Faith, part 13

It is impossible to serve God without faith. It is not impossible to try. Many want to believe, but don’t allow themselves to have the faith required to believe. They respond to this by trying to follow all the guidelines of what it means to be a good Christian.

This really isn’t that hard to do, and is especially easy in a society like America where the Bible and countless studies on it are readily and easily available. It’s easy to know what a Christian is supposed to do, and how a Christian is meant to live. Without faith we can follow all the steps, and live like a Christian. We can go on missions trips, tithe, forgive offenses, praise, debate matters of Christ, and do countless other things. We can do this so effectively that we convince all people of our lies. We can even convince ourselves.

There is only one problem with this. We can never fool God. God can always see through our façade, and know us for who we really are. Jesus proved this to be true time and time again through many confrontations with the Pharisees. They knew all there was to know of the law, and insisted it should be followed. They often followed its teachings very closely. They may have possessed knowledge, but they lacked faith.

Obedience to the law or following the teachings of Jesus is nothing without faith in who He really is. Those who do so intentionally only insult Him. To call Him some great teacher, but to deny that He is the Son of God who died and rose again to bring us salvation is insulting. When we lack faith, and follow the teachings of Christ because we truly want to act like we believe we aren’t doing any more good for ourselves than those who call themselves deist. Paul wrote about this in Galatians 2:16:

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”

We can never justify a lack of faith by following the teachings of Christ, or obeying the law set forth in the Old Testament. Those teachings are good, but they cannot save us. Only Christ can. Only faith in His saving power can redeem us, and transform us. We cannot gain admittance into heaven by pretending like we belong. It doesn’t work that way. No one can be justified through the works of the law. We can only be justified by complete faith in the redemptive power of Jesus Christ.