Faith?

Why Faith?

Romans 1:13-19 for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in righteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; FOR GOD HATH SHOWED IT UNTO THEM..

When putting together the plan for our salvation, Why did God choose Faith as the necessary thing we must possess. He could have chosen many different things. But he chose faith. Over the years I’ve heard many people use the analogy of “baking a cake” to demonstrate how different things are assembled, and what ingredients are more important then others. Well at the risk of sounding redundant, I’m going to use it one more time. When assembling the ingredients to bake a cake it is important to know what is necessary, and what is not. For example, flour, yeast, sugar, eggs, milk, are all necessary. Things like cinnamon, chocolate, nuts, caramel, coconut, etc. are not. Once you assemble the necessary things, you can alter the taste, and texture of the cake with the unnecessary things. So in constructing this plan of salvation, we also have a number of ingredients. Some of these are necessary, and some are not. For example, the most important ingredients are obviously Grace, and forgiveness. This is what God puts into the mix. Now comes what we put in. Money, Fame, Power ????? No, you say “that doesn’t sound right“. Why doesn’t it? That’s the way the world works. OK, lets try some other things. How about:

ABSTINENCE for example.

Simply withdraw from the world. Withdraw from worldly things. Set yourself apart.

How about WORKS?

That would be simple. Just do A, B, and C, without messing up.

WHAT ABOUT INTELLECT. You know a good education, a high IQ.

How much better to understand the mysteries of God?

Well obviously you know where I’m going with this. So I’ll say it. HOW ABOUT FAITH!!!

Why did God choose Faith as the main ingredient that we must put in the mix?

The dictionary’s definition for Faith is: (To trust in somebody or something, ESPECIALLY WITHOUT LOGICAL PROOF.) This means then that God wanted us to practice trust in Him without logical proof. The old phrase you’ve heard many times “ Trust Me,” Comes to mind. But anyone who is street smart will tell you that anytime someone say’s "trust me“, you should run the other way. And I agree. Any time a person tells you to trust them, there should be a red flag go up. But when God says trust me it’s much different from man saying it.

So why then did God choose Faith?

I believe the answer to this question will explain a lot of other questions we have.

Let begin with INTELLECT. Why did’nt God chose intellect?

Biologist Richard Dawkins said in his book {The God delusion}, faith is a form of irrationality, what he terms a virus of the mind. Philosopher Daniel Dennett compares belief in God, to belief in the Easter bunny. Sam Harris, author of {The end of faith} professes amazement that hundreds of millions of people worldwide profess belief in God when there is no rational evidence. Biologist E. O. Wilson say’s there must be some evolutionary explanation for the universal pervasiveness of religious belief. Well there is an explanation. Rev. Ron Carlson in his writings offer us two groups of people for your examination.

One is the secular view which says: “You are the descendant of a tiny cell of primordial protoplasm washed up on an empty beach 3 ½ billion years ago. You are a mere grab bag of atomic particles, a conglomeration of genetic substance. You came from nothing and are going nowhere.”

The other is the Christian View. It says you are the special creation of a good and all-powerful God. You are the climax of His creation. Not only is your kind unique, but you are unique among your kind. Your Creator loves you so much and so intensely desires your companionship and affection that He gave the life of His only Begotten Son that you might spend eternity with Him.

What these men of Science don’t understand is that the believer looks around him and sees evidence. He sees proof. I can look out my living room window on a beautiful morning and see the divine hand of God in the sky, in the trees, literally everywhere. This is not understandable to the nonbeliever. God didn’t make salvation something that required a doctorate to grasp. In fact if you are a very intelligent person it can actually work against your believing. That is if you rely on you intellect alone. Intellect to an intelligent person is often like money to a wealthy man. Like Fame to a superstar. It is what sets theme apart from the masses. And the more they lean on it, the harder it becomes to turn loose and trust God. Just the way the rich young man felt when Jesus told him to sell all he had, give it to the poor, and follow him. The Bible said he went away sorrowful. It was to hard for him to let go of what he had come to lean on all his life.