Repeat after me: Faith isn't a Work! (So don't turn it into one!)
Today I'm reposting something from four years ago, but don't
worry, the relationship between faith and Jesus hasn't changed in the meantime
;)
...
On Twitter I read the bold proclamation that “Our faith
catches the attention of Jesus”! (Yes, I know, it was Twitter!) I was going to
continue with the next sentence of this post something along the line of “but
is that really true?”, but instead let me be more direct. That's not true at
all! It might sound good (emphasis on the “might”), but it's absolute rubbish,
and dangerous rubbish at that! For, if “our faith catches the attention of
Jesus”, then faith has become a work!
That's why it's dangerous rubbish, because if “faith” is
transformed into a “work” then we end up with salvation by works. But, you say,
he said “our faith”, not “our works”! But the thing is, we can so empty the
word “faith” of its true content and fill it with new content that it ends up
becoming a work. And that's what's happened here!
Let’s diagram that tweet and see how it works:
Us + faith –> catching Jesus' attention –> Jesus doing
something
(The end of the original tweet went on to talk about what
Jesus would do if and when we caught his attention with our faith.) So you can
see in the diagram that this starts with us and something we do and ends up
with Jesus and something he does. In other words what we do gets Christ to do
something – Jesus responds to something in us. That, my friends, is all about
works.
Let's just clarify something: What is a work? Theologically,
a “work” is something which (1) has its source in human beings, and (2) is seen
as causing God to bless. So, if faith is seen as something which has it's
source in human beings and which causes God to bless, then it has become a
work.
But isn't that what faith is? By no means! Biblically, faith
doesn't meet either half of the definition of a work. Faith neither has its
source in human beings nor does it cause God to bless.
But hang on! People have faith, so how doesn't faith have
its source in people? True, it is people who have faith, but that doesn't mean
that they are the source of faith. Otherwise that would make them authors of
their own salvation! Biblically, faith doesn't find its origin in something in
us, but in something that comes to us from the outside. It is only as we see
Christ clothed in His gospel, as Christ comes to us in His Word, that we can
respond in faith. “Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of
Christ” (Rom. 10:17 ESV). Our believing is a response to Christ and what He has
done for us as it is proclaimed to us in the gospel. So, being a response,
faith's source is not in us, but in Christ and in His Word.
That means that faith isn't something we do to catch the
attention of Jesus, but rather, precisely the opposite. Faith is our attention
being caught by Jesus, and being caught in such a way that we cling to Him.
And just as faith doesn't find its source in us, so too
faith isn't a thing that causes God to bless. Again you might be scratching
your heads; it sort of sounds okay - faith and blessing do seem to go together
in the Bible. Doesn't Galatians link faith with the blessing of Abraham? (Gal.
3:9) Yes it does; it does link them. Faith and blessing are very biblically
linked. But that's not the same as saying that faith is a thing we do which
causes blessing.
When I defined a work, the type of cause I was talking about
is what theologians call a “meritorious cause” – in other words, faith is not
something by which we earn or merit God's favour. God is not pleased with us
because of how good we are at having faith, but because Jesus lived, obeyed,
died and rose for us, and we are now washed in His blood and clothed in His
righteousness. The “cause” of God's blessing on us is not how much or how hard
we believe, but Jesus Christ and Him crucified!
So, instead of:
Us + faith –> catching Jesus' attention –> Jesus doing
something
The real way it works is this:
Jesus does something (i.e. Incarnation & Atonement)
–> Jesus catches our attention –> faith
Our faith doesn't get Jesus to do stuff; our faith flows out
from what Jesus has done! And our faith grows, not by telling ourselves we need
more faith for Jesus to do more stuff, but by looking again and again to who
Jesus is and what He has already done for us in His incarnation and atonement.
Our faith and love for Christ won't grow by trying to muster up our own
interior resources; our faith and love for Christ will grow as we look to the
Cross.
I want to leave you with an example from the Old Testament
of what happens when people get the order of the relationship between faith,
attention and blessing wrong – but as this post is quite long enough already,
I'll save it for tomorrow. In the meantime, just remember it's Jesus who
catches our attention and we believe!
(P.S. Some Caveats: 1) I'm not saying that the Tweeter
actually believes what he tweeted; thankfully, in God's mercy, the
irresponsible things we say don't always correspond to what we're really trusting.
2) Don't worry, I'm not going to be tearing your Twitter feed apart in a mad
search for theological error! This is a very rare exception.)
...
Here endeth the repost.