Bible Study Biblical Faith.

[Tenchi]

2 Timothy 1:12 (NASB)
12 For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

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In the quotation above, Paul described a three-part process that produces biblical faith of the sort James described in his New Testament letter (James 2:14-26):

- Knowledge: "I know..."

- Belief: "I am convinced..."

- Action: "I have entrusted..."


Knowledge.

It's obvious that one can't have faith in something of which one is entirely ignorant. Knowledge is essential to belief, to faith. Paul makes this point very clearly in his letter to the believers at Rome:

Romans 10:11-14 (NASB)
11 For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."
12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him;
13 for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."
14 How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?

Romans 10:17 (NASB)
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

God does not ask us, His children, to exercise faith, then, in a vacuum of knowledge, of reason, to do so. The entire Bible, the testimony of Creation and conscience to His existence, and the Incarnation, all reflect the fact that God intends that our faith in Him and His Truth should arise from knowledge, from a set of supporting facts, and evidences, and reason. This, of course, means our minds, the human faculty by which knowledge is apprehended and understood, has a vital role to play in the matter of Christian faith. And so it is that we read:

Matthew 22:37 (NASB)
37 And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.'

Acts 17:11-12 (NASB)
11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
12 Therefore many of them believed...

Romans 7:25 (NASB)
25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God...

Romans 8:6 (NASB)
6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

Romans 12:2 (NASB)
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 14:5 (NASB)
5 One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.

1 Peter 1:13 (NASB)
13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

2 Peter 3:1-2 (NASB)
1 This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder,
2 that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

There are some among the brethren who would urge us to think that the mind, the intellect, and its domains of rationality and reason, are separate from faith and, perhaps, even contrary to it. The Bible does not agree. In fact, the farther a believer moves from rationality and reason, from a mind-ordered understanding of the Christian faith, the farther from the Truth they can be sure to stray. And so, God says to His own, "Come now, and let us reason together..." (Isaiah 1:18)

It is only because of what the believer knows, because of what he has apprehended with his mind concerning God and His Truth, that he is able to step out with God beyond reason, beyond what seems prudent and rational, into the sorts of remarkable, even miraculous, events chronicled in the OT. Instead of being against such steps of faith, then, knowledge of God, knowledge of His character, promises and power, obtained by the mind, is a vital and activating feature of godly, biblical, steps of faith. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.


Belief

Having obtained the prerequisite knowledge of God and His Truth, the believer must choose to believe it is true - or not. Pride, prejudice, fear and guilt (among other things) all array themselves in opposition to choosing to believe and so God must work to persuade the unbeliever of the Truth (John 16:8; 2 Timothy 2:25; John 6:44). Until the Truth is believed - after conversion, as well as before - it cannot affect the believer's daily, mundane condition. And so, the born-again believer must constantly affirm the truth of the biblical doctrines giving shape and direction to their faith:

2 Corinthians 5:7 (NASB)
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight—

Romans 1:17 (NASB)
17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH."

Hebrews 11:6 (NASB)
6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

It isn't mere intellectual assent in view here, but a conscious, concrete counting on of the promises, wisdom and character of God being true. Daily, believers must put their full weight on the facts concerning who God is, on His promises to them, reckoning it so that they are who He has declared them to be in His word. There is nothing passive about such a life of faith, no drifting along thinking that entering the Promised Land in Christ that is every believer's spiritual inheritance will just somehow mysteriously happen.


Action.

James 1:22 (NASB)
22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

Genuine, heart-level belief is always marked by corresponding action. Such action is properly likened to one side of the "coin" of faith, so closely-associated is genuine belief to corresponding action. If, for example, I truly believe that eating a box of rat poison will kill me, I won't snatch up the box and fill my mouth with its contents. Or, if I'm convinced that I can build muscle by a regular routine of weightlifting, and want to do so, I'll start working out my local gym. If I think my doctor's medical advice is well-informed, accurate and trustworthy, I'll follow it; if I believe my barber knows how to cut hair well, I'll pay him to trim up my own; because I'm confident the cook at my favorite restaurant isn't going to serve me rotten food, I'll pay him well to prepare a meal for me.

In light of these and a myriad other possible examples, it's an uncontroversial idea that belief and action often go together. The Christian, then, who claims belief in Christ will inevitably (though, not necessarily) reflect this belief in their living. As a convert to the faith obtains a greater and greater knowledge of their faith, and settles confidently into it, more and more of their life will reflect the truths they've come to believe. This is the normal Christian life.


Bizzaro World

Unfortunately, there are segments of Christendom that have adopted a very kooky - and dangerous - set of ideas and practices related to faith. Here are a few:

- If you believe it hard enough (with intensity and persistence), it will come true (aka - The Law of Attraction).
- Our degree of faith limits God.
- Our faith is the vital element of our salvation.
- Real faith and the miraculous always go hand-in-hand.
- The faith of others can infuse our own faith, enlarging it and its effects.

In a few days, I'll address these nutty ideas in a following post.

 

[Tenchi]

Bizzaro World.


- If you believe it hard enough (with intensity and persistence), it will come true (aka - The Law of Attraction).

