What is Faith?
Matthew Arnold spent most of his life as an inspector of schools in Victorian England. He was also a poet who was very concerned about the changes he saw occurring about him. This included the state of religion. One of his poems was called ‘Dover Beach’ in which he compares the demise of faith with a receding tide.
“The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full and round earth’s shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.”
There is an undoubted demise in religious faith. Perhaps it is the vast array of alternatives, like the endless choice of biscuits in a supermarket. The wide selection suggests that that it doesn’t really matter what choice is made or even whether a choice is needed anyway - so long as we get enough ‘satisfying’ food.
In contrast to this is the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism which asserts that people must fight for ‘the faith’, whatever the cost or consequences. Muslims are saved by their faith and therefore everything that is possible must be done to keep people in ‘the faith’. They feel it is, after all, for their good. The decadence of the West must be countered. The stance that the doctrines of ‘the faith’ are fundamental, is held by many Muslims but is also held by many in Judaism, Hinduism, in many sects such as Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses as well as in Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Evangelical Christians. Although keeping ‘The Faith’ is important to each of these groups, the content of each ‘Faith’ differs markedly.
The first independent Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was not impressed by the spectre of religion.
“The spectacle of what is called religion . . . in India and elsewhere has filled me with horror, and I have frequently condemned it and wished to make a clean sweep of it. Always it stands for blind belief and reaction, dogma and bigotry, superstition and exploitation and the preservation of vested interests.”
Solutions
Because of the marked variety of these belief systems some have suggested that it is not the content of the belief that matters but just the having of a faith. Could this be a recipe for avoiding conflict? Our world however is based on rational thinking. The great advances in science have come about because scientists have been searching for ‘the truth’ and have discovered the laws of science and new applications for them. The rule of law relies on the basic presumption that there is truth. Truth does matter. There may be many different keys, each representing different faith systems; they may look attractive in different regards but what is needed is the key that will open the door to God. If there is a creator who has produced a rational world then spiritual answers should also be rational.
The Bible teaches from the beginning that although there are many ‘faiths’ on offer, God’s people must hold true to the one true God.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.” Deut 5:6
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” Deut 6:4
Christians say they are saved ‘by faith’. Is this an attitude or is it a doctrinal statement? Does this mean that having a trusting, childlike, perhaps gullible, nature called ‘faith’ saves people or does it mean by ‘The Faith’ – ‘The Christian Faith’? This is such a fundamental question for today.
There are some churchmen who hold that if a person is a baptised, practising member of the Christian Church, particularly if they are members of one of the traditional denominations, then they are of ‘the faith’ and therefore are acceptable to God – they are presumed to be ‘saved’. The problem with this view is what Jesus himself clearly taught.
Jesus’ Teaching on Saving Faith
Jesus taught that to be an active, gifted, practising member of God’s people did not necessarily mean that that person is acceptable to God. In the Sermon on the Mount he said,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Matt 7:21
Jesus then goes on to explain how we know what the will of God is.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matt 7:24
Jesus is making a very clear statement here. The essential question is “How does a person become acceptable to God?” An intellectual assent to even the true faith is not enough to save a person. Even living sincerely according to their own creed doesn’t induce God to give such people salvation, as “no-one comes to the Father, but by me.”. Believing God’s truth and living by it are both essential for salvation, according to Jesus. If they are going to be saved it is purely by God’s grace. The evidence that a person has been given this ‘salvation’ is that they have repented of their independence of Jesus, have accepted that Jesus alone is their passport to eternity and committed themselves to living as Jesus, the incarnation of God, teaches. They live ‘by faith’ in God’s true faith; this alone is the gateway to grace. Jesus taught that it was because God loved the world that he had been sent. To acknowledge the authority of God’s Son brings eternal life – to reject him brings condemnation. Thus a real faith must show itself in a changed life, a new life that demonstrates the love of God to others.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:16-18
At the end of this chapter John taught exactly the same.
“The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3:35-36
The writer of book of Hebrews included a long section on ‘What is Faith?’ He defines ‘faith’ as living on the basis that what God has said is true. He gives potted biographies of many of the great men of faith in the Old Testament and commends them. They lived and took risks on the basis that their God was very much alive and concerned for them. Their behaviour was governed by a future certainty promised by God. This way of living did not induce God to give them a reward of salvation, they were simply responding in faith to the grace that God had already given them.. Thus it is said of Moses,
“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be ill-treated along with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.” Heb 11:24-26
They could not see, touch or define this God but they lived on the assumption that God cared for them and knew everything that was happening to them. They were convinced that was right in the long run, even if in the short term they suffered for it.
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” Heb 11:1
How did the first Christians pass on ‘The Faith?
The Bible teaches that God is a God of justice. He is angry with us because we fail to do what is clearly right. This is what makes us culpable. Paul emphasises this concept of culpability. In Romans chapter 1 he begins by explaining that the gospel is about Christ Jesus. We are secure only because of who Jesus is. No one else is qualified to bring us into God’s presence, only His Son. He is the only key to unlock this door that separates us from God. The evidence he then gives include,
His prophets in the Old Testament – they prophesied about his coming.
His genealogy – he was a true descendant of King David.
His character – he had the Spirit of Holiness.
His resurrection from the dead.
