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.
I took two things from this entry:
ReplyDelete1. Be prepared to share your faith and study to show yourself approved to a lost and dying world. (ii Timothy 4:2 and ii Timothy 2:15)
2. Having Faith in God is exciting like a roller coaster
All good stuff but I see the latter part a bit differently in that faith is not like a roller coaster at all but life in general is.
Consider this... Life is like a roller coaster because it is full of hills and valleys. Sometimes it's full of anticipation like when climbing the steep hill of a roller coaster. Finally reaching the top is exhilarating like when we achieve, accomplish, or experience something good, but on the other side life can be down right scary just like the screams we express when flying down those steep hills... so fast we want to close our eyes and pretend we are not there. For some of us the ride can make us down right sick to our stomachs.
Faith on the other hand is the gift God gives us that allows us to trust and believe in him during all those hills and valleys (Ephesians 2:8; John 16:33). Faith is what cuts through the rocky road of life and brings a steadiness to our walk. It's what brings hope, peace, and a calm even in the midst of the throws of life.
It literally is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). The challenge for some of us is we are hoping and chasing after the wrong things. When our hope is in the wrong place our faith ends up misguided and it keeps the storm blowing. Better to ask God for wisdom and allow Him to direct your path (Proverbs 3:6) That may mean giving up our hopes in exchange for His hopes for us.
That brings me to my last point... it's important to note that faith comes by "hearing" and "hearing" by the Word of God. The word Hearing is an active word implying a constant state listening and taking in His Word. So we must stay engrained in the Bible to fully develop our faith. Not ironically, it's also where we will find His will and true hope for us defined.
My prayer is the hope you find in His word is the hope each of you will chase after. So, YES, read the Bible, develop your faith through a constant hearing of His word, and discover the hope he had for you instead of your own.
For it is this experience that is truly exhilarating... When we clearly hear God speak to us through His word and He guides us down the path we should go. There is nothing like knowing you are walking in His plans and purposes for for your life!
God bless,
Toni
Well written, Wade. Good to make the distinctions you made regarding faith. But what of faith when you keep on sinning the same old sins? How real is your faith then? (i.e. in the context of Paul in Romans 7) That appears on the surface to be bad fruit coming from a good tree (one who is saved)?
ReplyDeleteExcellent point Pastor Sabella. I think the context of Romans 7 shows us that although we have a new nature and we have a spirit that is after God, we still have sin that lives in us. We haven't been perfected in our entirety yet. How can good and bad both occupy the same space though?
ReplyDeleteWhen we are saved, we are justified (justification) and this happens once. After we have been re-born, however, we then become a participant in sanctification. We no longer have the old nature that wanted to be a willing participant that is diametrically opposed to God. We gain a new nature and desire to be in Him. All of our old ways - our sinful ways, however, do not evaporate over night. As we become more and more like Christ, as we grow in Him, we loose our old-self. Our old-self dies as our new-self continues to live and grow in the spirit.
Our continual growth in sanctification is the good fruit that we are producing through Him. There does, however, get to be a point to where if you are producing a harvest of wretchedness, then it is a way to know that you haven't been re-born at all.
The Bible makes a distinction between those that sin (like we all do) and those that practice sin (Romans 3:13, Romans 21:8, Hosea 7:1, Psalm 52:2, Ezekial 13:23). Conversely, however, one can perform good acts and this in of itself doesn't make one in accordance with scripture.
Scripture plainly tells the believer to practice righteousness (1 Timothy 5:4, Romans 12:13, Luke 6:47, Matthew 7:26, Luke 6:49). The one that hasn't been reborn again doesn't have a heart of obedience and have a desire to practice these things.
So although Paul is doing things that he doesn't want to do and he's not doing things that he wants to do, Paul has a heart after God and he practices righteousness. It is in Paul's struggle that we see good fruit. If Paul didn't struggle with these things then I would be concerned.
I hope that my response makes some sense and I apologize if I'm not being as clear as I need to be, etc.
This is a wonderful topic and it may be the topic of my next post. I think it does deserve to be further explored.
Grace & Peace,
W.
Wonderful points Toni.
ReplyDeleteThe same description of life that you provided would be tasteless and without meaning if you hadn't lived life and experienced those things first hand. God saving faith is something that is also tasteless and without true meaning if you haven't lived the life of a believer fighting the good fight.
As Christians, we can tell atheists about our faith but they truly aren't going to know what we're talking about because they don't have it - if they did, they wouldn't be atheists.
Its also sort of like eating a tiramisu. You can tell someone that its a cake and provide a list of the ingredients and tell them what it looks like and even give them a picture of it. They aren't, however, really going to know what it is to experience the true flavor until they eat a piece of tiramisu.
You know, Wade, reading your response makes me realize that I should have added to the second thing I took away from this message that faith is like a roller coaster that you can't fully understand until you experience.
ReplyDeleteYour tarimasu example had me pondering this whole "tasting" thing a bit more because there is a big difference between tasting some thing and fully ingesting it.
I know the word says taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalms 34:8) and He is. But some may taste and decide it's too good for them. So they opt to spit it from thier mouths without ever deciding to fully enjoy His good fruit.
As I sat eating dinner the other night, I picked up the salt and pepper to season my food. And I thought about how we (Christians) are called the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13) and we are. I then also thought about how each of us individually are that salt, and that caused me to think about how we serve that salt to others.
Do we offer just enough seasoning in love that others savor the flavor and want more? (the effective Christian)
Or do we offer so much seasoning that it's like cramming a teaspoon of salt down some ones throat that is so strong they want to spew it out? (the overbearing, too religious, legalistic or fire and brio stone Christian)
Or is so little salt offered it leaves others with a very bland, or dull taste? (the ineffectual Christian, the one that hides their faith or doesn't consistently walk in or display their faith).
A better question is are we even sensitive enough to even know if a person is ready for seasoning, let alone how much or what kind?
Have you ever thought about these questions or the amount or kind of seasoning you are giving to others?
The hard part is the amount or kind of seasoning an individual needs can very person to person. Being sensitive to the holy spirit and excersizing discernment through prayer is our best bet, but something tells me this is an area where many of us fall short on a regular basis.
Unfortunately, this is an area where there seems to be no magic formula or easy answer, but something that is good to ponder and seek prayer about because in the end I hope to represent my Father well and pray He gives me His eyes to see things the way He sees in addition to the proper words and expressions of faith to touch those in need because it's through this when others are able to sense His irresistable grace at work in us.
My prayer is all of us will be sensitive, love enough, and walk in enough discernment to know what kind of seasoning people around us are ready to receive. Lest we turn them off and send them running the other direction. May we all play a role in fulfilling the great commission.
God bless,
Toni