by Jacob Ninan
It is the expression of God's love for us that He has made a way of salvation for us at the cost of the death of His Son Jesus Christ. This salvation is not just about forgiveness of our sins, but also to restore us to an ongoing relationship and fellowship with Him. This will also result in our progressive transformation to His character. But due to the essential fallen condition of our old nature and the working of deceiving spirits, there are all kinds of errors in understanding that we may fall into, which can lead us in a wrong direction and hinder us from experiencing all that God has planned for us. Let us look at some of these wrong ideas.
The first message in this series was on "Nothing we need to do". The second message is called "We must have enough faith". Please go through the article in full in order to understand what I am trying to convey.
Many people seem to have a wrong idea about faith. We will all agree that faith is extremely important for us to understand because it is through faith that we can receive salvation. If we go wrong here, we can go wrong altogether!
A dictionary defines faith as a 'great trust or confidence in something or someone'. Heb.11:1, which many people consider as a definition of faith, says something very similar, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." We can immediately see that we must differentiate faith from wishing or hoping, because faith has an assurance or conviction about what we believe. This assurance in our mind concerning something is so strong that we are willing to take action based on it. For example, when we are convinced that an aircraft can take us safely through the air to our destination, we are willing to get into it. This 'faith' in aircraft comes because we have seen them fly, and we have confidence to believe that engineers have designed and built it according to the laws of aerodynamics.
Faith is not blind, in the sense of holding on to some idea even when we have good reason to doubt if what we believe is true. Faith is also not something we can forcefully convince ourselves in our mind even though the facts do not agree with it. Faith must be based on truth. We must not make ourselves believe that what we want to happen will happen. When we trust God, it is because we have come to know Him and begun to experience that He is trustworthy. It is based on this trust that we place confidence in what He has said. It is this knowledge of God that helps us to believe Him even when we do not or cannot understand all the details behind His words. Unbelievers may call this blind faith, but it it not, because our faith is based on knowing that God is Truth. We cannot have this level of confidence in people because they do not know everything, and even if they are sincere in what they say they can make mistakes.
Take a practical example of praying for healing. We have no doubt at all that God is able to heal miraculously even without using medical resources. But in most cases, we cannot be sure if He will do that. (I have written separately to show that the Bible does not guarantee healing in all cases. The doctrine of healing) It would be blind faith to convince ourselves and claim that He will heal us because it is not based on facts. Some people even claim they have been healed when it is plain to see that they are still sick! If God has assured us that He will heal us, we can state that as what we hope for, instead of claiming as faith that we are already well! Jesus asked a blind man if he could see, and the man's reply was that he could only see partially. By being honest about it, he was able to get full healing from Jesus subsequently. If he had followed the modern way of claiming things by faith, he would have answered yes, and he would have been left with only partial sight! We need to make this distinction if we are to know what real faith is.
Faith in God depends on how much we know God. We may first hear about God from other people, sermons or books. If we are curious about this God, we begin to read the Bible and learn more about Him. A point comes when we know about Him enough – what kind of a Person He is in terms of His power, knowledge and wisdom, how much He loves us and what He has done for us to save us from our sins – that we decide to commit our life to Him. Then we ourselves begin to experience His salvation and His fellowship more and more, and our faith in Him becomes stronger. Many kinds of questions may arise in our mind concerning different aspects of God, and we seek to find answers from teachers and apologists. Once we know Him like this, we find ourselves able to believe what He has said in His word and what He speaks to us personally even when they are beyond our natural understanding or experience. We begin to recognise His 'voice' in our hearts, even though it is not a physical voice, as He communicates to us as we read His living word and in the different situations of our life. We get to know personally how trustworthy He is and how reliable His word is.
