On Faith

I was listening to a renowned pastor, a TV and radio preacher, as he was speaking on Faith. He apparently hails from a northern state where ice fishing is enjoyed. When ice fishing, he said, the thickness of the ice beneath one's feet is all important. If the ice is 1/2 inch thick, (He for one will not be on it) much faith required! On the other hand if the ice measures 2 ft thick, little faith is required. God, he concludes, is great, He is as the thick ice. The logic seems to be that not as much faith is needed to trust or depend on Him because He is great. (He did, however, stress the point that Christ alone must be the object of our faith.) But otherwise just how Biblically sound is his line of thinking? "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord. . ." Isa. 1 :18.

A small god? A small faith.

If one were to say, "I am a small god; with a little "g". I am not omnipotent; I cannot do all things, but I can do many extraordinary things. I am not omnipresent, I cannot be everywhere, but I can be in a few places at one time. I am not omniscient; I don't know everything, but I do possess wisdom and knowledge of a great many things. Though I am truly a god, admittedly I do have certain limitations." If one were a small god with "certain limitations,"then we should expect a correspondingly limited faith. A small god - an equivalently small faith.

A Small Faith or a Great Faith: Which?

What of the woman with the issue of blood? Having tried everything and everyone for the space of twelve years, she found herself at the feet of Jesus: "If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus. . .said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made the whole" Matt.9:21. Her faith: was it a small faith, for 'insignificantly small' was the miracle; therefore little faith was required? Or was it great faith, for it found lodging in the Great God and our Savior Jesus Christ? A small faith indeed!!! She was ''Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith!"

A Great God? A Great Faith.

A great God is worthy of and is due a faith that is equivalent to and parallels His greatness.

In Matthew 14:25, Jesus went unto his disciples, walking on the water. The account is familiar: the fear of the disciples of the storm ; the new fear because of a man walking on the sea, "It is a spirit!'" Peter coming down out of the ship to go to Jesus: a third fear, as he saw the wind boisterous; a fourth and final fear as he began to sink, "he cried, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"Little faith, oligopistos, lacking confidence (in Christ). Doubt, distazo, to stand in two ways, implying uncertainty as to which way to take; said of believers whose faith is small. (Doubt is not said to be an entity unto itself: the two ways are faith and unbelief.) The issue was not Peter lacking confidence in himself; and of his own ability to walk on the water: instead it was the lacking of confidence in Christ to sustain him in the endeavor. It was not his strength that was in question; rather it was his lack of confidence in the power, and of the faithfulness of Christ. Jesus was never for a moment disabled or without control; it was Peter who, in a moment of personal weakness thought the creation to overpower the Creator. A little faith might be sufficient when confronting a little god, but when beholding a great God, much faith is required.

"Little is much, when God is in it!" So say the lyrics of a well known hymn. Faith is compared as a grain of mustard seed. Faith is not necessarily great as a result of much accumulation; it is not something to be gathered into a great heap; not a massive amount, this faith. Faith should be great, not so much in size or volume, but In strength.

As in the case of "doubting" Thomas, the word distazo was not used. Rather, it was Believe, pisteuo. His believing was conditional: " / will not believe. . .except I shall see. "Thomas refuses to waver, to "stand in two ways:" He chose the way of unbelief until such time he had visible proof! Jesus saith unto him, Thomas because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed" John 21:29.

Lord, Increase My Faith!

A thick cotton cord may appear strong, but a stainless steel cable, though much smaller in appearance is far superior in strength. Shall my prayer be, Lord, increase my faith; increase its density, its mass - or increase its strength? But then, it is not the terminology that is of utmost importance, but the sincere yearnings of the heart! A God-given faith is not flawed or imperfect! The difficulty is in the sin-prone, imperfect and untrusting creature called man. Quoting a friend in the ministry, "Our tendency is to put our faith in OUR faith, rather than putting our faith in THE faith." "I. . .exhort you that you should earnestly contend for THE faith which was once delivered unto the saints" Jude 3b. "I will run the way of thy commandment, when thou shalt enlarge my heart" Psalm 119:32. Faith (orthe lack of it) is not essentially the problem; it is Eye ( I ). Lord enlarge my heart; give me a greater capacity for Christ; grant unto me a greater vision that I may see Him through the eye of faith; that my confidence in Him may be strengthened. Oh that we might be "stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord ..." I Cor. 15:58.

