Theology for Daily Living: A Class for Women
Session Five: Faith
Today we looked at the three compentents that make up the theology of faith- faith that saves, grows/acts, and unites us to Christ
“Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,” Hebrews 12:1-2
Faith Saves (Hebrews 11:1-6)
Faith tells us that God is: although we do not see Him we know Him. Through faith we know Him and we trust Him. Through faith we are connected personally and intimately to God.
1. What is Faith?
Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” And Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Baker’s defines faith as “belief, trust, and loyalty to a person or thing. Christians find their security and hope in God as revealed in Jesus Christ, and say ‘amen’ to that unique relationship to God in the Holy Spirit through love and obedience as expressed in lives of discipleship and service.”
2. Knowledge vs. Belief
Faith is more than simply acknowledging the person and work of Christ. There are men in the bible who knew Jesus and still did not believe. Knowledge is not enough; we can “believe” all we read in the gospels and lack faith. Faith is trust in the promises of God, that God is who He says He is and that He will do what He said He would do. Both Cain and Abel knew God, but it was Abel who had faith (Hebrews 11:4, cf. Genesis 4).
3. pro nobis
Faith is personal. Faith hinges on the distinct idea that Christ’s death and resurrection was for each of us. Martin Luther refers to this as pro nobis, that Christ was born for us individually and accomplished for us the work of salvation. This is where belief overcomes knowledge, where we move from darkness to Light (John 11:26), death to life (Romans 6:11) – when we trust that Jesus’ work on the cross was for us, personally. Faith believes that God’s word applies to each one of us (Hebrews 11:3, 6).
Faith begins, as CS Lewis said, in a point where we recognize who we are, our moral bankruptcy, and who God is, His complete supremacy – even if we could give a perfect existence to God, it would only be His due. We come to Christ empty, but faith doesn’t end there. Faith acts. Faith works. Faith grows.
Faith Grows (Hebrews 11:7-40)
In this section, the author of Hebrews runs through an Old Testament “hall of fame” of sorts. It’s all the famous heroes of the bible, men and women of faith. We see that their faith was composed of trust and obedience; their faith was one that worked, acted and grew (as our faith should – 1 John 2:3-6; James 1:21-27).
1. Trust (11:7-16)
Faith is about trusting in the promises of God. Noah trusted God when He said He was going to flood the earth (Genesis 6). Abraham trusted God when God told him to leave his home (Genesis 12). Sarah trusted God would give her a son (Genesis 21).
Hebrews 11:13-16 describes them as thinking of a “better country.” They trusted in God to work in His time and they kept their focus on what God said was real. CS Lewis describes this aspect of faith as “the art of holding onto things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes…” Remember the psalmist in Psalm 73 (from the first class)? We have to fall upon who God says He is, especially in the face of our emotions.
2. Obedience (11:17-29)
Obedience is faith in action. In every example of faith there is an overarching theme of obedience. Abraham is credited as a man of faith because he obeyed (Genesis 22). The author of Hebrews shows how Abraham’s obedience blessed and affected his generations (11:20-22), and the apostle Paul calls him the father of our faith (Galatians 3:7-9, cf. Romans 4:11).
In Deuteronomy Moses, after laying before the Israelites blessings (through obeying the law) and curses (through disobeying the law), exhorts the people to choose life, to choose to obey. “Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him,” Deuteronomy 30:19b-20.
Obeying God is a choice we make, it’s about our heart. Through faith we choose to trust Him and know that He is a rewarder of those who trust and obey (Hebrews 11:6, cf. Genesis 22:15-18). In Hebrews 11:24-29 we see that the choices Moses and his parents made were made out of faith. They “endured,” they saw Him “who was unseen” and in faith, they obeyed.
3. Work (11:30-40)
Philippians 2:12-13 exhorts believers to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you.” Faith must be cultivated, it grows or fades – it is not stagnant. Abraham grew in his faith. “Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God…” Romans 4:19-20.
