Faith as activity

Faith as described in the Bible is an activity, not knowledge. Faith is faith in, and faith to and faith from (since faith is a mutual activity). Strange, in our society “faith” is very much about what we believe, rather than what we do – perhaps that is part of the problem! James describes faith as something which permeates our lives and leads inevitably to action, so much so that if we have no actions he regards our faith as dead! Now that’s challenging stuff! And yet, other parts of the Bible agree: out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. (Mat 12:34) So perhaps it is not the Bible which has a skewed view of faith…

Romans Ch 3 is an assurance of forgiveness, which follows on from assurances of the justice of the law. I often think it is strange how we want both – we want justice and for the world to be fair, but we also want mercy for ourselves. Part of Jesus’ great appeal is his lack of condemnation for people generally – those who came sick, hurting, sinning, he helped and healed them all. Jesus is the great merciful healer, merciful judge and the one who forgives sins. Why then is the church so often seen as judgemental? In the common view, the church more closely resembles the Pharisees than Jesus! It is so sad – we must have gone terribly wrong somewhere. If we had Jesus’ heart, we should be known by our love, not our ability to point the finger!

Romans 3:27 says “Where then, is boasting?” but today we were talking about the other besetting sins of our generation which are equally forgiven and passed over by God: Where then is guilt? Where then is performance pressure? Where then is insecurity, fear, the need to establish rules and make others follow them?

I am reminded of an old saying about Sunday School, but at applies here too, rather trite, but true then as well as now: The answer is always “Jesus”.