Have we gotten FAITH wrong?

In the church today people are taught that they must believe in Christ and ask Jesus into their heart and then they are saved.  Often this happens in childhood, although there are adults who do make first time commitments to the Lord.  Probably all evangelicals would agree that salvation is based on FAITH.  In most of today’s churches salvation is followed by baptism and maybe even membership in a local church.  Although there are many imperfections in churches, the church is a good place to serve the Lord so many Christians attend and serve regularly.  

 Yet is this all there is to being a Christian? 

Have you ever thought that this system may be flawed?  Look around…do you find that many Christians (maybe even yourself) confess your FAITH in Christ and are associated with a local church but yet have little joy in their hearts, no peace in their minds and basically seem to be morally no different than the ordinary unsaved people who takes no interest in God or religion?  I do.  Why is this?  Why is there such a lack of spiritual fruit in the lives of so many who claim to have FAITH? 

I believe it is due to lack of understanding between FAITH and practice.  You see, true FAITH brings spiritual transformation and along with it will naturally come moral transformation.  This should be easily seen by those around you.  It’s time for the church to stop believing in “belief” and start activating their FAITH. 

Most teachings on FAITH tell us that FAITH is complete trust or confidence in something or someone, or it’s a strong belief in God or in the doctrines of the Bible.  

  

But is this REAL FAITH?   

Do we need another sermon about how someone had lots of FAITH and their prayers were answered?  Don’t those sermons just make you feel inadequate?  Don’t they make you feel like you need to conjure up all sorts of FAITH on your own, in your own strength?  We look through the Bible to find every use of the word FAITH but have we gotten our definition of FAITH wrong?  YES we have, FAITH is NOT merely “believing” or “trusting” in God. 

Have you ever noticed that in Scripture FAITH is defined functionally and not philosophically?   

Any professed FAITH in Christ as personal Savior that does not bring the life under full obedience to Christ as Lord is inadequate and is NOT FAITH. 

The person that believes WILL obey; failure to obey is convincing proof that there is not true FAITH present.  Abraham was commended for his FAITH because of what he DID.  Let’s look at other examples in Hebrews 11. 

• Abel offered to God
• Enoch lived in a way as to please God
• Noah built an ark
• Abraham went out to a foreign land and offered up Isaac
• Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and kept the Passover
• The Israelites crossed the Red Sea
• Rahab welcomed the spies
• Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David and Samuel – conquered Kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight
• The list goes on…to the martyrs who were stoned, sawn in two, killed, afflicted, mistreated, wandering in deserts…

Do you see how many VERBS are in this list of people in the FAITH chapter in the Bible?  True FAITH is not passive but rather it is active and it requires that we let the Lord dominate our total lives. This does not mean that we will be perfect but rather that we are actively pursuing obedience in every area of our lives.  Perfection will only come when we meet Christ face to face.  We need Him to empower us to strive for complete obedience, we shoot for 100% obedience - that's our aim, even though we won't reach it. 

Yet, don’t get me wrong, we are NOT earning salvation here.  True FAITH rests upon the Character of God.  FAITH is not in itself a meritorious act, the merit is in the One toward Whom it is directed.  FAITH is a redirecting of our sight, a getting out of the focus of our own vision and getting God into focus. 

Finding out what His plan is and submitting to His will through OBEDIENCE.  This sort of FAITH brings a spiritual and moral transformation that can be recognized by the world.  It is then that a person finds true joy in their heart, true peace in their minds and is empowered to live a moral and upright life where good spiritual fruit is evident to all!

References:

True Faith is Active, Not Passive by A.W. Tozer

The Pursuit of God (Chapter 7) by A.W. Tozer

Faith: The Misunderstood Doctrine by A.W. Tozer