No. 38, August 1999

 

THE ESSENCE OF FAITH

 

With the heart one believes unto righteousness. - Rom. 10:10

 

            The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle taught us that the essence of a thing is its whatness. That is, without its whatness it would not be what it is. The whatness of an acorn is its capacity to grow into an oak. If an acorn has lost this capacity, lost its essence, it is no longer an acorn. The essence of a knife is that it cuts. The essence of a man, Aristotle went on to say, is that he reasons. If a man does not or cannot reason, he has lost what distinguishes him from animals, his personhood, his essence.

 

            What is the essence of faith, meaning in this context religious faith? What is there about faith without which it would not truly be faith? Faith has its fruit and aftereffects, perhaps even byproducts, but these are not its essence.

 

            The essence of faith, as I see it, is a sincere disposition of the heart to seek diligently after God and to respond to whatever knowledge God has made known.

 

            This is to say that faith is more of an attitude of the heart than of believing propositions or doctrines. To be sure, as Christians we believe certain propositions, such as Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and certain doctrines, such as the resurrection of the dead, but these are the fruit of faith, not its essence. That is, one may have this “heart faith,” the essence of faith, who does not yet believe such doctrines

 

            The Scriptures give us instances of this kind of faith, and the most notable examples are outside the pale of revealed religion. Cornelius is the classic case, for he is clearly identified as “a devout (righteous) man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always (Acts 10:2).

 

            Being a Gentile he was outside the confines of the law given to Israel, and his knowledge of God must have been scanty at best. But he was pious, generous, and prayerful. He was faithful to such light as he had. And when he received more light, the gospel preached by Peter, he accepted it. This is what I am calling heart faith, the essence of faith.

 

            This is what Rom. 10:10 is saying: With the heart one believes unto righteousness. Cornelius had this heart faith – and was “righteous” – before he was privileged to hear the gospel. Once he became a Christian he was no more a man of faith than he had been. He had only received more light. He was justified while still a pagan. Why? Because of his (heart) faith. Like Abraham, Cornelius believed and it was accounted unto him as righteousness (Rom. 4:5).

 

            The centurion who asked Jesus to heal his dying son is also an example, for the Lord described him as having “great faith” (Mt. 8: 10). Being a Gentile, one outside the law, what kind of “great faith” could it have been, a faith that Jesus had not seen even in Israel?

 

            It was not a belief in doctrines. He likely believed no more than that “the Teacher” could heal his son. Jesus only needed to say the word! While the centurion must have had but little knowledge of God, he had a disposition of heart toward God, and he diligently followed such light as he had. Heart faith!

 

            It was the likes of Cornelius that led the apostle Peter to say, “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears God and works righteousness is accepted by him (Acts 10:34-35). Peter is saying that wherever there are people like Cornelius there are people acceptable to God.

 

            Peter names two conditions: fearing God, like Cornelius; doing what is right, like Cornelius. Such ones are acceptable to God, even if they are not yet part of his covenant people, even if they are not yet Christians.

 

            These are the conditions that God revealed to the prophet Isaiah: “But on this one will I look: On him who is of a humble and contrite heart, and who trembles at my word” (66:2).

 

            That is another way to put it: a humble and contrite heart is the essence of faith. It is the faith – the only faith – that makes one right with God. It doesn’t matter whatever else one may believe, if he doesn’t have heart faith God does not “look” to him.

 

            It is a sobering and disturbing truth, for there appears to be so few, even in our churches, who “hunger and thirst for righteousness,” which is our Lord’s way of describing this kind of faith (Mt. 5:6).

 

            The source of this faith for those without revelation is “the law written in the heart, the conscience also bearing witness” (Rom. 2: 15). To those who obey that law of the heart by “seeking glory, honor, and immortality” and by “patient continuance in doing good” God gives eternal life (v. 7). But to those who are “self seeking” and “do not obey the truth” revealed in the heart, God gives wrath and anguish (v. 8).

 

            This is why it is wrong for us to presume that all heathen/pagans are lost, for they too have the promise of eternal life if they do “by nature” the things that the law requires, “their thoughts accusing or excusing them” (v. 15). Rom. 2: 13 emphasizes this: “It is not the hearers of the law that are just, but the doers of the law (either revealed in Scripture or in the heart) will be justified.”

