As Christians, we are commanded to go out into the world and spread the Gospel. We are to give a reason for the hope that is in us and be prepared to give an answer. Not all Christians are, however, theologians that live and breathe apologetics and when faced with tough questions, they give a somewhat obligatory answer in an effort to get their backs off of the ropes. They simply tell their inquisitor to read the Bible and assure them that they'll find their answer.
This week, I've been talking with a friend that is searching for answers and she tells me that Christians never really answer her questions and just keep telling her to read the Bible. She says that this would be the equivalent of someone asking her why she likes Star Trek and telling them to watch an episode to find out. After they watch the episode, they come back and ask her the same question again and she repeatedly gives the same answer each and everytime the anti-Star Trek enthusiast asks about the appeal of the show.
I admit that my friend is onto something. Sometimes we all need further clarification and for someone to tell you to go back over and over again to find the answer when you've failed to see it all of the other times, seems to be an exercise in futility. This is not to discourage anyone from reading the Bible nor is it an attempt in any way to suggest that we can't find the answers to our inquisition from reading scripture. In fact, if we are ever to know anything about God, it is through His word that we find in scripture that contains His revelation.
As a way to encourage my new friend, I suggested that even if the advice from Christians has failed to satisfy her inquisition then for her to consider that it all hasn't been for nothing. In an attempt to find answers, my friend claims that she has read the book from cover to cover. In an earlier exchange, she very eloquently tells me;
"The whole story of the Bible is like a metaphorical story of someone growing up. Adam and Eve is seen as infancy, the whole Old Testament is like childhood and adolescence, struggling to find out what is good and what's wrong while trying to live by their parent's rules (often messing up and getting "grounded"). The New Testament is adulthood. The age of true discovery and love towards others and the need to make a difference in not only ones own life but the life's of the people around them."Assuming that I'm not being duped and my friend came up with this revelation all on her own, then I would say that her efforts spent reading the Bible has not been a wasted effort by any means. Although Christians' default answer to read more scripture may not be as helpful as it could be, they may be nevertheless yielding fruit in a greater yield than you or I could ever produce from our own explanations. It could be that a suggestion to read scripture may not produce immediate answers for today's questions but nevertheless be providing a foundation of faith.
We live by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). But how do we get this faith? Paul tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God (Romans 10:17). How can hearing give faith though? Someone can obviously have faith without ever having picked up a Bible and without ever having read the first verse of scripture. Paul, however, isn’t talking about a generic faith that anyone can have that could just as easily be applied to a golden calf as it could be given as an expression of love for Yahweh. Paul is talking about a God saving faith. Paul is talking about the the kind of faith that makes us heirs in Christ. Paul is talking about the faith that we have when we believe the gospel. This faith in God that we have through the Gospel, however, isn’t always a popular practice and is often ridiculed by others. This is why Paul tells us, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek..” (Romans 1:16 NASB).
I can sit here and tell you about faith and talk about it all day long. It isn’t, however, the same as you having a first hand knowledge of it. You, for example, can read about roller coasters and your friends could tell you about riding a roller coaster but you are never going to really know the power and exhilaration of a roller coaster until you do what?
You are really never going to know the power and exhilaration of riding a roller coaster until you ride one. All descriptions and summations of riding a roller coaster will pail in comparison to your actual experience. Similarly, all descriptions and summations of faith will pail in the actual experience of living it and in the actual experience of practicing it. God saving faith, in other words, isn’t something that you put up and store in a box once you have it. God saving faith is something that must be lived in order grow and exacerbate spiritual maturity. God saving faith is a living thing that must be practiced so that it will bear fruit. It is the fruit that reveals the nature of the tree. Apple trees don’t produce peaches. Just the same, a good tree doesn’t produce bad fruit and a bad tree doesn’t produce good fruit (Matthew 7:16-18), God saving faith will produce the fruit of life and all other kinds of faith will leave idolaters dead in their sins.
As spectacular as it may be to ride a roller coaster, to compare it to God saving faith is an un-fair comparison - an injustice, if you will. Even the acrobatics of a roller coaster that produces excitement and exhilaration for the passenger, can't compare to the inexhaustible grace that our Father in Heaven displays to us when we are in the faith that gives eternal life. Both, however, produce an experience that you can't know if you aren't a participant. As Christians, we need to press forward, continue on with the good fight as we actively live in our faith and not by our sight and I promise that you'll be on a ride that is infinitely more exciting than any roller coaster.
May it all be for His glory,
W.
