Hope for the lost

I have heard Ephraim grieving, ‘You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf; bring me back that I may be restored, for you are the Lord my God. For after I had turned away, I relented, and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh; I was ashamed, and I was confounded, because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’ 
Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:18–20)

God hears His OT people pleading for mercy and restoration. They are ashamed and aware of their sin. He then says how He thinks of them with a loving heart and a promise of mercy.

I have a relative whose birth parent remarried a Jewish woman. This person has had a great influence on my relative to the point she now thinks she is Jewish. Research says you do not need to practice the religion to be Jewish, nor do you need to be born Jewish to practice the religion. 

Huh? This makes no sense to someone reading the OT, yet it does when considering verses like these:

That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, (Romans 4:16)
Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. (Galatians 3:7-9)

In the mind of God, those who believe in Him like Abraham believed and lived are His children. It is not those who culturally decide to join Judaism, but those who humble themselves, are ashamed of their sin, and put their faith in the mercy of God. 

This is completely foreign to my relative. Going along with religious festivities like Passover without understanding their meaning is like celebrating Santa Claus at Christmas instead of the birth of Christ.

Yet there is hope. Should this person be convicted by the Holy Spirit and grieve their sin and plead for mercy, God is willing to call her His child and reveal to her His grace through faith. While people share their faith and speak of sin and its power, unless the Spirit does it, reasoning and excuses keep her from becoming a true Jew who embraces the wonder of God being born in a manger and becoming our Messiah.

Jesus, You encourage me by Your ability to hear the cries of a human heart, even to discipline anyone enslaved by sin. An even greater blessing is to know that You love us and are willing to have mercy on all who ask You for it. May Your Spirit be at work in the lives of all — those who are near and those who are far away.

God, be merciful. . . .

  

Someone I know belongs to a cult that does not recognize Jesus as God the Son. He recently said, “Jesus has done it all. All we need to do is believe.” While that sounds hopeful that he understands the gospel, Jesus also said:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21–23)

This person says many right words, yet his focus is on the future. He looks forward to a new earth where all is made well. A little voice inside of me says, “But what about now? What about the promise of a new life and an intimate relationship with the Lord that changes life each day?”

Piper writes about the seriousness of being authentic. He points to the parable of the sower to show that making a decision for Christ may start out with some form of commitment, but living for Christ does not necessarily follow. My friend does not fit this category. He has been faithful to his beliefs for decades.

However, that particular cult holds the idea that Jesus died to give them the right to earn their salvation. They have a strange list of what that means. Not only that, if anyone decides to leave them, they are shunned and lose any hope. In other words, salvation is about adhering to their belief system and if someone says otherwise, they cannot belong or be saved.

The gospel is clear to those who DO have a relationship with Jesus Christ. He says of them:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27) Much of the NT has words about knowledge of eternal life:

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. (1 John 5:13–15)

With this person, there is no talk of answered prayer, only of personal and organizational accomplishments. While he said Jesus has done it all, nothing specific is shared, only his focus on the future with no more problems. 

I cannot judge or hope to know what all this means for him, but I do know what it says to me; don’t take my own profession of faith as reality without the consequences the Bible says will go with it. Some basics: Know Jesus is God in the flesh. He is Lord and gives me the Spirit so I can obey Him. I trust Him alone for eternal life; nothing I do can earn or deserve it. My attitude to sin has changed; I fight it — instead of always giving in to it. New life is from Jesus and God uses all things to transform me to be like Him. 

For all this, the Bible also says: 

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (2 Corinthians 13:5)
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13–14)
Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. . . . (Matthew 7:15–20)

PRAY: Jesus, You described a religious Pharisee who prayed boasting in what he had done. The prayer of a tax collector was, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” When talking with my friend, I need to remember that no one has anything to boast about. I also need to do the same when looking in a mirror.

Inadequate faith vs. Real Faith

The NT gospel message affirms that believing in Jesus is not just believing that He exists, yet these verses use the same Greek word that means to believe or to trust:

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! (James 2:19)

Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. (John 2:23–25)

And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ (Mark 11:31)

If believing in Jesus means to whole-heartedly trust my life to Him, the different ways this word is used (there are more than 100 of them) shows the importance of context when interpreting Scripture. First of all, the demons believed — meaning they knew the truth about Jesus. This is part of faith, but does not mean that the demons trusted Him to save them or to change their lives.

Those at the feast saw His miracles and believed He was what His name means. “Jesus” is the Greek transliteration of Joshua, meaning “Yahweh saves” yet Jesus did not believe or trust them for He knew their hearts. Their belief was not personal? Perhaps not, but it was insufficient.

The third verse is a good question. If I know Jesus is who He says He is, and can save me from my sin, that knowledge is inadequate. I knew this for years but was not saved. This is because saving faith is not mine to conjure up; it is a gift from God:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

Yes, faith is described that to draw near to God, we must “believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6) but that is about drawing near. The ‘believing, trusting’ kind of faith is like this:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

This is that inner knowing that what we cannot see is true — why? Because God says so. This is not assumption, nor is it a deep desire for what I want to be true. It is a gift from God about what He says and what He will do, a revelation that assures, a knowing about something even if it does not make sense or seem reasonable at the time.

This is why the belief of the demons was in adequate. God did not give them assurance of their salvation because it was not going to happen. No wonder they shuddered!

This is why faith because of signs is inadequate. It is a belief on proof, not on things unseen. This is also why Jesus did not entrust Himself to them. Their ‘faith’ would always be by sight rather than trusting Him when they could not see what He was doing or would do, faith no matter what.

