Relationship, not Proposition
Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 01:25PM The voice of doubt speaks loudly to our generation, but what about the voice of faith? Who speaks for faith, and how do we know the voice of faith?
Younger Christians are leaving the faith-expression of their parents because they have been told faith means believing certain ways about certain propositions: theories of creation, definitions of gender roles, even specific political ideologies. But rules are easy, finding faith is hard.
Jesus criticized religious legalists because their expression of faith included rules and protocols for every facet of life--entering and exiting your house; the details of what to wear, even how far to walk on a sabbath day: “you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”
One day a man brought his son to Jesus because the boy suffered from seizures:
“If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us."The Lord responded with powerful grace: the boy was healed and the lives of the father and son were never the same again. I believe this account reveals something of how the Lord works: he asks for faith, but he also gives faith. This father was desperate to help his son. In the conversation it appeared Jesus asked of him something he did not have: sufficient faith. The father’s answer was instinctive and instructive, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” The father’s answer also revealed his posture: he leaned toward faith and away from doubt.
" 'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."
Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
Jesus offered more than the help of healing. I believe Jesus helped establish a faith that would last a lifetime within that family. They saw firsthand the mercy of God meet their need. What if their greatest need was not healing, but faith to believe God knew them and loved them?
In John’s gospel Jesus tells us that the work God requires is to believe in him. (v 6:29) Unlike the legalists, though, Jesus does more than demand. He supplies. Jesus is not the kind of person unwilling to lift a finger to help us in our deficiencies. He bears our burden of doubt and demonstrates the Father’s heart toward his creation. The gospels reveal his method: Jesus celebrates faith, and provides faith to each of us like a host passing out party favors to each guest. We can come to the party just as we are, he will provide the proper attire.
Over the years I’ve heard people explain, “faith just doesn’t come naturally for me,” as if some are born credulous and others are more naturally incredulous. In truth I suspect we are all inclined toward doubt. We need to find the spring of faith and drink deeply because it is foreign to our nature. But lately we have been told by religious authorities that we are responsible to will ourselves into faith. We are told to get with the program, to give intellectual agreement to the propositions set before us as matters of faith. The only problem is, faith is in a person, not a proposition. Faith is relational long before it is intellectual.
Consider the famous faith-words in Hebrews 11:6, “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” God invites us into a relationship directed toward him, filled with expectation that he responds.
I cannot imagine that God himself stands, clipboard in hand, checking off a list of religious positions we must hold. “I’m sorry,” he eventually says, “it seems we only agree on seven of the ten necessary positions required.” He closes the doors to the banquet hall and feasts only with those who agree with the required tenets of the correct religious group. No. I suspect God is confident that simply coming to know him more and more will put all questions to rest, and end the arguments among children who don’t understand what they are talking about. We argue about this and that while he says, “Come, get to know me.”
As we place our faith in a Person, I suspect he will love us into complete understanding. I suspect the Holy Spirit had it right when he inspired the words,
Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.He is the object of my faith, and I simply want to know him more each day. Where does your faith rest?
Reader Comments (7)
When I lost my faith at a Vineyard church, it was because of behaviour such as you describe in metaphor -- the checklist in hand. It's easy to talk about God accepting us with our doubts this way; but it seems intractable to put into practice. I only mention the "Vineyard" aspect of the story because this is putatively a fellowship wherein the Holy Spirit was having all this influence. How can it be for those who aren't even seeking this?
I am reminded of a story from the Chronicles of Narnia; "The Silver Chair". Jill Pole, on meeting Aslan, and hearing from Him that He had called her to Narnia, wanted to dispute this; she thought she had been doing the calling. Aslan sez: "You would not be calling to me unless I had been calling to you." So this "faith" we speak of involves more than our volitional will. I wonder at -- and I am one of those who dismisses what my elders pressed on me in my youth, and most of what I hear in church -- what we reject we do because there is an element of forced "pretend" about it. "Pretend" I got my answer to my tithing question. "Pretend" that it does not matter if the earth is 10,000 years old or not. Etc. In the grander scheme those things do not matter as much as the weight we put on them. But the "pretend" matters greatly because we understand ourselves to have been sickened or injured at some time in the past from some like "pretend." And this matters to your essay about faith because faith is not about "pretend."
Hi Charles:
I'm sorry to hear of your past experiences, but your story from the Silver Chair is spot on.
