Mr. Lin came to our church plant one weekday evening for prayer. I was surprised to see him. Usually, guests came on Sunday or on special days when there was food. In the early stages of a church plant, prayer nights often consisted of my family, perhaps an intern, and me.
Spirit mediums who made a living claiming to communicate with the unseen world.
After some light conversation, Mr. Lin began telling me about his family. His mother and other relatives were spirit mediums who made a living claiming to communicate with the unseen world. People would come to their home and pay for their services.
His family would tell the worshiper what payment or offering was required to summon the god or spirit they wanted to consult. If the spirit accepted, the worshiper could ask for some desired favor in exchange for a gift or vow.
Then Mr. Lin said something that struck me deeply and stayed with me all these years: “I have no way of knowing who God is.”
He had no reliable way to know who God actually was.
Mr. Lin grew up in a family whose livelihood included telling others about the gods, the unseen world, and how to interact with them. They told people which spirit to approach, what offering to give, and what ritual to perform. Yet Mr. Lin himself said he had no reliable way to know who God actually was.
His question exposed an area that, unless handled well, might make the gospel difficult to understand for those with this kind of religious background. Religion, to Mr. Lin, was shaped by his childhood home and culture, where people might conjure gods and spirits by presenting the appropriate gift or vow.
Is the relationship between God and people something fundamentally different?
Is God another spiritual power whom we approach by offering him something he wants so that he will give us something we want? May we summon his presence whenever we want, or is the relationship between God and people something fundamentally different?
Acts 17 shows that the God of the Bible refuses to be approached on those terms. The God of the Bible refuses to fit into a system of religious exchange.
To those who try to fit God into their religious system, the Bible says God “made the world and all things therein” and is “Lord of heaven and earth” (Acts 17:24 KJV).
This God belongs in an entirely different category from the spiritual powers a worshiper might try to summon. God is not a localized deity with needs worshipers can exploit. He is the creator and Lord of everything.
We cannot house the God of the Bible.
He “dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” Unlike deities whose presence is tied to a particular shrine, temple, or household altar, we cannot house the God of the Bible or contain him for the worshiper's convenience.
For people shaped by Taiwanese folk religion, having a god nearby can feel entirely natural. An image may stand in the home or on the shelf of a place of business. The worshiper knows where to go and what to do.
Familiar ways of presenting the gospel may initially make little sense.
But once God refuses to be reduced to something that worshipers can place on a shelf, certain familiar ways of thinking about religion begin to collapse. Even familiar ways of presenting the gospel may initially make little sense if the hearer still assumes that all religion operates through access, offerings, and exchange.
No deal
God also refuses transactional worship because He needs nothing we could offer Him. “Neither is worshiped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing” (v. 25a KJV).
God needs nothing from us.
The relationship cannot begin with, “God, I have something you need, and you have something I want.” Because he is the creator, God needs nothing from us. His dependence upon us is zero, while our dependence upon him is complete.
Paul continues, “seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (v. 25b KJV). Biblical worship therefore begins not with mutual exchange, but with dependence. We do not bargain our way into a relationship with God. We belong to the creator from whom our life and breath already come.
Mr. Lin surprised me by coming to a small midweek prayer meeting looking for the God he did not know. But it should not surprise Christians that people are searching and feeling after him.
People everywhere are meant to seek Him.
Paul says God has ordered the times and places of human life so “that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him” (v. 27 KJV). Paul’s broader point is that human life unfolds under God’s sovereign ordering and that people everywhere are meant to seek Him.
The words translated “feel after” describe groping or feeling one’s way, as someone might search in the dark for something he cannot clearly see. (See, Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament.)
Mr. Lin fit that picture remarkably well. He grew up surrounded by explanations of the unseen world, yet he still reached into the darkness and asked, “Who is God?”
Christians are not merely asking people to add Jesus to (their) religious categories.
Paul’s preaching also suggests something important for Christian evangelism. Christians are not merely asking people to add Jesus to the religious categories they already possess. We help people understand the God they are already groping for.
Before asking someone like Mr. Lin to confess Jesus as Lord, we may first need to help him understand who this God is and why the forgiveness Christ offers matters.
To a world that would fit God into its own systems of worship, Paul speaks of “the times of this ignorance,” but says that God now “commandeth all men every where to repent” (vv. 30–31 KJV).
Repentance is the proper response when God reveals himself.
Repentance is not a transaction offered to God in exchange for salvation. It supplies God with nothing he lacks. Instead, repentance is the proper response when God reveals himself. We abandon our false ideas and false worship and turn toward the God who has made himself known in Jesus Christ.
God is not seeking customers who bring the proper offering of repentance. Repentance acknowledges our place before him as creatures before their creator. It is not payment for belonging. It is the response of those who recognize that they belong to him.
We belong to him rather than bargain with him
There will be others like Mr. Lin, feeling after God in the darkness. God calls his people to meet them there and point them to the God who has made himself known in Christ, so that they may no longer grope for him but belong to Him.
You do not have to wonder whether you have given enough.
When you belong to him, you do not have to wonder whether you have given enough. You do not have to wonder whether some spiritual power will keep its side of the bargain. You can pray directly to your Father. You can trust his care when you are afraid. You can confess your sins knowing that Christ has provided forgiveness.
Communion with God is the Christian’s great blessing. Even when God does not give you what you asked for, your relationship with him has not ended. You are his people, and he is your God.
Mr. Lin came to church wondering whether he could know God. The good news for Mr. Lin is not that Christianity offers him a better ritual or a better bargain. God has given us his son.
John Walz is a missionary, pastor-teacher, and writer serving in Taiwan. For more than fourteen years, he has been involved in church planting, discipleship, and proclaiming the gospel in Taiwan. Alongside ministry, he writes about scripture, missions, spiritual formation, special needs education, and the challenges and encouragements of Christian life. He is also completing graduate studies in biblical languages, which shape his approach to teaching and writing. Whether through theological articles, ministry stories, or creative fiction, he aims to help readers see the grace and glory of Christ in everyday life.
