Pondering His Holy Word

Dead faith and Living Faith

Because I live close to the airport, it is quite common to see planes taking off and landing throughout the day. While waiting for the bus in the morning, I often see several planes lined up on the runway, ready to take off. Each plane has its turn to accelerate until it reaches the speed it needs to take off.  Obviously, I’m not near the runway, but I can still watch at a safe distance. 

What makes this sight so interesting is that I’m terrified of flying. I am a bundle of nerves until we reach cruising altitude. No matter how often I have flown, I am so nervous. I mean, how can a machine so heavy make its way safely into the sky multiple times per day? The pilot is so confident. I remember my wife and I returning from Florida. We had to wait for nearly an hour on the plane at the gate due to a severe thunderstorm. The pilot gave us several updates throughout the process, but towards the end, we could tell that he was getting frustrated about having to wait to be taxed off. This pilot was ready and had the confidence to fly the airplane. His concern was not necessarily with the storm but with being behind schedule. I’m thankful for that pilot because he did get us home safely. Turbulence is one thing that scares me while we are at cruising altitude. I sometimes grip the tray in front of me. Then, I notice people watching movies, listening to music, drinking, and eating like there is nothing strange about an airplane shaking. In any case, I’m getting carried away.

Airplanes, in their rawest form, are metal, plastic, glass, and other materials. Some people in many factories take their time to put the airplane together. It goes through safety checks. Even then, an airplane is just stationary until someone enters the cockpit. Even then, I can’t randomly walk into a cock pit and fly the plane. Most people will never fly an airplane. They rely on pilots to fly them to and from locations safely. Even them, not just any pilot can fly a commercial airplane. A pilot must have at least 1500 hours of experience to fly a commercial aircraft. Even then, they can’t fly alone. There must be at least two pilots, sometimes three. 

I’m not announcing my desire to become a pilot. No, I’m reflecting on how much faith it takes to fly. How much confidence does it take to pack bags, arrive at the airplane, go through TSA (hate it or love it), sit at the gate, board the plane, buckle your seat belt, take off, and land? It’s not enough for someone to say that airplanes are safe but never fly.

Walking by faith is much like having  confidence in all the things that make a plane fly. I can’t trust someone who has never flown but says that planes are safe. I’m more likely to trust someone terrified of flying but flies in a commercial airplane anyway. A person who says they have faith but really means that they mentally assent to the Gospel but does not demonstrate their faith has dead faith. What is the use of my assenting to the word of God, but I don’t actively follow Jesus? In the same way, what is the purpose of having a job but never going to work? Moreover, what is the point of being married but living a single life? A husband is not a husband by being called a husband. A husband is a husband by service to his wife and family. 

At the end of His sermon on the mount, Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). It is not enough to call Jesus Lord. Still, we must also be willing to walk like he walked. We must be obedient to His commandments. Many Christians get nervous when thinking about the word “works” when discussing faith (especially many Protestants) because we believe we are justified by faith alone, which is true. However, we want to make sure we understand the definition of faith. 

As someone who lives in a cold weather climate, I can be certain that it will be bitterly cold in the winter. Moreover, I dress with a heavy coat, two scarves, heavy pants, and snow boots to track through the snow. I trust the reliability of the seasons, so I prepare my life around the weather. I cannot say it is cold, but I wear shorts and sandals. I must dress in response to knowing it is cold. You cannot be neutral to cold weather. You either dress appropriately or dress poorly for the weather. There is no in-between. Sometimes, we find out too late. 

Similarly, it is not enough to intellectually assent that Jesus is lord. If you believe, which means you have confidence that Jesus is the Son of God, then your actions must follow. After listening to Peter’s first sermon on Pentecost, many of the listeners asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). Noticed, they didn’t ask what they must intellectually agree to. They asked, “What shall we do?” When the earthquake freed Paul and Silas from the Philippians jail. The jailer asked in terror asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Paul told him to believe in Jesus, and he and his household would be saved. The jailer demonstrated his belief in Jesus by cleaning Paul and Silas’ wounds and being baptized. (Acts 16:30-34).

If I said, I believe in Jesus, but I don’t produce any fruits, then I’m worse off than an unbeliever because I am taking His name in vain. 

Someone could say, “Well, God knows my heart.” Very well, that is true. God does know our hearts. God makes some things very plain about the heart of man. Right after the flood subsided, Noah built an altar to God. God promised not to curse the ground because of man. But notice what God includes in this statement. “For the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). The Lord knows our hearts. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God gives a clear diagnosis of our hearts. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick, who can understand it.” (Jeremiah 17:9). So we must be careful about saying that God knows our heart because He absolutely knows our heart. The Lord can search our hearts and disclose the intentions of our hearts. 

            As I said, faith is not a mental assent but involves obedience. A person cannot be obedient to what they do not believe. Being obedient to God is being faithful to God. Jesus was faithful in His earthly ministry because He obeyed His Father’s commandments. Jesus did not say if you love then you will agree with my commandments. He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). If a pilot has his pilot’s license and more than 10 years of experience flying a commercial airplane, but on a given day, he does not fly, or he forgets how to fly or refuses to fly, then he is not a pilot. If someone believes in Jesus but does not keep His commandments, he is not a believer. It’s that simple.

In Colossians, Paul does not tell the believers to take a step in Jesus, but he tells them to walk in Jesus. The Bible does not describe the journey with Jesus as a step but a walk. In the first epistle of John, the Apostle John wrote, “whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked” (1 John 2:6). After Jesus disclosed to His disciples that He would soon be killed in Jerusalem, He told them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24). All of these statements imply continual prolonged actions.

When we begin to walk with Jesus, we continually pick up our cross and follow Him. Our walk is a lifetime journey that does not end until God calls us home. We are justified by faith, but we must keep the faith that justified us. In his last letter to Timothy, Paul says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (4:7). From the moment Paul became a Christian, He was continually faithful until he was beheaded. God knows we are imperfect, but he expects us to remain faithful to him. 

As God, the Spirit, sanctifies us in this life, He refines us so that we can do good works. In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul explains that our works do not save us, but we are God’s creations to do good works that involve walking in Him (Ephesians 2:8-10). The Lord did not save us to sit on the sidelines but to walk with Him to the kingdom of God. God can separate our faith apart from our works, but we cannot. We can only demonstrate our faith by being obedient to Him who justified us.