley or read previous articles see, www.lagrangepres.org).