Two Types of Faith

"There are two, and only two, types of faith: The one from the fact that I trust someone... the other from the fact that I acknowledge something to be true." - Martin Buber

According to Buber, religious faith involves either trusting God or believing in a revealed truth. I am very good at the latter. I wholeheartedly believe that Jesus was born of a virgin birth, died on the cross, rose on the third day, etc. The former? Not so good.

But isn't that the reason Jesus came? Isn't that the primary takeaway of both the Old and New Testaments? In reconciling us to the Father, Christ paved the way for us to trust in a person. To trust in a person as real as you and me; in an all-powerful, yet personable God and His mercy. Christ is both the reason and the source for this trust; God cannot disown himself.

I want to trust God this way - unconditional trust that overshadows fact, logic, truth, belief, reason and emotion.

Forgiveness

Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins behind your back.

Isaiah 38:17

Believe

It is hard work to believe what is already true. I am more convinced of that each day. While I pay verbal assent to my identity as God's child, I'm more likely to be affected by a positive performance review or a cutting slight.

This is a quote from John Bunyan, author of The Pilgrim's Progress: "Run for heaven, fight for heaven, labor for heaven, wrestle for heaven, or you are like to go without it... He that undertakes to believe, sets upon the hardest task that ever was proposed to man... believing is sweating work."

Such believing is especially hard during the "dark night of the soul," when hope evades us and nothing seems to comfort. It does help for me to frame the fight as not one to earn righteousness or approval, or add to anything... it is a fight to believe what is already true. It is a fight of faith - to hold on to something we did not procure and rest in something we are in no way responsible for.

Performance

Received this from a mentor at work. Must say, it's quite da hilarious:

"You know, one day somebody is going to say you did a less than an exception job. And I’m going to be there to kick you while you’re down. Just kidding..."

Humility

Humility is not self-hatred or lack of self confidence. Humility is the ability to see oneself, and this world, through God’s eyes. A humble man increasingly sees himself as he really is; “wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked” (Rev. 3:17). Ironically, this humility lays the sure foundation for real contentment, confidence, and accurate self-knowledge. By contrast, pride is spiritual blindness. And pride is that to which we are most blind. Pride is a demonic Catch 22, causing us to chase our spiritual tails. I could not see my pride because I was full of it. Pride, a spiritual veil, blinds us to the truth about ourselves. C.S. Lewis wrote, “There is no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves…. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.”2 Here is the great paradox: the proud man thinks he is humble; the humble man thinks he is proud.

- "Finding Intimacy with God" by William Farley

Faithless

"...if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself."

2 Timothy 2:13

Timothy is my favorite Bible character. He's not a Paul, David or Moses, but there's something very refreshing about his consistency, quiet support and "underdog" type personality.

I never noticed 2 Timothy 2:13 till recently, when my heart could no longer find any certainty in its faithfulness. Maybe that's one of the key purposes of God's word - bringing us to a deep, unarguable conviction that God is true / we are liars. Our hearts are deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9); our righteousness as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6); our flesh - constant "idol factories" dedicated to our own glory. Were WE the full story or the basis for goodness, salvation would always be a doubt.

But "thanks be to God" (Romans 6:17) - we were saved by faith alone, by grace alone.

This has been a hard lesson for me to learn. Everything in me screams for certainty; for proof that I am not as bad as I think, that I deserve to be loved, that I, that I, that I... Why else would the cross be foolishness and a stumbling block to those who do not believe?

The cross humbles us. Our condition is worse than we could ever imagine. For me, this half of the truth is not hard to comprehend. Our status as sinners is empirically, the easiest proven fact. If we just focus on this half of the truth however, we are left with shame, guilt and an insurmountable task of paying our limitless penance.

Truth. Through the cross, we are reconciled to God (Romans 5:10). By faith, we are spared from proving, from losing, from deserving, from earning, from, from... By faith. "...if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself."

I do not think that Paul means - if we do not have faith, but rather - during the times our faith wanes and falters we do not need to be disheartened. We are reminded that our hope is Christ alone - even when we are faithless. What is our hope for salvation, for life, for freedom? It is the very fact that God cannot disown himself.

What Christ did on the cross removes the need for us to earn; for us to be perfect; for us to prove our worth or righteousness. Take ME out of the picture. I moved away from righteousness, but HE sought me. I pray that this truth finds its home in my heart.