God is the "X" factor in the formula of salvation. The unknown. The unquantifiable. The elusive omnipresence capable of feats beyond our human understanding. God is a spirit, unseen with the human eye. They that worship him must worship him by faith—and in one passage of scripture: in spirit and in truth.
God is so wise! Surely if he desired, he could appear in a form, a visage, unto man! He could show himself to our human eyes, so that we might look upon him and believe. That, of course, would defeat the purpose. I find that I, and perhaps most people, judge the things we see—first, impressions, you name it. And we are not always correct in our human judgment. I know that I, personally, often diminish my opinion of a person upon laying eyes on them. I find some fallibility, some error in their presentation, some humanness about them—something quantifiable. Then I file them away into an appropriate box in my mind, appropriately labeled with my opinion of them. Would it not be the same with God? Wouldn't I quantify him? Wouldn't I label his capability after I looked upon him? How wise he is in that he is a spirit.
Surely God knew that man would seek to unlock the mysteries of the universe. In the beginning, God put the earth under Adam's feet — the animals, and all that were therein. God created man to conquer the earth, in that man would have dominion over it. And we have dominion, oh yes! We have so much dominion that we have moved on to greater mysteries. Greater powers. Greater civilization and technology. Greater ability. I often hear the phrase, "the Age of Man," as though there were another age—the evolutionist theory. That thought aside, I can comprehend the underlying awe with which a person says, "the Age of Man." Look at us now: it is as if we have come so far, unlocked so many "mysteries of the universe" that we believe that if we have not unlocked it, it does not exist. Cannot be done. Man has discovered the cure for many of the diseases that caused death down through history. Vaccinations. Man has discovered how to tell time, and created the standards by which time is measured worldwide. Man created currency and measured its value, and even have economist to predict how far it will stretch. And many more. After all of this, and somehow, because of all of our discoveries, we think we have it figured out. The whole story—beginning to end. We have it mapped out in our minds, play-by-play, what will happen, what should happen, the normal daily consequences of our actions in today's society. And then we panic. We panic because we already know the untoward result that will occur. It is the handwriting on the wall. It is a scientific fact. It is history. It is widely accepted worldwide. But we never figured God into the equation. Praise God!
My Lord—our equation played out in textbook fashion with predictable results. We lost. Period. End of story. Everybody go home. But somewhere we missed a step in the formula. We forgot to factor in the omnipresence, the unquantifiable, the unknown "X" factor—God. He changes the whole equation. Now we are unsure of the outcome—unable to predict what he will do. We must, in our human distress, have absolute faith in God. But what about medical certainty? What about the reality of time? What about the true fact that money only stretches so far?
The God we serve is the God who Paul said "calleth for those things that be not, as thought they were." The God we serve is the caused Sara to conceive a child in her old age, even though both she and Abraham were well stricken in years. The God we serve caused the woman Elisha dealt with in the Old Testament to pour oil out of one pot into multiple pots, until there was not a pot left to fill, and there remained oil in the first pot. Now I ask you—how can oil keep coming out of a pot? Keep coming? It cannot. Not in this life—not by human power. It is a thing that is impossible. But Jesus taught that what is impossible with man is possible with God. Our God, our "X" factor, our unquantifiable spirit can create something out of nothing. Just look in the mirror. He created Man. He created the world, which was without form and void, when the world did not exist.
Even knowing the power of God, I admit—I struggle to be like Abraham, who staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. It was counted to him for righteousness! Why do I struggle so? The Bible teaches that God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. Is it that God despises wisdom? Absolutely not! It is that Man, relying on the wisdom and power that God gave him, sought, and still seeks to tear down, or make himself equal with God. Just look at the Tower of Babel. Those men had to have some sort of thought process to build that monstrosity! They took the mind that God gave them and used it to defy him. God help me! Today, there are many people that openly defy God with their earthly intellectualism and "enlightened" living. We saints are simply close-minded sheep, and that not in the flattering sense of the word. These outward, worldly opinions toward us press us daily and are a constant battle that we have to face. And as we learn, as we become educated in books and in life, we are taught, and learn the Man-made formula.
Beware! The formula of Man does not include God. When you open your mouth to speak the words of faith: Man already has an answer. Satan already has an answer. But as a saint of God, I rise in singular dissent. I have somewhat to say: Man needs to get front row tickets at Madison Square Garden, right up in the paint, because Jesus is going to show out tonight. Gather 'round class—open your notebooks and put on your reading glasses so that you can read the "X" I am adding to the formula on the chalkboard. Now quantify this.
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