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Back to Subjects - Religion

What is faith

What is faith If asked, “Do you have faith in Christ?” how would you answer? Some of you would answer “yes”. Others might answer, “I’m not sure that I have any faith.” Still others would respond by saying, “Is it possible to know if one has faith in Christ? What is faith anyway?” The question about faith in Christ is of the utmost importance because the Bible says that, “Nor is their salvation in any other; for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved” [Acts 4:12. The Living Bible]. God has appointed one man, the man Christ Jesus in who we must be saved. There is no other name or revelation that God has given mankind that will save us from the judgment to come or give life full meaning. Gabriel, the Angel of the Annunciation, told the Virgin Mary that the child to be conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit was to be called Jesus, which means -- “God is Help,” or more succinctly, “Captain of our Salvation.” [Patriots and Prophets pg.251] Jesus is the beginning and the end of our salvation. He is, in himself, the guarantee that we shall be saved if we believe in Him. “That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.” [Romans 10:9. The Contemporary English Bible]. What does it mean to have faith or believe? That’s a question that many have wrestled with. The word “believe” in today’s language has changed and does not fully convey its full meaning of “trust” as it did a century or two ago. To “believe” actually means “to commit oneself to,” “to trust,” “cling to,” or “rely on.” [Roget’s The New Thesaurus] Today, in this latter part of the 20th century, you may “believe” something to be true, but not necessarily act upon that belief. Two examples of this are as follows: We all know that if a person stands in the middle of a busy highway that he will be hit by oncoming traffic if he doesn’t move. We all believe that to be a true statement of fact. However, the person may not act upon that belief and remove himself from harm. In that case, we all know what will happen. It is possible to believe something to be true but yet not act upon its truth. A second example is of a person who is sick and will die if the right medicine isn’t administered. If that medicine is available, the patient may “believe” that the medicine will save, him, but he must also act and take the medicine to be healed. There has to be an act to decide to take the medicine. The same holds true in the spiritual realm. The “medicine of salvation” has been provided in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. One can be saved if one responds in faith to Christ’s invitation to believe on Him. The story was told of a missionary who was translating the Bible into the language of a certain tribe. He couldn’t seem to find just the right word to describe what it means to “believe” on Christ. One day, as he was struggling to translate John 3:16, a man appeared at this door to talk about this new faith with the missionary. As they talked, the missionary asked his new convert what he thought was the best way to translate the word “believe” into his own language. The man thought for a moment and said: “I think the best way to describe the word ‘believe’ would be to say, ‘to sit down.’” Puzzled, the missionary asked him to explain. He replied, “you are sitting on a chair. Therefore, you must believe the chair will hold you.” The missionary translator caught his meaning and quickly translated John 3:16 as follows: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever sits down on (believes on) Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”[John 3:16. The New International Version] Isn’t that the true meaning of faith, to place the weight of our soul’s eternal destiny upon Christ? In other words, true faith relies upon the promise of Christ that He will save us if we entrust our soul to Him. Just as a drowning man needs to entrust himself to the lifeguard to be rescued, so we too must lie still in the arms of Christ, not trying to save ourselves, but trusting Him to do the work of saving us. If you pray from the bottom of your heart, God has heard you. Jesus said: “The one who comes to me I will by no means cast out” [John 6:37 The Living Bible]. In other words, if you come to Christ, He will not turn you away. He must keep His word for God cannot lie. You can be assured that our Lord will keep His word and cleanse you from every sin and make you His child. Having taken this step, the step of following Christ, don’t try to do it alone. Come and join us in the Anglican Catholic Church where the strength of fellowship with others will help sustain you in your new faith A man fell off a cliff, but managed to grab a tree limb on the way down. The following conversation ensued: "Is anyone up there?" "I am here. I am the Lord. Do you believe me?" "Yes, Lord, I believe. I really believe, but I can't hang on much longer." "That's all right, if you really believe you have nothing to worry about. I will save you. Just let go of the branch." A moment of pause, then: "Is anyone else up there? That’s the trouble with talking about religious faith in terms of BELIEF. Everybody BELIEVES, but too few people ACT WITH FAITH ON THAT BELIEF. They want to know if anyone else is up there. We use BELIEF and FAITH interchangeably, but actually, the kind of faith we find in the Bible has little to do with BELIEF. At least not belief the way the word is so often used. When someone says "I