Imagine riding with a friend in his fully-loaded eighteen-wheeler truck as he approaches a bridge with a clearly marked sign bearing the warning, "Bridge weight limit: 3000 pounds". Seeing this, he says to you, "No problem, I have faith in this bridge." It would be sensible for you at that point to say, quickly and emphatically, "Fine for you, but stop right now and let me out!
Or, to put it another way, imagine another friend (the other one is still recovering from his injuries in the truck crash) who arrives safely at your house after driving his four-wheel drive SUV through a snowstorm, and states with obvious relief, "My faith got me through that one."
These may be silly examples, but the attitude that many people have expressed toward the concept of faith is not a light-hearted matter; at least it shouldn't be to anyone who understands what the Bible is saying about faith. To sum up the problem: Treating faith as a substitute for the object of that faith is to confuse the subjective experience of confidence with the objective evidence for putting confidence in an object of faith.
What does it matter if I have complete and unquestioning faith in an object (a person, a thing, and idea, etc.), if this object is insufficient to "hold me up", i.e., actually deliver on the promised outcome (especially if the "promise" is little more than an expression of my own wishes)? I can have a fanatic's faith in Santa Clause, but I'll still be losing a lot of sleep watching over my empty chimney.
Likewise, how much good will it do me to "trust" a real person for an outcome he never promised or committed his word to? My faith will simply set me up for disappointment and resentment when the hoped-for result doesn't happen. Many people have faith in God to do things the Bible doesn't promise, such as healing a loved one each and every time they pray, or getting just the job they felt they were perfect for.
And when I get through a crisis "by my faith", am I attributing my emotional survival to the feeling of peace I got by "just believing", or am I giving praise to God who delivered me? It should be obvious in today's world that many people other than devout Christians have great faith in the teachings and promises of their respective religions. And many seem to believe that God will one day respect all these various "faiths", granting admission to the afterlife on the basis of their sincerity.
Faith is simply my way of reaching out an empty hand to receive what God has, in His grace, promised to give those who come to Him in simple and surrendered faith. My faith is nothing more than an act of obedient acceptance of the promises of God, as prompted by the evidence of His trustworthiness and love for those to whom He has made such great promises.
When my children were very young, I would let them stand on something like a bed, a dresser or maybe the edge of a pool, and then say to them, "Jump to me". Their faith was active the instant their feet left the place they were standing; but it wasn't their faith that caught them and held them up, it was the one they had put their faith in. The evidence for their faith was what they knew about their father, his strength and ability to catch them, and, most of all, his love for them that would guarantee a safe landing.
Faith that is not confidence in the objective, Christ-centerd promises of a powerful and good Savior-God isn't really faith at all. It's just whistling in the dark. My faith is only as valid as the reason I have for trusting in the Object of my faith. And considering all the promises I read in the Bible, and all the evidence I have for trusting that Bible's promises, faith is truly, "The substance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)
No comments:
Post a Comment