Living Stones – Thursday, January 11, 2018
Words for faith
John 5:47
“But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”
Faith without word is dead. Ultimately, our faith is in Jesus, the Son of God who came to die for our sins and who, having been resurrected from the dead, opened up the way for us to have eternal life with God. How we get to faith in Jesus is a matter of the content of the Gospel. It’s a faith that is built on the writings of the Scriptures, Old Testament and New, with special focus on the words spoken by Jesus Himself.
In John 5:31-47 Jesus is recorded addressing the issues of who He is and His authority for His claims. The presentation started earlier in the chapter but, in this section, we are dealing with an argument as to authority and witnesses for the claims. Jesus, using a very Jewish style or argumentation, states that there must be multiple witnesses for an argument to be considered as true. This passage is often referred to as the four-fold witness.
Jesus said to them that there were four witnesses to who He is. There was John-the-Baptist, there was the body of miracles that He performed, there was the voice of God heard from heaven, and then there were the Scriptures. He was particularly focused on the Scriptures as a basis for faith and belief, telling them that, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” John 5:39.
Jesus went on to point out that faith in Him would come if they really listened to the witness of the Scriptures. “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.” John 5:46. It is interesting that when push came to shove Jesus’ position was trust the scriptures and they would lead you to faith in Him.
Our faith in Jesus must always have a reasoned basis, it’s not blind faith, blind faith is no more than wishful thinking. Blind faith is no more than the “think positive” approach of the New Age philosophers of our time who teach that if you think positive and put out positive thoughts, positive things would happen for you. Jesus said faith in Him must have a basis in the Word.
There must be content to our faith. When the Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy that “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7, he didn’t mean that he walked around in wishful positive thinking always hoping for the best. He was saying that “He had carefully preserved the deposit of Christian truth” to quote from the notes of the NIV Study Bible.
This basis for faith, the written Word, was very important to the disciples and apostles. The Apostle Paul, in a very moving summary of his experience as a missionary evangelist said “We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 2 Corinthians 4:7-10. It would be easy to think that Pauls faith was rooted in the miracles and experiences in the field but instead he continues that, “And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak,” his faith was according to “what is written.”
For the apostle, there was the reality of a faith that he was living every day as he worked in God’s service, but there the faith, the body of written truth, upon which his active faith was based. A real active faith cannot properly exist without the framework of the written Word.
Many persons go looking for a word when they find themselves in difficult circumstances, or in doubt, or at the crossroads, on in any of the many circumstances where life places us from time to time. Like that song from Andraé Crouch that we used to sing some time ago, “We need to hear from you / We need a word from you / If we don’t hear from you / What will we do / Wanting you more each day / Show us your perfect way / There is no other way / That we can live.”
We all need a word of faith, we all want to hear from God, but the word of faith that we receive must move us to faith according to the word.
Many of us make a greater effort to know the Word, study the Word and remain in the word. The warnings are many, here is one – “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,” 1 Timothy 4:1-2.
Jesus gave us a basis for faith in Him in John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” We have this as a responsibility for ourselves, and then we have this a responsibility for others, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17.
Think on these things:
- Is the Word of God really the basis of your faith?
- Do you consistently dedicate adequate time to the Bible or do you just read to meet the quota?
- Do you share and discuss the Word of God?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would be more diligent in our reading, studying, and sharing of the Word of God.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex