Of Figs, Faith, and Doubt IV

Jay: Last week, we began to delve into the relationship between faith, grace, and “works”. These three verses address each in turn (emphasis added):

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;… (Ephesians 2:8)

For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. (James 2:26)

We’ve noted that faith goes beyond logic, that (perhaps unlike grace) it involves the senses, and that it is something that is passed on from person to person. We’ve noted, in answer to the question “Where does faith come from?” that it must come from God, on the basis that Jesus is:

… the author and perfecter of faith,… (Hebrews 12:2)

Today we will address three questions:

1. Where does faith come from? From us, from God, or from both?
2. What is the relationship between grace, faith, and works?
3. Is there a natural byproduct of faith?

David: I would like to add a fourth question, which to me seems essential to resolve in order to be consistent—to be on the same page, in this class—in our answers to the other three:

4. What is the object of faith; or, What do we have faith in? Is it the existence of God? Is it faith that, properly approached, God will perform magic for us, such as curing our child of cancer? I think it is the former. I think the latter is just a human hope.

Jay: Another word for faith is belief. What do we or should we believe in?

Rheinhard: To me, faith is God-given but needs to be nurtured and developed and brought to fruition. We do have a role to play and a responsibility to play it.

Donna: Faith compounds itself. Faith is a step to trust, which is true faith. It is trusting God when you don’t get what you want.

David: That describes the pure faith of the three Hebrew worthies; the faith that God’s will will be done. We cannot know God’s will, and can only believe, as did the Hebrew worthies, that whatever happens will be the result of His will.

Chris: The question concerning the object of faith is about the “things” hoped for and not seen. Do the “things” include the will of God? Grace? Love? To me, these things are intangible and impossible to explain. If I truly have faith that God’s grace and love exist, it will not only lead me to accept whatever happens as God’s will, but also lead me to some sort of action: It is going to make me want to share my faith, it is going to lead me to love God with all my heart and my neighbor as myself.

David: The Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation of the Bible translates Hebrews 11:1, the definition of faith, as follows:

Faith is the assured expectation of what is hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities that are not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

If one has faith, one accepts that there are divine realities that we cannot see. Chief among the divine realities is surely the reality—the existence—of the divine, of God. Perhaps grace and love are “the evident demonstration” of the God we cannot see, of the divine love and grace we hope for. I would amend my answer to the question: “What is the object of faith?” to be “the existence of a good God.”* Humans have shown a propensity to worship gods with somewhat baleful characteristics, so since “faith in God” could be taken to include those gods also, I feel it important to specify the God of goodness and grace.

Mikiko: Faith is the fruit of God’s spirit,

… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…. ((Galatians 5:22)

and God gladly gives His spirit to those who seek it:

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? (Luke 11:13)

So persons without faith are not seeking the spirit, or they are doing so for a wrong purpose, or are resisting its operation in their lives.

Jay: It seems that true faith compels us to action of some sort. Is that the inevitable byproduct of faith, and if so, what exactly is it?

Donna: Faith disregards logic, and so resolves the human cognitive dissonance between logic and faith, between intellect and spirit.

David 2: When you sit and pray with someone who is dying and tell her that everything is going to be OK, you are drawing on your faith and extending the grace God gave you, in hopes that she will recover from her illness. It doesn’t matter whether the person herself has a faith background or not. I think this passing on of grace is the product of faith. It is wonderful if the person feels it and is miraculously healed and recovers, but if she dies anyway, it is enough to know that you may have helped her recognize herself in Christ.

Jay: Faith seems more concrete and easier when God reacts in a way that we think He should; when He gives us what we pray for. It’s harder when He does not. The difference seems to be that in the former case, we have faith in a God of magic; whereas in the latter case, we have faith in the existence of a loving, gracious God. It’s this latter faith that we need to nurture and develop.

Donna: I don’t see a difference at all. Faith compounds itself. When you don’t get what you think you should get or what you pray for, that is when faith moves up to the higher level of trust. Trust is almost like graduating from faith. Faith is action. You fill out with grace and action and love. Love and faith go hand-in-hand. The more faith you have, the more love you have, and the more trust you have as you grow on your faith journey.

Rheinhard: We are talking about levels of faith. Questioning the existence of God is the most elementary level. When you share your faith—your compassion, gentleness, meekness, peace—with the sick people as just discussed, your own faith actually increases to a higher level. This is not the elementary level of faith that questions the existence of God. Our duty as Christians who already have faith and know God and have His grace upon us is to share it with other people. When we share it with people of no faith, whether they benefit from it materially or not, they may benefit from it spiritually. by becoming more open to God, sometimes even accepting Jesus as their savior.

Jay: The call to share our faith is a common call. The question remains: What exactly are we sharing?

