What is Faith?

Seems like kind of a dumb question, doesn’t it? The answer should be simple enough. Or not. I think the world gets the answer wrong all the time and the church about half the time. What we tend to believe faith is and what it really is can be two very different things. I propose that whether we know it or not, most of us think of faith as screwing up our belief dial to full volume so that God will come through for us. Kind of like Peter Pan and his friends chanting: “I do, I do, I do believe in fairys!”, until Tinkerbell gains some kind of mystical power from their words and comes back to life. That is exactly what faith in Christ isn’t

First of all, what are we to have faith in? Does it confuse the issue too much if I say that we have faith in Christ’s faithfulness, His willingness to go through with His death and resurrection? Because, we are told again and again in scripture that this is the basis of our Justification. That to be in Christ is to be, at least symbolically, killed and risen with Him.

How does this help? It still sounds as if I have force myself to believe something that seems very improbable: that a man was tortured and killed and somehow came back to life, and that this somehow assures my eternal destination. Can you see how implausible this sounds to the skeptic? Why he can say: “I can’t believe that, it’s impossible and absurd.”?

But, faith is not about screwing up my courage to believe in the impossible or improbable. It is quite the opposite. It doesn’t spring from my courage, strength or tenacity. That would require faith in myself, that I could somehow maintain the strength to holler for a lifetime: “I do, I do, I do believe in the resurrection!”

Rather, faith is self abandonment. It’s admitting that I don’t understand it all and will never really understand it all in this life. It’s throwing myself on His mercy, telling Him I believe when in fact, I’m not sure I do, and asking for help with my unbelief. It’s: “Here, Lord I give myself away, it’s all that I can do.”

Instead of summoning up my supposed courage to believe, faith is all about dropping all of it, including my self reliance, especially my self reliance, at the foot of the cross.

Now, yes, there is a paradox or two here. Scripture is constantly telling us that the trip from the cross to the grave isn’t going to be a cake walk.

“Take up your cross and follow me.” Jesus says.

“Stand firm against the devil.” Paul tells us.

And persevere, press on, finish the race, and so on.

It brings an old question back to mind: Is Christianity for wimps or warriors?

We are told to drop our burdens, yet take up our cross. Which is it?

Yes, Paul talked about fighting the good fight and keeping the faith, and finishing the race, but he would be quick to tell you (and does tell us in other places) that it is total reliance on Christ’s work on the cross that carried him and carries us, not the strength of our wills.

But here’s the paradox: I’m strong when I’m weak. Wimps or warriors? Yes.

Letting go of yourself can often be seen as wimpy, but is it? Letting go is often the hardest thing you can ever do. Bravery, in this case, is not striving harder, but ceasing to strive. And ceasing to fight against His proddings. Oh boy, do we like to fight for our own way, our rights to do what we want to do. Lay that one down and see what He can do without your selfish desires in the way. It’s always the false self we discard, anyway, the lame poser who wants to be seen as strong, but inside is quivering like a scared puppy. Why would you want to hold onto that version of yourself, when you could fall on Jesus and let Him mold you into your true self, the one He meant when He made you, before sin twisted your image into a sad caricature of what you should be? You come to Him a wimp and He crafts you into a warrior.

This is all possible on the basis of Christs sacrifice. When we pray, we are not leaning on our own power, as if we had any. I guess you can see I’m a little squeamish about the whole naming and claiming thing. If we are going to claim anything, we claim the blood of Christ. And we can “plead the blood” over any situation or circumstance, because it’s the blood that has the power, not our prayers.

Now, this might be off topic, but I question the idea that this is about Christ giving you His perfect righteousness. This will sound like sacrilege to some, so let me try to explain. If you truly had His righteousness, the righteousness that comes first and foremost from the act of dying and resurrection, you would be like Him, literally. Instead, you are still broken in many ways, but declared whole. You can’t die to save yourself, you are not worthy. If this justification that occurs was about your sudden perfection, grace would be a one time deal. But in reality, “He giveth, and giveth and giveth again.” We are declared righteous because we are in Christ, not because we are able to do what He did. Maybe this seems like a distinction without a difference, but I don’t think so. It is freeing to realize you are a work in progress, not a perfect person. How many times does Paul say we are in Christ? (About 80 times) Does he ever say we somehow acquire Christ’s righteousness? Ok, enough food for thought there. By the way, I’m not dissing sanctification, or progress, or even talking about Salvation, but Justification, which is a whole ‘nother animal. We are declared ‘right’ because we are now in the covenant people, in Christ, because of the cross. Because what God promised Abraham has come to fulfillment, the world has been blessed through him, through his Seed. More on all that later, maybe.

What is faith? Get over yourself and fall on Him. It’s that easy and that hard.