believe in something", we usually take that to mean that believing is a kind of alternative response not dependent upon FACTS, or even CONTRARY to the available evidence. As in "I believe in flying saucers." But Biblical faith is always an ACTION. Abraham’s faith was born when he commenced that journey from Ur to Canaan. In Matthew, the woman is healed when she acts on her faith. Jesus says, "Your faith has made you well." But what was her faith? It was an action. She didn’t say, "I believe IF I was to touch his garment, I would be healed." She actually touched the garment. She acted on her belief, and faith was born. Faith is an action that makes a difference in our lives. It has been said that the way to test whether you really have faith is whether or not the course of your life has surprised you. If everything has gone according to plan, and we’ve come out exactly where we intended to, if we have led lives that turned out just the way we planned them, then perhaps we have not heard or responded to God’s Spirit in our lives. If on the other hand, our lives have taken unexpected turns, perhaps it is because we are sensitive to God’s leading, alternative routes. If, like ancient Abraham - who intended to spend his whole life in Ur, but ended up going to God’s Promised Land instead - if we find ourselves ending up some place totally unexpected, then maybe God’s hand has been active in our lives. And in faith we have felt that presence and ACTED on that presence. [Daily praise from the Bible]. When we act on our faith, our faith makes a difference in our lives. Cardinal Suhard, archbishop of Paris during the Nazi occupation, described the life of faith as "living in such a way that one’s whole life would be inexplicable if God did not exist." [Patriarchs and Prophets]. Reinhold Niebuhr said "Faith is the final triumph over incongruity, the final assertion of the meaningfulness of existence." [Daily Praise from the Bible]. It is faith that brings life to life. As William James said, "Faith is a force in life, and when it is absent life collapses." The apostle Paul put it this way: there are three great things: faiths, hope, and love, and the greatest is love." But the first thing on the list was faith, for without faith there is no hope and no source of love. The author of Hebrews wrote (11:1) that "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, [and] the conviction of things not seen." Some things you simply "have to take on faith." There are times when we don’t have or can’t have all the data we need in advance. Acting on faith means we act contrary to facts or contrary to evidence. But acting on faith does mean acting without knowing how everything is going to turn out. "Faith means saying yes to God without knowing all it involves." Faith is always in a struggle with "non faith". African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance of greater than 30 feet. [www.africanimpala.com]. Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3-foot wall. The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will fall. Faith is the ability to act without having all of the answers in hand. Faith is trusting in what we cannot see. It is through faith we are freed from the flimsy enclosures of life that hold us back, that block us from God and neighbor. Faith is living BECAUSE of God and IN SPITE of evil. Faith is trustfully jumping with God, even when we cannot see where our feet will land. The form faith takes, as action is discipleship. Discipleship is based on a Greek word meaning instruction. [Roget’s The New Thesaurus]. A disciple is one instructed, literally one who is instructed by following the instructor, listening to him, obeying him, doing as he is instructed. Faith is the act of following after the one call the Master, the teacher of all teachers, the way, the truth, and the life. Faith is a journey. The first person in the Bible to be exalted as a man of faith is a man who took a journey because God told him to do so. After the Hebrews were freed from slavery in Egypt, they began the journey to the Promised Land. And it took them 40 years to get there because they vacillated between faith and unfaith. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, they had the ruby slippers of faith with them the whole time, but they just couldn’t click them together consistently enough to find their way to the home God had prepared for them. So also life for us is following the yellow brick road of faith. There are dangers along the way. There are companions with whom we share the journey. There are opportunities for growth as well as dangers along the way – and sometimes both happen at the same time. We remain on the road until our life’s end. We never get there until we get there. Like life itself, faith is a journey. This is that time of year commonly called "graduation." We honored our graduates this morning. But if you look at those invitations coming to your house (or going out from it) and read them carefully, you will likely read that the event is a "commencement", not a graduation. Not the END of the line, but the BEGINNING. So also faith is not the end, as much as it is a goal, not a destination, as much as it is the journey itself. Faith is not so much something you HAVE, as faith is the way you LIVE. And the question for us is are we going to live through faith, or live in NON faith. The grace that brings you to faith is God’s. And the response that brings you to faith is yours. Bibliography:

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