WHY GOD REQUIRES FAITH
As it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live." Rom. 1:17, R.S.V.
"Did you know that modern medical science is destroying faith?" The man's question was absolutely serious, so when he saw the puzzled look on my face, he tried to explain. "God revealed to us many principles of health in the Bible," he said. "And we've just had to take them on faith. But now the scientists are proving them all to be true, and pretty soon, we won't have any more need for faith."
"Does this mean," I asked, "that the less we know about a subject, the more faith we can have?" "Yes," he replied hesitantly. "Then those who know the least about Jesus can have the most faith in Him?" He looked perplexed. "That doesn't sound quite right, does it?" he responded.
What we understand faith to be certainly shapes our picture of why God requires it. If faith is a "blind leap in the dark," then God requires us to be superstitious. He rewards us for our gullibility.
Or if faith is merely assent to the meritorious value of Christ's life and death outside of oneself, then faith becomes our legal entitlement to forgiveness. It becomes the means by which God is entitled to change toward us.
But what if we view faith to be an informed, trusting friendship with the Lover of our souls? What if it means the reuniting of God's creatures in a loving bond with their Creator, the restoring of the kind of intimate fellowship that Adam and Eve enjoyed with their Father in Eden? Then God requires faith because nothing else can heal the essential sin problem--the alienation between God and man.
Faith is the response of our hearts to God's gracious appeals for our fellowship with Him. It is the healing relationship with the One who is the source of all life, health, and happiness. Faith restores us to our rightful state, to the condition in which we were created to live: union with our Creator.
Faith does not change God toward us; it changes us toward God. It does not coax Him to forgive us; it is our response to the discovery that He is a forgiver. Faith does not appease God's wrath toward sinners; it heals the sinner's hostility toward God. No wonder, then, that Paul could repeat that great scriptural theme: "He who through faith is righteous shall live"! For faith is connection with the Life-giver.
As it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live." Rom. 1:17, R.S.V.
"Did you know that modern medical science is destroying faith?" The man's question was absolutely serious, so when he saw the puzzled look on my face, he tried to explain. "God revealed to us many principles of health in the Bible," he said. "And we've just had to take them on faith. But now the scientists are proving them all to be true, and pretty soon, we won't have any more need for faith."
"Does this mean," I asked, "that the less we know about a subject, the more faith we can have?" "Yes," he replied hesitantly. "Then those who know the least about Jesus can have the most faith in Him?" He looked perplexed. "That doesn't sound quite right, does it?" he responded.
What we understand faith to be certainly shapes our picture of why God requires it. If faith is a "blind leap in the dark," then God requires us to be superstitious. He rewards us for our gullibility.
Or if faith is merely assent to the meritorious value of Christ's life and death outside of oneself, then faith becomes our legal entitlement to forgiveness. It becomes the means by which God is entitled to change toward us.
But what if we view faith to be an informed, trusting friendship with the Lover of our souls? What if it means the reuniting of God's creatures in a loving bond with their Creator, the restoring of the kind of intimate fellowship that Adam and Eve enjoyed with their Father in Eden? Then God requires faith because nothing else can heal the essential sin problem--the alienation between God and man.
Faith is the response of our hearts to God's gracious appeals for our fellowship with Him. It is the healing relationship with the One who is the source of all life, health, and happiness. Faith restores us to our rightful state, to the condition in which we were created to live: union with our Creator.
Faith does not change God toward us; it changes us toward God. It does not coax Him to forgive us; it is our response to the discovery that He is a forgiver. Faith does not appease God's wrath toward sinners; it heals the sinner's hostility toward God. No wonder, then, that Paul could repeat that great scriptural theme: "He who through faith is righteous shall live"! For faith is connection with the Life-giver.
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