Alba 4-23-2023
THERE IS ONE FAITH
Ephesians 4:5
Some years ago in the cartoon “The Family Circus” two
children had found their Easter baskets and are enjoying them. One asked, “Who colored all these eggs?” to which his sister replied, “The Easter bunny.”
“Who gave us the jelly beans?” “The Easter bunny”
“And the chocolate rabbit?” “The Easter bunny.”
Obviously there was nothing beyond the reach of the Easter bunny.
The family attended Easter services and heard the preacher say, “They came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled back. Who could have done this?” To which the little boy jumped up in the pew and said, “The Easter bunny!”
It is a sad commentary on our culture that too many children, and even many adults, have only a secular knowledge of what Christians celebrate on holidays (holy days) like Christmas and Easter. It raises the question: In what do we place our faith? The Easter bunny, or Jesus?
Ephesians 4:5 says that there is “One Faith”. But there seems to be more. If someone says, “Have faith.” We need to ask, “Have faith in what?” We operate on faith every day. Just not always in God.
For example, you go to a doctor whose name you do not know or cannot pronounce. Whose degree in medicine you have never seen. He gives you a prescription you cannot read.
You take it to a pharmacist you have never seen before. He gives you medicine you do not understand. You go home and take the medicine by his instructions. You do that by faith.
We all have it. Some more than others.
Some deny they have any at all. But even the atheists have faith. They believe in themselves. They believe there is no higher power called God. They believe that a world of chaos just happened to produce perfection that fell in place and created a world that man controls. They just don’t like the word faith.
Every day everyone exercises faith. That our car will start. That every box, bag or can of food is safe for us to eat. Faith is a daily necessity whether one is getting married, taking a job, struggling with an illness, or overcoming a handicap.
Have you noticed that around Christmas time there are movies that tell us that we need to “Believe, believe, believe” or else the Christmas magic will disappear.
We are never told explicitly what we are to believe, but we better believe or else. It is sort of a belief in believing. Or a faith in faith.
But faith in faith is actually faith in ourselves, faith in our own expectations, thinking positive thoughts. It would be wise to ask, “On what basis are we thinking positive?”
You see, faith itself has no power. It is really not faith that moves mountains, it is God. There is a big difference between having faith in faith, and faith in God.
For example, we need to have faith when we pray, but the crucial thing is not our faith, but the object of our faith. We have a God who is able to hear and answer prayer. Our faith is in Him, and not ourselves. If we pray in faith, we are believing that God will act.
But someone has suggested that we live in a culture you could describe as a “menu age”. In other words, we want to have a choice in everything we do.
We take the drive-through at a fast food restaurant and are asked, “May I take your order? What would you like?” And we say, “Wait a minute, let me look at the menu.”
After doing so, we make our choices. People do the same thing with faith. They choose what they want to believe, and leave out anything that doesn't agree with their choices.
They will make claims like, “My faith is personal. My faith is what I believe. Faith is different for each one of us.”
The problem with this is that there can be tragic consequences when one's faith is in the wrong thing.
For example, we hear about all of the of drugs being smuggled, coming through our open southern border. Because of that there have been far too many deaths of so many young people who took a pill that they believed would be harmless, but actually contained enough fentanyl to kill them.
But the Bible shows us an authentic faith. The one faith which saves a soul, changes a life, connects us to God through Jesus, and motivates us to service for Him. This is authentic faith.
And this one authentic faith is essential, necessary, and of utmost importance. We understand what essential means. We know that air, food, and water are essential for life. Exercise and good nutrition are essential for good health. Gas (and now electricity) is essential for a vehicle to continue working.
In the same way, an authentic, one true faith is essential for us to be spiritually healthy. Anything less than that will be dangerous for us now and in eternity.
So how do we get a faith that is an authentic faith? We do not manufacture faith. We are not born with faith. Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
Faith is a response to the Word of God that is proclaimed and heard. So what kind of faith does it produce? Hebrews 11:1 gives us a description of faith. It says, “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (NKJV)
Looking at other versions gives us a fuller meaning of this verse. The NIV has it, “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
The New Living Translation says, “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.”
The New American Standard Bible says, “faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen.”
And the Contemporary English Version says, “Faith makes us sure of what we hope for and gives us proof of what we cannot see.”
Faith, then, is the substance, the confidence, the reality, the certainty, the very thing that makes us sure of what we hope for.
There are people who say that they will not believe something unless they can see it. They want some evidence. They accuse God of wanting us to take a blind leap of faith to follow Him. That would be the furthest thing from the truth. Faith is a “trust” built upon sufficient evidence.
