Lord, Increase Our Faith!

Increase Our Faith

Luke 17:5-10

Increase Our Faith.” This has been the request of countless Christians over the ages. How we all would like more faith. We are like the man with the possessed son when confronted by Jesus to believe answered, “I believe; help my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24) This brings up the questions “What is faith” and “What does increased faith look like? To answer these questions let us turn to Luke 17:5-10.

The first thing we need to examine is whether there is any link between the passage and the one which precedes it in Luke 17:1-4. There is no marked connection. It does not say something like “When the disciples heard this, they asked ‘Increase our faith.’” Neither is there a marked disconnection such as “One day the disciples asked Him.” So we have to make some sort of decision here. If the request for increased faith has a connection to forgiving one who trespasses against him seven times or if it has something to do with believing that the Lord has forgiven them for their trespasses, then this indicates just how much faith it really takes to both accept forgiveness or to forgive others. Forgiving and forgiveness are connected. It is really hard to forgive others their trespasses. since the Lord says here “seven times” which is a perfect number indicating that we are to forgive as many times as the trespasser repents.

so even if these two passages are separated in time, there is still a logical connection. Belief is hard when it comes to spiritual matters. The whole idea of forgiveness is so contrary to worldly expectations. This is demonstrated by the elaborate rituals and blood sacrifices the guilty resort to, in addition to self-flagellation and other personally destructive habits. It seems wrong that forgiveness is as easy as turning to the Lord and repenting. Even more so is to forgive those who continuously trample our boundaries. It is hard to forgive such trespass even once, but how hard it is to forgive when they make a habit of it. We know that we habitually trespass against God. We know Jesus uses this as the basis for forgiving others. the saying is so easy to understand but so hard to put into practice. Increase Our faith!

Jesus tells us if we just had the faith the size of a mustard seed that we can tell a sycamine (or mulberry) tree to uproot and be planted in the sea that it would have to obey. Such little faith. but, alas, we don’t even have this much. “Lord, increase our faith.”

There are many people today who traffic in faith. We have “faith-healers.” some of these make large sums of money trafficking faith. If the people aren’t healed, it is their own fault. the trafficker in faith is not to blame. Many have spent themselves into the poorhouse only to be broken even worse spiritually than whatever malady they suffered from. This is not to say the Lord cannot or will not heal someone. But we must see this as something that comes from God. Not everyone is healed in this life. But if we are not healed in this life, we shall be in the life to come. “Lord, increase our faith.” Lord, increase our faith that when it is not your will to heal in this life that we are still yours and will someday be healed.” Lord, if we have brought these ills upon us because we have not properly cared for ourselves or have trespassed, then forgive us and increase our faith that we know we have been forgiven.”

When we come to Luke 17:7, we are presented with another question of context. In verses 6 and seven, Jesus responds to the request to increase the faith of the disciples. But here, Jesus begins to talk about being a servant of Jesus. does the request to increase faith have a connection to this? To make the link here, we should think about faithfulness as compared to faith itself. the idea is that increased faith is demonstrated by faithful service. We who are of the Protestant Reformed tradition emphasize that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ plus nothing. We emphatically deny that we are in any way saved by our works. It is, indeed, true that we are saved entirely by grace apart from the works of the Law. But James also reminds us that faith without works is a dead faith (James 2:14-17). It is right that our salvation is initiated by grace through faith alone. But the Bible also talks about growing in faith also. (For example: 2 Peter 1:5) In other words, we are called to increase our faith.

There are several ways to add to one’s faith. Theologians describe these as “means of grace.” Such means include a regular life or prayer, study of the Scripture, attending worship, and partaking in the Lord’s Supper. But here, Jesus shows us how this increased faith is demonstrated.