| “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” |
"WHAT IS FAITH?"
(The exclusiveness of the word faith)
Early morning of September 17/04 around four o’clock, I was awaken with our television turned on the whole night on channel 9 on KQED. There were scholars: historians, university professors, a journalist and a theologian, discussing about faith of different religion. They quoted Sigmund Freud. Freud is the founder of psychoanalysis. He was a scientist, a brilliant man but an atheist. The scholars referred to Sigmund’s view of faith. Although they referred to C.S. Lewis’ view of Christianity and of it’s faith, the program ended up with no clear answer what faith really is.I was not satisfied with their discussions.
Although I have been teaching about faith so many times in the church, reading and studying from books written by various Bible scholars, teachers and theologians still, there was a burning desire in my heart to make a research. The first thing I did was to get my Strong Concordance and look for the word FAITH. By the way, a concordance is not a dictionary. A bible dictionary is where you will find definitions or meaning of words that you will find in the bible, preferably noun words that needed to be explained. Were as a Concordance is where you will find every single word in the bible that is used from Genesis to Revelation. It may be a noun, pronoun, verb, adverb or adjective, even conjunctions, every single word in the Bible can be found in a Strong Concordance.
I was stricken with amazement to find out that the word FAITH is only mentioned once in the Old Testament. It is mentioned in Habakkuk 2:4 where it says, “The righteous will live by faith.” And it was quoted by Paul in Romans 1:17.
In Deuteronomy 32:20, God said, “I will hide my face from them and see what their end will be for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.” The word unfaithful is an adjective, what I was looking for is the noun word FAITH.
The New Testament book from Matthew to Revelation, the word FAITH is mentioned 243 times. In Matthew Jesus mentioned faith eleven times. In Mark four times. In Luke ten times. I was surprised that not even one word of faith is written in the gospel of John. Why? I was contemplating for a while then I remembered that in Matthew the writer presented Jesus as the king of the Jews. In Mark the writer presented Jesus as the suffering servant and in Luke the writer presented Jesus as a Man. But the gospel of John the writer revealed Jesus emphatically as GOD.
(John 1:1-3) “In the beginning was the WORD and the WORD was with GOD and the WORD was GOD. He was with GOD in the beginning. Through Him all things were made, without Him nothing was made that has been made.” (Verse 14), “The WORD became flesh and dwell among us.”
It was Jesus who became flesh. He is God the Creator.
Here in the book of John, Jesus clearly claimed that He is God. That was why the religious leaders accused Him of blasphemy. In (John 14:6) Jesus said: “I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life no one can come to the Father but through me.” In Exodus 3:1-14, God spoke to Moses from the burning bush and said, “Go, I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people Israel out of Egypt. (Verses 10/13), “Moses said to God ‘Supposed I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me what is his name, then what shall I tell them?” (Verse 14), “God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM This is what you are tosay to the Israelites, I AM has sent me to you.”
Many times Jesus said in the book of John, “I AM.”
John 6:35 " I am the bread of life.”
John 8:12 “ I am the light of the world.”
John 8:58 “ Before Abraham was I am.”
John 10:7 “ I am the door.”
John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd.”
John 11:25 “I am the resurrection.”
John 15:5 “I am the vine.”
Who spoke to Moses in the burning bush? It was Jesus, the pre-incarnate Christ.
Romans 10:17
“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”
The word of God is Jesus. Faith will only come in a heart of a man if you preach that Jesus is the Only Savior and that He is God. That is why there was no need of mentioning the word FAITH in the gospel of John.
There are groups of religion that says, Jesus is not God He is only a man. That is subtracting from the gospel or taking away from the Word. There are also those who believe that Jesus is God, but then you have to worship other gods. That is adding to the gospel or adding to the Word. Contaminated gospel is no gospel at all. That’s bad news. Faith will never come in hearing a contaminated gospel.
People converted to Islam, Are they sincere to their belief? Sure they are, otherwise they wont be willing to die and kill other people who does not belong to their religion. How about the Hindus? How about the Buddhist and all the religions in the world that doesn’t believe in the Bible and of Christ? They are sincere too? Is it not faith? The bible says it is not! A man, any man is capable of believing anything. Believing anything other than Jesus the Son of the Living God and the only Savior base upon what the bible say is not faith at all. Faith is exclusively in believing Jesus Christ. Romans 10:17 “Faith comes from hearing, about Jesus Christ. The Word of God.”
Men did not just randomly write the Bible. In II Timothy 3:16, it says “All Scripture is God-Breathed…” In II Peter 1:20-21, “No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
It is very clear that God was the author of the Bible. God intricately or meticulously designed even in arranging the Word FAITH in the Bible. Although English is not the original language, I believe that God is behind in arranging the word faith and to be discovered in the Strong Concordance.
