When God Is Not Enough

By John Greer

Faith is messy. We are often disappointed, if not disillusioned, with God. Disappointment, divorce, sin, and suffering often dominate our Christian landscape. When these things come our way, our response is often to find our needs met outside of God, ministry, or the church. Consciously or not we say, "I tried; God failed. I'll meet my needs myself." This often leads us down a path of even more disappointment, broken relationships, unsatisfied ambitions, and heartfelt needs. Is God really enough for all we need? When God Is Not Enough brings to light God's sovereignty and love within the biblical narrative and through some of the characters of Scripture He has so lovingly chosen to reveal His glory. In viewing His story and theirs, we find meaning and purpose in our ownand this not just for ourselves but also for the life of the world. But this story would be incomplete without its fulfillment in Jesus Christ and what He has done. When God Is Not Enough takes a hard look at what it truly means to be not only a Christian but a disciple of Jesus Christ. With Christ as our life, we find it is in dying that we truly live, and so to live is really to truly die. This is the way Christ has made for us. If Jesus, in living this life to the fullest, lost His life on the cross, then it will surely cost us no less in attempting to do the same. When God Is Not Enough gives an honest look at what it takes to live a life for God and what is truly available through Him for our joy and for the life of the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781512720754

John Greer

John Greer is founder of Christianity at Work, a ministry that seeks to integrate faith and vocation within the context of Christian discipleship and mission. He is also on the board of directors of In Christ Alone Ministries, a campus ministry and mission organization. He has been an engineer, pastor, and missionary for over twenty years. John resides in Long Beach, California, with his wife and three children.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 John Greer.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Cover artwork by Heather Torres.

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Greek New Testament texts are taken from The Greek New Testament, United Bible Society, Fourth Revised Edition(UBS4), by Aland, Aland, Karavidopoulos, Martini, and Metzger. Published by Duetsche Bibelgesellschaft, United Bible Societies, D-Stuttgart. Copyright 1994.

Portions of Hebrew Old Testament texts are consistent with the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, by Alt, Eissfeldt, Kahle, edited by R. Kittel. Published by Duetsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. Copyright 1990.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-2073-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-2074-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-2075-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015919083

WestBow Press rev. date: 12/9/2015

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Preface

Introduction

BOOK ONE: SETTING THE STAGE

Chapter One -- A Paradigm, A Problem, and a Mystery

Chapter Two -- The Problem Compounded by Sin

Chapter Three -- Noah to Abram: The Road to Recovery

BOOK TWO: CHILDREN OF THE PROMISE

Chapter Four -- Abraham: The Promise

Chapter Five -- Children of the Promise

Chapter Six -- Joseph

Chapter Seven -- The Davidic Kingdom

Chapter Eight -- Job

BOOK THREE: BECOMING CHRIST'S DISCIPLE

Chapter Nine -- The Great Christian Threat

Chapter Ten -- Tearing Down the Sacred Secular Dichotomy

Chapter Eleven -- The Problem of Suffering -- Problem Solved

Chapter Twelve -- The Cost of Christian Discipleship

CONCLUSION: LOVE

Chapter Thirteen -- Living to Love

Chapter Fourteen -- When God Is Not Enough

Epilogue: Gloria Patri

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank Nathan Lee for his inspiration and wisdom that led to the writing of this book. I'd like to thank my editors: Thomas Thys, the chief editor, and Elizabeth Kriebel for her work on the first and last manuscripts of this release. Thank you to Heather Torres for the cover artwork. Thanks to all those God has placed around my life for their love and wisdom and patience afforded me through the years. I do hope their life and love are truly evidenced within the pages of this book.

PREFACE

One might find it unusual that this book starts with a re-telling of some of the Old Testament story.¹ The idea here is to show God's sovereignty and grace from the beginning of time, and that He truly is Lord of history, and we carry history with us. In fact, history is His-Story. And now, it is not only His Story but it is your story. A friend of mine named Steve had an old mentor who would say, Write the Gospel according to Steve. Steve, in turn said to me, Write the Gospel according to John. (I told him that one had already been written!) But what they meant by this, of course, was not to write another book for the Christian canon, but rather to allow God's Spirit to write-out, in effect, His story in and through my life.

David says in Psalm 139,

For You formed my inward parts;

You wove me in my mother's womb.

I will give thanks to You,

for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Wonderful are Your works,

And my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from You,

When I was made in secret,

And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;

And in Your book were all written

The days that were ordained for me,

When as yet there was not one of them.²

God created us, knowing us, and our days, before we were even born. This is true of all people since the dawn of time.³ The Gospel is the Good News of Jesus Christ -- what His life, death, and resurrection has meant for a lost and dying world -- in a word: Salvation. We live in a privileged time -- a time post-Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and ascension -- post-Pentecost! His Gospel has been preached throughout the world and for over 2000 years the world has thus benefited. But God's salvation history began at its genesis and so it is here we begin. As we begin to understand God's amazing work in the world we begin to understand too His work in and through our lives: That He is, in effect, writing a Gospel according to you and me as His Spirit works His Story.

