The
Idolatry of Faith
We
all have faith, the question is whether it's rightly placed. We
exercise faith daily in things as simple as the comfort of a cup of
coffee or as important as a doctor's proper care. We exercise faith
in our banks, government, services in which we subscribe and other
people whom we trust. Faith is simply trust in something or someone.
In spiritual things, Christians sometimes use the term "faith" much more abstractly and it leads to it being misplaced, misunderstood and even idolized. I find myself falling into that temptation because we have allowed improper ideas from secular culture to cloud the Biblical understanding of faith.
First,
Christian faith is a gift. We know this from clear passages of
Scripture. Faith is granted to us from God by the Holy Spirit through
the preached Word and Baptism. The Apostle Paul writes:
For
by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own
doing; it
is the gift of God, not
a result of works, so that no one may boast. -Ephesians 2:8-9
But
when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he
saved us,
not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to
his own mercy, by
the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom
he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so
that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to
the hope of eternal life. -Titus 3:4-7
When
Peter makes his great confession of Christ, Jesus tells him:
“Blessed
are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this
to you, but my Father who is in heaven. -Matthew 16:17
Since
faith is a gift of God, it only works in the manner God intends it.
It's chief function is exactly as Peter declared. It clings to
Christ. It allows us to confess as Peter does that Jesus is "the
Christ, the Son of the living God."
[Matt 16:16] We know that "no
one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit." [1
Cor 12:3] So, the Holy Spirit is the giver and director of our faith.
He uses our faith to keep us focused on and believing in Christ as
our Savior and Redeemer. He works our faith in order that we trust in
the work of Christ in His life, death and resurrection for our
benefit by destroying death, defeating Satan and restoring our
relationship with the Father. He does this by convicting us of our
sin and driving us to daily repentance which causes us to return to
the work and promises of Christ. This is the primary
purpose of our faith.
“For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. -John 3:16
All
things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the
Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and
anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all
who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light.” -Matthew 11:27-30
Luther
wrote in the Small Catechism:
"I
believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus
Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by
the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in
the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies
the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ
in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily
and richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will
raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all
believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true."
We
Christians fail in our relationship with Christ when we begin to
believe that our faith functions as an act of our will or that faith
is something we use for other purposes other than focus on Christ.
It's true that we live under God's providence and care. Yet, we also
live under the curse of creation, our sin and among other sinners.
God's providential care includes blessings and discipline, fortune
and suffering, the results of our sin and the effects of others sin.
When we view the bad times of our lives as a result of "lack of
faith" or "weak faith" we view faith wrongly. Christ is not saving us from suffering but through it because the end result of suffering is hope and that hope is in Christ. [Rom 5:1-11]
Our
experiences in this life are not the results of how we "live
out" our faith. That is turning our faith into an idol because
we are no longer focused on Christ, we are focused on our faith. That
is simply having faith in our faith which is idolatry.
Focusing on our faith as the central part of Christian life is a
scheme of Satan to pull our eyes from Christ and His work for us and
through us and back onto ourselves and our works which are as "filthy rags". [Isaiah 64:6] Our faith should always point us
outward to Christ. Focusing on Christ shapes us in His image and then
to service and love for others.
Focusing
on the strength or weakness of our faith turns faith into a work and not the blessing and gift it truly is. True faith in Christ is a
"light yoke" and "easy burden" because it rests
on Christ's promises. It's true our daily battle with sin and
temptation is hard at times and we fail, but that's where faith
becomes a comfort because in repentance we rest in the assurance of
Christ's forgiveness which true faith clings.
The
other blessings of Christ like His Word in preaching and devotion,
prayer and Holy Communion are not "works" we do to prove
our faithfulness, they are the means Christ gives to sustain,
strengthen and nourish our faith. Again, it's His work in and
through us, not ours. We simply receive the blessings of these gifts.
Christian
faith is a blessing in which we receive and which the Holy Spirit works in us
and is fed and nourished by Word and Sacrament. We Christians are
living in the "now but not yet". We have entered into our
eternal lives through Baptism and cling to that knowledge by faith.
It is by our faith that we will eventually see the reality.
But
now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law,
although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the
righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who
believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace
as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by
faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine
forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his
righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the
justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. -Romans 3:21-26
