The Oracles of God: The Original Sin: Unbelief
The sin of “not believing” the Word of God given at a particular time of human history is the reason for incurring God’s anger and judgement upon a people. Nothing displeases God most, than His command is despised and rejected. That is why the sin of unbelief is one of the deadly sins recorded in scripture. Disbelieving God’s commandment (Genesis 2:16-17) brought death to the human race. “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” Reading John 3:18 we have a clearer picture “He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God”. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement. Of sin, because they believe not on me. (John 16:9)
The believer doesn’t question the Word of God or reason it. We are not called to understand God’s Word but to believe it. That was why Jesus told Jairus at the point he was told that his daughter was dead, that he should “Only believe”. The Believer believes it regardless of what it sounds like, or what anybody else has got to say about it, how impossible it seems to be. The believer believes the Word, not the creed, the Word; not the denominational interpretation of the word; not what somebody else says, what the Word says”.
Abraham believed God’s promise and did not stagger because of unbelief (Romans 4:17-22). He experienced the fulfillment of something that seemed humanly impossible. True believers are the seed of Abraham, they do not stagger because of unbelief, “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was are the children of promise.” (Gal. 4:28). On the otherhand, the Devil visited the garden of Edem, incarnated the serpent, and engaged Eve in a conversation on what God commanded. The Devil succeeded in luring Eve with his (mis)interpretation, pulling her into disobedience by subjecting her to his will instead of the will of God. He remained the god of this world who misleadspeople in religious institutions by getting them to believe his interpretations instead of the Word of God.
I believe that the happiest of Christians and the truest of Christian are those who never dare to doubt God but take His Word simply as it is, believing it, and asking no questions, feeling assured that if God has said it, it will be so. Why was it only Noah and seven others entered the Ark? They believed the Word of God while the majority perished for not believing. That is how deadly the sin of unbelief is. It is regarded as the original sin. Others describe it as the mother of all other sins or the works of the flesh. It is the failure to accept God’s provided way that leads to the manifestations of the works of the flesh like fornication, adultery spoken in Gal.5:19-21 to name just two. The scripture added that those who do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. This is true because the power of Godin His Word that would enable you to subdue the works of the flesh is rejected. Surely, scripture is right when it makes the sin of sins, that unbelief which is at bottom, nothing else than a refusal to take the cup of salvation. Surely no sharper grief can be inflicted upon the spirit of God than when we leave His gifts neglected. Unbelief is actually perverted faith, for it puts its trust, not in the living God but in dying men. The unbeliever, a term used to describe the one who doubts God denies the self sufficiency of God and usurps attributes that are not His. This dual sin dishonors God and ultimately destroys the soul of man.
From Genesis to Revelation, all the account of men, families, nations that perished was only on account of unbelief. Achan turned deaf ears to the command of God for covetousness as Gehazi did. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were burnt because they rebuffed the two angels sent with the message of escape through unbelief. But look at the people of Nineveh, a Gentile nation, heathen by nature, accepted the proclamation of Prophet Jonah of God’s judgement and national call for repentance.
In all unbelief, there are these two things; a good opinion of one’s self, and a bad opinion of God and His word.
THE BARRIER THAT UNBELIEF IS.
Unbelief is the biggest barrier between God and man. It also deprives one of receiving the rich free blessings of God. In Capernaun, the Kin of Jesus Christ could not activate the abundant blessings of God in Jesus Christ because of lack of confidence. And the scripture summed it up thus “He could not do many mighty works because of their unbelief. ( Mark 16:14)
But when in Matt. 17:14-20, a father cried to the Lord to help his unbelief because he wants to meet the requirements for healing, the Lord was at hand and he got his son delivered. No man is excluded from calling upon God, the gate of salvation is set open unto all men: neither is there any other thing which keepeth us back from entering in, save only our own unbelief. Sad, isn’t it? What an awful tragedy that history again is repeating itself.
As the return of Christ draws ever closer and prophetic promises are fulfilling, only very few are intent. The majority as usual are content to merely exist until they die. They don’t want to risk anything to believe God, to accept His unadulterated Word,preferring interpretations, and become hardened in their unbelief. Now they are living just to die.