Hebrews 11: 33-38. Our faith is manifested in our actions. What we believe isn’t in what we say but in what we do. The people in this section of scripture endured suffering and apparent defeat in death.
4. Right Action, Right Belief
Faith acts. Faith’s actions are born from trust and obedience. Jesus rebuked his disciples for lacking faith when they were fraught with worry, anxiety, distress and confusion (Matthew 6:30, 8:26, 14:31 and 16:8). Our lives look different when we live out our faith.
Habakkuk 2:4 says “Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith.” And the actions of faith are born and exist in the union we have with God, in Christ, through the Holy Spirit dwelling within each of us.
Faith Unites Us to Christ (Hebrews 12:1-2)
The power of faith unites us to Christ. As John 11:46 says, we have moved from darkness into Light. Faith is what moves us from a life of sin and death (darkness) to a life in Christ (Light). Paul stresses this fact with the use of the phrase “in Christ” (i.e. Romans 6:11, 23).
Luther described faith as the wedding ring which unites us to our bridegroom, Christ. He said faith “unites the soul with Christ, as a bride is united with her bridegroom.” Peter, in writing an exhortation to a church in the midst of a painful time, said of the enemy, “but resist him, firm in your faith.” Growing in our faith is like building a firm marriage; Christ is our bridegroom, our wedding ring is our faith, and we are to be faithful brides.
Hebrews 12:1-2 is both an exhortation and an instruction. Becoming ever more firm in our faith builds our relationship and is our protection in this life – like the examples of faith in Hebrews 11, who were ‘looking for a different country,’ (11:16) and ‘saw Christ as greater than riches’ (26) and ‘gained approval through their faith’ (11:39). And we live faith by putting aside sin (11:25), fixing our eyes on Christ (11:16, 12:2).
Discussion Questions
1. Habakkuk 2:4 tells us “the righteous shall live by faith.” Why is that verse so key? What does it mean to live by faith? ** the idea being that to live by faith combines right action (live) with right belief (faith).
2. The author of Hebrews says Moses “chose to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,” Hebrews 11:25. How does the idea of an “eternal perspective,” (see 11:13-16 and 11:24-27) effect the way we should live out our daily lives? How does the idea of obedience play out here? *remember Moses’ words in Deuteronomy 30:19, we have to choose life, obedience is always a choice we make…
3. After all these great examples of powerful acts of faith, chapter 11 ends with “and all these, having gained approval through their faith did not receive what was promised.” What does it say about our faith when we pray or look to God for some thing or event that doesn’t happen and we get distressed? or angry? How should we respond to seasons (or even lives) of waiting? *for example, Abraham had been waiting decades before he was blessed w/ a son…
4. What does it mean to say there is a difference between faith and knowledge? Does it make sense to you that the puritans promoted faith as something that had to occur within the whole person?
5. Martin Luther really promoted the analogy of faith as the wedding ring that unites the believer (bride) to Christ (bridegroom). What does it mean to be in union with Christ? How does Ephesians 5:25-32 impact your view of your union with Christ?
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Forgiveness and Love
I thought I’d clarify for you a comment I made on the last night of the retreat. It seemed there were many gals who didn’t want to come because they don’t feel they relate to women well. I totally respect and understand that, and definitely could have been said to feel that way myself in years past. However, my reasons were quite different. Let me explain.
I had prepared for months to do the Worship music for the retreat with joy and gladness in my heart. I was excited and challenged. I’d never led in such a capacity before. I’d led out on songs, and I’d even helped Tom make up sets before, but I’d never had the burden of responsibility so squarely put on my shoulders. However, I was confident God would be strong in my weakness and inability. I prayed for each of you who attended, that God would work in your hearts through the message and the music, and that particularly, the offerings of music would draw you to God and truly lead you in to worship. I prayed that I wouldn’t get in the way, and that the “team” would pull together in harmony.
