What is faith?

1. What is faith? 1. Not intellectual agreement More than intellectual assent or belief because it involves trust. e.g. Belief in whether Blondin, the tightrope walker, could push a laden wheelbarrow as he walked on a wire above Niagara Falls. Many believed this but did not have sufficient faith to agree to be the load in the wheelbarrow. 2. Not in the wrong thing But must also be trust/faith in the right object (Person). Sincerity, conviction and sacrifice can all be misplaced. People can even give their lives for bad causes. Postmodernism is wrong: we can not all be right in believing our own contradictory truth stories: there is a universal truth and it is vitally important that we believe the right things. How can we know we are believing in the right thing when often fulfilment of a religion’s promises comes in an afterlife (or reincarnation) only after death? Then it’s too late to find out we are wrong. Christianity makes astounding promises for our present life and the eternal life we will know then is just an extension of the eternal life we can know now.

2. False Faith: trusting in ourselves • In our own goodness, good deeds or righteousness We cannot claim to be right with God on the basis of our own good works. Our own righteousness is like “filthy rags” and our religious knowledge and training as “refuse” compared with the excellency of knowing Jesus Christ and being found in him. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast” Eph. 2.8 Jesus warned the people their righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees, the Jewish religious leaders, if they were to enter the kingdom of heaven. The Pharisees wore religious texts on their foreheads, prayed on street corners, were always prominent in the synagogues and were diligent in tithing (giving to God a tenth of) everything they had and yet Jesus said this was not sufficient.

3. False faith in our own righteousness • for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. Rom. 3.23 No-one achieves God’s standard of righteousness: all should be looking for mercy and not justice. That mercy is only found in accepting Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins (wrong-doings): Jesus taking the punishment we deserve. • He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed 1 Peter 2.24 • For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith. Rom 1.17

4. False faith: not knowing Jesus Jesus spoke of some who would come to him on the day of judgement boasting of all the works and miracles they had done in his name. Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' We must know Jesus ourselves as well as his forgiveness. Some may be attempting to follow his way without entering the narrow gate. "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it”. Those who come to Jesus for forgiveness, come to him also to be his disciples. They need to be saved not only from past sins, but from present and future wrongdoing by knowing him better, becoming more like him and letting him live his life through them.

5. False faith: not directly in God In a religious teacher or priest We must trust in Christ and his redeeming death not instead put out trust in men however pious, religious or exalted they may be. Jesus is the only mediator between Man and God. Our own religious leader of priest cannot save us. See example of Micah’s misplaced confidence in his own priest (Judges 17-18). In a holy building or city In the time of Jeremiah, the Jews put their confidence in Jerusalem believing that since they were living in a Holy City, no ill would befall them. They were wrong: invaders came and conquered the city. We should not put our trust in holy places or buildings. In parents, relations, ceremony or community. Faith can never be second-hand or appropriated from others. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God”.John 1.13

6. True Faith St. Paul, the Apostle, said the following in his epistles (letters). • “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” • “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.” • “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” True faith is faith in Jesus Christ and his death for us on the cross as the only and all-sufficient grounds of our forgiveness and justification. The Christian life is lived by faith in him and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

7. Coming to Christ Miss Charlotte Elliott was visiting friends in London, and there met a Christian minister. The minister said he hoped that she was a Christian. She took offense at this, and replied that she would rather not discuss that question. The minister said that he was sorry if had offended her, but that he always liked to speak a word for his Master, and that he hoped that she would some day become a worker for Christ. When they met again 3 weeks later, Miss Elliott told the minister that ever since he had spoken to her she had been trying to find her Saviour, and that she now wished him to tell her how to come to Christ. “Just come to him as you are,” the minister said. This she did, and went away rejoicing. Shortly afterward she wrote the hymn “ Just as I am…”

8. Charlotte Elliott’s Hymn – Just as I am Just as I am, without one plea,But that Thy (your) blood was shed for me,And that Thou (You) bidst (ask) me come to Thee (You),O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, and waiting notTo rid my soul of one dark blot,To Thee (You) whose blood can cleanse each spot,O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, though tossed aboutWith many a conflict, many a doubt,Fightings and fears within, without,O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;Sight, riches, healing of the mind,Yea (Yes), all I need in Thee (You) to find,O Lamb of God, I come, I come! Just as I am, Thou (You) wilt (will) receive,Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;Because Thy (your) promise I believe,O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, Thy (Your) love unknownHath broken every barrier down;Now, to be Thine (Yours), yea, Thine alone,O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Just as I am, of that free loveThe breadth, length, depth, and height to prove,Here for a season, then above,O Lamb of God, I come, I come. Words in brackets show the modern equivalent for the old-fashioned 2nd person singular form.