Pondering His Holy Word

Note from the author: I’m going to be honest, when I planned this “Stumbling Blocks of the Faith” blog series, I had it all planned out in my mind: Temperament, faith justification, and sanctification. Four blogs in four weeks, but then after writing the first blog about temperament, I listened to a sermon about discipline. I was like, I probably should talk about discipline. So, I added it to my points: Five blogs in five weeks: Temperament, faith, justification, sanctification, and discipline. Before I wrote the blog about faith, I was ready to keep trucking on to justification (and I will, the Lord willing). However, I didn’t feel that I was done expressing myself about faith after last week. The next blog, God willing, I want to discuss some more points about faith. 

1 Samuel 4:3

“Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.”

When I want to introduce a concept to students for the first time, I like to provide examples and nonexamples. Usually, I start with non-examples because it removes common misconceptions. I find that many of my students understand an idea more, by knowing what is not meant by an idea. By no means is this a novel concept that I created. Many teachers in many disciplines use this to make a concept clearer by defining what it is not. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to do this as I wrote in my blog last week. Yet, I still think that it is important to discuss faith by describing what faith is not. 

Faith is not magic

When I was six years old, my brothers and I were visiting my grandmother’s home. This particular time, we were sitting on the floor of her bedroom watching a live theater version of Peter Pan on television. I distinctly recall the scene where the fairy Tinkerbell nearly died because she drank poison or exploded (I often get the movie and the play mixed up). Then Peter Pan appealed to the younger kids in the audience to clap their hands to show that they believed in fairies (or something like that). My brothers were a little older, so they were not interested in Peter Pan at all. As for me, I was young enough to enjoy the live play, but I was old enough to know that it was not real, so I didn’t clap my hands. After a few minutes, I heard my grandmother musing, “I don’t hear Sauge (My childhood nickname) clapping for Tinkerbell.” I pretended not to hear her, but I thought to myself, “This is not real.” Even then, a part of me knew that it was an appeal to keep little kids engaged in the story. 

As I learned more about Jesus, I felt this scene in Peter Pan play out in the church. Faith was treated as something you clap to so that you can make something real that would not normally be real. If you believe enough, then you will accept Jesus as your personal Savior. Now, believing in Jesus is not the problem. We must believe in Jesus to be justified in the sight of God. The problem is that believers often treat faith as a substance that can help them get something or change something that may or may not be God’s will. A four leaf clover of sorts. When we do things in our prayers and in our everyday life with the purpose of capturing some magic and applying it to getting what we want from God, that is not faith. That is magic. This magical view of faith is insidious because if you don’t realize that you are doing it, then you won’t realize that you are doing it. 

At the beginning, I used the example of Peter Pan because it is an extreme example. Yet, I think back to when I was 17 years old and living with my grandmother.. She let me live there even though she was taking care of my three cousins. As a result, I needed a job because I needed money. I applied to all the stores and restaurants within a 1-2 mile radius from her house. One place called me back for an interview. This would have been my first interview for a job that wasn’t a school related program. I didn’t know how to interview, let alone work a cashier job, but I needed the money,  and I’m a fast learner. In any case, I remember something an older family member said to someone else who was interviewing for a job. “Claim this job in the name of the Lord.” So, I figured I would apply the same principle to this job. I remember saying, “I claim this job in the name of God.” Now, I got the job, but I didn’t attribute getting the job to God’s mercy and grace. I attributed it to my saying, “I claim this job in the name of the Lord.” It was now a tool in my faith toolbox. 

See, I used my understanding of faith as a way of getting what I want. Now, the flip slide to this is if I apply for a job and use this same phrase, but I don’t get the job. I don’t treat failure as being part of God’s plan, but by the fact that I didn’t believe it hard enough. Do you see the problem with applying faith in this manner? I learned to use faith as a tool to manipulate God to get what I want. Using this principle, I could claim anything my heart desires. “I claim a fancy car in the name of the Lord.” “I claim a big house in the name of the Lord.” “I claim this supermodel to be my wife in the name of the Lord.” The list can go on. I’m not glorifying God, but I’m using Him as my good luck charm. 

