A Faith that Stands

Reading in 1 Cor. 2 this morning where Paul is concerned with communicating a faith that stands (1 Cor 2.5). One real danger to Paul's way of thinking was imparting a faith that stood upon the wisdom of men. Paul doesn't explain what he means here, but I don't think it is too hard to figure out. Faith that rests upon the wisdom of men is faith that always makes sense, that always has an explanation. Ultimately this is not faith and one understands that the wisdom of men comes to the point at which it stands silent before Almighty God, unable to fully explain him. Paul fully understood this danger, so he was careful not to lay a foundation of rational, man-centered religion, but faith that is grounded and explainable only in Jesus Christ and him crucified. This was a faith that stands.

The Faith of Ruth

Ruth's genuine faith is fully demonstrated by Boaz's words in Ruth 2. 12. He pronounces a blessing on her: "A full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust" (KJV). The rest of the relatively small community of Bethlehem had seen that Ruth had committed herself to worship the Lord God of Israel. Her faith was obvious and genuine.

Is yours?

If Ye continue in the Flesh

Colossians 1.23 (KJV). This is the consistent biblical position on the perseverance of the saints. Paul says that Christ has reconciled believers in Colossae "to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his right: If ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel."

"Continue in the faith," Paul encourages the Colossians, "be not moved away from the hope of the gospel." These are crucial words to heed.

The God of Heaven, He Will Prosper Us

Nehemiah's words to Sanballat, Geshem, and Tobiah when they opposed his plans to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in Neh 2.20. Nehemiah's courage and trust really stand out here. He's presiding over a relatively huge city with walls that have been destroyed and are nothing more than rubble. The task is so big it's almost incomprehensible. He has influential men who oppose him, and he speaks by faith when he says that the God of heaven will prosper us. He is now out on a limb where, if God doesn't come through, at best he will look foolish, at worst he might be in grave physical danger. Such is the nature of faith.

Result of story. Nehemiah's faith is vindicated. The God of heaven, he DOES prosper Nehemiah and those who have come back to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Faith wouldn't be faith if we could see exactly what God is going to do or how he is going to come through. Nehemiah's statement is made based on what he knew about God's character.

Faith is not a One Time Inoculation

The faith lesson I take from 2 Chron 16.7-9. Asa had won a great victory over a huge army of Ethiopians early on in his reign because he trusted in the Lord and the Lord provided a great victory. The next time a big test came up, he trusted the king of Syria, rather than the Lord. His punishment was that he would have constant war for the remainder of his reign.

You cannot assume that, because you had faith once, you are good to go for the rest of your life. A huge spiritual victory is no guarantee that the next time you have a battle you will also win a huge spiritual victory based on the last one. Faith is a living, breathing, never-sitting-still, never satisfied thing. You either grow in the faith or you go backwards; there is no such thing as "making it;" there are no plateaus upon which we may rest on our laurels. It is always and ever upward in the life of faith; trusting on God to grow us.

When Christ Marveled

Christ marveled at two people in the gospels—at least that is all that the writers of the gospels recorded. He marveled at the faith of a Gentile—the centurion with the sick servant (Matt 8.5-13), and he marveled at the unbelief of some Jews (Mark 6.6). Christ was astonished or astounded or marveled at the unbelief in his hometown. They should have seen enough in order to believe in him. By his words and by his works, he was demonstrating that he was God's son, come in the flesh. However, they refused to believe because he was just the son of a carpenter; they knew him; they had seen him grow up. They missed their opportunity for salvation.

Bad News: No Justification through Works. Good News: Justification through faith in Christ

This is the message of Rom 3.21,22. The bad news is that no human being (that pretty much sums up everyone doesn't it?) will be, can be, was ever, justified by the works of the Law. The good news is that God's righteousness has been manifested apart from the Law (yeah!), through faith in Christ Jesus for all who believe. It's that simple. Faith in Christ. He came. He lived. He died for my sins. He rose again. That is the message of the gospel. That is God's righteousness being manifested.

Two Men/Two Responses to Christ

In Luke 23.40-42, this morning, where we see two responses to Christ as men stare into eternity, a response we see again and again to the good news in both the Scriptures and history. On the one hand we see a man (a thief) who is interested in nothing more than a miraculous trip off of the cross so he can continue with what he was doing (being a thief). On the other hand, we see one of the greatest examples of faith in history. The second thief who speaks knows that he will die on this day. He knows that Christ is going to die and that the other thief is going to die as well. He rebukes his fellow thief because he understands that both of them are dying justly. They are guilty and deserve it. Even though he has presumably never met Christ, as he watches Christ's response he recognizes that Christ did not deserve to die.

Then come the words of great faith “But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”” (Luke 23:40-42 ESV) They are nailed to three crosses, to all appearances the Roman soldiers and the Jewish rulers have won the day because they will live and the three condemned men will not, and yet he calls for Christ to remember him when you come to your kingdom! Amazing faith. Faith that Christ acknowledges because he promises that Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.

