No Doubt

There was a cartoon that appeared in a San Francisco newspaper. Two atheists are going door-to-door introducing their religious beliefs. They stand in front of an open door, and the man inside says, “This pamphlet is blank.” They answer, “We’re atheists.”

Many of us have had the experience of being visited by witnesses of the Mormon Church or the Jehovah’s Witnesses. These folks, especially the Mormons, are clean cut, polite and very sure in their faith. Sometimes we look at them as being very different from ourselves. We are different in beliefs. But we have faith in God in common. As Timothy Keller has suggested, the world is increasingly being divided into religious and irreligious people.

Keller is not and I am not suggesting that all atheists are bad people and all religious people are good and right. There are many “spiritualities” out there today that have little in common with the faith that was handed down from the Apostles. Newsweek magazine did a cover story this week on Oprah and the wacky ideas that she sometimes promotes on her show. To watch Oprah the past twenty years is have gone on a meandering journey with the talk show host looking for a personal way to authenticate your own soul. Back in the day it was not unusual to hear Oprah speak the language of orthodox Christian faith, of forgiveness, salvation, and growth in the Spirit. Oprah was not afraid to say the J word on national television. Today, well, let’s say Oprah has gone in a different direction. The Secret is Oprah’s latest attempt at her own salvation through personal fulfillment. The Secret is the latest power of positive thinking without the charm and rationality of Norman Vincent Peale. The Secret is more than, “If I think it I can be it.” The Secret talks about “the Law of Attraction.,” and says that whatever I want I can and should get. If I want a Cadillac I need only think positively enough about it and the Universe will see that get it. Conversely, if I am surrounded by negative people, bad things will happen to me. If I am surrounded by sick people, I will become sick. Sorry if you are a hospital patient or someone who cares for them. It’s like the saying goes, “I didn’t say it was your fault. I said I was going to blame you.”

GK Chesterton famously said that when people cease to believe in God, they do not believe in nothing, they believe in everything. They fall for everything.

As religious people, we may not always feel completely sure in our faith. Some days we may envy those rock solid Mormons. We waver. We doubt. Doubt always comes. But doubt and uncertainty can be a gift to us. They remind us that we are not God. We don’t have all the answers. We don’t know it all.

“Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith; they keep it awake and moving.”
Fred Buechner

So doubt can be good. But doubt can only take me so far. I need faith. And faith comes from somewhere outside my Self.

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing, by the Word of God.”

Faith comes from God. So we not only have faith in God. We have faith because of God. The Spirit of God gives us life and faith. And that provokes a response – either commitment or rejection – but a response nonetheless.

The Apostle Paul tells the Romans that we are in debt, not to the flesh but to the Spirit. What does he mean by this?

He means that we who believe in what God has done for us in Jesus Christ have an obligation to God. The Spirit of God has given us life. The flesh, or our sinful selves, only brings us decay and death. We have no obligation to the sinful nature. It has no claim upon us. We owe it nothing.


You and I have been on a journey in the flesh for a number of years. We have come to believe, many of us, that our sinful selves are our true selves. We believe that our bad conduct, our malicious thoughts and hurtful words, are who we are and all that we are. This simply is not true. Our true identity is known by God and waiting to be revealed to us and in us. The Spirit wants to make war on the flesh in us and vice versa. The Apostle Paul wrote that the two are opposed to each other. But the choice is clear which one we should give our allegiance to.

“If you live according to the sinful nature you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” Verse 12-13

That is, there is a kind of life which leads to death, and there is a kind of death which leads to life.

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.”

And that really is the rub. Do we believe that by the grace of Jesus Christ we are forgiven and are becoming our truer selves? Or do we continue to believe that our sin, and only our sin, defines us? I know that I am a sinner. I know the thoughts and attitudes, the words and behaviors, that have shown the sin in me. You know the same about yourself. And so, knowing our own histories far better than anyone else knows about us, we struggle to believe the Gospel, that we are sinners saved by grace; that we are children of God.

Have you ever struggled with this?

I have good news for you. God wants you to know for sure that you belong to Him. He doesn’t want you to be afraid. The Holy Spirit gives us the assurance we crave.

This past week I ate breakfast with a couple who adopted a baby from Korea about a year ago. Ethan Willis is a beautiful toddler now. He is growing in the obvious love and care his parents give him. Ethan’s mother has blonde hair. Ethan’s dad has no hair. But he used to have dark brown hair. Both of Ethan’s parents are of very fair complexion. Ethan’s skin is brown and his hair is black. At first glance, it’s very obvious that he is adopted. But in the half hour I sat with this family at breakfast I saw beyond superficialities to the reality – this was a family. When Ethan looked at his mom his faced shined for her, and hers for him. Dad was caring and proud. They have an assurance that they belong to each other now.

“You have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry “Abba, Father!” it is the very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Verses 15-16


Here’s a fact that we sometimes overlook – Jesus believed. He believed beyond a doubt that the Father was always with Him. They talked all the time. This doesn’t mean life wasn’t hard sometimes. It doesn’t mean that Jesus faced the disappointment stoically.

He never concealed his tears; he showed them plainly on his open
face at the sight of his native city. Ye he concealed something.
Solemn supermen and imperial diplomats are proud of restraining
Their anger. He never restrained his anger. He flung furniture
Down the front steps of the temple and asked men how they expected
To escape the damnation of hell. Yet he restrained something.
I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread
That must be called shyness. There was something that he hid from all
Men when he went up a mountain to pray. There was something that he
Covered up constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was
Some one thing that was too great for God to show us when he walked
Upon our earth. . .


Jesus had a Secret too. His secret was Joy. It was the joy of knowing what he knew about God and heaven. His secret was not the Law of Attraction, it was the Law of Love. Jesus was about fit to burst that God loves us so much and will do just about anything to be with us for the rest of eternity.

We may have trouble believing in ourselves or in God, but God never has trouble believing in us. That’s the secret. There’s no doubt about it, really.