Is Seeing Believing?

"...' I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!'" (Mark 9:24, NIV).  

Some skeptics will tell you that seeing is believing!  Actually, it's the reverse:  believing is seeing!  Augustine said, "I believe in order to understand."  Philosophers will tell you all knowledge begins in faith with some presupposition you cannot prove.  When our hearts are opened by the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit we do see things in a new light though and the eyes of faith see things that the unbelieving world cannot.  There is nothing that will make an unbelieving person see--no amount of light can restore blindness!  It takes a supernatural work of God to open the eyes of the blind (spiritually speaking).

Just like the hymn that goes, "I was blind, but now I see." Then we have a new perspective on life with Christ as the center focus.  And He gives us purpose and meaning that only He can do and no other religion can do.  As the psalmist wrote, "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law" (cf. Psalm 119:18, NIV), so we were blinded by Satan and could not see any spiritual truth until Jesus set us free from bondage.  Indeed, we shall know the truth and the truth shall set us free!  We should be eager to see things in a new light!

"Faith is not about how much we believe but how well we obey."  It has been said that it's not believing in spite of the evidence but obeying despite the consequences. Faith has legs and goes somewhere is an action word--it goes somewhere, for we walk by faith, not by sight (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17).  James 2:18 says, "I will show you my faith by my deeds." While Paul would complement that with:  "I will show you my good deeds by my faith."  Abraham by faith obeyed God!  His faith was confirmed by his act of circumcision, not begun.  We verify that we have faith in the eyes of others and become God's witnesses.

Faith is suspect without works and we are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone (the Reformer's formula).  It has been also said that we are not saved by works but unto works! Not by good behavior but unto good behavior!  We must validate our faith by works though.  In short, we're not saved by good works, but not without them either!  As James said, "Faith without works is dead," so we must desire to live it out and grow from faith to faith.  We must bear in mind that dead faith doesn't save.  And so it is something seen, going somewhere, not just possessed.  Just like good soil produces fruit, so saving faith produces good deeds.

The point is that when we see faith in action in others it encourages our faith and it becomes a witness to a blinded world--we must show our faith and be bold to not be ashamed of the opportunity to stand up for Christ.  We only need mustard-seed faith to be saved and the object is what saves, not the faith.  We don't have faith in faith!  One problem in the church is misdirected zeal and zeal without knowledge or fanaticism.  This kind of faith does more harm than good.  The faith you have is the faith you show in essence and it's your knowledge in action.  We must never divorce faith and faithfulness, for these two go hand in hand as we grow in the faith.

CAVEAT:  We must beware of head belief or storybook faith that is not a conversion of the heart and transformation of the whole soul.  In the final analysis, we must prove we have saving faith that springs from sincerity and good deeds--a conversion of the heart, mind, and will--we will know them by their fruits.

Concluding thoughts:  There is just enough light to see for the willing and enough darkness not to see for the unwilling; at any rate, we must turn our creeds into deeds and express just like John MacArthur said, "True faith manifests itself in obedience only."    Soli Deo Gloria!

Be Prepared!

"... Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have..." (1 Pet. 3:15, NIV).

The Boy Scout motto "Be prepared!" is pertinent to our faith too. If we are prepared, God will see fit to use us for His glory to do His will and will give us opportunities to exercise faithfulness.  Jesus told us to teach all disciples to obey all He commanded in the discipleship of others.  But no matter how prepared we are, we must learn to lean on God's grace and power to complete the mission given to us.  We must humbly realize that we can do nothing apart from grace and Christ's power (cf. John 15:5). We all must prepare for our mission; Christ spent thirty years in preparation for three years of ministry and they all wondered how he had such learning, having never studied!

We don't do preparatory work to become saved or any pre-salvation exercise either.  We are totally transformed by grace as we are wooed into the kingdom.  If we came to the throne alone, we are likely to leave alone.  We can contribute nothing to our salvation either; if we had to, we would fail!  Remember Christ's words:  "No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him..." (John 6:44, ESV).  As Martin Luther's hymn goes:  "Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing."  We are subject to the enabling ministry of the Spirit.  The ironic fact is that the closer we get to Christ, the more we realize we need Him and realize our own unworthiness.  We must never forget that we have nothing we didn't receive!  (Cf. 1 Cor. 4:7).  We must always identify with Paul, who said he could do all things through Him who strengthened him (cf. Phil. 4:13; John 15:5).

We must prepare ourselves for the mission we are called to, whether by academic, experience, the school of hard knocks, or by direct discipleship.  Not everyone is fortunate enough to have a mentor and must learn to rely on books, online info, and church activities, fellowship, and Bible studies.  That's why it's so important to be in a Bible-based and Bible-teaching church.  We must never lose focus that Christ aims to make us in His image by knocking away at everything that doesn't look like Him.  We must learn from Providence and experience as well as directly from the Word.  Experience is the best teacher if one is applying what one learns.  We become good witnesses by experience--we don't just wake up one day and resolve to be a good witness!  We must never forget that "Iron sharpens iron" (cf. Prov. 27:17)! This is why a cloistered virtue is no virtue at all and we must not aim to live a monastic life escaping the real world where we are needed to be God's witnesses as salt and light.

Our aim is not to become scholars ("the world by wisdom knew not God"--1 Cor. 1:21) but to apply the knowledge we know and to use it to God's glory.  Knowledge is not an end in itself but a byproduct of seeking the Lord!  Wisdom is the right use of knowledge and the aim is to get wisdom even if it takes all we have!  Wisdom can come from experience, especially if we aren't in tune with the Word, but knowing the Word can be a great blessing too, and seeing God fulfill and honor it.  We reinforce it with doing it.  We don't study the Bible to know all the answers, nor to be content at being doctrinally correct, nor to be a cut above other Christians, but to but the purpose of Scripture is Scripture--we must learn to let God speak to us and enjoy the Word in communion and fellowship.  We will learn to love the Word as we apply it and it becomes real to us.

It's been said that the Bible is our Owner's Manual (meant to be user-friendly), but it's our line of communication with God whereby He has promised to speak to us, if we faithfully read the Word, an important "if" or conditional.  We must never think that our situation is special and God will make an exception in our case and see things our way!  We must be willing to pray the prayer of relinquishment as Christ did in the Garden of Gethsemane:  "Thy will be done!"   Instilling a basic love of the Word in people at an early age is of vital importance and they must realize that the faith can be defended in the open marketplace of ideas and we don't have to privatize nor apologize for our faith!  But unfortunately, most youths don't even know what they believe, much less know how to defend it, and this is a kind of unbelief.

Finally, it's been said that if you won't die for your honor, then you don't have any!  When we take up our cross for Christ, that's what it may entail someday and we must be ready to lay down our life if need be, and be willing to die for God's honor, our honor, and His will.  If we won't die for anyone or anything, we probably don't know how to live either!   All of us must ultimately ask ourselves the question:  Would you die for your allegiance to Jesus?  Only then can you know you are prepared to live for Him!     Soli Deo Gloria!