From Faith to Faith

Faith 18

          Paul’s great theme in his greatest book is how to be freed from sin (Romans 6.7). We all of us have loads of it (Romans 3.10, 23). How are we freed from that sin? How do we become righteous? Via belief. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10.9-10).

          Romans is not, however, only occupied with the idea of what saves or rescues us from the penalty of our sin – hell – and takes us to Heaven. It is also occupied with what enables us to live above sin in this life right now. It is just as much occupied with freeing us from the doing of sin as it is freeing us from the consequences of the doing of sin. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life (Romans 6.22).

          Succinctly summarized, Paul says, “If you aren’t saved, get saved. If you are saved, get holy.” And in either case the means/method is the same: faith. We are spiritually birthed by faith; we continue on in that new life by faith. We live by faith.

          Paul himself summarized more elegantly than I when he penned Romans 1.16-17. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. It is the gospel, Christ displayed triumphant in His death, burial, and resurrection. That gospel is the power of God unto salvation, the only cure that can overpower sin. That gospel is available to every one that believeth, the means of applying the cure. Therein – in the gospel – is the righteousness of God revealed. How so? God’s righteousness is revealed in Jesus’ holiness and God’s wrath, and it is revealed more directly in my life as the means of my becoming righteous and obtaining righteousness. The means of this two-fold righteousness being applied to my life is faith. It is from faith – we are saved by faith – to faith – living a life of dependence upon the Lord as we grow in likeness to Christ. Ergo, the just shall live by faith. We become alive by faith and we become like Christ by faith.

          It can be accurately said that faith in Christ brings us two things. First, it brings us salvation and, second, it brings us holiness. Initially, we are saved from hell and granted a positional righteousness. Immediately following, we are freed from the dominion of sin in our lives, and gradually we grow in practical righteousness.

          We see, then, an unvarnished truth. The Christian life that must be birthed by faith can also only be well lived by faith. I do not begin in faith and continue in works. Does the Christian life contain good works? Yea, verily, in numberless multiplicity. But they are not done in order to obtain salvation for we already have that salvation. Nor are they done in order to obtain holiness. Good works are a necessary ingredient in a holy life, but those good works must be done while relying upon the Lord. We cannot do them in our own strength. We must depend upon Christ just as much in the doing of our good works, in living out a sanctified life as we did to enter into that life via the new birth to begin with.

          Thus it is we see the magnificent clarity of Paul’s phrasing in Romans 1.17. Those who are justified must live by faith. We must live from faith to faith, faith to get saved, faith to live out the fullness of that salvation.

          For many years, our fireplace in the home in which I grew up was graced by two cane-bottomed chairs. More decorative than functional, nevertheless, they occasionally were pressed into service when hospitality demanded it via a plethora of guests. I sat in them a time or two as a young man, but I would never sit in them now. Why? Because I stepped on the scale this morning and I know better. I will put no weight in them for I do not believe they will hold me up.

          I have given you several definitions for faith in this blog series and we have now stumbled across yet another one. Faith is putting all your weight on something. If you came across me in a grocery store aisle and I was on crutches you would assume something had happened to my legs. Why else would I need some help to support me? Yet if I stood there on my crutches and blithely assured you there was nothing wrong with my legs you would be rightly suspicious. Just so, I am rightly suspicious when a Catholic theologian tells me he is really trusting in Christ alone for salvation. If that is the case, why all the massive institutional demand that people place themselves on the crutches of good works? No, beloved, if you are trusting in Christ alone for salvation all of your weight has to be placed just in Him. You cannot trust Christ and trust your church, your priest, your pastor, or your own good works in order to obtain justification at the very same time. It is only faith and faith in Christ only that accesses the grace of God to save us.

          In the chair illustration we thus see faith for salvation. Let me offer you a second illustration to picture the faith necessary for sanctification. Years ago, in some sermon or other, I heard a preacher waxing eloquent about his mistaken efforts to become like Christ. He pictured himself as an artist whose desperate brush strokes entirely failed at painting the image of Christ onto his life. It dawned on him one day that his mental image was mistaken. He was not the artist; he was the canvas. The Holy Spirit was the artist, and it was His job to paint the picture of Christ on the canvas of his life.

