From Faith to Faith

Law vs Spirit

Continuing through Galatians we find that Paul spends most of chapters 3, 4, and 5 exhorting the Galatians not to try to find justification in the law.  You'd think that they must be a pious, legalistic bunch.  5:13 seems to imply that, despite their desire to be justified by the law, they still have a problem with the deeds of the flesh. 

13 ¶  For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
14  For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
15  But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!
16  I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
18  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Verse 18 seems to be a much better way of expressing what I tried to say in the last post that a true Christian obeys God, not the law.  Yes, there is right and wrong, but it is not by doing right things that we are justified.  We are justified by faith in Christ Jesus alone, we then spend the rest of our lives walking in the Spirit.   

We no longer obey because these things (days, and months, and seasons, do not touch, do not taste...) because they hold in custody, enslaving us.  We obey God and are led by His Spirit.  If a thing ought not be touched the Spirit leads us not to touch it.  If a day ought to observed, the Spirit leads you to observe it.  Is the Spirit leading you?  Is He leading me?  Do I obey to be good enough or because God is with me, leading me where I ought to go? 

Faith and the Law 2

This has always been one of those confusing topics for me.  Its easy enough to say that we're justified by faith and not by the law, that our salvation is not bound up in what we do but I, at least, almost always judge the state of my faith, or salvation, maybe, by how well I perform my religious hoop jumping.  The New Testament is quite clear that a Christian ought to live a life which is in accordance with God's standards.  To not live that way is ungodly, unchristian and just plain wrong, but then goes on to tell us that doing those things is not what makes us saved.  But to not do those things, quite possibly, can mean that you're not saved.  That's a glib way to put it, but the Bible is pretty clear that the Christian ought to walk uprightly, no two ways about it.

Obedience, again, is the in the forefront of my mind.   The way which my mind understands this is to say that we obey God, not the law.  Its a subtle shift in focus but it makes all the difference.  Legalism obeys the law, Christianity obeys God.  Legalism tries to be good enough, Christianity lives in a relationship with one it loves.  Legalism is caught up with itself and how it measures up, Christianity is caught up with being in God's presence. 

A life of faith, a life of walking in relationship with God will have rules, unimaginably strict rules as a matter of fact, rules involving the motivations of your heart and mind, but they cannot be the focus.   Walk with Him and He'll give you a heart which follows these rules by nature, not by diligent effort.  But, somehow, in that, it will still be SELF-control, it will still be your human will exerting itself to obey rules and not God putting you on auto-pilot. 

Its terribly difficult not to judge ourselves based on our ability to keep rules as it makes a really good way to tell how good of a Christian we are but its only a distraction.  Find God, get close to Him, do what He says, go where He goes and let Him be your judge.  Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Faith and the Law

Galatians 3:

21  Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.
22  But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
23  But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.
24  Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
25  But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.

I had never thought of the law as keeping us, "under guard".  Though, you can really think of it in two ways depending on how you interpret guard.  It can either mean to protect or to imprison (the Greek word can mean either, it depends on the context).  Protection gives the impression of compassion and mercy, that God gave us the law to keep us from destroying ourselves until faith comes and empowers us to live rightly.  Imprisonment has a harsher connotation, implying that we are all utterly given over to sin and the law was given as a guard to force us to obey because this is God's world and there are rules and you will obey, one way or another.

I'm not sure which is necessarily true, but, they both imply essentially the same thing.  We all live in God's house and we'll follow His rules but, apart from faith, we are incapable of following those rules.  The law looks like its, sort of, a "good enough" to live in His house.  It keeps us from going crazy, it keeps us from destroying ourselves and others, it keeps Him from having to punish us, but it by no means makes us perfect.  It does not make us His sons.

Salvation has never been by works of the law as we see with Abraham.  God chose him, gave him faith, and Abraham was then righteous.  And because he was made righteous,Abraham had no need of the law, He simply obeyed God because that's what righteous people do.  So, who do you obey?  Do you obey God because He's God and He's given you faith or do you obey the law because it has you under guard?       

Look at me

I did an inline marathon this weekend.  That is, a marathon on inline skates.  Despite inclement weather I succeeded in finishing in 1hr:36min:47sec.  That's an average speed of over 16 mph.  Look how fast I am, the camera can't even get a good picture.  Sorry, back to faith as soon as I can.

Now blogging in Vista

For all my geek people out there, I'm using the new RC1 version of Windows Vista.  Its pretty neat.  Its very pretty, and shiny, and a little disorienting.  Its still windows, but its got a pretty different feel to it.