As we get to know God more, another thing that happens is that we see ourselves more clearly in the way we stand before God. We lose our self-righteousness and boasting, and we recognise how we are totally dependent on His grace. At the same time we become more secure in knowing how He has washed us in the blood of Jesus and made us children of God. Promises of God become more and more meaningful and real to us (Jer.31:3;Heb.13:5;Jer.29:11;Rom.8:28). With the boldness that comes through this faith, we become willing to obey God in everything even at the cost of losing out with people and the situations of this world. By faith Abram left his parents and home town, going towards the place God had promised. He became willing to sacrifice his only son in order to obey God. The disciples of Jesus left all that they had and followed Him. Countless number of people have become willing to lay down their life in order to stand faithful to this Lord and Saviour.
The proof of our faith in God, what proves the genuineness of our faith, is obedience to God. This is what changes our life from seeking the sinful pleasures we used to pursue before we came to Him to start living for God and to fulfil His plans for our lives. In that way, becoming a Christian is not about changing a religion or changing external religious practices. True conversion is a supernatural work God does in our heart when we listen to the good news of Jesus and respond to Him through faith. And when we have seen the truth and found true life, our heart will see Jesus as more important to us than everyone and everything else (Matt.10:37-39).
But then, there are variations of faith that are being preached, and what many people assume as having faith may actually be a counterfeit. True Christianity is a real, personal relationship with Jesus as Saviour and Lord, and anything that comes in place of this is misleading. Let us look at some of these counterfeits.
"Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me" (Jn.14:1). Our faith is to be in God as a Person, which is seen as a trust, reliance, dependence and confidence in Him. From this comes our conviction and assurance about the things He has said or promised. Here is a major counterfeit of faith when people assume that faith is something that they have to produce in their mind by exerting themselves in various ways. We get the wrong idea that it is we who have to accomplish things by exercising our faith, instead of depending upon God and asking Him to take care of us and to do things for us. Then we try different methods to 'increase' our faith, such as reciting the promises of God, speaking out what we want to happen, refusing to consider questions, etc. But it is most crucial to remember that faith is to be in God.
One thing that has led people to this false understanding of faith is a misunderstanding of some words of Jesus. Let us look at some examples.
Jesus said, "It shall be done to you according to your faith." What Jesus is saying here is, "I will do for you what you asked Me." He was talking in a common, day-to-day language to ordinary people. But if someone takes it literally, it may appear that He is giving us a spiritual truth implying that what God does will be mathematically in proportion to the quantity of our faith. I have actually heard someone wrongly explaining this using the example of a blind man who was healed. He said that if the man had only half the faith that he actually had, only one eye would have been healed! That is ridiculous! What God does for us comes from His love and grace, and not tied to the 'quantity' of our faith. Faith cannot be measured in terms of quantity because it is not a material thing. One man taught this wrong thing by quoting the KJV saying, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for..." But the real meaning, in modern English, is, "Faith is the assurance..."
Another word that is misunderstood is, "Your faith has made you well." Think of it – who has made him/her well? Jesus! Jesus saw their faith and healed them. If Jesus was not there, could their faith have healed them? Does faith have power in itself that can make things happen? Even if people are not consciously thinking like this, an actual deviation occurs when someone focuses on having sufficient faith to achieve what they want, rather than meeting with Jesus and asking Him to do it for them.
What did Jesus really mean when He said, "Because of the littleness of your faith"? The immediate tendency is to imagine that we have to have more faith, and then try to work up that greater faith in our mind. The wrong assumption is that somehow we must develop sufficient faith in order to be able to meet different needs. Let us look at the context. When Jesus was on the mount of transfiguration, some disciples were at the foot of the hill. A man wanted them to cast out a demon from his son, but they could not. Later they asked Jesus why, and this was the reply He gave (Matt.17:19,20). From this phrase, people assume that results depend on the quantity of their faith. A similar concept is about going to a shop with a number of coupons in hand to claim some free gift.
This is a very common misunderstanding about faith. The difference between true and false faith may appear to be subtle, but once you see it, you will see that it is a very crucial difference. If you study the above words of Jesus, you can see that Jesus was actually trying to tell the disciples that what mattered was not quantity, because even faith with the size of a mustard seed would be enough! He was not saying that they needed a bigger quantity of faith.
