THE NATURE OF FAITH

There seems to be a lot of uncertainty about the very nature of faith. The apostles had assumed that faith came in different sizes. Therefore, “The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’”

Jesus’ answer was very revealing of the nature of faith. He answered them using two parables. The first one indicated that the apostles had asked wrongly. Faith isn’t a matter of an amount or size:

He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” ‭‭(Luke‬ ‭17:5-6‬)

Even with just the smallest measure of faith, trees could be tossed into the sea. His next parable identified what faith was about. Instead of quantity, faith is a matter of quality, the quality of our understanding:

• “Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t he rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ ”‭‭(Luke‬ ‭17:7-10‬)

Faith is a matter of getting straight who we are, who God is, and our relationship to Him. It is a matter of understanding what should already be apparent to all. God is the Creator and sustainer of a mind-boggling array of billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars and planets, and we are little more than a mist that vanishes once the sun arrives (James 4:13-16). Yet this unfathomable Being takes an interest in us and has placed His love upon us.

Consequently, the idea that we can earn or deserve anything from Him is utterly ludicrous, the height of arrogance. It elevates us to a status that we don’t deserve, and demeans God into a place far beneath Him. It would be like addressing Julius Caesar as, “Hey dude.”

Even worse, this attitude treats His love and mercy as our due entitlement as human beings, as a human right, which we can demand. It would be like ungratefully receiving the gift of a painting from a master artist as if we are entitled to it - a great offense. This is why Jesus concluded, “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ ”‭‭(Luke‬ ‭17:10‬)

Consequently, serving Our Savior should never be understood as an interest-bearing investment but as a privilege and a gift. The Creator will never be obligated to owe any of us anything (Romans 11:35). In light of this, Jesus commands us to regard ourselves as “unworthy” or “underserving,” even if we have performed our duties flawlessly.

We are not even worthy of a “thank you.” Let me attempt to illustrate Jesus’ teaching. Imagine that you are a prison guard. You will not tell the prisoner “thank you” after he obeys you and enters into his cell. He is not entitled to a “thank you.” Such words would even give him the wrong idea and further corrupt him and his relationship with the guard. Instead, he should realize that he deserves no better.

We too deserve no better from God. Instead, the blessings we receive from Him should not be regarded as our just reward (Romans 6:23), but as merciful gifts given freely by One who loves us.

Jesus illustrated this truth about our humble position before God in many ways.

• To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” ‭‭(Luke‬ ‭18:9-14)

Self-righteousness is the stance of entitlement. It refuses to acknowledge the necessity for the mercy of God. Instead, it believes that it has achieved worthiness before God. Consequently, it looks down in arrogance on others.

The Pharisee claimed that his obedience to the Law entitled him to the blessings of God in contrast to others, namely the despised tax collector. However, while the Pharisees had been respected for their superficial adherence to the laws, their self-righteousness refused to allow them to see their sins and their utter need for the Savior. They were in denial about their true status and even the perfect holiness of God.

In contrast, the tax collector had the proper understanding. He understood that he was entitled to only one thing from God - His wrath - and could only hope in one thing, the mercy of God. It was this man who had humbled himself, as faith required, to acknowledge his hopeless condition.

Humility is the bedrock of faith and a relationship with God. Why? Because it bears the truth, the only meeting place for fruitful relationship. Consequently,

those who humble themselves shall be exalted.

I used to believe that God had saved me because I was among the spiritually superior. This was an arrogance that God would not bless. Consequently, He first had to humble me in order to bless me. Through many painful failures, He demonstrated to me the truth of my real condition:

• God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. ‭‭(1 Corinthians‬ ‭1:28-29‬)

I had been boasting about a gift I didn’t deserve, and it took me many years to see this.

What does great faith look like? Jesus commended the faith of only two people, both of whom realized that they were not worthy of Him.

One was a Roman centurion whose servant was ill. Jesus asked if He should come to heal him:

• The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” ‭‭(Matthew‬ ‭8:8-10)

How uncharacteristic that anyone would admit that he didn’t deserve that Jesus come to his home, least of all a Roman commander. However, this man understand something important about Himself and about Jesus that few others understood.

In this, He also displayed great humility and the thing that accompanies humility - wisdom. He had been enabled to fathom the fact that Jesus didn’t even have to come to his home to heal his servant.

The final example of great faith came from another Gentile:

• A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.‭‭(Matthew‬ ‭15:22-28‬)

Imagine the joy of His racist disciples to see their Master refuse to answer this Gentile, then to deny her request, and finally to insinuate that she was an unworthy Gentile dog. However, she too was willing to admit that she was an undeserving “dog.” Jesus then deemed her humble wisdom as “great faith.” His disciples had never heard Jesus commend them in this way and must have felt severely chastened and shamed by this object lesson.

Faith is not about having a certain quantity of a substance but a humble understanding of who we are, our need, and of a merciful God. He is so incredibly merciful that the smallest measure of faith will suffice.

Hebrews 11, termed the “Hall of Fame of Faith,” includes some of the most unlikely examples of faith. Even Israel is cited as an exemplar of faith:

• By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned. ‭‭(Hebrews‬ ‭11:29‬)

This example, along with others we read about in this chapter, is perplexing. In the original account, it seems that Israel had been blaming Moses and God for having taken them out of Egypt (Exodus 14:10-12). Nevertheless, God saw faith in Israel. In what form? Here is my guess - Although Israel knew that they weren’t worthy of their God, they also knew that He was their only hope for deliverance from the Egyptian chariots.

Faith is entails the knowledge of our utter inadequacy and unworthiness and God’s complete adequacy and worthiness. Sometimes this lesson is only learned through fire. King Jehoshaphat and all Jerusalem had been terrified by the approach of three great enemy armies. They knew that they lacked the strength to oppose them, and, in desperation, they all assembled - even the children - to tearfully call upon their only Hope, and an answer came:

• “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.” ‭‭(2 Chronicles‬ ‭20:15-17‬)

There was no way that they could take credit for this deliverance. Consequently, credit was given to their God, the very One who is deserving of it.

The greatest enemy of faith in God is faith in ourselves. The more we trust in ourselves, the less we will trust in God. In fact, trust in our own strength and abilities is condemned (Jeremiah 17:5-7; Galatians 5:2-4). However, we have a strong tendency to trust in ourselves and to become arrogant. This tendency is such a threat to our relationship with God that He will send affliction in order to remind us of our need. Paul also had to learn that he needed affliction to humble him:

• ...because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. ‭‭(2 Corinthians‬ ‭12:7-10‬)

The best cure against pride is weakness and brokenness. It causes us to turn from any trust in ourselves and our worthiness to trust in God alone:

• We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭1:8-9‬)

To trust in ourselves is to deny our unworthiness and our utter need for the One who has died for us. It is self-righteousness and a determination to live in the darkness of self-deception. Trials tend to bring us back to the truth about ourselves and God.

I have only dissected one aspect of the faith. There are others that I haven’t even touched here - belief in Jesus and His Gospel, a circumcised heart, repentance, and commitment. They require their own special treatment.