True, biblical faith is a 3-part process. Last time, we discussed why we must have something to put our faith in. As Christians, our faith isn’t in a what but in a person – Jesus Christ. Yet believing He’s real isn’t enough – if we’re going to walk by faith, we have to know it’s worth it. That brings us to the next part of faith.
Misplaced faith
Some boast in chariots and some in horses, But we will boast in the name of the LORD, our God. (Psalm 20:7)
One of the greatest misunderstandings about faith is the importance of trusting in something that is proven to be reliable. We think that if we have faith in something, it will come through for us, while the Bible calls for us to put our faith in God because He’s reliable.
This difference is made so clear in the secular wisdom of “just believe in yourself.” We’re told that if we want to achieve something, we just need to trust in ourselves and we can do anything. But if we understand faith properly, we’ll see how quickly that logic unravels. Why would we put our trust in a creature who can’t even stick to a diet, maintain a budget, control our anger, or keep our eyes and minds away from lust? Having faith in ourselves is guaranteed to end in disappointment.
We also exercise this kind of faith when we sin. We desire comfort and happiness, so we put our faith in relationships, money, success, and pleasure from things like drinking or sex. Yet while those things may bring enjoyment for a time, they are just as weak and temporary as we are, and our lasting satisfaction will never be found in them.
An invitation to evaluate
This is why God spends the majority of the Old Testament revealing Himself to Israel, and why He’s given us the Bible to show Himself to us now. God has never demanded blind faith in Himself. Instead, God demonstrates Himself to the world in such a way that it seems completely illogical not to have faith in Him.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. (Romans 1:20)
God is often criticized for judging those who don’t deserve it, often because they don’t hear the gospel. Yet notice the breakdown of these verses. God’s judgment doesn’t rest on people because they never had a chance to live by faith. Rather, God points out that everyone can clearly see that God exists, yet they still choose to put their faith and satisfaction in lesser things.
O taste and see that the Lord is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! (Psalm 34:8)
If God truly exists, then what we know about Him is best understood through the Bible. As we look closely, we’ll notice that God is a personal God, caring deeply for His creation. Thus when we see things like Psalm 34:8, we now that the invitation to “taste and see” has a purpose. But what is that purpose?
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)
God has nothing to hide, and no tricks to play. If God is true, then what He says should stand up to honest examination. Thus God regularly invites Israel, and the world, to see if what God says is true. Because of what we’ll find, faith can only naturally follow.
And in contrast to what we find when we have faith in ourselves or idols, God proves Himself to be the only thing in the universe that cannot fail. We can trust His promise of salvation through Christ. We can trust in Christ’s power to not only save us from sin, but radically transform our lives. We can trust the Holy Spirit to accomplish that by making us more like Christ, and less like the world that hates God, every day.
Back to the chair
We began this series by using a chair as an example of how we demonstrate our faith. First, we have to accept that a chair is really there. In this article, we’ve discussed the importance of evaluating the chair to make sure it’s reliable. After all, no one is going to put their confidence in a chair that’s cobbled together with bubble gum and popsicle sticks.
At this point, we have to ask what it is we’re looking for when we examine God. If we’re doing so out of respect and humility, what criteria do we have that would allow us to trust in everything He says about how we are to live our lives?
God has shown Himself to people through His various aspects. Although a limitless God isn’t constrained to revealing Himself in a set number of ways, He does seem to bring us to faith through a few major aspects of His character. Let’s look at a few ways people are invited to examine God and know, with absolute certainty, that He deserves our faith.
Goodness and Love
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. (1 john 4:7-9)
In a world of evil and selfishness, we have a God who stands against it. Like a diamond shining brilliantly against a black background, God’s goodness and love are nearly blinding to those who see Him. Yet God isn’t just good and loving, but He is the standard that whole world uses to understand what goodness and love truly mean.
Holiness and Justice
Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For all the nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed (Revelation 15:4)
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10)
Yet God isn’t love in some pacifistic, grandfatherly sort of way. Despite loving His creation, His holiness demands that He also loves justice. If God is the true measure for what it means to be good and loving, then an honest evaluation of our lives reveals that we are nothing but evil, hateful creatures. The more we see the reality of our sin, the more we realize how traitorous we are to someone who is so pure.
Next to His holiness, we are the greatest criminals in the universe. And as a good and fair judge, our sinful acts must necessarily, and rightly, be punished. God isn’t mean or unfair for doing so any more than an earthly judge could be considered mean for ordering the execution of a mass-murderer. Yet even our understanding of the worst criminal that has existed can’t compared to how wicked we are before the God of the universe.
Grace and Mercy
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. (John 3:16-19)
Every attribute of God was displayed on the cross. God’s justice demands punishment for our crimes against His holiness, yet there’s no way any amount of good deeds we do could satisfy God’s requirements. Even the good we think we do is often motivated by selfishness, meaning that we stand before God with an impossible amount of sin on our record.
Thus, God Himself came to Earth, living a perfect and sinless life. Jesus Christ willingly suffered humiliation, mockery, beatings, torture, and death at the hands of the very people He created. At the cross, God treated Christ as though He was guilty of every single one of our sins. Every bit of lust, anger, jealousy, laziness, and pride we will ever commit was punished at the cross, with God pouring out His wrath on the only person in the universe who didn’t deserve it.
Yet because Christ took the punishment He didn’t deserve, He offers us innocence we don’t deserve. By repenting of sin and asking Jesus Christ to save us, He offers us His righteousness. In other words, just as God looked at Christ as though He’d committed a million lifetimes of sin, God can now look at us as though we’d lived the perfect and obedient life of Jesus Christ.
Grace means God giving us something we don’t deserve. Mercy means not giving us what we do deserve. Both of these are displayed in their full majesty through the saving work of Jesus Christ.
We see, we believe… now what?
We can look around the world and see that God is real. We can evaluate the things He says about who He is, and who we are, and see that it’s trustworthy. We know that nothing else in the universe can satisfy us like Jesus Christ, and faith in Him is the only thing that makes sense.
Yet our faith doesn’t stop there. Our head and heart may believe it, but true faith has one more vital component, and without all three we can never say we’re living by faith. In Part 4, we’ll discuss what we do once we see and believe that God is worthy of our faith and satisfaction.
This article is part of the series “65 Theology Questions People Will Ask You.” Click the link to read more articles like this one!
Read Blibical Faith article. AWESOME.