But what happens when treating faith this way fails? When Israel brought the Ark as a charm to beat the Philistines, they lost that battle and the Ark (for a time). So, one could ask, “Did God fail them?” Absolutely not. The Lord is not a good luck charm. He is God Almighty. 

But for the sake of argument, let’s follow lucky faith to its natural conclusion by raising the stakes. 

What if someone you loved dearly is dying from cancer, and you claimed her healing in the name of the Lord. What happens when she dies? Is it your fault that your loved one died because you didn’t have enough faith?

Suppose you are facing homelessness and food insecurity, and your next meal depends on this job that you claimed in the name of the Lord. What happens if the company pulls the job offer days before you were to start? Can someone say you didn’t get that needed job because you didn’t have faith. 

Suppose a man and his wife are going through a challenging time in their marriage. His wife claims the success of her marriage in the name of the Lord. Suppose her husband commits adultery and leaves.  Is it her fault that she did claim it hard enough.

In any of these cases, we say our faith has failed us. If that is the case, then a person can walk away from the faith because their definition of faith didn’t save them. A good luck charm is only lucky if it works. 

This is the logical conclusion of treating faith in this manner, and not seeking God’s divine will is failure. We cannot not do something that is outside of God’s will. His will was determined at the foundation of the world. Yahweh, our God, is sovereign over all creation. Nothing happens without God ordaining it first. See the first and second chapters of Job when Satan had to get permission to attack Job. Yet, God revealed His will at the end when Job was humbled before God. 

Faith Comes From God

In the past, God had revealed His will and His mysteries to the prophets. It was made complete in the person of Jesus Christ. As a gift to us, God opens our eyes to parts of His will. His will was that Jesus, the Son of David in the flesh and the Son of God by the Spirit, was to live a righteous and sinless life. He would be handed over to the Romans by the Jews to be crucified. He would die and rise on the third day. He would appear to disciples and 500 people in all. Jesus would charge His disciples to make disciples of all nations. Jesus would return to heaven and sit at the right hand of the Father as a high priest. He will return to claim His church and pronounce judgment of this world. Then, He would reign in on earth. 

Opening the Blind Man’s Eyes

This is what God revealed to us. Faith is a gift in the sense that God gave us the gift to believe, a gift to look. In John’s gospel, Jesus opened the eyes of the blind man before the blind man believed. The man then received saving faith from Jesus. 

Before Jesus came into that town, that blind man had no hope or expectation of receiving sight. He spent his days as a beggar. Jesus revealed Himself to the blind man. When the Pharisees questioned the man and called Jesus a sinner because He healed on the Sabbath. He didn’t get into a theological argument with them. He stated two facts to them in response.

1. The man confirmed that he was born blind. 
2.   The man now affirms that he can now see (John 9:24-25). 

These were observable facts that the people in that town knew to be true. There was no denying or getting around these facts. Later that day, Jesus opened the man’s spiritual eyes and received him. 

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” 

He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” 

Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.”

He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. 

Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind” (John 9:35-39). 

If you believe that Jesus is Lord, it is because the Spirit of God has opened your eyes to see; this is fact. No one can say and believe that Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3). When Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus did not commend Peter for being insightful and intelligent. However, Jesus does say, “For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” This was before Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, but the point remains the same. God revealed this spiritual truth to Peter before he proclaimed it in the district of Caesarea Philippi. (Matthew 16:13-20). This was not magic but the will of God. 

In same way, we are not saved through this magical faith that requires us to clap our hands if we believe that He is real (Let me be clear, I’m referencing the previous Peter Pan story that I told earlier. I’m not talking about clapping your hands in praise for God). If you believe that Jesus is Lord, it is because God washed your eyes and opened them. The faith that we have in Christ was given to us by God. We confess with our mouths after we believe with our hearts. God opened the eyes of our hearts to believe, and we confess what we see in our hearts to be true (Romans 10:9). We cannot confess with our mouth unless we believe with our heart. We can’t believe with our heart unless God calls him (6:44). God acts first. Without God, we do not have any faith, belief, justification, or sanctification. Thus, we have no salvation.

If you believe what God revealed to you, then you will be obedient to His commandments. You will follow Him. By way of the Holy Spirit, God made you a new creation, Faith is this: you proclaim everything that God revealed to you, and you live in a manner that demonstrates your trust in God, the Father, Son, and Spirit.