I read the statement “Abraham believed God” (Galatians 3:6). It jumped out at me with all its loaded implications: “Abraham believed God”—and not man. “Abraham believed God”—and not what well-meaning pastors or little old ladies told him about God. “Abraham believed God”—knowing that different preachers and professors teach opposing and contradictory things, and theologies are not infallible, but go awry. “Abraham believed God”—and that’s all you and I can do, at the end of the day.
I can just imagine what Martin Luther’s counselor told him in his office when the monk of tender conscience came to him with a troubled mind: “Martin, pray that God will forgive your arrogance and presumption. Who do you think you are, that you can see something that has escaped the divines of the centuries, and many a better scholar than you? Martin, don’t you know: We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.”
I wonder if the monk replied: Dear Abbot, the Word of God must always stand above the word of man. I cannot judge his word; it judges me. The only shoulders I can stand on are Jesus’, Peter’s, and Paul’s.
Andree Seu