Ultimately this book is about God's love: His sovereignty and grace and our place in it. It is fashionable in Christian circles these days to say, It's not about me. It's about Him. This is with all good intentions, rightly taking the focus off us and putting it on Jesus Christ. But unfortunately, (or fortunately for us) God does not have a plan B for making His glory known on Earth. There is only Plan A, and you and I, regenerated by God's Spirit through the death, resurrection, ascension and the giving of that Spirit through Jesus Christ, are it!⁴ We, the church, are God's Plan A. It has been so from the beginning and so it is in the end. Jesus said in John 17,

The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.⁵

By church I don't of course mean a building or a particular denomination. I am speaking of the regenerate people of God who are in a very literal sense the Body of Christ as He is in the world.⁶ Paul said that this was,

in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.⁷

And again, quoting from Genesis 2 in Ephesians 5, Paul states:

FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.⁸

In other words, if we truly want to see God glorified on Earth, we need to take our appointed place on the Earth in His church. This is why it is so important that Christians⁹ -- especially those who have invested so much in the Kingdom -- not give up and give in to the difficulties this world affords, but rather keep entrusting themselves to God just as Jesus did through to the cross:

WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.¹⁰

It is easy to consider giving-up and giving-in in light of the troubles in this world, and so we might begin to question: Can an all-sovereign, all-powerful God, be truly all loving as well? Why then is there so much hurt in the world -- why so much suffering? And why is there so much of this pain in me? I hope you will see here in this book the answers to these questions soon.

May this book encourage you to once again take the risk of entrusting yourself holy and wholly to the one and only healer and guardian of your soul -- the one who alone can cause us to truly live: Jesus Christ our Lord

INTRODUCTION

ENOUGH -- Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio

All of You is more than enough for all of me

For every thirst and every need

You satisfy me with Your love

And all I have in You is more than enough

You are my supply

My breath of life

And still more awesome than I know

You are my reward

worth living for

And still more awesome than I know

All of You is more than enough for all of me

For every thirst and every need

You satisfy me with Your love

And all I have in You is more than enough

You're my sacrifice

Of greatest price

And still more awesome than I know

You're the coming King

You are everything

And still more awesome than I know

More than all I want

More than all I need

You are more than enough for me

More than all I know

More than all I can say

You are more than enough for me

Copyright © 2002 worshiptogether.com Songs (ASCAP) sixsteps Music (ASCAP) (adm. at CapitolCMGPublishing.com) All rights reserved. Used by permission.

International Copyright Secured. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Many of us like this popular Christian song -- and most of us like it because it's absolutely true. But, unfortunately, God alone being more than enough for all we need is hardly our daily experience. In fact, most live (truthfully) in an outright state of continual disappointment with God. Unlike being disappointed with our latest app or car purchase (or worse, a wife or a husband), if we've tried God and He's failed us then where else can we turn? That's why I've written this book: for those of us who have tried God and have found Him at one time or another lacking -- somehow not being enough for all we need. Take courage, there is a solution: one and only one:

When God is not enough, there is ... well ... God.

It is to this end that I hope the reader will be encouraged: to press into God in Christ (again), to know Him as He is, and to realize in all its fullness the implications of this amazing truth:

as He is, so also are we in this world.¹¹

To have a life so intertwined with His own that we find in us all that He truly is.

The task is not for the faint in heart. A servant is not greater than his master¹² and neither are we. We must be prepared to live a life marked by that of our Master Jesus: In a word: obedience. It is sobering truth. What is more, we are told, Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through the things which He suffered.¹³ True obedience is born out of the pain of suffering -- as a newborn babe is born through the pain of child-birth; and to this purpose we were called. Paul writes, For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake.¹⁴ We must prepare to share in the same: obedience through suffering.

Christians like to talk about sacrifice because we think it means we must give something up, keep something else, and get back something in return. But Christianity defines sacrifice as death on a cross -- and this is quite different. Jesus said, If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.¹⁵ Jesus' life demonstrated this truth -- as did the lives of His disciples and many who have come after them. We cannot hope to escape it either. The Christian learning obedience through suffering is as natural as child-birth -- and like child-birth it is the only way God has made for us to live. But there is also great liberty in this: Recently, when an elderly Chinese Christian narrowly escaped arrest by Chinese authorities, he was asked if he was scared that he might have been killed for being a Christian. He responded with a smile, No, I wasn't afraid. I die daily.¹⁶

Christian obedience is inextricably intertwined with suffering. Suffering produces obedience. Obedience results in death. As we are buried with Him in His death, so then we share in the power of His resurrection life.¹⁷ This is not just a metaphor for a onetime decision. It is the way of God's grace, the path to true freedom, and the road to lasting joy.

God has so arranged that we would be successful in the task: Christ lives through us by His Spirit, He prays us through by His intercession, and works His purpose in and around our lives through His promise.

