You are my God

You are my God, there is none other. With Him we make a majority and where He is, grace abounds.

In Hebrews 8, we read of the New Covenant, something I feel has not been adequately covered in theological teaching.

A pivotal clause of the New Covenant is God's promise to be our God, as we shall be His people. The subject here is not us. It should not read "I shall be your God" because God is the subject. Thus it should be, "I shall be your God". God entered into a covenant of His making, he did not become a willing participant in a man-made institution.

When Abraham mounted Moriah he was asked to do what other gods would typically have required of him: to offer his child. The pagan world was characterised by such barbarism and now Jehovah God demanded the same from Abraham.

In that moment, Abraham's concept of "My God", was deeply tested. The idea of "My God" or "My Faith", is something personal rather than fundamental. It alludes to our personalised concept fo a divine icon. It somewhat reduces God to a talisman. People invoke the notion of "My God" in times of trouble or when facing anything that confronts their value system. Americans seem to invoke the term for just about everything.

But when Abraham stood alone on that hill with his son, he had to examine whether "His God" was just a colloqialism, a peculiarity of his own world view, a product fo his own thinking. Indeed God removed all His own distinctions so that to all intents there were no notable differences between Himself and other Gods.

Jesus was also tempted on the central divinity of God, when satan offered Him the kingdoms of the world. To this he replied, "The Lord our God is one and Him alone shall we serve".

Both these great men had to confront their faith in the face of huge contradictions. They emerged with a real faith, not in a contrivance of their own imaginations, nor in a God amongst gods, but in the only absolute: Jehovah.

That is the crux of the New Testament. God is not saying I will be your personal crutch or designer God. He is saying that as the only sovereign He will be yours. You, your values and your world view will be defined by the Great I am, who is and was and ever more shall be.

When Abraham finally obeyed God, God intervened. His sovereigty was displayed openly as He said, "No, don't touch the boy, there is the lamb of sacrifice." Thereafter God effectively said, "Your people have become my people, for becaus eyou did not withhold your only son, that son who by implication became mine, is the instrument with which I will make a nation, a people as the stars in the sky: and I will be their God".

The idea of God's centrality to our faith was fundamental to Jesus victory of satan in the wilderness. You will also find victory when God assumes His place as God, not merely your God. It is when He is there to be worshipped and obeyed for whom He is, that we will finally know the heart of our struggle against satan, which is about affirming our absolute dependence on the one, true God.

As long as you waver on this point, you will falter in your battles. But when it is settled and you overcome satan in this, God will do what He did for Abraham: He will declare you as His people.

(c) Peter Eleazar at http://www.bethelstone.com/