That preacher’s illustration, well helpful, was incomplete. In and of itself, it can lead to quietism and passivity when the truth is God repeatedly calls us to fight, to labor, to work. I do think he was right though that you and I are not the artist. That is most definitely the Holy Spirit. But we are more than just the canvas; we are also the brush. Having been freed from sin, we are now free to choose to whom we will yield the control of that brush – to sin or to righteousness, to God or the devil, to the lust of the Spirit or the lust of the flesh. The brush cannot paint the image of Christ on the canvas of our lives in and of itself. It must yield itself in entire dependence on the Spirit to paint what and when and how He will. And when you and I yield ourselves in dependence upon God He uses us to write His will into our hearts and lives.

Romans 6. 16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

19  I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

21  What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

22  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Young Painter at His Easel
by Theodore Gericault, c 1820

          In either case – salvation or sanctification – it is by faith. It is from faith to faith. It is being birthed into the Christian life by faith; it is continuing to live out the day to day Christian life of holiness by faith. It is living by faith.

          Have you begun in faith yet? I trust the answer is yes, that you have placed your faith alone in Christ to save you from your sin. Then continue on in faith. Yield yourself to the Lord and let Him do His will through you. Rely upon Him in faith to help you to tell the truth, to live a life of purity, to put down the bottle, to love your wife like Christ loves the church, to give to missions, and to do a thousand other things. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me (Galatians 2.20).

          Live by faith. Live from faith to faith.

What I Want for My Children

Faith 17

 

Mother and Child
by Gladiola Sotomayor

         At first glance, this title may seem an odd choice as part of a series on faith. But as you will see in a moment, there is a valid tie-in. At the same time, I think this will be a practical/philosophical help to parents of young children. Let us press forward then.

          I Timothy is a book written to pastors. In it, Paul tells Timothy what a pastor ought to do/not do, be/not be, and what a pastor ought to emphasize in his ministry. Paul also gives him instruction regarding different groups of people in the church. In chapter two, Paul does this in relation to women in the church. In verse eight he speaks of the importance of modesty and a certain deferential femininity. In verse nine Paul emphasizes that women ought to be busy serving others. In verse ten, however, he minimizes that service in the area of the church, specifically in the preaching arena. He proceeds in verses thirteen and fourteen to furnish the reason for this proscription, namely that women are more prone to be spiritually deceived while men are more prone to be spiritually rebellious. All of which brings me to the verse I want to emphasize in this post, I Timothy 2.15: Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. In essence, Paul is telling Timothy that a woman should not focus on leading the church. She should focus on her home, and specifically on her children. I believe the companion passage in Titus 2.3-5 bears out that point of emphasis.

          My purpose in this blog post, though, is not to write about a woman’s place in the home. I want, instead, to focus on the specifics of I Timothy 2.15. In it, Paul is telling Timothy that a woman’s life will have the most meaning and accomplishment if her children grow up to love and serve the Lord. More precisely, Paul is telling a mother what to want for her children.

          It never ceases to amaze me what people want for their children. Naturally, they desire for their children more than they had, but often if not almost those desires are unscriptural at best and dangerous at worst. A book on Amazon entitled “What Do You Really Want for Your Children?” by Wayne Dyer has 79 reviews and a 4.7 rating out of a potential five. Going solely by his chapter titles, Wayne thinks you ought to want your children to value themselves, to be risk-takers, to be self-reliant, to be free from anxiety, to have peaceful lives, to celebrate present moments, to be physically well, to be creative, and to feel a sense of purpose. Many of these sound noble but Dr. Dyer has missed the point by a wide margin. God reveals something simple and higher for us in the Word of God. We should want them to continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

          The first thing we ought to want for our children is faith. What is faith? It is seeing with your heart. It is not that I want my children to be illogical. It is rather that when my children are forced to choose between what God says and what the logical evidence of their senses show them I want them to choose what God says. I want them to walk by faith and belief in Him, not by sight. Faith is also stepping out on the belief. Faith and doubt are usually mixed together. Rarely is faith present without some doubt being present as well. But the person of faith, while doubting, still steps out on the belief. I want my children to act on their faith in God. I want them to step out and live a life that takes God at His Word.