In context, those who would not believe were more worried about what people thought of them than they were interested in admitting and submitting to the authority of Jesus. That is not true belief either.

Today’s reading asks why we can trust ourselves to other people, but not Jesus? Trusting others is temporary, based on seeing why they are reliable, and gets pulled back when they do the unexpected or the undesired. Trusting Jesus is for eternity, and for ‘no matter what’ He brings into our lives. Trusting Jesus is not the same kind of belief as it is to trust another person.

PRAY: Lord Jesus, I’m overwhelmed that You granted me the gift of faith. It has taken me many years to see the precious value of this gift and the gift of Your own self that I might live it out. Grant me even greater faith in You so that no matter what each day brings, I will embrace it as Your plan for my life and for Your glory. Amen.

Faith is a gift . . .

 

Where does faith come from? Why do I believe that if I plug in my hair dryer and turn on the switch it will run? Why do I believe the sun will come up in the morning? Or that the news will be on at 6 p.m. every night? This kind of faith is based on experience and confidence in the reliability of electricity, the sun, and the television station. At least two of them could fail and then my faith would be shattered.

Biblical faith is not quite the same. For one thing, it is a gift from God — He grants the ability to believe what He says:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

I can look at evidence in creation and believe God exists. I can realize that there is something or someone far beyond my experience, but unless I go for affirmation about who that is by the way He revealed it, I could come up with all sorts of ideas about who or what God is:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature . . .  (Hebrews 1:1–3)

The faith that is given by God is not the faith that can be conjured up by human reasoning, or experience, or logic, or supposition. It is a gift from God and this gift includes revelations about Him that we cannot otherwise know. For instance: “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (Hebrews 11:3)

I recall how I believed in evolution when Jesus saved me, even argued with my mother about it. However, faith wins . . . for in a short time I realized that creation by God was true. I cannot see that or prove it by scientific experiment, but I just know that it is true — because God said so.

This is how biblical faith works; it reveals as God speaks and gives insights that unbelievers can’t know, such as how the physical universe began, where it is heading, and how it will end. I know Who governs the universe and how I fit into the total scheme of things. I know why I exist and how to invest my life in matters of eternal consequence. This is all because of Christ and the marvelous gift of faith that comes with Him:

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:14–16)

MacArthur says that most people refuse God’s counsel. They believe the enemy’s lie that God does not exist, or that He does not want the best for us, or that His book is out of date and cannot reveal unseen matters to us. However, such things aren’t beyond the realm of knowing—if a person is willing to be taught by God’s Word.

The Bible clearly states that God spoke the physical universe into existence, creating visible matter from what was non-physical or invisible. He “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” (Romans 4:17) These are not observable but understood by this gift of faith in which God opens our heart to His realm, to His realities. The most brilliant human minds cannot see such things but those who have this faith can say with the psalmist, “I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.” (Psalm 119:99–100)

PRAY: Again, I know that faith is not my own doing. Jesus, it is Your gift to me, a gift that comes by grace — Your goodness and sacrificial love. All praise to You, the God who reveals Himself to sinners such as I.

PONDER: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world . . . .” (Psalm 19:1–4) The gift begins with what can be seen in creation yet it culminates in Jesus Christ. I want Him to always enable me to proclaim Him in every possible way every time that He reveals Himself!

 

 

Faith says yes to God

 

When Jesus said people must become as little children to enter the kingdom of God, He meant the child who says, “I’m too little to do that” not that child who says, “Let me do it by myself.”

Faith is like that first child, but more. It is also “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation.” (Hebrews 11:1–2) These ‘people of old’ did not know what God was going to do, but trusted Him to do right, even when they could not see Him or His plan.

Hebrews 11 points to how OT believers demonstrated faith. It reminds readers that without faith, we cannot please God. Those first readers included first-century Hebrew people who had abandoned true faith in God for a legalistic system of works-righteousness. They had forgotten the importance of faith. This message still applies because faith in Christ often slides into faith in human efforts and becomes a religion of rules called legalism.

This does not mean that people of faith can abandon doing what God asks. This is because faith changes lives. Because I genuinely believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, my life shows it. The writer of Hebrews affirms this:

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works. (Hebrews 10:24)

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14)

This means righteous works are the by-product of true salvation, not its means. This is plainly stated in many places such as:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8–10)

While many Christians think that the OT teaches otherwise, we need to realize that OT laws were written to show the people of God how to live in faith, just as the NT tells us what the life of faith looks like. No one is ever saved by their own efforts. These verses show the contrast:  

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— (Philippians 3:8–9)

Again, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation.” (Hebrews 11:1–2) This commendation was for believing the unseen God with that faith that ‘just knows’ what God says is right and true. It isn’t about being perfect in godly living, but godly living is evidence that He is in the life of those who truly believe.

PRAY: Jesus, faith is a gift. I remember the day You came into my living room and into my life. Suddenly, I believed — all that You are and had confidence that You were for me, not against me. I read a verse of Scripture and it just happened — You were there, and You have never forsaken me. Such a wonder that You should grant faith to those who so badly need You. My prayers continue for those who struggle to please You by their own efforts. May they realize that the way to Your heart is by faith, by ceasing their own efforts and instead believing You and what You say.

PONDER: How does the definition of faith apply to the challenges of today? Of this week? What do I hope for and what am I trusting God for? What self-effort do I need to confess?