Anyway, Aaron's comments highlight what I've been feeling about the study lately.  I get too focused on the obedience aspect and don't think about all the other things that make faith faith.  But, since I started thinking about it, I have a hard time not looking at how obedience is necessary for faith to work.  As in Aaron's example, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, but unless he had acted on his belief and obeyed God (by "going in unto" his wife) Isaac would have never been born and the promise of faith would have never been fulfilled. 

I want to try and focus on the more mental part of faith as I continue this study.  Without sincere, selfless belief, your obedience is nothing.  Without obedience your belief is neither sincere nor selfless and, therefore, probably not faith in the first place.  Both parts are important, lets see what we can find.

Refocus

I keep meaning to change the format of this blog over to more of an expository Bible study sort of thing but it hasn't happened yet.  At least, not to the extent that I'd like it.  Everything continues to be filtered through my experiences of the last few years.  And there's nothing wrong with that but experience will only take you so far.  God showed me a great deal but its only a small part of what faith truly is and I'm not sure that the gift of God which enables our salvation can be fully understood in the systematic way which my scientist brain desires.   

Like everything God does, it appears to us as a paradox.  Its supernatural, its transcendant, its beautiful and terrifying, its remarkably simple and unthinkably complex.  Its God's duty to give it to us and maintain it in us, but its also the duty of our fickle human will to maintain it.  I've been trying to interpret anything having to do with faith through the concept of obedience but faith doesn't fit in a box, but obedience does plan an integral part in it, but its not the only part.  Anyway, I'm going to talk myself into a knot if I don't stop.  I love faith and I want to learn it as well as I can so I guess we'll see what else the Bible will tell me about it.         

Real Faith

The last post ended on the idea of real faith versus counterfeit faith which is really just a different way of talking about having faith or not having faith.  Either you have faith or you don't.  Counterfeit faith, though, is referring to a specific instance of thinking you're in faith when really you are not, or beginning in faith but stepping out of it later on.  Lets try an example:

Matthew 14:
28  And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
29  And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
30  But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31  And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

Peter began in faith, He asked Jesus if he should do something, Jesus responded that he should and Peter trusted Jesus and obeyed word, a perfect example of faith but almost as soon as he began he stepped back out of faith and began to sink.   Still, as soon as He fell Jesus was there to pick him up, because  faith is a gift and, I believe, if we fall while we walk in it Jesus is there to save us. 

This is a very dramatic example and may not be so useful to what we're talking about here.  Its easy to tell when you step out of faith while walking on water because either you're walking on water or you're not, one mis-step and you're all wet.  It would have been trickier matter if I, for instance, had ignored God's leading to go to a meeting with a temp agency.  I would have stepped out of faith just as much as Peter but would have been distinctly less wet. 

The "what ifs" of this situation are endless, would God have provided this opportunity a different way or would I have missed the boat?  Would Jesus have reached out to take hold of me and send me back to faith?  Would I have taken that help?  Its impossible to say what would have happened but I have to believe that so long as we honestly seek God He'll provide us with the grace to walk in the faith He gives us (for a just man falls seven times and rises again.  Prov. 24:16).

The other situation of counterfeit faith is much scarier, it is to be, essentially, willfully deceived.  Its one thing to take a mis-step, to be taken hold of by Jesus and to get back on the right path.  Its another thing entirely to knowingly take a mis-step, re-buff the aid of Jesus and carry on in the way which you think is right.  All we can do is pray that our eyes be opened to anything of this nature in our own lives, that God would make us humble enough to repent of it and return to faith.  It can be so difficult to see, though, as our own will often times "feels" more like faith than does actual faith.  We, once again, must be able to look past our own wills, our own feelings, our own ideas and find the true will of God. 

      

Shooting Holes in my Ideas

Matthew 17:
15  "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.
16  "So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him."
17  Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me."
18  And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
19  Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?"
20  So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.

Jesus told the disciples to cast out demons, they obeyed, they failed.  Faith is, therefore, more than simply obedience to God's word.  How is it then that we can do what God says and not have faith?  My initial response wants to be that they did not "believe hard enough", that though they had some faith they didn't have enough to get the job done.  I believe this fails on two levels. 

First, faith is God's gift to us, once given we've got what we need to accomplish the task He's asked us to do.  If it was His will that this demon come out, the then He gave the disciples the faith necessary to cast it out.  Its God's responsibility to give us faith and He never comes up short. 

Secondly, I believe Jesus exhortation to the disciples contradicts this type of thinking.  "if you have faith as a mustard seed..." indicates that we need not think about faith in terms of amounts but as a simple having or not having.   Either you believe or you don't.  Your belief is evidence by your obedience, your unbelief by your shrinking back from obedience.

