“. . . yes if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” (Proverbs 2: 3 – 5)
3/20/2012
Ananias and Sapphira: Believers or Unbelievers?
Acts 5:1-13
In Acts 5:1-13, we are given the tragic history of a married couple called Ananias and Sapphira. Their lives were suddenly ended as the result of the direct intervention and judgment of God on their sin. On the basis of this passage, many asked the question, “Were Ananias and Sapphira believers or unbelievers?” The answer to this question is not an easy one and faithful expositors of the Word of God answer it both ways.
As we turn to the text itself, we find the following facts are clearly stated in the narrative.
1. Luke is giving us a faithful and accurate (good and bad) history of the early church.
2. The example of Ananias and Sapphira is given as a negative example of believers having “all things in common” in contrast to Barnabas’ positive example in 4:3-37.
3. The actual nature of the sins of Ananias and Sapphira are:
- their joint decision and collusion to keep back some of the proceeds (or monies) from the selling of their property – Sapphira was an enabler for Ananias;
- their having Satan “fill their hearts to lie to the Holy Spirit” – referring (in Koine Greek and this context) to the control Satan has to influence and tempt them to such a decision to lie;
- their having this sin identified by Peter as “a lie to the Holy Spirit”, “a lie to God”, and “to test the Spirit of the Lord” – their lying or testing of the Holy Spirit is to act in the sinfulness of their own hearts before the immediate, living presence of God the Spirit in the midst of His gathered church;
- their deception or hypocrisy (to appear as giving the whole price of the land when in reality they had only given a part);
- their seeking the applause or praise of men (even other brethren in the church) rather than of God.
4. The consequence of Ananias and Sapphira’s sin is the immediate judgment and taking of their lives by God the Holy Spirit. Their sins have, as the Scriptures tell us, “found them out.”
5. Ananias and Sapphira’s spiritual and eternal state are never identified for us in the narrative or the rest of Scripture.
6. The example of Ananias and Sapphira brought “great fear upon the whole church and upon all who heard of these things” (vs. 11).
So then, what are we to conclude from these facts found in our narrative? Simply put, it is beyond the bounds of what is given to us in a Scripture to pronounce Ananias and Sapphira as either believers or unbelievers. It is not clear and cannot be conclusively proven what their spiritual and eternal state was and is. Only the day of judgment will reveal what is true.
But we must not miss the point that Luke was making for both the church then and the church now; for both believers and unbelievers. We must understand that the God of heaven and earth is not to be trifled with! He is not to be “played with.” He is a holy God, and He will either judge sin in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus, on behalf of the believing sinner, or He will execute His judgment upon the sinner left to pay for the price of his own sin.
At times, that judgment can be a temporal judgment upon believers (see for instance, Lamentations 3, 1 Corinthians 11, etc.) or unbelievers (Luke 12:13-21). For the believer it is a judgment or correction in mercy and grace as sons (Hebrews 12:3-11). For the unbeliever it is a judgment which foretells that final judgment when Christ, the Great Judge, returns in glory (1 Thessalonians 1:5-10). You see, God is serious about our sin.
6/6/2011
Can we really know God?
How much of God can we know?
“If we are to know God at all, it is necessary that he revealed himself to us. Even when we discussed the revelation of God that comes through nature or creation, Paul says that “what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.” (Rom. 1:19, ESV). The creation reveals God because He chose to have Himself revealed in this way.” (Loosely quoted from Grudem, Systematic Theology, 149)
Review and Summary of the Universal Knowledge of God
1) Universal Knowledge (key passages, Rom. 1:18 – 32; 2:12 – 16)
a) How can God be known?
i) General revelation furnished in creation
ii) And the conscience
b) By whom can God be known? All men in Adam can and do obtain and possess knowledge of God as their Creator, Lord, and Judge.
c) What can be and is known of God by all men in Adam?
i) All men know that God exists, and they perceived his eternal power and deity as their uncreated creator.
ii) Further, men by their conscience, can and do know that they are accountable to God as their Lord and Judge.
iii) All men know that in God’s judgment they are guilty and worthy of death.
2) Deceptive Response
What is the deceptive response of wicked men to God’s universal knowability?
i) Evil man hate, distort and suppress this knowledge.
ii) Some men even openly deny that they know God at all.
iii) Yet men can never completely erase this knowledge from their hearts, though they live in blasphemy and idolatry, hate and deny God, and refuse to serve him.
3) Damning Impact
a) This knowledge doesn’t save men or restore them to fellowship with the Creator.
b) In fact, in reaction to the suppression of this knowledge God brings temporal judgment – three times the Bible tells us God gave them up:
i) Romans chapter 1, verses 24 and 25
(1) in the lusts of their hearts to impurity,
(2) to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and become idolaters.
ii) Romans chapter 1, verses 26 and 27
(1) to dishonorable passions
(2) women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, i.e., lesbianism
(3) men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men, i.e., homosexuality
iii) Romans chapter 1, verses 28 through 32:
“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” (Rom 1:28 ESV)
c) Thus, this knowledge leaves them no excuse for their sin, and condemns them before their Lord and Judge.
Summary of the Saving Knowledge of God
With regard to the personal knowledge of God that comes in salvation, this idea is even more explicit. Jesus says, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Matt. 11:27, ESV). This kind of knowledge of God is not found through human efforts or wisdom:
“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” (John 1:18, ESV)
“For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” (1Cor. 1:21, ESV)
“The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (1Cor. 2:14, ESV)
“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2Cor. 4:3, ESV)
The Major Features of the Saving Knowledge of God
“All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mat 11:27 ESV)
- The Lord identifies the special basis of the saving knowledge. God is savingly known only through special revelation from Christ himself – “no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him”
- The Lord affirms the scope of this saving knowledge – “no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Thus, it is only the believer who can and does possess saving knowledge of God.
- The Lord affirms the experimental substance of this knowledge. All men united to Christ can and do know God intimately and personally as their Redeemer and Father.
Summary of the Incomprehensibility of God
“Because God is infinite and we are finite or limited, we can never fully understand God. In this sense God is said to be incomprehensible, where the term incomprehensible is used with an older and less common sense, “unable to be fully understood.” This sense must be clearly distinguished from the more common meaning, “unable to be understood.” It is not true to say that God is unable to be understood, but it is true to say that he cannot be understood fully or exhaustively.” (Grudem, Systematic Theology, 149)
“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.”
(Psm. 145:3, ESV)
“Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.” (Psm. 147:5, ESV)
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:8, ESV)
Can we really know God? Yes, men can savingly know God.
How much of God can we know? We can never know God fully or completely.