I forgot to pray for myself, and I came under serious spiritual attack. A few days before the retreat, I began to doubt my ability to successfully navigate a whole weekend’s worth of worship sets. I began to feel we as a team had too little preparation. Thursday, I began to doubt you gals would be able to sing along, and that it would become a hobbled, rag tag performance of sorts as we limped our way through the songs. And though God calmed my fears and assuaged my doubts, I began to let bitterness grow toward others, and it started so small, I didn’t notice it.
Over two years ago, the Holy Spirit turned my life around by teaching me to forgive. I learned that my bitterness was most damaging to me, rather than those whom I harbored it towards. But what’s more, I learned that I was in disobedience to God, throwing his love—his forgiveness—back in his face. I learned that I was exacting punishment for small sins against me, while begging God to forgive my very nature. So humbling and so freeing was this revelation about forgiveness, that my marriage was restored. My life was so vastly improved by a heart willing to forgive that I couldn’t help but share the news and the value of forgiveness with others. If you want to read a few of the verses that were instrumental in learning about forgiveness, see Eph 4:26-27, 31-32, and especially Matthew 18:21-35
Ever since then, I have occasional bouts of believing I have this forgiveness “thing” figured out, and God has shown me otherwise. As soon as pride creeps in and I feel I’ve arrived and am complete, as far as forgiving others, I am challenged and I fail, and rediscover that it is only through Christ that I can forgive at all—I forgive because I have been forgiven, and that not of my own ability, but through Christ in me.
The retreat found me in such a place of pride, on the brink of a challenge, on the brink of failure, and quite simply, I didn’t want to go there. I didn’t want the pain of growth, I didn’t want to change.
I guess for once, pride served me well, because there was no way I could let Bridget and Crystal, Tammi, and Sarah down. I couldn’t face them if I gave up and bagged out. And so, I went on the retreat.
Praise God that he is faithful to himself. Nothing got in the way of his name being praised and glorified. It was an awesome weekend of worship, and you gals sang your hearts out! It was truly such a blessing and a joy to be a part of.
However, I didn’t experience the full joy and blessing of the weekend until over a week had passed. My fear of being challenged and of failure had been fully realized, and though I’d succeeded in forgiveness on some fronts, I had let a vital aspect of forgiveness slip through my fingers.
Forgiveness is not simply about turning the other cheek and forgoing retribution. It’s not about putting the past behind you. As a Christian, forgiveness is about emulating Christ, and he is LOVE. Forgiveness in Christ is about love.
And though I felt I had gone quite far enough in forgiving, and by the world’s standards, I’d gone much farther than necessary, I fell far short of Christ. How deep is Christ’s love? Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” On the cross, he begged forgiveness for his killers (Luke 23:34a), and John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” —mothers, you know how great a love it must be that a father could sacrifice his own child!
Ah, my heart. Even writing this, I am struck with how lowly I am. How foolishly I raised myself up, crowing in pride over my righteousness. How I mocked God in claiming to love and forgive those who sin against me. God’s love is so much more than I offer in my measly forgiveness. He not only gave up his Son for us, but then adopted us as his own! (Ephesians 1:5) How far did I want to go? I wanted to “forgive” and then detach. It would be easy to avoid a recurring need to forgive if I simply avoided anyone who could require my forgiveness.
The book Chris is currently taking us through, Ecclesiastes, is not my favorite, but like the retreat, it serves to reveal my sin and causes growing pains, and the growth itself is good. Chapter 7 was so perfectly timed and full of pointed truths:
Ecc 7:9 “Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, For anger resides in the bosom of fools.”
I’m not sure eager is the best description of what was going on in my heart, but I was inclined to become angry, which is essentially the same thing.
Ecc 7:16 “Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself?”
Chris explained that being excessively righteous is self righteousness. That’s exactly what I was.
Ecc 7:20 “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who {continually} does good and who never sins.”
A very true statement, and a very good reason not to be self righteous.
Ecc 7:21 - 22 “Also, do not take seriously all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your servant cursing you.
For you also have realized that you likewise have many times cursed others.”
What good advice! Why should I take so seriously words that are not given much consideration by the one who speaks them? And another good reminder that I am not above sin.