Thinking about faith in terms of amounts is either emotions or pride.  Emotions distort our perception so that the same faith can appear greater or smaller depending on the associating sensations of confidence or fear.  Faith is faith regardless of the feelings which come along with it.  Pride, obviously, likes the idea of big and small faith.  We love to be able to say, "Look at my great big overcoming faith".  "I have so much more faith than that person".  "My faith is bigger than yours", and so on.  Faith is faith, do what God tells you to do and don't worry about whether or not your faith is big or small.

But, back to the main question.  Obviously the disciples did not have faith or the demon would have come out.  Either they stepped out of God's will and, thus, out of faith as well, or there is more to faith than mere obedience.  I don't think that it is the first option or the disciples would not have been rebuked for their inability to cast out the demon.  Therefore, there must be more to faith than our obedience alone.  I think a lot of it may be due to motives.  Trying to walk in God's will for our own reasons will not work.  This scripture does not say that this is the case but there are a number of other instances in the Bible in which people try to wield "spiritual power" for their own purposes (Simon the sorcerer) and fail. 

I guess I have no real evidence that the disciples were trying to walk out faith for their own purposes but I'm not sure what else would hinder them.  I think I'll delve into that another time as it gets into the idea of real faith versus fake faith which is a big ugly subject all its own and I've rambled on for long enough.  Let's finish with an expanded idea of what faith is:

Faith is trusting God because He is trustworthy and obeying the things He tells you to do because He tells you to do them, not because of anything you'll get from your obedience in terms of rewards, both material (money, job...) or immaterial (fame, status...). 

Obedience is required, but why you obey is important too.

Magic?

Matthew 21:
18  Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.
19  And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it but leaves, and said to it, "Let no fruit grow on you ever again." Immediately the fig tree withered away.
20  And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree wither away so soon?"
21  So Jesus answered and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.
22  "And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

This is the type of scripture which always makes me nervous about faith.  It gives the impression that faith is a magical power to be wielded by the Christian.  That if we simply believe something, anything, we can make it happen by just saying it.  It helps if you say it loudly and with a southern accent.  Wild gesticulation such as finger pointing and fist shaking may also aid in the efficacy of your faith magic but it is not required.  But I digress.

The major flaw with the above thinking is found in the fact that never in the history of mankind do we have reports of mountains being cast into the sea at the whim of some faith-filled Christian.  I can't say I've ever tried, but I have no doubt that thousands have tried over the two thousand year existence of our faith.  Most have probably been well meaning too.  Many were probably young Christians, full of zeal and acutely aware of the fact that they, at the very least, had the faith of a mustard seed (Matthew  17:20 but its the same sort of thought).  "Why should I not cast this mountain into the sea?", he says, but budge the mountain does not. 

Either the Bible is not true, or this scripture is implying something else.  I know the Bible is true.  Its the only thing I know is true as it seems like everything else in the world is lies and twisting and guile and marketing and hype and, ya know.  So, the scripture must not be saying that we have magical powers but that faith is something else.  Faith is, as I'm sure you're guessing, solely founded in the will of God.  I would dissect it thusly:

• "If you have faith", that is, you are given the gift of faith by God to believe something pertaining to His will. 
• "And do not doubt", that is, you don't let doubt, unbelief, fear, or anything else conquer the faith which God has put in your heart.
• "You will not only do what was done to the fig tree...", you will accomplish amazing, supernatural things, even greater things than what Jesus did. 

Therefore, find God's will, believe God's will, do God's will.  Sorry, no magic for us.

The Other Side of the Coin

Well, maybe not another side, just a different part of the same side, I don't know.

Anyway, a lot of what I've said has been that faith is not caused by having "feelings of faith", nor is it found by bending your mind to think on "thoughts of faith".  Faith is only from God, it is given to us and we walk in it.  It is God's gift to us to give us sure and steadfast hope and to allow us to walk in His will and, therefore, to walk with Him in this life.  But, our thoughts and our feelings are important and we must pay attention to them. 

To walk in faith is our choice and, even though the ability to make that choice is enabled by God's grace, it is still an act of our own, human will.  That will is affected by many things, including our thoughts and our emotions.  If our minds are perpetually cluttered with thoughts of self we are much less likely to make a choice of selflessness which faith may demand.  If our emotions are constantly racked with fear we are much less likely to take the step of faith which appears risky.  Through sanctification our minds can be brought under control, our emotions can be kept from blowing us this way and that.  By God's grace you can begin to master yourself.  Then, when the time for faith comes, you have a better chance of being ready. 

But in walking this through don't get too focused on the thoughts and feelings or you'll just end up thinking good thoughts and good feelings are faith and you're back to where we started.  This road is narrow and there are ditches on both sides, lets try not to fall into either.