MUCH MORE THAN THE MOST: A Biblical Rationale for Solving Our Problems
(Matt. 6:26, 30; Rom. 5:9, 10, 15, 17)
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PRAYER PREPARATION
Jesus Himself tells us in John 8:31-32:
31 "... If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;32 and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. " NAS
In John 15:7, He also tells us:
7 "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you. NAS
Let’s take a moment to quietly confess our sins to God, so that we are in fellowship with Him and led by the Holy Spirit when we study God’s word. 1 John 1:9 promises us, that if we name our known sins to God, He always forgives us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness, even from the unknown sins we forgot or didn’t even realize we committed. Let’s pray.
Thank you, Father, for always restoring your children when we admit our sins to you. May your Holy Spirit teach us your word as we study it now. We ask these things in Jesus Name. Amen
INTRODUCTION
My main method of learning God’s word from the Bible is to listen to sermons every day on cassette tapes. I’ve been doing this since January of 1990, on the average of 1-2 hours a day. I have a walkman and headphones, and I can listen to these taped lessons while I’m on public transportation going to and from work each day. It takes me an hour each way on the 20 bus and the Frankford El, so I get to use two hours to learn God’s word. This time would otherwise go to waste if I spent it like most other people do --- reading the newspaper, eating a donut, having a soft pretzel with mustard and a Pepsi (disgusting at 6AM!), or just snoozing. An added advantage I have is that with my headphones on, I don’t have to listen to the rude gum-cracking, or to people’s nasty conversations, which at times can be unbelievably raunchy.
For the past few months, I’ve been listening to a series of taped Bible lessons about the Exodus generation of Israel. These lessons are taught by Pastor Robert McLaughlin from Grace Bible Church in Somerset, Massachusetts. This week, he’s been teaching something that I’ve found really exciting, and want to share with others. It’s one of those insights into God’s word that changes the way I look at things. A little bit of this message is technical, but if you can stay with me and not tune me out, I really believe you’ll find this Bible lesson to be one that you’ll always remember and be able to use in good and bad times. I’m going to show you something called a Biblical "rationale", and I want to first explain what that means.
When we were each born physically, we were babies and didn’t know a thing about the world around us. We had to be taught words, how to know right from wrong, what things were good for us and what would hurt us, and many other things. Likewise, when people first become "born again", they enter the Christian life as babies spiritually. We need to learn spiritual words from the Bible that we’ve never heard or understood before.
As we listen to Bible teaching, one of the most basic things we first learn are to trust and stand on the promises from God. Some promises concern our salvation, some tell us of God’s faithfulness when we face trouble, and others protect us from sin that can hurt us.
Such promises can be found in one or two verses that we remember and use in good times or bad. As we mature spiritually, we will still have those promises to help us, but we also start to learn what’s called Biblical rationales. A rationale is a general truth or doctrine, based on many Bible verses.
For instance, the doctrine of salvation is a rationale.
If we understand salvation by faith alone in Christ alone, we can use this as a rationale to correctly know other Bible doctrines. Applying salvation as a rationale, as a way of thinking, works like this:
- If I didn’t work to GET my salvation, then why would God make me work to KEEP it? This gives us an understanding of the doctrine of GRACE, of living our Christian life based on faith rather than works.
- If God FREELY GAVE me the gift of eternal life when I was a lost sinner, then why would He TAKE BACK that gift of salvation now that I’m His child? This logic helps us to properly understand the doctrine of ETERNAL SECURITY.
So applying the doctrine of Salvation to other questions or issues, is an example of applying a rationale. This is why it’s so critical for people to understand the right and Biblical way to be saved. This is why our presentation of the gospel isn’t just a matter of "semantics." If you misunderstand how you became a Christian, this can cause you to misunderstand other doctrines you are taught after you are saved.
For example, if you think you DID something to earn or deserve your salvation (like "inviting Jesus into your heart", "shedding tears of repentance", or "making Jesus Lord"), then you will likely believe other false things, such as:
- You can lose your salvation;
- God’s blessings are based upon your works, not His grace;
- God’s forgiveness of your sins has to be earned in some way.
So as I stated earlier, I want to talk about a Biblical rational that I’ve recently been learning. It’s a rationale that I already understood as a proof of eternal security, that a Christian can’t lose his or her salvation. In my recent study, however, I’ve been learning that this rationale has many more applications than just that one doctrinal area. Today I want to show you that rationale in the Bible, and first give you a humorous illustration.
A few years ago, I was watching David Letterman, and he was broadcasting his show from Las Vegas. He was doing his opening monologue and he told this joke.
He said that he was standing in front of one of the casinos, and a man came up to him looking desperate.
"Please!" the man begged frantically. "Could you possibly spare $500. My wife is very sick, and I really need the money to take her to the doctor and to buy her the medicine she needs."
Dave looked at the guy suspiciously, and he asked the man, "Wait a minute! If I give you $500, how do I know you won’t just go into one of the casinos here and gamble it all away?’
The man quickly responded, "Oh no, I wouldn’t do that! I’ve got gambling money!"
Of course, the point of the joke is that the man already had money to gamble in the casinos, but didn’t want to use it to help his sick wife. If such a guy won’t use his gambling money to help his wife when she has a serious illness, I think we can safely assume that he’s certainly not going to give her his money for lesser things, like to pay the bills or to buy something nice for herself.
That’s an assumption we can safely make about this guy. First, we take a fact we already know about him, that he won’t give his money to his wife when he’s sick. Then, from this fact that we already know to be true, we can assume a lesser thing with even greater certainty. In this instance, we can assume that a guy who won’t use his gambling money to help his sick wife, would surely not give her his money for lesser problems or needs.
