The Expository Files

 


 

 

No Substitute for God

 

I read this statement recently. Think about it: “God may well be taken as a substitute for everything; but nothing can be taken as a substitute for God.”

That’s true. With God there is always hope for the faithful. There is always prospect and assurance and peace. There is confidence that at last, all will be well… more than well… perfect. We can suffer the loss of anything of this realm and still have this assurance. Even life itself. As long as we have God, then ultimately that is OK because God is more powerful than death. But nothing can be a substitute for God. Without God we are destined to lose everything worthwhile and there is no hope of even a glimmer of good.  This is why we ought not spend our lives chasing after futile things and neglect God.

The Lord told His people,  "You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which can not profit or deliver, because they are futile.” (1 Samuel 12:21.

Jesus is called “The Bread of Life” because He sustains us through our deepest needs. Just as candy can spoil our appetite and cause us to pass up needed nourishment, the love of things of the world can rob us of our hunger for righteousness and leave us growing ever sicker and ultimately dying a spiritual death. Things of this creation can never do for us what God can do. There is no substitute. 
 

By Jon W. Quinn

The Final Page
From Expository Files 22.9;  September 2015

 

 

 

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