Upon further review: Believe

Jude 1:5 Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. The once crazy crowd now waits silently and nervously. The referee’s head is buried under the hood of the review camera. The game stands still waiting for a decision. Did the quarterback’s arm start to go forward before the ball came out? If so, it isn’t a game changing fumble, but a harmless incompletion. Everyone waits for the words that trail the phrase: Upon further review… Every true fan has a memory of a call that didn’t go their way and a disdain for the referee who made the bad call. Video review was introduced in sports for one reason: to correct human error in judgment of a perceived event. In some cases it validates the call on the field or court, but in others a deeper, slower look uncovers a truth that was missed at full speed in the heat of battle. Jude 1:5 is a verse that makes me slow down and do a deep thorough examination of a critical word in Christianity: Believe. Consider what Jude is saying in terms of the Jews who he led out of Egypt but did not believe. To make it through the Exodus these non-believers: >Saw God visibly as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night >Tasted the miracle of God’s provision in manna >Felt his power as he divided the red sea and crushed the Egyptian army >Sensed his atoning mercy as a Passover lamb covered their sins >Knew the depth his wrathful judgment as they witnessed the plagues >Relished in Christ’s mercy as he provided water in the desert >Smelled the rot of death as the plagues swept through Egypt This list could go on for some time, but the point of fact is that these Jews that Jude refers to as non-believers unquestionably knew that there was a God-sized force at work in their midst, as miracles where on display literally 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They knew that something outside themselves, and this world had, a will and a purpose and the strength and power to accomplish its goals. They knew that this majestic and divine being wanted to have a relationship with them and purge them of sin and rebellion and bring them peace and blessings. Seriously, stop for a second and put yourself in their shoes as they walked around for forty years outside the promise land. Yahweh would have been impossible to miss as a God. So how could Jude refer to them as “those who did not believe” if they walked around in the factual reality of God’s miracles daily for decades? That demands some slow motion replay for each of us as we put our souls under scrutiny like a photo finish at the Kentucky derby. The presence of God was a complete reality to all of these non-believers, but what was missing was a belief in His promises and a doubt of their own strength and the result was no faith. God had promised delivery of the land of Canaan by His strength and they looked at their own lack of strength faithlessly (Numbers 13). The beginning of Faith exists where human ability ends. Even though the Israelites witnessed Yahweh first hand, they didn’t believe he would hold to His promises of deliverance, blessing and protection that he made to the Israelites starting in Genesis 12 with Abraham. They did not trust God as the God who sets the rules, rules the Earth and makes things unravel in such a way that only he can get glory. The barrier to their unbelief was their belief in themselves and things of this world in place of God’s promises. There are many who walk around with casual acknowledgement of God and count that as assurance of salvation. Some people are of the opinion that the Mercy of Christ comes without repentance, change, obedience and that they can rewrite the rules as long as they kind of include some parts and pieces of God in them somewhere. We should all freeze frame and review our faith at this point. If Jesus saved some out of Egypt who lived in a reality of God’s miracles, later destroyed those who didn’t fully live on His promises and Word, then we need to be careful not to do the same. In whose strength are you truly walking? The devil loves to confuse us at this point and there are many false teachers that are leading people astray on this very point: what it means to believe. If we don’t get that right, then we are dead wrong and there will not be any do-overs. The definition of belief that saves isn’t up for us to decide. God has already defined it for us.