From Jerry Sittser’s book ‘The Will of God as a Way of Life’:
. . . . I wondered for years why faith is so fundamental to the Christian life. My son David helped me to find the answer. When he was only eight years old, he asked me, “Why does God make it so hard?” Startled by his question, I asked him what he meant. He replied, “Why does God make it so hard to know Him? We can’t see God, hear God, or touch God. But we’re still supposed to believe that He is really there?” His question got me thinking. Why is faith central? Why isn’t God more obvious? Why does he make it so hard for us to know him?
What would happen, I wondered, if God were obvious? I’m not sure we would like the outcome. God’s undeniable presence would make faith unnecessary. We would have no choice in the matter. We would have to believe. In fact, believe is hardly the right word. God’s bright and blazing presence would overwhelm us. His ineffable glory would blind, crush, and annihilate us, sinful creatures that we are, which is hardly the goal that God had in mind when he created us.
Could this requirement of faith, then, actually work to our advantage? I believe that God prefers to be subtle, choosing to woo and entice rather than to overwhelm and coerce. He gives us the room to maneuver and the freedom to respond. He lets us choose for ourselves what we will do for him. He created us as individuals with hearts that feel, minds that think, and wills that decide. God does not absorb us into himself, as if he had a giant black hole that cannot tolerate anything that has a separate and independent existence. Thus, we know enough about God to believe; we do not know so much that we have to believe. God invites us into a relationship with him, but he does not bully us.
In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis used the clever device of correspondence between two devils to explore the nature of the Christian life. The “enemy,” of course, is God, because the entire book is written from the perspective of hell. Screwtape informs his nephew Wormwood that their “Father below” (Satan) wants to extinguish the individuality of every creature. He seeks to absorb, not love. . . . The whole philosophy of Hell rests on recognition that . . . my good is my good and your good is yours. What one gains, another loses. . . .
God respects our individuality. He does not want to obliterate us. So he lets us choose to believe or disbelieve. He reveals himself, to be sure, and he invites us into a relationship with himself. But he does not coerce us.
So we know enough to believe there is a God who creates, loves, and saves. But we do not know so much that we are forced to come to such conclusions. We must, therefore, choose to believe. Such faith requires more than intellectual assent. It mandates trust. We must live as if God really does exist, rewards those who seek him, makes us right with himself, and shows us the right way to live. ~Jerry Sittser, The Will of God as a Way of Life (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 2000, 2004), 228-29