Therefore, in Christ we are built for being successful. It's in our spiritual DNA: Jesus said, You did not choose me, but I have chosen you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you.¹⁸ There is sufficiency in the cross and power in the resurrection for those whom He has chosen. This too is God's grace.

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.¹⁹

If we will find the necessity of God's grace through our suffering (as opposed to seeking to remove ourselves from it), we will find, too, the sufficiency of God's grace that will bring us back into a life of obedience: one of lasting peace, love, and joy -- even if it costs us our life. There is no reason to give up. There is no reason to claim defeat. There is no reason not to try again:

By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.²⁰

BOOK ONE:

SETTING THE STAGE

The stage of our story is set in the beginning as God has set it. But Genesis is as much a story of the end as it is the beginning. For on this stage we find all the elements we have already received in and through Jesus Christ. We must ask ourselves, Will I allow God and what He has given to be enough for me, or will I chose to meet my own needs? We know what Adam and Eve chose to do.

Which way will we run?

CHAPTER ONE -- A PARADIGM, A PROBLEM, AND A MYSTERY

The present reality of Jesus Christ is the great hope of the Christian. He is a present reality because He is the risen Savior and Lord of all and He dwells in the Christian by the Holy Spirit. He is alive in us. Jesus Christ is literally with us all the time and He alone is to be our sufficiency. The Scriptures say it this way, Christ in [us], the hope of glory.²¹ But the story of how this marvelous truth called Christianity came to be is an amazing one of itself.²² It finds its beginning in the book of beginnings: Genesis²³

God created all things by His word -- by speaking them into existence out of nothing -- creator ex nihilo.²⁴ From the very beginning we read, God said ...²⁵ and it was so. On the first day, God said, Let there be light. The Scriptures then tell us, and there was light, and it was good. It is very important to note that wrapped in the very essence of the nature of God and in the very fabric of creation itself is God's ability to create good out of nothing simply by commanding it to be so.²⁶ On day one, God created light. On day two, God created the heavens.

But then God started creating living things on day three, and here we see the striking phrase, "plants yielding seed, each bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them -- again, plants yielding seed and bearing fruit (the first generation) with seed in them (the hope of the second generation). As the story unfolds, we see the purpose of this: plants and trees are to yield seed and fruit after their own kind." We see the first glimpse that God's nature is also wrapped in a certain economic model -- one based on multiplication -- again, multiplication after their own kind. On day five, we see the same thing among sea creatures and birds: "each made after their kind. But here we see, too, something quite astonishing: He blesses them and He commands them. God establishes His basis for relationship: the empowerment and the responsibility to obey. And what command was given that they were empowered to obey? The very thing they were equipped by God to do: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth." Again, it was that they multiply after their own kind -- this time with a command and a purpose or goal: to fill and to multiply.²⁷

Finally, on the sixth day God made the beasts and cattle of the earth and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. He made them all out of the earth. And then, ultimately, out of this same earth, He formed man²⁸ -- one in His own image and in His own likeness -- and breathing into him, man became a living being. God made man to be His image-bearer, His likeness on the earth. Genesis 1:27 says, In the image of God He created him, male and female he created them.²⁹ And God blessed the beasts and the cattle and every creeping thing and gave them the same command -- the same goal -- to be fruitful and multiply and fill. But to man and woman He gave two additional commands: to subdue the earth and to rule over everything He had created. But Man was not to rely on instinct, nor simple blessing, but on a lasting relationship with God Himself. Man and woman's reason would also be needed -- and this too, again, in relationship with their creator.

So all living things have been created to bear seed and fruit that they might bear more fruit -- each after their own kind. Moreover, all animals have been created with God's blessing and command to multiply and fill the sea, earth, and sky. Finally, man and woman have been created to be God's image-bearers to be fruitful, multiply, and fill -- but more, to subdue and rule. Man and woman are clearly equipped to multiply and to fill, but let's look at the issue of ruling a bit more closely. As we have said, ruling requires relationship and reason together. To reason properly, man³⁰ was in need of instruction from God. Having need for instruction, man was dependent upon his relationship with God in order to properly execute what God had commanded: subdue the earth and rule over it.³¹

In chapter two of Genesis we see more specifically how God's relationship with man helped him accomplish the tasks given him. He was given the task of cultivating the Garden of Eden, his home. He was instructed to eat freely of its fruit.³² Finally, he was instructed to name all of the animals.³³

Therefore, it is by virtue of, first, how man and his world are made and second, what man is to do with that world, that we see from the beginning the great paradigm of the ages: multiplication, and the problem: ruling.³⁴ But God's method for accomplishing the task would take a mystery:

We see again in this chapter, Genesis chapter two, how God explicitly equips man for the task at hand: God created all animal life. For Adam, this meant more work. God brought each animal to Adam, for him to name, and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.³⁵ But this activity of God in creating the animals for Adam -- the activity of finding a corresponding complement (in the true sense of the word) to help him in the garden -- was found to be insufficient. "So the LORD God caused a