Jesus Today . . .

ON THE NATURE OF FAITH

One of our Tennessee readers, Phil Elam, sends us a provocative letter about the nature of faith. Being a reader of the old Millennial Harbinger, he quotes Dr. Robert Richardson to the effect that the faith that saves is “a believing on or into Christ.” The doctor went on to say, “The question, therefore, in regard to faith, was not, in the beginning, ‘What do you believe? “ which is the eager and sole inquiry of modern religious parties; but ‘In whom do you believe?’”

Phil notes that our own Church of Christ people are like the “modern religious parties” that Richardson refers to, for we seem more concerned with the what of believing than the who of believing. Richardson was strong on the personal aspect of faith, showing that it is centered in a person rather than any system of doctrine. This impresses Phil, who is suspicious that we in Churches of Christ have “trusted in the accuracy of doctrinal knowledge instead of Jesus.”

There is some justification for our Tennessee brother’s concern, for even when we see that a person has a vibrant faith in Christ (often more impressive than our own!) we are often eager to “convert” him to a set of interpretations that could well be called our own. Being “right” is something more than loyalty to Christ, or, to put it another way, we tend to equate our system with loyalty to Christ. We are often guilty, therefore, of moving people from a Baptist or Methodist view of things to our way of thinking. Faith in the person of Christ gets lost in the shuffle. It is a subtle shift from personal faith, which is evident in Scripture, to a doctrinal faith, which is the life blood of sectarianism.

It is foolish for anyone to minimize doctrine, for it is crucial to Christian growth. It is a matter of putting doctrine in right perspective, as pointing to the object of our faith rather than being itself the object of our faith. Even more important, we must be aware that what we call “doctrine” is not always the clear statements of Scripture but our own traditions. We are therefore guilty of a subtle kind of humanism: basing faith upon our particular interpretation of Scripture. Such humanism brings the censure of Christ himself upon us: “You err in that you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.”

This caused Jesus to chastise the Pharisees with “You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men” (Mk. 7:8). The Pharisees consequently honored God with their lips but not their hearts, which may well be man’s greatest sin --- the great religious sin! Mk. 7:9 makes it clear that God’s people may actually reject the Scriptures they claim to honor, by making too much of their traditions. And traditions are simply what we make the Scriptures to mean. If the Pharisees could do this by their doctrine of Corban (by which they negated what the Scriptures taught them to do for their parents, see Mk. 7:10), we can do it by an overemphasis upon such externals as the Lord’s Supper (the day and hour has to be exact!) and baptism (one’s understanding has to conform to ours!).

In all this something tragic happens to faith, for it becomes faith in things, ideas, practices, and even “the right church.” I recall one sister pleading with me to go through the New Testament and mark the things that she had to believe. This is a fearful way to live the Christian life, this struggle to be right about everything. We must come to see that this is not the faith that Christ brings us. “You search the scriptures,” our Lord said, “because you think that in them you have eternal life; and yet it is they that bear witness of me” (Jn. 5:39). They lost their Messiah in a Book! They had the Scriptures, but not Jesus. He goes on to say: you refuse to come to me that you may have life. How tragic it is for the head to be full and the heart empty!

It is a crucial error for us to mistake the nature of faith, as the Pharisees did when they supposed the ultimate was in a Book (principally their interpretation of that Book) rather than in the Person that had come down out of heaven. What is faith anyway? Jn. 6:35 provides part of the answer: “Jesus said to them,” ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.’” These are parallels, coming and believing meaning the same thing. Faith is not simply the acceptance of certain facts. A recent poll, referred to in this journal, indicates that a large percentage of the American people believe the facts of the gospel. That is fine insofar as it goes, but Jesus means more than that when he talks about faith. How many of those who accept the facts about Jesus have come to him in simple trusting faith? In coming to Jesus one has to leave something else, the world and all its enticements or perhaps a sectarian system, and that is too dear a price for many.

Until he comes to Jesus, the only answer there is, man will always hunger and thirst. Youth, riches, and pleasure will pass him by, leaving him broken and despondent in his old age. Jesus is his answer, and the Lord will accept him even at the eleventh hour --- and give him a full day’s pay in love and mercy! But he must come --- empty handed, which means that he must leave (reject) what he has always loved and relied upon, his own stinking resources, centered in his selfish pride. So believing is coming. Ah, there’s the rub, for that is one thing the world will not do, and sometimes the church as well, go to Jesus.

Believing is also obeying, as Jn. 3:36 indicates: “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him.” Here faith and obedience are used interchangeably. We can only conclude that people who do not yield themselves to the Lordship of Jesus in trustful obedience do not really believe in him. Faithing is thus equal to obeying. --- the Editor