Jesus Answers 9 Essential QuestionsNäide

What is right and wrong?

Jesus encounters a government official whose son is sick. The man asks Jesus to heal his son, and Jesus responds by asking, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?” Elsewhere in the Gospels, the Pharisees and teachers of the law ask Jesus to show them a miraculous sign—they want him to remove all doubt from the question. But Jesus calls them “evil” and “faithless” because of it (Matthew 12:38-45). Jesus came to re-establish a trusting, faithful relationship with God’s beloved children. But children who fold their arms and stamp their feet, demanding miraculous signs as a foundation for their trust, have missed something that is true of every relationship.

If your love is based on performance and not a commitment to your beloved’s heart, then it is no love at all. It’s wrong to treat our relationship with God like a business transaction—if you do this, then I’ll do this—because God is interested in restoring intimacy of the deepest kind with us. Demanding that God perform for us to win our love is wrong; trusting him because we’ve “tasted and seen” his heart is right.