The Normal Christian Life: Faith (Part II)

In John 3:16 Jesus tells us that whoever believes in Him would inherit eternal life.  We have other words from Jesus that indicate that He means something more about believing than we do.  

When reading the story of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37), we often forget why Jesus told that story.  He was answering the question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?".

Luke 10:25-29

  One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking Him this question: "Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?"  Jesus replied, "What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?"  The man answered, "'You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.' And, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"  "Right!" Jesus told him. "Do this and you will live!"  The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"

Jesus has told us that the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Then He proceeds to answer the question "Who is my neighbor?".

Luke 10:31-33

  "And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  32  "Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.  33  "But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion,

Jesus doesn't tell us the motivations of the two religious leaders who crossed the street to avoid getting involved but Jesus' story leaves us one conclusion: any motivation to cross the street and not get involved does not qualify as loving our neighbor as ourselves. 

Jesus answers the question, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" by reminding us that inheriting eternal life is requires us to go all in with God.  We must Love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind.  That is not just the "feel good" love of the heart as we find in many modern stories, the kind that often changes over time as that love is challenged by reality.  This is an all encompassing love surpassing the love for parents, husbands and wives, children, adventure, or safety.   Yes, you read that right. More than your children.  More than your spouse.  More than your Mom and Dad. More than your job.  Heart, soul, mind and strength.   

Matthew 10:37

  "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

Matthew 7:21

  "Not everyone who calls out to Me, 'Lord! Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of My Father in heaven will enter.

Jesus taught us that only those who do with the will of the Father will have eternal life.   Jesus has unpacked the meaning of believing for us.  Believing is not simply agreeing with a list of facts that we are sinners and He has died for us and now we have access to eternal life.  When Jesus says "whoever believes in me", He doesn't just mean agreeing with Him.  Reading all of Jesus words tells us that believing means obedience.  It means transferring our flag of loyalty to Him and His Kingdom.  It means taking Him seriously as our Lord.  The Apostle, Paul, who wrote the bulk of the letters found in the New Testament, put it this way.  

2 Corinthians 5:15   

"He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them."

 

Jesus, Himself, was not pursuing His own agenda.  His whole life was about doing what He saw His Father doing.  He modeled for us what it means to "believe".  

Faith can be the enemy of eternal life.  The kind of faith that does not get involved.  The kind of faith that loves family, friends and lifestyle more than God. The kind of faith that is nothing more than a head nod that Jesus is Lord, like we have joined His team and wear His jersey but don't show up for practice and don't take the field.  That kind of faith is the enemy of eternal life.  No one who has that kind of faith will inherit eternal life.  

In the book of James, in the Bible, the author who was the brother of Jesus and became the overseer of the church in Jerusalem, we have this description of faith. 

James 2:14-26 

"What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don't show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, "Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well"--but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn't enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, "Some people have faith; others have good deeds." But I say, "How can you show me your faith if you don't have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds." You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. How foolish! Can't you see that faith without good deeds is useless? Don't you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: "Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith." He was even called the friend of God. So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone. Rahab the prostitute is another example. She was shown to be right with God by her actions when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road. Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works."

We are not suggesting here that anyone can do good works to earn their eternal life.  This can be confusing.  However, the truth is that simply agreeing with a set of facts about Jesus, that he died for our sins and gifted us with eternal life is not the whole story.    The complete truth is that Faith for eternal life requires action.  It requires making Jesus Lord of our lives.  That means we do what he tells us to do.  Jesus makes a point of this. 

Luke 6:46  

"So why do you keep calling Me 'Lord, Lord!' when you don't do what I say?”

That means that we make his plans our plans, his desires our desires, his priorities our priorities.  It means that we no longer live for ourselves but rather for Him who died and rose again on our behalf.  That is the door to eternal life.  That is what faith means.  

The Normal Christian Life: Faith

Everyone lives by faith.

How do you know that the Earth is round?  Have you ventured up to the space station and observed it first hand?  Really, how many of us can say that?  Not many of course.  We trust those who took pictures and those who claim to have done this and even measured it.  We trust our teachers. We trust the media who publish the reports of others.  Trust is the another word for faith.  Unless we have personally witnessed something we must "take someone else's word for it".   We tend to automatically put our faith in the truth-telling of our text books and certain media outlets and even the gov't.  Some people even trust what they read on the Internet.  Somehow if we hear that a scientist has researched something we tend to have faith in them.  We all live by faith everyday trusting what others have told us.  