          The second thing we ought to desire for our children is charity. It is to live a life of love. What do I want them to love? Whatever God tells them they ought to love – God Himself, their neighbor, the Word of God, the lost souls of men, one another, their husband/wife, and their own children. All of these are specifically commanded or at least strongly implied and exemplified in the Scripture.

          The third thing we should want for our children is holiness. What is holiness? I answer this in detail in my book, “Freed From Sin,” but simply put, holiness is being like God. It is having God’s moral character of purity. Holiness is yielding yourself to God rather than yielding to your own fleshly desires. Holiness is walking in the Spirit. Holiness is obeying God from the heart. Holiness is being a partaker of the divine nature, not becoming god but becoming like God. In short, we ought to long for our children to grow up to be like Jesus.

          The fourth thing we should desire for our children is sobriety. As I understand that term in context it means to be serious about life. This does not mean my children cannot laugh, that they must slowly toil, grim-faced, until death closes their eyes in a final rest. No, it means that they ought to live a serious life, carefully, with a purpose, undertaking their responsibilities in a serious, mature manner.

          Having briefly examined these instructions found in the epistle, I come to one final thought. It is not enough for us to wait until our children grow up to expect them to love and serve God. If they are to continue in these spiritual graces when they are older we must begin with them now, at whatever age they may be. Now is when they are moldable. Now is when our influence will have the greatest impact, not in five or ten years, but now.

I do not know who wrote this piece, but it does summarize the urgency involved in such parental tasks:

I took a piece of plastic clay

And idly fashioned it one day,

And as my fingers pressed it still,

It moved and yielded to my will.

I came again when days were past–

The bit of clay was hard at last;

The form I gave it, it still bore,

But I could change that form no more.

I took a piece of living clay

And gently formed it day by day,

And molded with my power and art

A young child’s soft and yielding heart.

Breaking Home Ties
by Norman Rockewell

I came again when years were gone–

It was a man I looked upon;

He still that early impress wore,

And I could change him nevermore.

          My eldest son finished high school this year. He set about the task of assembling his life. What will it look like, I wonder? I know not, but I do know what I want for him – faith, charity, holiness, and sobriety. And if that is what we want in our children, beloved, we must set about instilling it early and often.

          There is not greater task. There is no harder job you will ever love so much. Let it be done according to the Word of God, and may He bless it by forming our children in the mold of Paul’s instructions to young Timothy nigh on two thousand years ago.

Mutual Faith

Faith 16

          At the beginning of Paul’s greatest epistle, Romans, Paul introduces both himself and Christ. He chases that with some words of commendation to the Christians in Rome. Following these, he expresses his great desire to come and to see them.

Romans 1.8-12

8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

10 Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you.

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end you may be established;

12 That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me.

          The purpose of this blog series is to examine the subject of faith in the Word of God, and what we find here in the highlighted phrase at the end of this introductory statement in Romans is highly beneficial. Paul is saying this: 1) You have faith. I know it for your reputation for such has reached all the way to me. 2) I have faith. 3) If and when we can both be together we will gain something by it. Paul then describes the benefits to be gained as a spiritual gift from God, as a comfort, and as something which helps to establish us. Now that I have shown you the bones of this blog post let me actually write it for you.

          I wrote earlier in this series that our faith ought to be placed in God. Everyone has faith. We get to choose where to place it. We ought to put all of our apples into God’s basket. The truth is when we do that, by definition, we do not need other people; we only need and depend upon Him. But having said that, it does not then follow that other people are not beneficial to us. They plainly are, and that is precisely what Paul is communicating to us above. My faith in God does not require anyone else but it is helped by many another brother in Christ.

          God did not design Christianity to be lived in a vacuum. While some of our spiritual expressions are solitary, if all of them are there is a problem. A Lone Ranger religion is problematic. He designed us to help each other, to minister to one another. We see this in the frequent admonitions in the New Testament using the phrase one another. To put it bluntly, your church and your spiritual friends were designed to help you. But they cannot help  you if you choose to live in isolation. God calls us to be a community, to be together, mutually supporting and ministering to one another.

          I do not care how mature you become in Christ you will not grow past this point.