Just think of it. If their faith was in Jesus, it would be clear to them that nothing was impossible for Him since He was almighty God Himself. Then they did not need to worry if some task would be too much for Him. On the contrary, if they imagined that it was the quantity of their faith that would decide whether something would happen or not, immediately it would throw open the door for all kinds of doubts. Even though they believed in Jesus in general, when it came into practice, their confidence was in the level of their faith.
How could this happen? These same disciples had earlier cast out demons when Jesus had sent them out among the people. But it may have been that this time, the demon in the boy had manifested itself in a violent behaviour, and the disciples got scared and wondered how they could deal with that. They would not have had this problem if they had the clear understanding that the power to cast out demons rested entirely with Jesus, and that they were only His agents whom He had authorised. Then their faith would have been in Him, and doubts would have disappeared! So, what Jesus meant was that they should have trusted Him more!
It is possible that New Age practices have influenced the church in a subtle way, and people have misinterpreted them with a Christian slant. If people think that they themselves are a part of God, and that by certain manipulations they can make things happen, they would not then need 'God'. They try crystals, arrangement of houses, incantations, etc., to accomplish healing, prosperity, etc. So, when Christians begin to use recitations, declaration of positive statements or promises of God, etc., they imagine that their 'faith' will obtain results! But this is really not faith in God but themselves! They think they have faith in God, which they have as acknowledging God, but when it comes to receiving what they want, they are expecting their faith to achieve it.
There is another major fact we need to understand about faith. "As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, 'Have mercy on us, Son of David!' When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus *said to them, 'Do you believe that I am able to do this?' They *said to Him, 'Yes, Lord.' Then He touched their eyes, saying, 'It shall be done to you according to your faith'" (Matt.9:27-29). Believing that God CAN do supernatural things is a minimum requirement in having faith in God (Heb.11:6). But this is not sufficient to classify as faith in God, which is to trust, have confidence in, rely and depend on, etc. Unfortunately, in this modern world there are many who claim to be Christians who do not even have this much of knowledge of God. When such people begin to believe that God is able to do things that are impossible for man, they may assume that now they have faith. No, not yet. It is only when their faith rises to the level of trusting in God and submitting to Him that they can say they have faith in God.
Many Christians wrongly assume that since God has done something for someone in the Bible or some others later, it is a guarantee that He will do it for them too. But many times they get disappointed, and some people even leave God altogether when that happens. This is because they have not factored in God's will into their equation. Just because He is able to do something, it does not follow automatically that He will (1Jn.5:14,15). What He actually does depends on His wisdom and understanding and what He considers to be the best under the circumstances. Therefore what He does for someone now may be different from what He did for another person in another place at another time. Paul's thorn in the flesh was not taken away even though he prayed three times for it. God explained to him that there was a purpose for it. A few others are mentioned in the New Testament who were not healed. Without realising this, when we try to force ourselves to believe that God is going to do for us what we want, that is not faith.
We can know the will of God only when He tells us, either in a clear promise in His word or directly to us in our heart (Rom.10:17). Since we may not know the will of God to start with, and we know that God is our loving Father, He has given us the freedom to ask whatever we want from Him (Matt.7:7.8).. But then we must end our prayer in ultimate submission to His will (Matt.26:39).
A very good example of faith is seen in the way Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to King Nebuchadnezzar when he threatened to throw them into fire for disobeying him. "Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego replied to the king, 'O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.'" (Dan.3:16-18). They believed that God was able to deliver them miraculously from the fire. But at that time they did not know whether He would. But their faith in God was so strong that they committed their lives to Him no matter what He chose to do. That is faith in God. They had that faith in God because they knew Him that well.
Let us remember, faith is not something we have to produce by our efforts, but our confidence in God because we have come to know Him.