There are some who try to discredit the faith of folks who believe in God because they see science as more believable than God.  They do not realize that they are living by faith too.  They are trusting the testimony of scientists somehow also believing that scientists are unbiased and incapable of mistakes and always report the truth.  As we grow up we find out that scientists are human with all of the same flaws as all other humans.  Scientists rely on grants from government and from business.  These grants often come with desired outcomes. That should not influence their findings but human nature being what it is, it would be hard to determine results that are in conflict with the sponsoring grant organizations.   Nevertheless, we tend to accept by faith that the findings of studies are true and accurate.    This is no more reasonable than believing the testimony of the writers of the Bible.  

The truth is that if we know something, we do not need faith. If I know something because I have first hand experience, I don't need faith.  The Bible says "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."  (Hebrews 11:1)  Faith and knowing are two different things.  There is very little we humans can know with the limitations of our brains and our senses and our instruments.  What many call "knowing" is in fact merely "believing".  In fact much human conflict arises out of very strong beliefs morphing into "knowing" as it seems to some individuals.  As I noted above, if we do not have first hand experience in witnessing an event or a condition, we will have to trust others to report what they know.  Even if that event happened yesterday, if we were not there we must trust others.  This is no different than trusting in the events of the Bible reported to us by those who have reason to report what they have witnessed.  

In one of Jesus' appearances to his disciples after His resurrection, He approached Thomas, called "doubting Thomas" because he had said  "I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in His hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in His side."   Jesus said to Thomas "Put your finger here, and look at My hands. Put your hand into the wound in My side. Don't be faithless any longer. Believe!" . "My Lord and my God!" Thomas exclaimed.  Then Jesus told him, "You believe because you have seen Me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing Me."    (John 20:24-29)   We are those people that Jesus spoke about who believe without seeing.  That is the definition of faith.  

Faith is the normal and natural condition for all people simply because we cannot "know" everything.   Truthfully, we actually "know" very little and we "trust" in a huge volume of sources from books, news outlets, teachers, the Internet, friends, etc.  It is normal and natural.  

But not all faith will change the destiny of your life.  If you were to believe that the earth was flat would that really change your life beyond some snickers at a party?  You might believe that humans are the reason for climate change or not and that might influence some of your life decisions.  You may believe that cats are preferable to dogs as pets and that might influence some years of your life.   You may believe that a person that you have met is the one above all others that you want to spend your life with.    Ultimately, though, not all beliefs are likely to change your life for all of eternity.      

Putting your faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the one who died to pay the price for your sin changes your eternal destiny beginning now.  You have been given eternal life with God.  You are changed from the inside out.  The old has passed away and you have become a new creature.  (John 3:16; 2 Corinthians 5:17)

Do not let anyone disparage your faith.  Remind them that they are living by faith too and not all faith really matters.    Encourage them to put their faith in the things that matter for eternity, for this life and the one to come.    Let them know that they can trust you in telling them about your life in Christ the way that you trusted others and trust in the Word of God found in the Bible.  

The World's Influence among Christians

As Christians we try to influence our society for the Kingdom of God much like yeast or leaven influences a batch of dough hopefully becoming bread. In doing so we are often in a struggle about whether we Christians are influencing society or if society is actually influencing us.

Recently I heard a Christian woman justify her affair with the phrase, "You don't know the whole story". Even more recently we have heard that a pastor of a large evangelical, charismatic church has come out to support the gay lifestyle including involving gay people at every level of his very large church. The context seems to imply that gays in his church are eligible for all levels of leadership including pastor. The pastor has a tremendous heart for people especially young people. "When a married man in a congregation has an adulterous affair with another woman—and he’s confronted about it—we don’t have suicides as a result. But, we do have teenagers committing suicides at higher rates when they are part of congregations that have these exclusionary teachings about homosexuality. Is this really the teaching of Jesus when our exclusion of people is contributing to a rise in suicide?"