Ecclesiastes 7 was God piercing my heart with truth.
But in my pride and blindness, I refused to fully comprehend the purpose of these verses in my life for that moment. So God pressed me further with fruitful fellowship. The final stroke, when my eyes were truly opened, came from a conversation with Beth Stitt, in which I spoke of my mom, who looks for the good in others rather than the bad. I’ve strived to cultivate the same perspective. My mom is inclined to love others rather than critically regard them, finding weakness and flaws. She sees people as unfinished projects, and shows love even in the face of unkindness toward herself.
As I related this, I realized that Christ’s love is so much greater even than this. My mom’s love requires that she be able to recognize some character trait as good. Christ loves us in spite of clearly seeing all our bad points, and seeing, too, that our good points are rather more like our least-worst points, hardly good at all. I want to look on others with Christ’s eyes, and have Christ’s love.
What’s more, the love of Jesus is not a one time thing, there is no limit to it. And so each day we sin against him, and each day, our all-knowing God loves us anyway, forgiving us and being in our lives and exposing himself to more of our sin tomorrow. (Lamentations 3:21-23, Psalm 100:5)
In all my unworthiness, God, in all his greatness, loves me. Who could possibly be so unworthy as to not deserve my love?
There is no one.
I’ve prayed for the last year that God would give me His heart of love, and I can say with confidence that I now have a fuller understanding of what that means, and that I have a heart more like his than ever before. It’s worth all the pain it took to get there. What a joy and what a blessing. Praise God!
I had prepared for months to do the Worship music for the retreat with joy and gladness in my heart. I was excited and challenged. I’d never led in such a capacity before. I’d led out on songs, and I’d even helped Tom make up sets before, but I’d never had the burden of responsibility so squarely put on my shoulders. However, I was confident God would be strong in my weakness and inability. I prayed for each of you who attended, that God would work in your hearts through the message and the music, and that particularly, the offerings of music would draw you to God and truly lead you in to worship. I prayed that I wouldn’t get in the way, and that the “team” would pull together in harmony.
I forgot to pray for myself, and I came under serious spiritual attack. A few days before the retreat, I began to doubt my ability to successfully navigate a whole weekend’s worth of worship sets. I began to feel we as a team had too little preparation. Thursday, I began to doubt you gals would be able to sing along, and that it would become a hobbled, rag tag performance of sorts as we limped our way through the songs. And though God calmed my fears and assuaged my doubts, I began to let bitterness grow toward others, and it started so small, I didn’t notice it.
Over two years ago, the Holy Spirit turned my life around by teaching me to forgive. I learned that my bitterness was most damaging to me, rather than those whom I harbored it towards. But what’s more, I learned that I was in disobedience to God, throwing his love—his forgiveness—back in his face. I learned that I was exacting punishment for small sins against me, while begging God to forgive my very nature. So humbling and so freeing was this revelation about forgiveness, that my marriage was restored. My life was so vastly improved by a heart willing to forgive that I couldn’t help but share the news and the value of forgiveness with others. If you want to read a few of the verses that were instrumental in learning about forgiveness, see Eph 4:26-27, 31-32, and especially Matthew 18:21-35
Ever since then, I have occasional bouts of believing I have this forgiveness “thing” figured out, and God has shown me otherwise. As soon as pride creeps in and I feel I’ve arrived and am complete, as far as forgiving others, I am challenged and I fail, and rediscover that it is only through Christ that I can forgive at all—I forgive because I have been forgiven, and that not of my own ability, but through Christ in me.
The retreat found me in such a place of pride, on the brink of a challenge, on the brink of failure, and quite simply, I didn’t want to go there. I didn’t want the pain of growth, I didn’t want to change.
I guess for once, pride served me well, because there was no way I could let Bridget and Crystal, Tammi, and Sarah down. I couldn’t face them if I gave up and bagged out. And so, I went on the retreat.