A. W. Pink
1886-1952

One of the well-known commentators of yesteryear failed here, and it is for precisely this reason I refuse to read him. A. W. Pink was an esteemed mid-20^th century author. As his renown for biblical insight grew so did his withdrawal from Christian society. The last twenty years of his life he devoted scores of hours a week to finishing his commentaries. With great discipline, his study bore fruit and it shows in that he is still widely read a century later. But not by me. Why? Because for the last twenty years of his life he refused to go to church. He felt he could accomplish more for the cause of Christ by using those hours to write. I do not know all of his thinking, but his actions show me that he felt he was beyond the benefit of mutual faith. And that is a very bad place to be.

          The practical necessity and benefit of mutual faith is why a church must ever be mindful of its shut ins and seniors. It is one thing for a person to willfully choose to absent themselves from the accountability and ministry of assembling with His people. It is an entirely different thing when they desire to come but cannot. Just last week, our church formed up after the morning service into a parade of cars, and slowly drove by some of our seniors here in Dubuque. Why? Because we want them to know they are not forgotten. We want to somehow find a way to grant them the benefit of mutual faith.

          The blessing of mutual faith is dependent, however, on that faith being similar. Make no mistake, with this blog post I am not praising generic togetherness. Every community gathering, indeed, every church is not equal to every other church. The two word phrase found often in Scripture, the faith, is indicative of this. It is the body of doctrine that we are all called to hold in common. And if you do not hold the same body of doctrine that I do then we have no basis for fellowship, no basis for walking together (Amos 3.3). But where such faith is held in common that faith ought to be exercised communally, mutually.

          In my time in Christian work I have met thousands of Christians who do not have a church home, or do not take an active place in that church’s service for the Lord. Oh, they may visit one every once in a while but there is no particular local church where they have plugged themselves in to serve and to be served. They are spiritually homeless. Not coincidentally, their Christianity is almost always a weak, cobwebby type of thing, insubstantial and easily shaken.

          This is why one of the most important things you can do for your marriage and for your family is to root yourself deeply into the life and culture of a biblical local church. From time to time I hear the misleading stat that Christians divorce as often as non-Christians. I suppose that may well be true if you define Christians as including Catholics, Mormons, and all kinds of other professing nonsense. But in my twenty-three years of pastoring, I can say that I have only seen two active church member couples divorce. That is an excellent percentage.

          I do not say this to benefit my church. I do not write for my church, primarily. I have no axe to grind. You do not attend my church. But it is not about your church either. It is about you and about those you love. Your church and your active attachment to it is more important than your children’s school. It is much more important than their participation in sports. It is vital to your family’s long term stability and growth.

          This is why one of the most important things you can do for your marriage and your family is to stop bouncing around from church to church. If I transplanted a sapling every couple of years it would never develop into a mighty tree, and neither will your children. Find a good church. Put your roots down. Build strong relationships with those around you. Let them minister to your need and do you minister to theirs. And you will find your faith and your Christianity gradually yet firmly established.

          Mutual faith brings such great comfort with it. I cast my mind back over the troubles and trials God has brought my way, and I blush to think of how weak I have been. Yet in addition to my own direct relationship with the Lord one constant source of strength and comfort remains – my church. When I buried my daughter my church gathered around me and poured grace into my life. I will never forget that. What comfort God’s people have brought to me in these decades, and what comfort they will bring to me in the decades yet remaining until He calls me home.

          Elijah, battling Jezebel, wanted to die for the simple reason that he thought he was all alone. But he was not. Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him (I Kings 19.18). Everybody needs to see what God showed Elijah that day. Never has that been more true than right now. For many, if not most, of us, we are separated in some very real way from God’s people. Our church attendance is limited at best and legally forbidden at worst. Pastors cannot be with their people. We tune into livestreams and join Zoom prayer meetings but we find at the core that such things are cold comfort. Why? God designed us to be together but we cannot be. Let us not play the Elijah card. Let us remember our mutual faith. Let us be grateful for its past blessings and look forward them again. And when this Covid-19 crisis has passed let us hold more fiercely than ever to our mutual faith.

          You are not alone. We are all still here. And so is He.