The problem with this pastor's view and the view of the woman above and many others claiming to follow Jesus is that they are defining God and God's Word through their emotions and experience. Instead they should be defining their experience of life by the Word of God.

When we come to Christ we hear of His Love for us and how he gave His life for us that we may have eternal life. How do we know this? We found it in the Word of God. We trust
our eternal destiny on what we believe is actually the living and active Word and words that have come to us from the Living God.

Still though we put our faith in the Christ of the Bible as savior some people stop there and live as though the rest of the Word and words of the Living God are irrelevant because they don't line up with how they feel.

Consider what Jesus might have said to the woman who was brought to him having been caught committing adultery (John 8). Jesus asks "Where are those who condemn you?" "There is no one." she answers. "Neither do I condemn you. Go on. Continue as you were. I know that life is hard for you and that you have good reasons for why you do this." Is that what He said? Jesus, who loves all people and gave His life for everyone without bias or favor, did he say that to her? The Word of God says that Jesus told her "Go and sin no more". Jesus demonstrates that Love speaks strong words about what is right and wrong. Jesus loves completely but He also calls people to a life without sin. I believe that Jesus would be found in Gay bars and at Gay parties. He loves people. But He would not be there to affirm their sin but to call them out of it. He is the great physician. It is not the healthy that need a doctor (Matt 9:12) but those who are sick. He was accused by those who thought themselves righteous of hanging out with all sorts of sinners. I love that about Him. But while He does not condemn He still does not condone.

The problem with many in the Body of Christ who are trying to bring the Kingdom in the world is that too often they bring love without truth. They allow human experience to determine what God meant rather than applying the Word of God that they claim to believe in to life and experience. The same Word of God where we find our invitation to eternal life through Christ. It's either all the Word of God and worthy of our obedience and faith or it is nothing but literature and our eternal destiny is a sham.

Most of us are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13 where Paul writes that even though we possess all knowledge and practice all of the spiritual gifts but don't have love we are useless. And so some people may take this out of the context of the whole Word of God and say Love is all there is and that's the end of it. There is no call for righteousness. In 1 Corinthians 6, the same letter and same author, Paul writes this, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." And so we have the same author in the same letter to the same church writing about lifestyles that will not inherit the Kingdom of God as well as loving people with a passionate love as Jesus did. Some will over emphasize one or the other and some may exclude one or the other. However, if we trust that the Bible is the Word of God then we must accept that both chapters are true and both are God's Word.

The odd part to me is that somehow Christians can feel comfortable carving out homosexuality from this list in 1 Cor 6 for special treatment because of pressure from our society or maybe because they have a friend or family member living that lifestyle and leave the others as conventional lists of sins. Even though most of these other lifestyles are portrayed daily in the common entertainment media, no Christian leaders I know are coming out claiming that adultery and other immorality is acceptable as a lifestyle for church leaders. That's just crazy business.

How can someone rationally say that the Bible that tells us that Jesus died for us to give us access to eternal life by faith in Him is the true Word of God and then not accept the rest of the Bible as God's Word and apply it? This makes no sense.

We know that Jesus invites all of us to confess our sin, turn away from it and trust Him for our eternal life. No one is outside of this invitation. But we cannot deny our sin and still accept His invitation. 1 John 1:8-10 "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word
is not in us." Homosexuality is not different than other sins. All sin leads to death. Homosexuals are not different than other sinners like us. They can accept Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross and join him in eternity in the same way as all other sinners.

The Bible also tells us in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths."

Make sure that those leaders you are paying attention to are teaching properly from the Word of God, all of it. We must reach out to our culture with the Good News of God's love for all but we cannot exclude parts of the story that make people uncomfortable. Jesus had to die for us because we are all sinners. We must all repent and confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father.

The Bible in 5 Minutes

I read an article recently about the difficulty getting people to read the Bible. Some said that it was a bit intimidating since it appears longer than 'War and Peace' and it feels like you need a key to understanding how the parts fit with the whole. 

So I worked out this diagram of the whole Bible that most of us could use to share to answer the question "What is the bible about? " It would be especially cool if we all memorized this and were able to draw it out on the back of a napkin in about 5 minutes.