 

            The Bible names numerous outsiders who were justified in this way, such as Abraham, Rahab the harlot, the Ethiopian eunuch, several centurions, including Cornelius. The Lord must have had such ones in mind when he assigned Paul to a pagan city by saying, “I have many people in this city” (Acts 18:10 ). As if to say, “They have followed such light as they have, so we will give them more.”

 

            The Bible makes it clear that some will be lost. It also makes it clear who these are: those who finally reject God and refuse to obey such law (light, knowledge) that God has given them, whether revealed or written in the heart.

 

            This answers the question as to why the gospel is to be preached to all the world, if indeed the heathen can be saved by having heart faith. Most of them do not have heart faith! This is Paul’s argument in Romans 1-2, that all are under sin because of gross disobedience to law – if not to the revealed law, then to the law of the heart.

 

            Too, the gospel is intended for far more than saving from damnation. Even if we knew that a heathen was devout like Cornelius and would not be condemned, we would still want him to be a Christian. Our Lord is concerned that we not only have life but that we have it abundantly (In. 10:10). God’s intention in the gospel is not only to save us from sin but that we might be conformed to the image of His Son. (2 Cor. 3:18). This too is a reason for evangelism.

 

            Some will respond to what I am saying with “If pagans can be saved without ever hearing and obeying the gospel, then why preach to them, and risk their being damned by disbelieving?” This misses the point of heart faith. One who “believes unto righteousness” – like Abraham and Cornelius – will accept whatever further light he or she receives.

 

            Two vital truths are relevant here:

 

            No one is ever worse off from having heard the gospel. (If he rejects it, it will be because he has already rejected the light he had, and so already condemned).

 

            Everyone is better off from having heard the gospel. (Even if one is a “Cornelius” and justified by heart faith, he is abundantly richer when he hears and obeys the gospel)

 

            If this is not as clear as it might be, perhaps an illustration will help, such as our Lord’s story of the tax collector and the Pharisee in Lk. 18:9-14. The tax collector (publican) had the heart faith that I am talking about, for apart from any religious credentials or any claim to being good he simply prayed, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”

 

            Jesus makes my point when he says this man went home “justified” rather than the Pharisee, who was complacent in his presumed goodness. The tax collector “believed unto righteous-ness” by having a heart disposed toward God. He was in fact a “pious” sinner, for that is what piety is – sincerely seeking after God.

 

            This is what bothers me about all this: Are we of the modern church like the tax collector who with a contrite heart prayed for mercy or are we like the Pharisee who thanked God that he was good and not like other people?

 

            If it is true that this heart faith is the only faith that justifies, regardless of our doctrinal faith, then it becomes a very serious thesis indeed. – Leroy

 

 

 

LET’S ENLARGE OUR CANON

 

            In saying that we need to enlarge our canon I do not mean that we should add to the Bible. I rather mean that we should make greater use of the Scriptures that are in the Bible.

 

            Most of us tend to have our “canon within the canon” in that we have our favorite portions of Scripture, and these we underscore and read over and over. It is appropriate, of course, to have our favorite verses and to esteem some portions of Scripture above others, but we should not neglect other parts that may prove to be equally vital.

 

            For some of us in Churches of Christ the problem goes deeper, for it is not just a matter of preference but of consigning large portions of the Bible to a kind of “non-canonical” status. We say “does not apply” or “not for us today” or “that is in the Old Testament” with such abandon that we end up with a rather limited canon of Scripture.

 

            We may have just grounds for seeing ourselves as a “New Testament church,” but does that mean that we are to relegate the Old Testament to non-authoritative status? That we are no longer under the law of Moses does not mean that God does not speak to us in the Old Testament.

 

            Take but one instance. “I desire mercy and not sacrifice” (Hos 6:6). That one line reveals vital truth about both God and worship. Does it have any less value because it is in the Old Testament? Is not a statement like this the word of God wherever it may appear in the Bible?

 

            It so happens that Jesus quotes this line twice as he upbraids the Pharisees for their shallow view of religion (Mt. 9: 13, Mt. 12:7). What was to Jesus “the holy Scriptures” is to us the Old Testament. So with the earliest Christians. The only Bible they had for a long time was what we call the Old Testament.

 

            There is an odd fallacy on our part just here. We see the earliest church as our norm. We in fact talk of “restoring the primitive church,” which in itself has its problems. But the “Bible” of the primitive church we dismiss as “not for us.”