I was amazed to find out that in the Old Testament though it is a thick book compared to the New Testament, only once Faith was mentioned. That one verse is very important and needed to be explained. From Habakkuk 2:4, “The righteous shall live by faith.” In Romans 3:10, “As it written: No one is righteous no not one.” No one can declare himself righteous. It is only GOD who can declare a man righteous. If a man receives Christ as his personal Savior then he’ll be clothed with Jesus robe of righteousness then and only then will a man can live by faith. (Isaiah 61:10)
Were the men of God in the Old Testament doesn’t have faith? They have hope for the coming Messiah to save them. But the word faith was not used yet. I Peter 1:10-11, “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, Seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the suffering of Christ and the glories to fallow.”
Only in the New Testament were the Patriarch was called men of faith. Why? The Word has not become flesh yet. That’s why.
I was converted to a Pentecostal Church where it specializes gifts, signs and wonders. We fasted and prayed hard so God can make miracles in our midst. Yes it works and I thank God for that. But yet I found out in the Bible that miracles is not a guaranty for people to have faith in the Lord. In Romans 10:17, it says "Faith comes from hearing,’ not from seeing.
In Matthew 11:20-21, “Jesus began to reproach the city of Chorazin and Bethsaida were most of His miracles were done, yet they did not repent.” If they have believed then they should have repented. They don’t have faith, that’s obvious even though most of the Lord’s miracles was done in their midst.
Jesus story about the rich man and Lazarus were the rich man begged Abraham to send Lazarus to his father’s house to warn his five brothers so they will not come to the place of Torment were the rich man was. Abraham answered, “They already have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them.” The rich man says “But Father Abraham, if someone will go to them from the dead they will believe.” Abraham said. “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead.”
So, seeing miracles to the extend that even a man be risen from the dead is not a guaranty for people to have faith. “They already have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them.” What does it mean? It means they already have the scriptures. What is the scripture telling about? Jesus said, “Moses and the Prophets was talking about me.” (Luke 5:46-47)
(John 5:39)
Jesus said, “You search the scripture because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of ME.”
(John 5:46-47)
Jesus said, "For if you believe Moses you would believe ME, for he wrote of ME, but if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words.”
(John 8:24)
Jesus said, "I said therefore to you, that you shall die in your sins, for unless you believe that I AM HE you shall die in your sins.”
The Old Testament book is not just an account of how God in the beginning made the world and how He called and gave Abraham a promise. It is not just the history of Israel. It is not just about the law given to Moses. But most importantly it is all about the coming Messiah. The coming of Christ the Savior.” The center theme of the Scripture is Jesus Christ.
John 5:39 The scripture bear witness of Jesus.
John 5:46-47 Moses’ writings was about Jesus.
John 8:24 Jesus said, “I AM HE” He who? "The Promise Messiah". " The Christ". "The Savior".
Many times Jesus rebuked His disciples and says, “O, men of little faith.” In Matthew 6:30, Jesus was addressing to the Jews and to His disciples when He said “O, men of little faith.” He was expecting them to believe because they have the Scripture. When He came it was the fulfillment of the Scripture that was why He always says to them. “Have you not read in the Scripture?”
Little faith is not about the amount or the quantity of faith they have. But they have doubts in there hearts about the claim of Jesus that He is the One as the Scriptures say He was even though they have seen miracles after miracles.
A centurion who was a Gentile who doesn’t have the scripture yet he believed the Lord. In Matthew 8:10, Jesus marveled and said: “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.” No doubt that the Centurion heard the Scripture read in the Synagogue because he was the one who built the building for the Jews. (Luke 7:5)
A Canaanite woman was crying out, “O, Lord, Son of David have mercy on me, my daughter is cruelly demon possessed.” Why did she mentioned Son of David if she had not heard from the Scripture read in the Synagogue about a descendant of David the Messiah to come? Jesus said to the woman,“O, woman, your faith is great; be it done for you as you wish.” (Matthew 15:21-18)
No doubt the Centurion and the Canaanite woman based their faith upon what they heard from the Scripture about the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you don’t believe what the Bible say about Jesus, Signs and Wonder are of no used. There is even danger on seeking miracles because Satan can make miracles too.
For me I don’t base my faith upon miracles though I have seen miracles in my life until now. I base my faith on what the Bible says about Jesus that He is alive, that He is God. With or without miracle. Healing or without healing. I may prosper financially or I may live in poverty, I still believe that Jesus is alive. What else can I say? Without Him our life will be meaningless. He is the object of my faith.
Biblical faith can only be obtained exclusively in believing Jesus that He is God and the only Savior. Other than that teaching all other beliefs are just fanatical belief NOT FAITH AT ALL. Those brilliant people, those scholars, who were discussing about faith, were totally wrong in their speculations.
Sad to say that the most abused word in the Bible is the word FAITH by greedy preachers. They are commercializing the word faith alluring people to give so they become rich by merchandising the word. These preachers say faith is a force. What you have to do is to enlarge your faith. How? You have to do something. Make business with God. If you send a large amount of money to them you are exercising your faith. Small amount of money you send you have a little faith. What a shame! They will use the word SEED FAITH when you cannot find such compound word in the Bible. When will be these so called preachers learn to be honest in their preaching the Word? FAITH CAN ONLY BE OBTAINED EXCLUSIVELY IN BELIEVING JESUS THAT HE IS GOD AND THE ONLY SAVIOR AS THE SCRIPTURE SAYS.
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