At every turn, believers must wrestle with Self, with the "old man," with who they were before being saved, in rebellion to God, focused upon themselves, and sinful (Titus 3:3; Ephesians 2:1-3; Colossians 1:21, etc.). The big problem with Self within the sphere of Christian living is that it doesn't necessarily show up in overtly sinful ways - at least, not initially - but just intrudes on the work of God, taking to itself responsibility and power that is God's alone. Rather than dying, as it should (Romans 6:1-11; Galatians 2:20; Galatians 5:24; Colossians 3:1-3, etc.), Self subtly situates itself so that it is integral to God's transformation and use of the born-again believer, making the believer a "co-pilot" with God and even a co-Savior with Christ.

The Law of Attraction is an example of Self positioning itself so that it is invested with God's power and operating on His level, shaping reality itself by force of thought and will. Nowhere in Scripture is such a "law" described or taught. Instead, God's word says the believer is only a receiver of God's power, a branch in the Vine, a vessel meet for His use, a sheep led by the Good Shepherd to green pastures and still waters, a child strengthened, taught, comforted and matured by their Heavenly Father (John 15:5; 2 Timothy 2:21; John 10:1-15; Psalm 23; Ephesians 5:1). The believer only works out what God has first worked into them (Philippians 2:12-13); Christ is the Author and Finisher of the believer's faith (Hebrews 12:2); God has begun a good work in the believer and He will be the One who brings it to completion (Philippians 1:6); it is by the Holy Spirit that the believer puts to death the deeds of the flesh (Romans 8:13), is taught, convicted, strengthened and comforted (John 16:8; Ephesians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 1:3-5; 1 Corinthians 2:10-16), and so on.

Rather than possessing reality-shaping power, as the Law of Attraction asserts, the Christian person is entirely and constantly dependent upon God, upon the power and work of the Holy Spirit, to be who God wants them to be. Apart from God, relying upon themselves, upon the resources of their flesh, the born-again believer is weak and corrupt (John 15:5; Galatians 6:7-8; Romans 8:6-8; Romans 7:14-25, etc.), incapable of producing true godliness.


- Our degree of faith limits God.

Here, too, God is diminished and the believer (Self) is enlarged. Was the faithlessness and complaining of the Israelites fleeing Egypt an insurmountable barrier to God? No. Was the doubt and fear of Gideon sufficient to thwart God's plan to free Israel from the oppression of the Midianites? No. Was the doubting father of the possessed boy in Mark 9:14-29 a hindrance to Christ casting the demon out of the boy? No. Was the unbelief of Mary and Martha, sisters to Lazarus who died, a stifling limit upon Christ's ability to raise Lazarus from the dead? No.

It is actually a very demonic notion that we have, in any way, the capacity to limit, or confine, God. Sometimes, the following Bible passage is trotted out in defense of this sort of terrible thinking:

Matthew 13:53-58 (NASB)
53 When Jesus had finished these parables, He departed from there.
54 He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?
55 "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
56 "And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this man get all these things?"
57 And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household."
58 And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.

The last verse of this passage, in particular, is taken to mean that Jesus was prevented, or limited, by the unbelief of those in his hometown. But is this a reasonable reading of the verse? In light of the several instances in the Gospels where unbelief was no hindrance at all to Christ's miracle-working power, this reading seems very unlikely. Rather, the sense here is that, in response to the unbelief of those in his hometown, Christ would not (as opposed to could not) perform miracles among them. But this reading, of course, offers no help to those who want to assert that our lack of faith can somehow bind God, prevent Him from doing as He would otherwise do.

It might help, also, to consider that when we were in a condition of utter faithlessness and rebellion, God acted to save each of us. Before being saved, we were all bound under the power of the World, the Flesh and the devil, all selfish and sinful, trusting in ourselves rather than God. This is the declaration of Scripture to our pre-conversion condition (see above). Did this condition limit God? Did it hinder Him from saving us? Not at all. Beware, then, the person who urges you to think, falsely, that your faith can put limits on God.


- Our faith is the vital element of our salvation.

As Scripture makes perfectly clear, it is not our faith that is the important thing but the Object of our faith: Jesus Christ. It is not that we have believed that is the key to our conversion but in whom we have believed. A person might believe with as great faith in Buddha, or Allah, or Vishnu, but none of these false gods can grant salvation. There is only one Savior and only by faith in him is one reconciled to God. (Acts 4:12; John 14:6; 1 Timothy 2:5)

Does this mean our faith is not a part of coming into relationship with God through Jesus? No, only that the Key to our salvation is not our faith but our Savior. Consider: If I have faith in a brain surgeon that he can remove a brain tumor from my brain, will that faith all by itself rid me of my brain tumor? Or must I submit to the surgical skill of the surgeon and receive from him his saving work on my brain? The latter, of course. And to his saving work I can contribute nothing; I can only lay upon his operating table and be saved. So, too, in the matter of salvation from my sin and the eternal wrath of a holy, just God. I can only receive from Christ what he has done on my behalf at Calvary; I can't contribute to his atonement in the slightest by trusting in what he has done.


More to come.