 

            While all truths are equally true, all truths are not equally important. The significance of a truth is not determined by where it is found in the Bible but by the nature of the truth itself. Some truths in the Old Testament are more important than some truths in the New Testament, and of course vice-versa.

 

            Our problem does not end with an inadequate treatment of the Old Testament. We also emphasize some parts of the New Testament to the neglect of other parts. We have always loved the book of Acts and the letters of Paul, for these are about “the church,” and that is our comfort zone. We are not nearly as much at home in the gospels, and we shy away from Revelation. The gospels hardly mention the church and Revelation is too obscure or too symbolic for us.

 

            Some even contend that the Scriptures for the church does not begin until Acts 2. All that comes “before Pentecost” either does not apply or is of lesser importance. Some sects even dismiss the Sermon on the Mount, which is the essence of our Lord’s teaching, as inapplicable to “the church age,” which is now, but to a millennium yet to come.

 

            It is an odd way to treat the Bible. Jesus taught in the Sermon, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Mt. 6:33), but it is not for us today!

 

            The presumption is, especially among us in Churches of Christ, that only the letters of the apostles are the basic norm for the church. It is in those letters that we learn what the church is to be and to do.

 

            This is to misunderstand the early church and its Scriptures. We have seen that for a longtime the Old Testament was the only Bible the early church had, and it, along with the oral tradition of the teaching of Jesus were the norm for the church. When the New Testament began to take form and was eventually viewed as Scripture and as authoritative, it was the gospels as well as the epistles to which they looked.

 

            All the New Testament documents were written and began to circulate well before the close of the first century, and the gospels were as much a part of the corpus as the letters. Most of the letters were written between 50-63 A.D., and the gospels (except perhaps John) only a few years later. The gospel of Mark, about 65 A.D., has been described as “the foundation document or title deed of Christianity” and was as relevant to the early church as the letters of Paul.

 

            That the gospels deal with events “before Pentecost” made them no less the Scriptures of the early church. The quotations the early church fathers drew from the gospels is evidence of how they were esteemed and used. The gospels were about Jesus and his teaching, and this is what was vital to the earliest Christians. Should the gospels be any less vital to us?

 

            As for the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine, commonly called Revelation, we are not to suppose that God in his gracious providence has given us a book that we may as well ignore because of its obscurity. We can be assured that it was understood by those to whom it was written.

 

            While some of it may be unclear to us, it makes clear that God is still at work in the world and that victory for the people of God is certain. From Revelation we learn that the church’s hope through the centuries has not been in vain, that in the end all that God ordained will be realized and all his promises made sure.

 

            And what promises we have in Revelation! One of them should especially get our attention: “Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book” (Rev. 21 :7). Come now, would God promise to bless us for keeping words that we can’t comprehend!

 

            I am saying that we are to look for the voice of God throughout the Bible, all of the Bible. The Bible is authoritative to us as it reveals to us God’s will.

 

            If we view the Scriptures as God’s unfolding drama, then the Old Testament is Act I of that drama, the gospels Act 2 and the letters Act 3. Revelation is Act 4 in that it is the finale and the consummation. In the last Act we learn that we win and win big!

 

            And God is on stage in all four Acts. We listen to his voice throughout the drama. There are no “keep out” signs. – Leroy

 

 

 

            The Stone-Campbell Movement: The Story of the American Restoration Movement by Leroy Garrett, Revised Edition, 1994, went to its Third Printing in 1997,573 pages. It is currently used as a text for courses in Restoration history in numerous colleges. But it was written especially for the rank and file, who say it is history they can understand and enjoy. It tells the story of how a movement launched to “unite the Christians in all the sects” began and grew to be a force to be reckoned with on the American frontier. It details the union of the Stone and Campbell movements in 1832. It also tells the tragic story of how this unity movement eventually divided and why. There is a chapter each on the Disciples of Christ, Churches of Christ, and Christian Churches, and a chapter on the movement into the 21st century. There is a gallery of 41 full-page photographs of the Movement’s leaders, from Thomas Campbell, who died in 1854, to Reuel Lemmons, who died in 1989, with brief biographies of each. We are pleased that its publishers are keeping it in print, and that we can offer it to you at the reduced price of $25 postpaid. Autographed by the author upon request.