We derive the word "pretense" from the word "pretend." And pretending is never a substitute for faith. I am constantly challenged by this description about Abraham, the Father of Faith: "Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah's womb was also dead." (Romans 4:19) In this verse we see the interplay between "facing the facts" and yet still having faith. Whether this kind of faith is volitional or a gift--I'm afraid we'll have to wait a while and then ask Abraham. Peace!
Ray, I love every word of this. It resonates so deeply with me. Thank you!!!
Thanks, Sarah, that's very encouraging. God bless you and yours.
In the Corinthians teaching about the Gifts of the Spirit; there is one that is not examined much: The gift of faith. Lots of people are familiar with the Word of Knowledge; Word of Wisdom, tongues, interpretation. .....Few speak of the Gift of Faith. It has happened twice in my life; I had revelatory knowledge of something that was God's intention; I insisted in my praying that it would. And it came to pass; in both instances essentially by other people, not part of the drama, being compelled by the leading of the Spirit to do something, in one case to give me a check; in another case to purchase something from me. In neither case were they even in any position to know about the intercession or the great need; but my confidence that God would do what I understood Him to be promising me that He would do was supra-natural; that is, it was not worked up by me; neither was it rational in light of the circumstances. One other believer known to me described a like experience as one of having a can of faith poured into him.
The whole "word of faith" movement -- name it and claim it -- seems to me to be a corruption of what at the core is part of the armamentorium given to us by the Holy Spirit. They have taken real events and made them into what they suppose is a spiritual billy club. A metaphor for what it *really* is like is more like those mechanized suits you climb into that then allow you to lift huge weights, punch through a wall, etc. God can power the suit up; we can't.
... One does not live in the suit. One does not think that *they* are the suit. And it's only for certain enabling purposes. And then you get out of the suit.
So, in the case of Sarah, we see, I think, an OT type and shadow of this phenomena.
When I lost my faith at a Vineyard church, it was because of behaviour such as you describe in metaphor -- the checklist in hand. It's easy to talk about God accepting us with our doubts this way; but it seems intractable to put into practice. I only mention the "Vineyard" aspect of the story because this is putatively a fellowship wherein the Holy Spirit was having all this influence. How can it be for those who aren't even seeking this?
I am reminded of a story from the Chronicles of Narnia; "The Silver Chair". Jill Pole, on meeting Aslan, and hearing from Him that He had called her to Narnia, wanted to dispute this; she thought she had been doing the calling. Aslan sez: "You would not be calling to me unless I had been calling to you." So this "faith" we speak of involves more than our volitional will. I wonder at -- and I am one of those who dismisses what my elders pressed on me in my youth, and most of what I hear in church -- what we reject we do because there is an element of forced "pretend" about it. "Pretend" I got my answer to my tithing question. "Pretend" that it does not matter if the earth is 10,000 years old or not. Etc. In the grander scheme those things do not matter as much as the weight we put on them. But the "pretend" matters greatly because we understand ourselves to have been sickened or injured at some time in the past from some like "pretend." And this matters to your essay about faith because faith is not about "pretend."
In the Corinthians teaching about the Gifts of the Spirit; there is one that is not examined much: The gift of faith. Lots of people are familiar with the Word of Knowledge; Word of Wisdom, tongues, interpretation. .....Few speak of the Gift of Faith. It has happened twice in my life; I had revelatory knowledge of something that was God's intention; I insisted in my praying that it would. And it came to pass; in both instances essentially by other people, not part of the drama, being compelled by the leading of the Spirit to do something, in one case to give me a check; in another case to purchase something from me. In neither case were they even in any position to know about the intercession or the great need; but my confidence that God would do what I understood Him to be promising me that He would do was supra-natural; that is, it was not worked up by me; neither was it rational in light of the circumstances. One other believer known to me described a like experience as one of having a can of faith poured into him.
The whole "word of faith" movement -- name it and claim it -- seems to me to be a corruption of what at the core is part of the armamentorium given to us by the Holy Spirit. They have taken real events and made them into what they suppose is a spiritual billy club. A metaphor for what it *really* is like is more like those mechanized suits you climb into that then allow you to lift huge weights, punch through a wall, etc. God can power the suit up; we can't.
... One does not live in the suit. One does not think that *they* are the suit. And it's only for certain enabling purposes. And then you get out of the suit.
So, in the case of Sarah, we see, I think, an OT type and shadow of this phenomena.