Praise God that he is faithful to himself. Nothing got in the way of his name being praised and glorified. It was an awesome weekend of worship, and you gals sang your hearts out! It was truly such a blessing and a joy to be a part of.
However, I didn’t experience the full joy and blessing of the weekend until over a week had passed. My fear of being challenged and of failure had been fully realized, and though I’d succeeded in forgiveness on some fronts, I had let a vital aspect of forgiveness slip through my fingers.
Forgiveness is not simply about turning the other cheek and forgoing retribution. It’s not about putting the past behind you. As a Christian, forgiveness is about emulating Christ, and he is LOVE. Forgiveness in Christ is about love.
And though I felt I had gone quite far enough in forgiving, and by the world’s standards, I’d gone much farther than necessary, I fell far short of Christ. How deep is Christ’s love? Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” On the cross, he begged forgiveness for his killers (Luke 23:34a), and John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” —mothers, you know how great a love it must be that a father could sacrifice his own child!
Ah, my heart. Even writing this, I am struck with how lowly I am. How foolishly I raised myself up, crowing in pride over my righteousness. How I mocked God in claiming to love and forgive those who sin against me. God’s love is so much more than I offer in my measly forgiveness. He not only gave up his Son for us, but then adopted us as his own! (Ephesians 1:5) How far did I want to go? I wanted to “forgive” and then detach. It would be easy to avoid a recurring need to forgive if I simply avoided anyone who could require my forgiveness.
The book Chris is currently taking us through, Ecclesiastes, is not my favorite, but like the retreat, it serves to reveal my sin and causes growing pains, and the growth itself is good. Chapter 7 was so perfectly timed and full of pointed truths:
Ecc 7:9 “Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, For anger resides in the bosom of fools.”
I’m not sure eager is the best description of what was going on in my heart, but I was inclined to become angry, which is essentially the same thing.
Ecc 7:16 “Do not be excessively righteous and do not be overly wise. Why should you ruin yourself?”
Chris explained that being excessively righteous is self righteousness. That’s exactly what I was.
Ecc 7:20 “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who {continually} does good and who never sins.”
A very true statement, and a very good reason not to be self righteous.
Ecc 7:21 - 22 “Also, do not take seriously all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your servant cursing you.
For you also have realized that you likewise have many times cursed others.”
What good advice! Why should I take so seriously words that are not given much consideration by the one who speaks them? And another good reminder that I am not above sin.
Ecclesiastes 7 was God piercing my heart with truth.
But in my pride and blindness, I refused to fully comprehend the purpose of these verses in my life for that moment. So God pressed me further with fruitful fellowship. The final stroke, when my eyes were truly opened, came from a conversation with Beth Stitt, in which I spoke of my mom, who looks for the good in others rather than the bad. I’ve strived to cultivate the same perspective. My mom is inclined to love others rather than critically regard them, finding weakness and flaws. She sees people as unfinished projects, and shows love even in the face of unkindness toward herself.
As I related this, I realized that Christ’s love is so much greater even than this. My mom’s love requires that she be able to recognize some character trait as good. Christ loves us in spite of clearly seeing all our bad points, and seeing, too, that our good points are rather more like our least-worst points, hardly good at all. I want to look on others with Christ’s eyes, and have Christ’s love.
What’s more, the love of Jesus is not a one time thing, there is no limit to it. And so each day we sin against him, and each day, our all-knowing God loves us anyway, forgiving us and being in our lives and exposing himself to more of our sin tomorrow. (Lamentations 3:21-23, Psalm 100:5)
In all my unworthiness, God, in all his greatness, loves me. Who could possibly be so unworthy as to not deserve my love?
There is no one.
I’ve prayed for the last year that God would give me His heart of love, and I can say with confidence that I now have a fuller understanding of what that means, and that I have a heart more like his than ever before. It’s worth all the pain it took to get there. What a joy and what a blessing. Praise God!
Monday, May 26, 2008
May 31st....
....is our last class! Same time (9am) and same place (seaside)- I hope we see you all there!
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