Presumption, Unbelief, and Faith

“Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known My ways. So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest…. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Heb. 3:10,11,19.

Presumption and unbelief work hand in glove. Presumption is the first step away from faith, unbelief the last step. Presumption is the acting agent of the substitution for faith; unbelief is the resultant state of mind. But, since unbelief is so far from faith, how does presumption so successfully effect the condition of unbelief in people who have joined up with God and faith and religion?

Christ accepts anyone who desires something better than this world. He always makes room for them in His household, if they will be humble and learn of Him. In that connection, He reveals Himself to each student in His home-school. In the union with Christ, the student sees that real faith not only trusts in Christ’s mercy, but also fears His discipline. While presumption refuses to bow before infinite power, faith is content to stand in humble deference to the mighty, horrendous throne of GOD. Without fear, there is no true respect, there is no true appreciation for God’s love, no true humility. But this fear is not a product of human devising. It is wholly a gift of God, and is thus able to stand simultaneously in awe and simple trust. Rules and the expectation of obedience to them bring the greatest happiness to the surrendered human heart, because it trusts that God’s rules are united with patient understanding.

Trust, the boon of physical and mental health, without a healthy respect for law and truth, becomes loose and presumptuous towards God, and then it cannot comprehend His love. Revulsion toward God’s laws and His requirements creates a lazy, sloppy religious and secular life. No mechanic will accept sloppy parts in any engine, because that condition can destroy the motor, his reputation with his customers, and possibly his own life. A loud banging engine will make any smart mechanic quickly shut it down, or run and get clear before the “whiplash” action happening with the internal moving parts creates a missile that penetrates the heavily armored block, and kills him. The athlete cannot allow for loose, sloppy methods of exercise or uncontrolled bodily movements or practices, knowing that that condition is what causes damage to muscles, bones, and tendons. The commander of a military outfit never loses his control on his people, nor allows any part of his chain of command to get sloppy. Loose and lax control would assuredly expose his unit to danger, either from without or from within. Good order and discipline is the only thing that prevents disaster and destruction. Therefore good order and discipline are vital and good. If man has found them to be essential and good, God knew it first. Self-control and self-possession form the foundation of His throne, and no one can come into His presence while presuming to ignore the fear of God and His firm control.

“Hear another parable: there was a certain householder, which planted vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far county.” Matt. 21:33. Christ’s parable depicts the experience of Israel during the previous 1500 years. On Sinai He had given them His laws, statutes which, if surrendered to and followed, would have exalted their nation to the top of the world. Those laws could have built a hedge of protection around each Israelite heart, friendship, family, and tribe. Blessed with love and virtue, they would have filled the earth with the glory of the Lord, and every family of the earth would have been uplifted. But they continuously said, “We will not have this Man reign over us.” Lk. 19:14.

For forty years in the desert, Christ labored to teach them the rules that were the only antidote for the idolatrous lifestyles the Israelites had learned in Egypt. How could He show them His love without showing them His mercy? But how could He reveal His mercy apart from law and truth, which alone could give them cause to need mercy? They needed to unlearn any notion that they could bypass the mercy and the statutes, and bribe God with a smile or a tease or a gift of any kind in exchange for getting what they wanted. What they wanted was to please themselves, taking it upon themselves to feel good, rather than waiting on God to do that for them through His mercy and statutes, the principles of His character that bring Him so much joy. They needed a new principle to replace the old methods of life demonstrated in the world; to respect righteousness and to love it; to make fairness and impartiality and strict adherence to equity always to be the rule of life. They needed His Law of love. A noble, holy nation was His aim in all His discipline and mercy toward them.

But they didn’t want rules or correction, they didn’t want that kind of love. They preferred to indulge their appetites and selfishness and pride, during everyday life, and even in religion. They would accept a dead look-alike in exchange for the living truth, which demonstrates the very root of idolatry. Idolatry takes the good things God gives, forgets God, and consumes His gifts upon its lusts; it pleases itself with the bounty from God, without accepting the obligations that go with receiving a gift, and without gaining the benefits God intends in continuously dispensing of His abundance. Then when the heart and mind are intoxicated with sensory overload, when self is satiated, then it attempts to make a minimal effort to simulate appreciation to God; but its profession is empty of love, and presumptuously full of self. It is strange fire that is presented to God, and He will have none of it.

Understanding this principle, Paul saw the wonderful blessing and advantage to carrying the cross, being crucified with Christ and enduring the rigors of establishing the church upon a strong foundation, mortifying the deeds of the flesh and spirit, and allowing God’s providence to purify him in the furnace of affliction. For this reason, he kept his own desires beneath the true needs of his heart, mind, and body, lest he should be led into Satan’s snare to presume upon God, and himself become a cast-off. Paul kept himself in God’s hands, thus was able to keep the members of his body under a very taut leash.

But no other champion of truth ever came close to Christ for keeping his own will in abeyance to the will of God. No one else carried so heavy a burden as did Jesus. Those forty days in the wilderness, without food or water, but dimly show us not only the depth of His peace, but the utter despite and hatred He had for satisfying Himself. No one else so staunchly detested sin in even its remotest sense. In Him was no sin (1Jn. 3:5); presumption so brought grief to Christ, that He resisted it, even until blood seeped from His pores. No microscopic root-hair of sin stained His soul and it was His steadfast determination to never presume upon His Father, ever.

“And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And He took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto Him, saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles: and they shall mock Him, and shall scourge Him, and shall spit upon Him, and shall kill Him.” Mk. 10:32.