The thief emphasizes the word we, when he says we indeed justly, and he also emphasizes worthy when he says (my translation) worthy we are to receive (death). He makes a contrast between he and the other thief, and Christ. They deserve death. Christ does not. For Christ do die is as he puts it out of place or absurd is the meaning of the word that he uses. For them to die is acceptable; for Christ to die is absurd.

Calvin: I know not that, since the creation of the world, there ever was a more remarkable and striking example of faith; and so much the greater admiration is due to the grace of the Holy Spirit, of which it affords so magnificent a display.

Vain Faith?

Thinking through 1 Corinthians 15.13,14, this morning. Paul lays out a clear path to vain faith here. Some people are saying that there is no resurrection from the dead? Let's ponder the implications of that. No resurrection = Christ has not been raised = My (read all) preaching is vain = Your faith is vain. The path to vain faith begins with Christ not being raised from the dead and ends up squarely in my own lap. Everything, and I do mean E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g, rests upon Christ's resurrection, or, as one commentator put it: Take out the resurrection of Jesus, and there is nothing left on which to rest faith—only the decomposing corpse of an itinerant Jewish carpenter-turned-rabbi.

Fortunately, since Christ did rise from the dead, we do not have vain faith.

Thank you, Lord God, for raising Christ from the dead so that our faith is not in vain; we are not still in our sins; and we have vibrant hope for eternity.

The Dangers of Man's Logic

In Jeremiah 43.2 this morning. The remnant who had been left in the land promised Jeremiah that whatever God spoke through him, they would do. “Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the LORD your God sends you to us.” (Jer 42:5 ESV) Jeremiah comes back in 10 days and tells them to remain in the land of promise. Jeremiah 43.2 is their response. "Jeremiah, you are lying!"

Why this response? Human logic and reason. There were two great powers in the world at the time. Babylon and Egypt. If Babylon was your enemy, then Egypt was your friend. For protection from Babylon, you go down and live in Egypt. They took everyone and moved into Egypt. In 568 BC, Babylon conquered Egypt, just as Jeremiah prophesied.

This is the danger of Man's logic and reason, and the necessity of faith. Sometimes the proper thing to do is not to rely on your reason, especially when there is a conflict between what seems smart, and what God calls you to do.

Trusting in "His holy name"

Bible reading highlight is from Ps. 33.21 today. Spurgeon comments: The root of faith in due time bears the flower of rejoicing. Doubts breed sorrow, confidence creates joy.

Children and the Kingdom of Heaven

Reading in Luke 18.16-17 this morning. As usual when Christ sees a teaching moment, he seizes it. In this case the disciples obviously assumed that Christ couldn't be bothered with little children since he had much more important things to do, like healing the sick and preaching the gospel. Christ demonstrates both compassion and concern for little children as well as teaching the disciples that if one were to enter the kingdom of God, one must do it with child-like faith.

It seems to me that one of the key ingredients of the faith of a child is dependency. The child is dependent upon his parents and doesn't spend a lot of time wondering how or where the next meal is going to come from, that is for parents to worry about, not children. As Thomas Constable puts it:

Obviously infants are not humble in the same sense that adults show humility, but infants are humble in the sense of being totally dependent and unable to provide for themselves. They receive rather than provide, and in those qualities they are good examples of humility.

The Syro-Phoenician Woman II

Persistence. Mark's description of the woman's approach to Christ is to say (Mark 7.26) that she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. The verb tense used (imperfect) implies that she kept on begging, that she was persistent; that she would not stop. Matthew's version of the incident (Matt 15.23) makes this explicit. He writes: And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, “Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us (NASB).

The woman is persistent as Christ throws up several obstacles to her getting her request. She keeps on begging, because she is not going to be stopped by a few obstacles. We learn from this that faith requires persistence if it is truly faith. A "faith" that gives up at the first obstacle tossed in its way is no faith at all. This woman had a living, active faith that Christ could (and would) do what she asked.

How Can I Be Right (On Matters of Faith)?

Glad you asked. Christ is pretty clear in Mark 12.24. The Sadducees, to whom he is speaking, are wrong (they do not believe in a resurrection). Christ tells them that they are lacking two things and because of it they are wrong (for emphasis he repeats this in Mark 12.27, "you are quite wrong.")

I take from this verse that in order to be right about matters of faith we need to correctly understand the Scriptures (τὰς γραφὰς, or "the writings" a technical term for Scriptures), and we need to believe in the power of God to raise people from the dead. The Scriptures are doubly important because in them we find the power of God demonstrated and the truth about things like the resurrection. If we want to be "quite right" as opposed to "quite wrong," we will saturate our lives with the Scriptures.

Help My Unbelief!

Mark 9.24 is one of my favorite verses. I love it because it so eloquently communicates the human condition. The father wanted to believe that Christ could cast the spirit out of the child, but knew that his own heart struggled to believe. It is a genuine and heartfelt cry for help. Calvin beautifully captures what is going on here: "He declares that he believes and yet acknowledges himself to have unbelief. These two statements may appear to contradict each other but there is none of us that does not experience both of them in himself."

Just so. Especially when it comes to promises. Do we really have faith to move mountains? If we ask anything in Christ's name, will God really do it? My heart is just like this man's...only more so.