DEFINITION
This kind of logic has a technical name. It’s called "a fortiori" reasoning, a legal term that can be found in many dictionaries. "A fortiori" is a Latin phrase that means "for stronger reason". By definition, "a fortiori" is a system of logic that uses comparisons. It begins with an established fact, something that we already know or believe to be true. Then it proceeds to an inescapable conclusion, to something that we can know or believe with even greater certainty.
A Fortiori - Latin, translated "for stronger reason". This rationale is usually translated in the New Testament from the Koine Greek phrase "polus mallon" (pah-loos’ mah’-lone) as "MUCH MORE".
For example, in Matt. 6:26, 30; Rom. 5:9, 10, 15, 17:
Matthew 6:26
26 "Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? NAS
Matthew 6:30
30 "But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith? NAS
Romans 5:9
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. NAS
Romans 5:10
10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. NAS
Romans 5:15
15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. NAS
Romans 5:17
17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. NAS
HUMAN EXAMPLES:
- If a loved one or friend would give you $1,000, then wouldn’t that friend give you $10?
- If someone could afford to buy a BMW, couldn’t they afford the gas for it?
- If your parents would spend $80,000 tuition to send you to college, wouldn’t they help you buy the books and meals you need?
DIVINE EXAMPLES:
- If God provides for the grass (Matt. 6:26, 30), won’t He provide for something of much greater importance, you?
- When we were unsaved and His enemies, God provided the greatest gift, His Son. Now that we are saved and His children, won’t He provide the lesser, day-to-day things that we need?
- As born-again believers, we know that God solved our greatest problem, that we were once lost and on our way to Hell for all eternity. If we believe God solved such a great eternal problem, He can certainly take care of our much lesser problems, our day-to-day material concerns.
In other words, if GREATER benefit has already been provided, the LESSER benefits will not be withheld. If God has already done the GREATER AND HARDER THING, won’t He do the LESSER AND EASIER THINGS?
The answer to these questions is "yes," of course, because that’s what the Bible promises. However, God’s people don’t usually think this way. Instead, we worry, doubt, and fear over the daily problems of life. When we react to our problems with fear, doubt, and worry, we are actually imitating unbelievers, who deal with life’s problems the same way. If we really believed this "MUCH MORE" logic in God’s word, wouldn’t we get excited instead, watching and wondering just how God is going to resolve our difficulties?
Sadly, we often react just like the Exodus generation of Israel when they were wandering in the desert. When God comes through for us, we get excited and praise Him. But the next time we have problems, we fall back into fear, doubt, and worry again. Many Christians today would proudly say that, had they seen the miracles that Israel witnessed in the desert, that they wouldn’t have turned from God like the Jews did.
However, we have advantages that Israel didn’t have back then. For example, we have all three members of the Godhead indwelling us, as well as God’s completed word in written form. Nevertheless, we panic and turn away from God for far lesser reasons than Israel did in the wilderness.
If I were to ask you to name the biggest problem faced by every member of the human race, I’m sure you would agree with me that it’s going to hell and suffering for all eternity. We know this is true because the Bible tells us a number of reasons, such as:
- all people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
- the wages of sin is death;
- there is no one that is righteous, not even one person;
- we are born spiritually dead and enemies of God.
But because we are all Christians, we believe that as a result of placing our faith in the work of Jesus Christ, all of these problems have been resolved by God:
- our sins have been forgiven, and God doesn’t even remember them anymore;
- we’ve been given eternal life, to live with God forever in heaven;
- the absolute righteousness of Jesus Christ has been freely given to us;
- we are born again, that is, our human spirits that were dead from physical birth have been made alive.
So what we need to realize is this. If God did such fantastic things for us when we were unsaved, won’t He do MUCH MORE for us now? If God gave us the greatest blessings when we were His enemies, won’t He give us MUCH MORE now that we’re His children?
God resolved our greatest problems of sin, spiritual death, and unrighteousness, to save us from Hell and to spend eternity with Him in heaven. If He could do that, then can’t He MUCH MORE provide us with our lesser needs of food, housing, a job, health, and many other material blessings that He knows we require?
Of course the answer is YES, but we need to BELIEVE this. We need to APPLY this rationale, this Biblical kind of thinking, whenever we face bad times.
SUMMARY
As new believers, we begin to learn promises from God’s word, promises that we need to apply when a crisis occurs. As we study the Bible and grow as Christians, we start to learn and understand that there are certain Biblical rationales or ways of thinking, that we can use to deal with our problems in a spiritual way.
The A FORTIORI rationale, which means "for stronger reason," shows us that if we know that God already did the GREATEST thing for us when we were his enemies, then "for stronger reason," He will then provide the LESSER things we need now that we are His children.
This Biblical way of thinking is usually found in the New Testament words, MUCH MORE. If God did the MOST for us when we were spiritually dead in sin, then He will certainly do MUCH MORE than that now that we are His sons and daughters. Since God will do THE MOST for us when we are unsaved, then He will do MUCH MORE THAN THE MOST after we are born again. Romans 8:32 clearly teaches us this lesson without even using the words "much more":
Rom 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? NAS
I want to end the message with a verse that illustrates this Biblical way of thinking:
Matthew 7:11
11 "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! NAS
When trouble comes in your life, you need to remember and apply this Biblical way of thinking to your problems. God is not going to neglect you or leave you abandoned. Let’s pray.
Father, we thank you for providing your greatest blessing to us, the sacrifice of your Son Jesus Christ on the cross, while we were spiritually dead in our sins. By placing our faith in His work, we know that now we are your children and that you will always supply us with the lesser things you know we need. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
Copyright (c) 2001, Frank J. Gallagher
Abiding In The Word
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