A Multiple Choice Test

A

s a teacher, one of the “perks” of my job is making and administering tests.  My students believe I take some sort of sick pleasure in testing their knowledge—and they’re right!  But honestly, giving tests means work both for me and for them.  They take the test only once while I have to make it out and then take it for as many times as I have students.  They, however, never think about that.  If the test is four pages long and there are thirty students in the class, I have the privilege of touching one hundred and twenty pages to their individual four.  You want to talk about an uneven playing field?  Let’s talk!

The most popular test by far, and the most difficult to construct, is the multiple-choice test, a.k.a. the multiple-guess test.  It has been so dubbed because the answer is visible to the student provided he or she knows how to read the question and can successfully select the appropriate answer from a field of distracters.  As a student, this was my worst kind of test because I always thought too much and was easily distracted by the similarities of the possible answers.

One afternoon as I was driving home in the “predicted winter storm” that never materialized—don’t even get me started on that one—I turned on the radio to one of my favorite stations.  The speaker at a particular conference was speaking about the difference between believing in God, believing about God, and believing God!  You want to talk about a spiritual multiple-choice test?  Let’s talk and let’s see what the Scriptures have to say about it and just how much this will probably shake our convictions concerning what we believe. In Galatians 3:5-7, Paul writes the following words:  “Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard? Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham.”

In this passage, as well as in the book of Galatians, Paul tells his readers that the life most pleasing to God is the life of faith.  Abraham knew this and lived his life by believing God.  Most of us today would make the following statements:  “I believe God is good, kind, loving, etc” or “I believe in God.”  While both of these are accurate statements they are not the type of faith Paul speaks of nor the type of faith Abraham displayed.

A person making the first statement indicates what he or she believes about God.  Likewise, the second statement indicates a belief that God exists. As regards this last statement we do well to remember the Scriptures tell us we are right to believe in God because the demons also believe and they tremble (James 2:19).  But neither belief in nor belief about God caused God to credit righteousness to Abraham.  What made Abraham’s life unique and what put him on intimate terms with God was that Abraham believed the Lord.  He simply took God at His word—end of statement!

Because Abraham believed God, he was able to climb Mount Moriah with Isaac knowing God would either raise the boy from the dead or provide His own sacrifice.  We see this belief when Abraham tells his servant that he AND the boy would return after worshiping the Lord and when he tells Isaac God would provide Himself an animal for the sacrifice.  It was not his belief in what Abraham perceived God to be nor was it his belief in God’s existence that sustained Abraham in his climb up that mountain.  It was the fact that Abraham believed God and knew Him.

Do we have this kind of faith today?  It is possible but so very rare.  Every day we take the test of faith.  How we answer it speaks volumes about our relationship and understanding of our Heavenly Father.  So do you A) Believe in God?  B) Believe about God?  C) Believe God?  What is your choice today?