When Thomas doubted Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus allowed him and the others to examine His wounds from the cross. Thomas saw, and he believed. Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
We have the evidence of eye witnesses to give us more than enough reason to trust in God’s Word. And because of the sufficiency of the evidence, that should lead us to doing what God says. Many people leave the “doing what God tells us to do” out of their definition of faith.
When people asked Jesus in John 6:28-29, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
Did you hear what He is saying? “What should you do? Let me tell you what you should do! Believe in the one God has sent!” Think about it. Jesus is saying if you want to do what God wants you to do, “Have faith in me!”
Why is it so important to believe in Jesus? The answer is in John 3:16. But to get the full impact of that verse, let's read verses 15 through 18. It says...
“That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
And in John 8:24 Jesus says, “If you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” And in John 11:25-26 Jesus promises, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”
And in John 20:30-31 John tells us why he wrote his gospel saying, “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
All of these statements are recorded by apostle John in his gospel. He made sure that we would know these things, because faith in Jesus is of supreme importance. It is that “one faith” that is above all others.
John was writing about something he knew to be true. He’d been with Jesus. Listened to Him teach. Watched Him perform miracles and heal the sick. And, he’d watched Him die, then saw Him come back from the grave.
John is declaring to us: Have faith in the risen Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ! You cannot be a Christian if you do not believe that God not only exists but that He sent His only begotten Son to die for your sins.
One minister told how some years ago he was talking with people from a particular church because they needed a minister. He really liked their church, they seemed like great people.
After awhile he noticed – Jesus didn’t seem to have anything to do with this church. He pointed this out – thinking that maybe he missed something.
He said, “Oh! their response!” They pointed out that there was this “Other” church in town. And they said, “Jesus this, Jesus that – Why does it always have to be about Jesus?”
He thought, “Thanks, but no thanks.” That was the end of the conversation. He said, “Loony Toon People. It is Christianity after all. I don’t think they got it.”
There is One Faith. How can people miss it, especially when they call themselves a church that is supposed to be built on a faith in Jesus.
So what does it mean to put our faith in Jesus? It is faith that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, who lived a sinless life, who died on the cross, and came out of the tomb alive on that Resurrection morning.
It is faith that He is seated at the right hand of the Father, and that’s He coming back one day to take us home to heaven.
If you don’t believe that – you will die in your sins. That’s what Jesus said. Faith is essential if you’re going to be a Christian. There is one faith, not two, three or four. The faith we have in Jesus gives us confidence for what we hope. It is what makes us who we are.
One may grow up in church, or read the Bible and mentally accept the fact that God probably exists. One may have even weighed the evidence back and forth and come to the conclusion that –sure- Jesus is the Son of God… but that doesn’t mean he has saving faith.
Biblical faith is more than giving mental agreement to some facts! James 2:19 says, “Even the demons believe and tremble!” They know without a doubt that God exists!
But that doesn’t mean that they have authentic faith! Mentally agreeing to the fact that God and Jesus exist is not enough. Real faith calls us to do something about it!
That’s why James could say that “faith without works is dead” (2:17) because faith without ‘doing’ really isn’t faith at all! Once we believe what the Bible teaches about Jesus we must act on that faith in Jesus. Again, what are we called to do?
This one biblical, authentic faith will cause us to confess Jesus with our mouth. It will lead us to repent of our sins. And we will submit ourselves to be immersed into Jesus and follow His will and His way.
So often we will hear statements to the effect that it doesn’t matter which religion you follow, that they all will take you to heaven.
If that is true then the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the teachings of the Word of God mean very little, if one way is as good as another.
This idea may sound good, and it is very popular. Yet as nice as it sounds, it is nothing more than a bold-faced lie of Satan to deceive the world into thinking they are fine, while in fact leading them to an eternity in hell.
It does matter what we believe. There is only one faith that saves. There is only one faith that bridges the gap between us and God. There is only one faith that makes it possible for us to be forgiven.
It is faith in the one and only, the only begotten Son of God. He alone is Way and the Truth and the Life.
CLOSE:
In April 1988 the evening news reported on a photographer who was a skydiver. He had jumped from a plane along with numerous other skydivers and filmed the group as they fell and opened their parachutes.
On the film shown on the telecast, as the final skydiver opened his chute, the picture went berserk. The announcer reported that the cameraman had fallen to his death, having jumped out of the plane without his parachute.
It wasn’t until he reached for the absent ripcord that he realized he was free-falling without a parachute. Until that point, the jump probably seemed exciting and fun. But tragically, he had acted with thoughtless haste and deadly foolishness.
Nothing could save him, for his faith was in a parachute never buckled on. Faith in anything but an all-sufficient God can be just as tragic spiritually. Only with faith in Jesus Christ dare we step into the dangerous excitement of life.
