Pastor Scott Jonas
10/28/17
Faith Alone
We
are diving into the essential truths of the reformation. Almost 500 years ago to the day Martin Luther
posted his 95 theses. They were points
for debate over the doctrines of the church.
It led to a debate of sorts.
Scholars, pastors, monks, silver smiths, mothers and nuns reexamined the
faith. It forced them to go back to the
beginning and ask a basic question. The
way you answer this question will determine what kind of Christian you will be
or if you will be one at all. The
fundamental question is, What is Faith?
This
should be easy, right? This should be simple.
But the fundamental questions are often difficult to answer because they
are so foundational. We answered that
question long ago. I really haven’t
thought about it in years. Say I asked
you What is Love? Seems pretty basic but
also very essential. I bet I would get a
lot of different answers in this room.
It’s putting someone else above yourself. It’s when you can’t imagine being with anyone
else. You just know it when you see it. What is Love? Baby don’t hurt me, baby don’t
hurt me no more. Those different
definitions of love lead to very different life outcomes. if you can’t answer what love is then how can
you know when you love someone or someone loves you or have a loving
relationship. Knowing the definition of
love is necessary to one who wants to live a life full of it.
So,
What is faith? The reformers taught that
it is through faith alone we are saved.
So this is important. I want to
do an exercise that will get our thoughts on the table then we can search
through them, organize them and really get to an answer. Think of one word that
you think of when I say Faith. On the
count of three I want you to say it.
Ok. 1, 2, 3.
I’m
really going to try to simplify our understanding of Faith.
Faith
is a relationship with God our Father through Jesus Christ. It is a gift to you. Faith is confessing our set of beliefs about
God that are written out in our creeds based on scripture. They describe the process of faith. Faith is trusting in Jesus. That is living out your faith. Relationship with God through Jesus. Set of
beliefs. Trusting Jesus.
These
three aspects of faith are all needed otherwise our picture is incomplete. The picture we will see has three points of
view: God view, our view and the Bible’s
view.
Let’s look at
God’s point of view. Faith is a
relationship with God that he initiates and sustains. Romans uses
Abraham as an example of Faith.
Hebrews lists him among the faithful as well. What is this faith that Abraham
possessed? He was a pagan, meaning he
followed the false gods of his ancestors.
He had faith in figures of wood and stone. He believed that by worshipping these pagan
gods that he would have many children, lots of fertile land and a full
life. He had faith in a non-entity. His gods didn’t exist. All of his faith was worthless. But then the real God showed up.
Abraham didn’t
call out to the heavenly father. He
wasn’t searching for him. He didn’t do
anything that created contact with his creator.
Abraham didn’t deserve contact.
He was no better or worse than other men. He had his weaknesses just like you and I. Then one day out of the blue. God talked to Abraham. Imagine praying to these wood bobbleheads
everyday and then all of a sudden there is a voice. You think, “I was right.” But you weren’t right. You were worshipping the wrong God and now
you are talking to the true one.
God doesn’t berate
him for his idolatry. He doesn’t try to convince him that he is the Lord. It is simply too obvious. He knows that Abraham knows that he is
meeting his Maker. The Lord says “Leave
your house and go to a new land. And I
will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so
that you will be a blessing. I will
bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you
all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Guess what Abraham did? He moved.
This is an example
of Faith as a relationship. God
introduced himself. Abraham was no
catch. He just stood there
dumbfounded. God defined the
relationship. Later he would say, “I am
your God and you are my people.” That’s
the relationship. Notice that God
doesn’t even ask Abraham to be in a relationship with him. He just tells him, “This is the way it
is.” It was the same way with
Moses. God said, “I’m your God and I’m
sending you to Pharoah as my spokesman.”
There is no asking do you want to be my people. He just makes you his people. And because you belong to him, God promised
all of these good things.
That is the gift
of Faith. God initiates a relationship
with you and he makes it happen. For
many of us that happened in baptism. God
looked down at us and said “I am your God and you will be my people.” And he gave us forgiveness, eternal life and
all of the good things from above. We
just stood there looking dumbfounded.
God defined the relationship and he made us a promise to always be with
us. Faith alone means that it is only
through a relationship with God through Jesus that we can be saved.
Faith is also a
Christians’ doctrinal beliefs. This is a description about Faith.
So we say the Nicene creed today.
We call that confessing the faith.
The creed describes the Gospel.
Father, son and Holy Spirit working together for our salvation. Father as creator, Son as savior, Spirit as
the giver of life in the church. We also
have our Lutheran confessions. They
describe Faith through the ten commandments, the Lord’s prayer, the sacraments,
the creed, confession and others.
They help us to
understand the relationship that we have with God. God defined it in the Bible and the church
has summarized it in the creeds and confessions. We call this doctrine. But it is important to understand that
doctrine does not save us. A description
of our relationship doesn’t have the power to save us. It is only the gift of faith, the actual
relationship that saves us. That alone.
It’s like the
difference between a description of your marriage and the marriage itself. When you write an anniversary letter to your
spouse, the words describe your marriage.
They summarize it. But that
description is not your relationship itself.
You can’t love, cherish and obey that description. You love cherish and obey an actual person,
your spouse. Your relationship is of
infinite more importance than it’s description.
The relationship is a real. Faith
is real. A description is words on
paper. Important words but not as
important as the savior behind the words.
Luther and the
reformers believed this. Faith saves
you, not doctrine. Nowhere in the Bible
does it say doctrine saves. God
saves. Baptism saves. Instead it says teach sound doctrine, hold to
good doctrine, avoid false doctrine, but only a relationship with Christ saves.
Faith
is a relationship that God establishes.
It is a description of that relationship and there is a third
aspect. From our point of view Faith is
trusting…. Jesus . That is living out
your relationship. Today in our Gospel
we have the story of the bleeding woman.
We don’t have her name otherwise I would say it. But even those who knew her probably called
her that, the bleeding woman. It made her
unclean. She couldn’t worship in the
temple. It made friendships and contact
with people difficult. It would be easy
for her to be defined by it. But she
believed in God and when she saw Jesus she trusted that he could heal her. She stalked him through the crowd and touched
his robe. Power went out from him and
she bled no more. She was healed and
whole. Jesus turned to her “Your faith
has made you well.”
Your
faith has made you well. What is Jesus
referring to? Is it her relationship to
the Father through Jesus that made her well?
Is it her doctrine that made her well?
Or is it her trusting in Jesus that made her well?
Did
her relationship with God make her well?
Yes. Christ has the power to heal
and a relationship gives you access to him.
Sometimes a relationship with him means he heals you. Sometimes not. But she had access via her relationship. Via faith.
Did her doctrine make her well?
In a sense. She believed that God
has the power to heal and that understanding promted her to approach Jesus as
Lord. Did her trusting in Jesus make her
well? Yes. Her doctrine gave her a knowledge. Her relationship gave her access and her
trust was the last step in seeking healing.
She had to trust that the answer might be no as well.
Faith
Alone is our relationship to God. That
relationship is real and true.
truer than anything you feel
truer than anything you experience
truer than any circumstance you will ever face
truer than anything in the world
The
Lord knows you, Loves you and calls you his own. That is Faith.