Awakened Faith

Let’s reflect on Christian faith. On what Thomas displayed in his response to Jesus: “My Lord and my God!” [John 20:28].

Why ask about faith? Thomas only came to faith after three full years with Jesus, so faith may take time to awaken. It invites reflection.

It’s a crucial theme because without faith it’s impossible to please God. No one overcomes the world without faith. And, positively, faith brings the greatest good in life: the love, joy, and peace of new life in Christ. Of keeping in step with his Spirit. Of being known by his Father. Of being freed from sin, fear, and death. Of going deep with others who also know and love him. Faith is a bedrock relationship that changes all of life.

Faith only comes alive as we meet Jesus in a personal encounter. Growing up in a Christian home, or training in Bible classes, or signing a creed, may inform us about Jesus, but he needs to be involved. By his Spirit he stirs, invites, confronts, and awakens. He moves us from darkness to light. Jesus, for instance, sent Paul to nonbelievers “to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” [Acts 26:18].

How, then, does the spiritual life of faith work? It’s a flawed question. It’s like asking how we began to breathe. Did we take courses on the disciplines of breathing? Faith comes freely as we look to Jesus. We were made by him and for him. So our prior state was dormant to real faith. But, as the Spirit gives life to a soul, a person’s creation purpose begins to emerge through faith. We only need to “look” and “live”—in the analogy Jesus took from Numbers 21:6-9 “… that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” [see John 3:14-16].

Adam got us started in evil—the opposite realm to life. After Eden all his offspring wanted to “be like god”—reflecting a devotion to the Spirit of darkness. Adam accepted the Serpent’s lie and embraced the upside-down aims of autonomy. Of self-love. But Jesus came as the new Adam—who restores authentic humanity in “the way, and the truth, and the life.” Through a new love.

The question of transformation starts here. “How can I ever love Jesus more than myself?” It comes only when the “eyes of our hearts”—in Paul’s language—”are open” to see Jesus. Yet when faith comes it’s spontaneous. So that our new desire to love and follow Jesus is as natural as breathing. As a new realm of trust. When God, by his Spirit, pours out his love in our hearts, faith is the product. Again, we merely look and live.

Yet living faith is not common, even in religious circles. As Jesus said, “the road is narrow…” And the pull of self-focused living is like gravity: a spiritual black hole. Without God, no one even wants to escape. Whether a quiet introvert, a local bully, a corrupt worker, a faithless spouse, or a world autocrat. All who reject God are ambitious at the start, but everyone ends up in a grave. As in Psalm 73—“Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.”

Yet everyone who meets Jesus is invited into eternity—”to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” [Eph 3:19]. Eternal life, we find, has vastly more meaning than years or decades of angry and frustrated autonomy.

Religious people who only embrace a “form” of Christian faith never see such faith as a figment. Because human reasoning is the key to an autonomous life. And this rationalism—an assurance of our ability to deduce truth through common sense—is blinding. Jesus spoke of “many” who will come to him at the Judgment and claim to have been believers. Yet Jesus targets the heart—the motive center of every soul—as his home, and not our reasoning. Citing Isaiah, he warned, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me…” [Mk 7:6]. Only a turn to the Scriptures produces the real thing. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” [Ro 10:17].

And the measure of real faith is love. Paul wrote of this in Galatians 5:5-6. “For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus [no religious work] counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” Because “God is love” and he made us to join him in the glory he has prepared for those who love him.

The assurance of a rationalized “form of faith” melts down if we ask the questions of love. Such as, “Does my knowing Jesus rise above every other ambition?” Or, “Do my thoughts and aims align with what Jesus calls for?” Or, again, “Do I desire to hear more, much more, about life with him? And to have a future that centers on life with him?”

Another question fits in here—the imagery of a “tree and its fruit.” We hear people warn against Christian “fruit inspectors,” since we aren’t God’s human sheriffs! But Jesus had a point in his warning. His presence in a life brings changes that others can see. Such as, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” [Gal. 5:22-23]. Selfishness is also obvious, and obnoxious. A bad fruit.

The Bible treats faith as unique to any who respond: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” [Jn 10:27-28].

Yet if some “get it” and others don’t, why bother to write about it? The answer is that those who know Jesus are invited to share his calling. Our response of love legitimizes his claims. So, while many will dismiss calls to Jesus, others will hear and respond. And love the result.

And if you don’t yet believe, this is your invitation to look and live. Or, to “Taste and see, the LORD is good.”