We are sinners who need God’s forgiveness. Romans 1: 2-20
Jesus alone is the source of God’s grace to us. Paul then explains that,
“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” Romans 1:18
God’s power and nature are clear for all to see, so “men are without excuse”. (Rom 1:20) So great is their determination to be independent of God their thinking became twisted.
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise they became fools . . . ” Rom 1:21-22
It is striking how Paul stresses that Jesus is truly God’s only solution, but also emphasises that the faith God requires for salvation is a practical response to God’s revelation – “the obedience of faith” (Rom 1:5)
Jesus himself was known to “make himself equal to God.” (John 5:18, 10:33) He did not expect blind faith but a reasoned belief in his claims, which he called ‘The Truth’. He went on to describe the sort of evidence that must be considered.
John the Baptist testified about Jesus.
The miracles he openly performed testified about him.
God the Father had publicly testified about Jesus, both at his baptism (and later on the Mount of Transfiguration).
The Old Testament Scriptures testify to Jesus being God’s Son.
People know that they have no love for God in their hearts and this prevents clear thinking. John 5:31-46
In spite of all this evidence people “refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:40). Significantly Jesus then gives the analogy of a court of law. A court is where evidence is weighed. Jesus claims that it will be Moses, whom they claim to follow, who would be their accuser in that eternal court. The evidence must be of the type presented in court, there can be no cut and dried mathematical proof.
John’s gospel itself was written so that the evidence from the miracles and teaching of Jesus should be widely known in later generations. The importance of this is clear - so “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” (John 21:31)
When Luke wrote his gospel, it was also to confirm the evidence about Jesus. Luke claimed that his faith was based on the evidence – “I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning” (Luke 1:3). He wanted Theophilus to have the same convictions, “so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:4)
Paul’s missionary activities were based on this way of thinking. He clearly felt that everyone should become Christians because of the evidence from natural philosophy, the personal experience of those who lived with and met Jesus and the Scriptural evidence. Thus when he visited Thessalonica he “reasoned”, “proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead” (Acts 17:2). When he was at Corinth he “reasoned” and “persuaded” (Acts 18:4). When he was at Ephesus he “argued persuasively about the kingdom of God”. In spite of the evidence “some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe . . .” (Acts 19:8-9)
When Paul argued his case before Herod Agrippa his defence was, “What I am saying to you is true and reasonable” (Acts 26:25). Paul was always attempting to persuade people to put their trust in Jesus Christ because that was the only reasonable course of action. Even Agrippa recognised that this was Paul’s approach saying, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to become a Christian” (Acts 26:28). The arguments Paul had used were about Jesus and the resurrection, the Jewish writings and his own remarkable meeting with the risen Jesus.
Paul recognised that trying to convince people’s minds was not always successful. When he wrote his second letter to the Corinthians he recognised that truth could be countered by other forces.
“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” 2 Cor 4:3-4
There must have been a great temptation to change his approach to a more emotional approach that bypassed the question of truth, but he clearly refused to consider such approaches.
“Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” 2 Cor 4:1-2
How should we pass on the Faith?
This suggests a very different approach for our evangelism today. Jesus commanded us to “go and make disciples” (Matt 28:19). How are we to “make them come in” (Luke 14:23)? Jesus utterly rejected the use of force; compulsion was only to come through genuine intellectual conviction. People need to be convinced that they are sinners before God and face judgement. They need to be convinced that there is only one solution – God himself coming to bear the consequences of that sin on our behalf. My ‘faith’ and my religion cannot get me to God. People who reject Jesus the King are culpable for doing so. Psalm 2 gives clear teaching on this. Nature shouts out that there is a loving, rational creator. Our consciences shout that we are not living as the creator intended and we are in a helpless situation before God. The ancient Scriptures foretell that God himself would produce the solution and this would be the coming of His Messiah, His Son. He would be born as a baby in Bethlehem, die as the Lamb of God for our sins, yet live eternally. And many genuine witnesses lived with him, and were so convinced after his resurrection that they committed their lives to serving him.
God requires of each of us a reasonable trust in Jesus Christ. We are culpable if we reject his sovereignty over us. This is God’s faith – this is the revelation of God’s truth that we are required to believe and live by. To hold ‘Christian’ beliefs does not guarantee that we are saved unless we have personally been reconciled to Jesus ourselves - the faith must be personally applied. Jesus is not dead. He waits for us in heaven but he has left His Spirit here. To have faith in Jesus is to turn (or repent) and live a new life for Him and with Him. Without that ‘new birth’ we can hold the Christian Faith but not have a saving faith.
Some jurors do find it difficult to make decisions with far reaching consequences. In a famous allegorical dilemma told by a 14th century monk, a donkey was confronted by two equally attractive, equally distant bales of hay. The animal stared, hesitated, stared some more and eventually perished. There must be an element of risk in any faith. Thomas Graham, Dean of a theological school, put it well when he said,
“Faith is reason gone courageous.”
Faith is reasonable; it is certainly not the opposite of reason. Without an element of risk, that comes from acting on our reasonable belief, there is no faith.
We must not forget however that the ‘new birth ‘ is a spiritual gift of God. No-one can turn to Christ unless God draws them.
“No-one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him”. John 6:44
It is because this battle is a spiritual one that we must pray. It must be a major priority for all God’s people, who will be concerned to pass on the gospel to others. Paul recognised this in the major section on evangelism in his letter to the Colossian Christians.
“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly as I should.” Col 4:2-4
BVP