Donna: Faith flows automatically from the faithful. Faith without action, without “works”, will die.

David: Two years ago we discussed an article in Maureen Dowd’s religion column in The New York Times, in which a Catholic priest described a night he spent in a hospital comforting the family of a dying child. It was a duty that distressed him terribly, but he took consolation from the realization that simply by his caring and compassionate and comforting presence, he was representing God, he brought God into the room and showed Him to be a caring, compassionate God. He did no proselytizing at all. The family thanked him afterwards for his care and compassion and indicated they had indeed been comforted by that. To me, that is the kind of “active inaction” (a Daoist concept, by the way) that represents the highest level of faith. The priest was active in going out at night to the hospital, but the sharing of faith when he got there was essentially passive.

Jay: It seems simple!

David: I think it is. The size and complexity of the Bible forces us to over-analyze things that are in fact simpler than they seem. I think if you threw away everything in the Bible except what Jesus taught you would be left with everything you need and everything God wants you to have for faith and spirit.

Owen: The Bible says simply that faith without works is dead. When doing works, one unconsciously emits an aura that others find attractive. A group of us from school started to clean up the trash in an area outside a Kroger store near school. The people at Kroger were positively affected by our unsolicited, voluntary action. That is how faith can be shared.

Jay: The dilemma is that the story of the fig tree says simply that with a smidgeon of faith, we could move mountains. It is a simple association of power with faith.

David: I read Jesus as saying that a smidgeon of faith is enough to move mountains. That’s clear and simple. What I do not read him as saying is that you or I are capable of possessing that smidgeon. I think he is implying that, as mortals, we will never have that smidgeon, and that we must have faith that God has that smidgeon and more, but will do with it what He will.

Donna: It’s not “your” faith. It’s not something that God has packaged up and deposited on your spiritual doorstep. It’s the faith of God-in-you. It flows through you and from you to others. As a senior chaplain, I respond to crises, often horrific ones. I find that just by walking into a room and being there, not saying much, people will come and thank me afterwards. So the faith is not transmitted by me personally, it simply flows through me from God. It is a matter of being open to the Lord’s deposit of a mustard seed of faith, which them multiplies and compounds the more you allow the Lord to use His faith in you. That is a matter of trusting Him.

David: There is a mountain in any room containing the parents of a dying or dead child. It is a mountain that must seem insurmountable to them. Yet, most do get over—or through—it, eventually. How does that happen? How is that mountain moved aside?

Rheinhard: When God gives us more faith, we are closer to Him. He gives us more faith when we ask for His spirit to dwell within us, as the citations from Luke and Galatians say.

Donna: Faith is a gift from God. It is not something we can take credit for:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; (Ephesians 2:8)

All the good gifts are from God. We cannot proclaim our faith to be strong, since it is not our faith, but God’s faith within us.

Rheinhard: I agree, but we still have responsibilities in return for the gift—we have to add our own works. We can’t just sit back and do nothing.

Jay: This concerns the question of the origin of faith—God, ourselves, or both—and the question of the inevitable byproducts of faith as coming from us, through our works; or from God within us, through… what?

Rheinhard: The Israelites rebelled against God many times, yet He always forgave them. But the Bible says we still have to work for it. We have to show our faith, and I think that with true faith, we do so automatically.

Donna: This captures it beautifully:

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6)

So God exists and rewards, with a mustard seed of faith, those who sincerely seek him. The more we believe in Him and pray to Him, the more faith and grace and so on He gives us. When we share our faith with the dying, as discussed earlier, it opens up a different perspective on death as a “finishing” rather than as an “ending”. It changes everything.

Jay: What is interesting is that at the end of that chapter, Paul says of the people lauded for their faith:

And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39-40)

So our understanding of what was promised seems to be very different from what God is promising.

David: It’s noteworthy, too, that Hebrews 11:6 makes no mention of works. It stresses faith alone. I am reminded of the criminal on the cross next to Jesus, who never did a good “work” in his life yet was promised Paradise by Jesus on account of his faith in him. That faith was sparked by the criminal’s sudden self-recognition of his lack of works—of his utter worthlessness compared to the man on the cross next to him.

Mikiko: It took a miracle for the disciples to have faith:

Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and *said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind stopped. And those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son! (Matthew 14:28-33)

Jay: That will be an interesting story to pick up on next week.

Rheinhard: The key seems to be, like the criminal on the cross, total surrender to God. That’s when we are most faithful. Doing works all one’s life might not help without that ultimate surrender. As in the parable where all the laborers on a farm get the same wages no matter how much or how little they actually worked, so may it be with us.

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* As a postscript, I would add that this also fits perfectly with process theology, with the concept of God as both Being and a Becoming. —David