3 posts tagged “faith”

This morning I was wrestling through the (admittedly strange) question - "What is the real difference between agnosticism and the Christian faith?"

For our reason for confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that with pure motives and sincerity which are from God – not by human wisdom  but by the grace of God – we conducted ourselves in the world, and all the more toward you.

- 2 Corinthians 1:12

The teaching this Saturday was on the second part of James 2, the part which caused Martin Luther to say

St. James' Epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to [Paul's epistles], for it has nothing of the nature of the Gospel about it.

What rubbed Luther the wrong way was the emphasis James puts on works: Faith is dead without works, we show our faith by our works, and he even goes so far as to say "a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone" (v. 24) - seemingly a direct contradiction to Romans 3:28 "we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law."

Something I noticed while we went through the passage is that in verses 21-23 he talks about how Abraham proved and validated his faith by sacrificing Isaac. This exact story is used by Paul in Romans 4 to prove the point that Abraham was saved apart from works!

It seems to me some people in the churches James was writing to were taking Paul's teaching of faith apart from works so far as to say faith was possible without works. James' point is loud and clear: Faith without works is not faith! Faith is completed by works.

I was challenged once again by the fact that we are told so often in the New Testament that one of the main reasons we are created is to do good works (which God in fact prepares for us to do!). Salvation does not come by good works, and James never says otherwise - but he does say if I look at my life and I don't see myself giving myself for others, helping others, serving others, doing good deeds - something is seriously very wrong.

Living a life of good works is as natural a consequence of true faith as a beating heart is to a living body - our bodies are not alive because our hearts are beating, rather our hearts should be beating if we are alive.

Oh Lord, freely give me true faith in you, that I may walk in the works you are preparing for me even as I write these words.

I read Matthew 8 this morning, and every time I read the story about the centurion, I can't help but think about the remark "Jesus was astounded and said, 'I have not seen such faith in all of Israel!'"

Jesus was astounded. As far as I can tell, this could mean one of two things: Either Jesus acted astounded, or Jesus truly did not see the centurion's faith coming and was genuinely surprised by his faith. I'd tend towards the latter - for the same reason I think Jesus probably would trip over a rock from time to time: not to "act" human and "act" like He couldn't see everything coming, but because he was human and couldn't see everything coming. The gospels say a couple of times that Jesus "couldn't" do something. He was limited.

So here's a faith that astounded Jesus.

And I have to admit, the centurion's faith truly is amazing and unlike any other faith we encounter in the gospels. First of all, he's willing to ask Jesus in front of a crowd to heal not his son or wife, but his servant. Second of all, even after Jesus offers to come to his house, he knows and believes Jesus can heal from a distance, and honors Jesus by saying so.

How do I grow my faith to be like that? The centurion took this step of faith because of what he knew and what he already believed: He knew Jesus was the Messiah, he knew Jesus had authority to heal as well as authority over the unseen world, he knew firsthand how true authority works. So he took this to a logical conclusion and trusted in Jesus healing his servant from afar.

Faith isn't a blind step in the dark, it's a confident act of trust in what you are certain of.