My original post, "Faith is a Verb", has been one of my most read, most viewed, and most shared. Please consider this a part two.
For one of my Seminary classes, I've been studying a passage from the book of Romans. Romans is an interesting book to read because of all of Paul's letters, Romans is the most doctrinal in nature. Meaning, it has the most to say about the teaching of the new Christian church. It was written by the apostle Paul around AD 57-58 and proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ.
One of the most quoted and most famous verses of the New Testament is in the passage I'm examining: Romans 3:23,"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." A major point in Paul’s letters, but especially in Romans, is that every single human being on earth has fallen short of God's perfection. We are all accountable to Him for our thoughts, words and deeds, and none of us meet up to His holy standards.
In this passage, though, lies hope. The hope of right standing before God. Right-standing, or righteousness, offered as a gift to all who will place their faith in Jesus (Romans 3:22-24).
This expression of faith in Jesus is also often quoted in churches, but I don’t believe it is always fully understood.
In the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, they declared five principles: Scripture alone, Christ alone, faith alone, grace alone, to the glory of God alone. This was in response to the dominant church of the time, who had abused their power and mixed in other traditions and rituals to Christian belief. The Reformers longed to go back to a purer faith*. Many of today's Protestant denominations were birthed from this movement.
In the beginning, they may have had it right. Along the way, the message of faith alone, or "sola fide", has been somewhat watered down from what perhaps what was originally intended. Certainly, from what Paul intended upon writing his letters.
Paul uses the expression "pistis Christou" in Greek, which could be translated as "faith in Christ" or could also be understood as "faith realized in Christ". While we tend to understand faith as merely belief, in the Greek, it has a much deeper meaning. It is more than mere belief in our mind or in our hearts that the gospel is true. Rather, it is trust that moves us into action. Like soldiers, who have faith in their leader and therefore are willing to march into war.
Faith is more than intellectual belief. Faith is more than merely a series of creeds we adhere to and warming a pew on Sundays. Faith is movement. Faith is putting into action what we profess to believe.
Faith is a verb.
"Faith alone" saves, we tell people. We tell them faith means repeating a prayer... and leave it at that. We tally the numbers of how many people came forward that week to pray this "salvation prayer" and pat ourselves on the back. But... do simply speaking those words mean they are saved? Or could there be more to this faith we profess? How many people might be walking around right now, assuming because they said a prayer some years back that they are saved and heading to Heaven, regardless of how they live? That all is forgiven because of God's grace and those words they uttered once and nothing needs to change, all they need is to keep believing and they will be fine.
But... will they?
People say Christianity is less about a religion and more about a relationship. This is true, because religion is all about doctrines and beliefs, whereas a relationship is about an interaction or engagement between two (or more) parties.
Imagine a marriage. Would that marriage work, if one partner only visits the other once a week, and sometimes not even then if there’s a good football game on? If they don’t stay in any type of regular contact - they never write, or call, they never spend time together, they barely even think about each other during the week and they do whatever they want to do with whomever they want to do it. What kind of marriage would that be?
Surely, a marriage like that would fail! Who would even qualify it as a relationship?
If I believe my husband is my husband, and we are married to one another, that's a good start, but if all that belief leads me to is knowing who he is, how is that helpful? If I continue on with my life, living my way, on my own, how does that belief matter? If I never see him, never express love to him, never talk to him, never connect with him... how would our marriage be sustained?
In a healthy marriage, there is love. Each partner does things to make the other happy. They bend over backwards to show the other all the little ways that they love them. There's a desire to spend time together and a missing of one another when apart. They think about each other during the day, wondering how they are. They share their concerns and their joys, their failures and their successes, and carry the burden of life together.
These are the marriages which survive.
Love, in action.
Trust, in movement.
The true Christian calling, then, is likewise. The calling is to be in relationship with God, which is now possible for us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We are called to love Him. We are called to spend time with Him. We are called to speak with Him consistently. We are called to read the love letters He’s written to us. We are called to bring Him our concerns and our joys, our failures and our successes, and to let Him help carry the burden of life.
We are called to love others as He has first loved us. Jesus said to do these things as though you were doing them to me. Loving others shows love to God. Loving others is putting our faith into action.
Pure intellectual belief is not enough. Whispered words said once at an alter are not enough. We must allow that belief to translate into trust and to push us into action.
Faith is not merely a noun or a belief in something. Faith is a verb.
Let us let our faith move us as a community of believers to make a difference in this world around us. The world needs Christians who put their words into actions - not to judge or to hate, but to love and to serve.
After all, you might be the miracle someone else is waiting for.
* As a sidenote, I believe the "deconstruction" we are seeing in the Church today has the potential to be the birth of a modern-day reformation movement, pulling the Evangelical Christian Church - in America and Western society in particular - away from the pollution of politics and culture and back to a purer faith. That's certainly something I long to be a part of, and a big motivator for writing this blog.
Add comment
Comments