What is Faith?
Romans 1:8-17
Reading: Hebrews 11:1-6
Few words in scripture relate to our eternal destiny like the word: faith. Love, hope, repentance, obedience, confession, all are interconnected and related to the principle of this one expression: faith.
Faith is a central word throughout the gospels, and, indeed, in all of the NT.
In fact, Jesus’ favorite expression to those he healed is: Your faith has healed you... to those he forgave he would say, “Your faith has saved you.” To the disciples in times of crisis Jesus would say, “O you of little faith.” To the disciples Jesus spoke concerning their astonishment at the miraculous powers he worked, “If you had faith the size of a grain of mustard seed you could say
to this tree, be uprooted and cast into the sea and it would obey you.” To a centurion who trusted that Jesus could merely say the word and his servant would be healed, Jesus said, “I have not found such great faith in all Israel.” To a woman who refused to stop begging for her child’s healing even after being insulted, Jesus said, “Woman you have great faith, may it be done as you believed.”
Faith is so central to the gospel message we need to understand it. Last week we talked about the obedience of faith. This week it seems appropriate to talk about faith itself. So what is faith?
Faith… Is it physical or spiritual? Well, actually, it is both. Because it is spiritual, faith is a work of God. It is produced by God in those who hear the word of God with the right attitude and right heart toward God. On the other hand it is physical, that is, it happens in real time and space in real people, and is measured in what it does. Biblical Christian faith looks like something. Weak faith looks like something. Strong faith looks like something. Faith links together the spiritual and physical worlds.
Faith is more than belief. It is more than obedience. Faith is substance. Faith is evidence. Faith is like a plant that grows up in those who’s hearts are honest after the seed of the Word has been sown in them. The Hebrew writer says: “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” Heb. 11:6
So central to our salvation is this thing called faith, that when Paul describes how the righteousness from God comes to us, he says in Romans 1:17
Faith is not just WHAT you do; it is perhaps primarily WHY you do it too. Later, listen to this as Paul is trying to explain what happened to Israel, turn to Romans 9:30-10:4.
As we look at faith today and how God’s righteousness comes to us by faith, we will notice several steps that are involved in this saving faith.
First we are awakened to the reality of God. God is. And God is the source of everything else that is. Faith accepts this as true. Not only do we accept the reality of God but we recognize his power and authority and the nature of holiness. So far so good. We are here and everything else is here because God created and sustains us.
But then we learn that something is terribly wrong. Because, although God is holy, we are not. God is absolutely good. We aren’t. In fact, we are enemies of God by nature. We are powerless and hopeless with out him. We have offended him and we are deserving of his condemnation. The first man sinned and it has spread to us all, because all sin. Faith agrees with God on this. On the other hand… Unbelief denies that we are really that bad. Unbelief produces in us the motivation to be good enough ourselves. That is not faith! Faith accepts the truth of sin and the consequences that God says we all deserve. Unbelief resists the word of God on this and rejects the condemnation of God.
This is where many people reject God and seek to establish their own righteousness. We may hear someone say, “I mean, sure, I’ve done a few things I’m not proud of, but basically I’m a good person.” God says that basically you are not a good person and in fact you are fatally flawed because of sin. This past election we heard proclaimed to us over and over and over how great the American people are and how we as Americans can do anything we set our minds to! We are the greatest! We have the greatest workers! We have the greatest army! Great, great, great! We are great! Praise America! Cudo’s to the USA!
Imagine a politician proclaiming the truth. Imagine one declaring that we are all fallen sinful selfish human beings. Americans have become a rich spoiled bunch of whiners who have no clue what the word “enough” means. When Phil Gramm had the audacity to actually say that Americans are whiners… Oh my! It wasn’t long before he was resigning as economic advisor for McCain.
What does God’s word call us? Notice, God is not running for office. Faith agrees with God, unbelief seeks to “do it myself!”
Let me read you something and see if you recognize where it came from:
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It is the duty of nations as well as of men to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.
These words are selected from Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving address.
Here we see a sharp contrast drawn between us and God. We like to think of ourselves as a lot more like God is than we really are.
The truth of the gospel attacks our pride and our self centeredness. We like to think in terms of what we can accomplish but God says, all our righteousness is as filthy rags.
Sin blinds us into thinking that it is not really that serious.
In fact sin would make us believe that the problem isn’t really ours. The fault lies elsewhere! A selfish, independent and rebellious heart can not accept the truth of its own sinfulness and responsibility. It feeds on unbelief and recoils from biblical faith.
We end up pointing an accusing finger at the one who exposes our problem.
Remember Adam in the Garden? God asks a couple of questions and Adam starts pointing the finger of blame. He says, “The woman you gave me!! It’s not my fault it’s her fault and your fault.”
Rejecting our condition of sin, or making light of it is basically rejecting God. Faith on the other hand agrees with God and accepts the conviction of sin as seriously as God says it is.
Romans 3:9-18
Third, Faith accepts that we are powerless with out God. We can’t help ourselves.
Like the song: Without him...
Accepting our condition is the beginning of our healing.
AA has discovered this. Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol that our lives had become unmanageable.
Jesus in Jn 8:31-36
Faith embraces the truth of our condition and accepts that we can not redeem ourselves.
Religious unbelief tries to make things right with God by our own strength. Like the child who wants to tie his own shoes. Me do it self! Faith agrees with God that we are both sinful and powerless to redeem ourselves. We are enslaved to sin. But faith doesn’t stop here.
Fourth, faith moves us to accept God’s answer to the problem. Not law, not righteousness that we do in and of ourselves. This is called self righteousness and it is as dangerous as open rebellion. Perhaps more so, because it is clothed in religious sights and sounds even while being powerless to deliver. Biblical saving faith is not about doing it ourselves but about accepting God’s power to do it in us. We simply embrace what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Gal. 3:22-29 describes this beautifully!
What is this faith that has come? It centers on the historical reality and the spiritual accomplishment of Jesus’ death on the cross, burial and resurrection! It is not something we have done. It is something He has done! Faith connects us to what Jesus has done and through it God works in us to make us into His likeness.
What then is the obedience that comes from faith?
Repentance is faith in God’s judgment against sin.
Confession is faith in the Lordship of Jesus as God’s Son.
Baptism is faith in Jesus death, burial and resurrection that accomplished our salvation.
Walking in the light is faith in God’s revealed will and cooperation with the indwelling Spirit of Christ.
