Pages

October 29, 2017

Reformation: Faith Alone

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.