 

 

 

Between Us . . .

 

            In our last I told you of a “Summit” to be held in June in Cincinnati between leaders of the three wings of the Restoration Movement. The meeting is now history and I have reports from four of the nine participants as to how it went. They agree that it could hardly have gone better. It will now be an ongoing “Stone-Campbell Dialogue’ with future meetings to be hosted by each of the three groups. Its purpose is “To develop relationship and trust within the three streams of the Stone-Campbell movement through worship and through charitable and frank dialogue.” The number of representatives for the next meeting in Indianapolis, hosted by the Disciples of Christ, will be increased to 20, six from each church plus two observers. I deem this one of the most significant developments in our recent history. As I told some of those involved, “Its fun studying and teaching history, but it is more fun to make it.” I predict that great things will come of these dialogues. Let’s rejoice in God’s surprises!

 

            Ouida and I were present for “The Wedding,” as they called it, of two Churches of Christ in the Dallas area. The Rochelle Road Church of Christ and the Central Church of Christ, both in Irving, merged into a new congregation. The uniqueness of this “holy union” is that Rochelle Road had from its beginning been non-Sunday School, while Central had been mainline, though a bit progressive. They emphasized that neither was going over to the other side, but a completely new church was born. Each member of the newly-formed congregation was given a certificate of “charter membership” in the new church with a new name.

 

            God willing, I am to be in Ukraine in October visiting churches and colleges. Dr. Joseph Jones, Troy, Mich., and I will join Epi Stephan Bilak, a Church of Christ missionary in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the three of us will visit Bilak’s mission church in Ternople, Ukraine, and then proceed to Simferople in Crimea where we will all take part in a lectureship conducted by the Crimean-American College, a mission of Christian Churches. We will also speak at several colleges in the area. We may also visit with churches in Kiev, capital of Ukraine. While I have been to Eastern Europe, this will be my first visit to Ukraine. I am pleased that this ministry will be for unbelievers as well as believers.

 

            My Commencement address at Emmanuel School of Religion in May was “The Spiritual Side of Our Plea.” It is soon to be published in the Christian Standard (founded 1866 by Isaac Errett), a weekly publication of Christian Churches. You may subscribe to this exciting publication for $23.50, including postage. Address: 8121 Hamilton Ave., Cincinnati, Oh. 45231.

 

            Notice to friends of Carl Ketcherside: A named fund honoring Carl Ketcherside has been set up at the Disciples of Christ Historical Society with an initial gift of$25,000. The fund will help young people attend lectures and otherwise use the resources of the greatest depository of materials on our heritage. Ouida and I invite you to join us in making a contribution to this fund in honor of a brother who did so much for our people. You will also be helping to preserve our history. Send your check marked “For Ketcherside Fund” to the DCHS, 110 I 19th St., South, Nashville, Tn. 37212

 

 

 

            The Jewish theologian/mystic Abraham Heschel says he did not ask God for success but for wonder, and so he names his delightful book I Asked for Wonder, which is a spiritual anthology, edited by Samuel Dresner. We need to read books like this because of our neglect in two areas: it is devotional/spiritual wisdom, and it is Jewish. $15 postpaid.

 

            Richard Foster, who is himself a spiritual writer of depth, says that The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard is the book he’d been looking for all his life. Then when Dale Randolph, president of the World Bible Translation Center, told me, excitedly, that it was the best book he ever read, I decided to order it and tell you about it. Its publishers describe it as “a powerful, thought-provoking guide to living the life Jesus intends for us.” Ouida and I are now reading it together. We found his comments on the parable of the Good Samaritan uplifting. We’ll send you a copy for $23 postpaid.

 

            Andre Resner, formerly a professor at ACU, has just published Preacher and Cross, which was his doctoral thesis at Princeton. It seeks to discover the effect the preacher’s character has upon his preaching, and its relation to the Cross. Ideal reading for us all, especially preachers and elders. A bit heavy but good stuff. $22 postpaid.

 

            While we no longer have bound volumes of Restoration Review, which I published for 40 years, we do have loose copies going back several decades. Please help us to place these in the hands of young people coming along. We’ll send you 25 different issues, selected from several years, for only $5, or one of all the issues we have, upwards of 100, for $15, far below original cost. Help pass them along.