A Faith to be Accounted for Righteousness.

"For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness" Rom. 4:3. "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son" Heb. 11 :17.

What! What if - Abraham was justified by faith and declared righteous through a faith that was "weak, flawed, and imperfect?" Would he be so foolish as to trust the promises of God so far as to slay and offer up his only begotten son, seeing the faith was untrustworthy? But true faith has as its foundation the Word of God. It is not to be found in the wisdom of this world, nor in the arm of the flesh. The bottom line is that faith, genuine faith, has its roots in the eternal. It is of God, it is from God; it is "not of works lest any man should boast."

We often quote, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God" Eph.2:8. What if the faith given us of God was weak, frail, faulty, flawed, and imperfect? Then the grace and the salvation through which it comes would not be trustworthy!

"Now faith is the substance [it is substantiating] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen"Heb. 11:1. Substantiating? Evidence? Sounds like something you'd hear in a court of law. (The courts of our land would find faith as unacceptable - but not so, the Courts of Heaven!) Abraham's righteousness was [still is] imputed to him; it is validated by the Heavenly Judicial System!

"Faith is the substance. . .sub stans: standing under. Faith provides a firm standing-ground while I await the fulfilling of God's promises. Faith furnishes my heart with a sure support" An Exposition of Hebrews, page 650, A. W. Pink

Faith as an Anchor.

If faith is to be anchored in Christ, then are we to be looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, the Alpha and Omega, The Living Word of God [Christ.] Without it, faith has no sight, no hearing, no understanding, no wisdom, no discernment; it has no engine, there is no fuel to run it, no steering mechanism, neither a sense of direction. . .

Faith is issued forth from the Lord; the New-born is quickened through it and he is drawn unto Christ, his affections being fixed (anchored) in Him. Unlike a ship, Christ has no need of an anchor for Himself. He is an anchor of the soul. He is anchored in me. I am anchored in Him. The cable that holds the anchor on my end is secured to the ship at the other end. It is not just the anchor that holds me; the anchor is a part of, and an extension of, the ship itself. The anchor is an instrument to secure me to the ship. Christ is in heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father. I am on earth. Yet I am secure in Him; I am anchored in Him. There is, as it were, an unseen cable that reaches from the Ship, and its anchor is securely lodged in me. (We speak figuratively.) in John 14:23 we read, "If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make our abode with him." (We might compare this to Noah and the ark. Where was the anchor for the ark? Not over the side of that vessel; it (He) was within the ark!)

We read often of Paul's prayer concerning his "thorn in the flesh." "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in [your] weakness" II Cor. 1 2:9. "For when I am weak, then am I strong.'" vs. 10. It would appear that a strong faith is not very compatible with one who has a know-it-all attitude and is seemingly unaware of his weakness. (Which could account for the variety of Simon Peter's situations; walking on water and sinking; denying the Lord three times when he stubbornly declared he wouldn't. . .)

The Manifestation of Faith.

If faith is to be made manifest, it should be through the manifestation of Jesus Christ; revealed in His Word; revealed through Him and by means of the operation of the Spirit in the Believer.

The manifesting of Christ Himself in the heart of the believer. "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him" John 14:21.

The manifesting of the Gospel of Christ and redemption through his blood for the believer. "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things. . .But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you" I Peter 1 :18-20.

The manifesting of the work of faith wrought through the believer. "But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God" John 3:21.

"By faith Abel offered” "By faith Enoch was translated" "By faith, Noah prepared an ark" "By faith Abraham obeyed" "by faith Moses. . .esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt."

"And what shall I more say?" May writer and reader wonder afresh at the remainder of Hebrews chapter eleven: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth" Heb. 11:13.

Finally, a study on Faith is fine, but its value is only recognized as it is exercised. Of what benefit, faith, if it lie between the covers of my Bible on a bookshelf? Faith is absolutely essential in the life of the believer. Paul, when on a ship that seemed destined for destruction, addressed the others: "there stood by me this night the angel of the Lord, whose I am and whom I serve, Saying, Fear not Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar; and. lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for / believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me" Acts 27:23-25.

The question might be asked, What am I believing God for - right now?

Oh Lord, I thank you for your gift of life - Christ's life; and for His righteousness imputed unto me. Thank you for the faith that you have wrought in me according to your lovingkindness. May it not be left dormant; may it be found cleaving unto Christ; Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of my faith. In His name, for His sake. Amen.