Ephesians 2:8, 9; Hebrews 1: 1 It’s a matter of Authority
Introduction
Early this
year a great deal was made about the claims that bones found in a tomb in
In his book
Postmoderns, Craig Kennet Miller revisits
an episode on the hit television show Friends.
"Two of the characters [are] having
a debate about evolution. One of them seeks to prove that evolution is a fact
by bringing in a box full of fossils to impress his friend. He tells her that
years of scientific discovery and research show that, without a doubt,
evolution is a fact. He asks her how she could disbelieve in the face of all
the evidence. She replies that lately she didn't believe in gravity, either. It
seemed like she was being pulled forward rather than down. He goes into
hysterics, seriously doubting her sanity. She comes back with something like
this, 'Okay, tell me this. Don't you have the tiniest little doubt that you
could be wrong? After all, scientists used to believe the world was flat and
they were wrong. Scientists used to believe the atom was the smallest thing in
the universe until someone cracked it open. What makes you think that someone
won't come along with another theory that will prove that evolution is wrong?'
After a long silence, he replies, 'Maybe you're right.' She explodes, 'Is that
all it takes? You've allowed me to crush your whole belief system? I thought
you were stronger than that.'"[1]
Are you
concerned that the claims about discovery of Jesus’ bones might be right? If
so, is that all it takes? Will such claims crush your faith; destroy your whole
belief system? What is your salvation based on? I want to share with you three
things that rob Christians of assurance of salvation and abundant life in
Christ.
Facts
First, trust
in facts can rob us of abundant life.
Is your assurance of salvation based on facts derived through archeology,
medicine or some other science or forensic evidence?
Some want
proof to believe or to sustain their belief. They want proof of Christ’s life,
death and resurrection. To convince people of truth all you need do is make the
truth clear to them. Right? Wrong! Even though John's Gospel and Paul’s
epistles often connect seeing and hearing with believing, seeing and hearing do not always produce belief. Jesus'
brothers had evidence. But, they saw and heard him without believing. The crowd
that witnessed the multiplying of the loaves had evidence, but, they did not
have belief. The Jewish rulers and some of those who witnessed the resurrection
of Lazarus had evidence. But they did not believe.[2]
Lack of
evidence is not the problem people have with believing. For, there are more
convincing evidences that Jesus Christ rose from the dead than there is that
Julius Caesar ever lived or that Alexander the Great died at age 33. But, not
everyone believes.
You have probably seen the
television shows on Crime Scene Investigation. According to the Associated
Press, the CSI effect has had some unintended consequences.
Jurors who have seen those
television shows have come to expect DNA, fingerprints and all kinds of
scientific evidence. The problem is that in some cities, fewer than 10 percent
of the homicide cases involve fingerprint or DNA evidence. Charles Peters
writes in The Washington Monthly: “The
result is that jurors aren’t convinced even by the kind of eyewitness testimony
that used to nail down convictions.” In one recent case, an 11-year-old
girl pointed at the person on trial and said, “That’s the man who shot my father.” The jurors found him not
guilty, and one juror explained, “I would
like to have seen some evidence, like finding the gun with fingerprints.”
And so it is
with Christianity, the more evidence we demand, the more evidence we need. Why? Because, evidence does not answer the sin
problem. Evidence has no saving value. There is no end to the demands. And the
result is that God’s truth never prevails in one’s beliefs. The scriptures are
the only credible witness to the truth of God, but some seem to need more than
witness – they want evidence.
By so doing
they deny the one and only gift that ensures salvation: faith. For by grace you have
been saved through [Facts? No!] For
by grace you have been saved through faith. Faith is a gracious gift from
God that transcends facts and factuality. Faith
is the assurance of things hoped
for, the conviction of things not
seen. [3]
Reason
Secondly,
is your of salvation based on trust of another life robber: human reason? Is
your salvation based on the reasoning of philosophers or celebrities or parents
or grandparents or teachers or neighbors or friends?
Common
words used by such people are; “That
makes sense” or “It’s not reasonable
to think that way” or “I just don’t think
a loving God would... [You fill in the blank.]
In
But that madness can be divine.
Divine madness is what Plato called the inspiration of artists, and it is also
a good name for the unconditional love, nonviolence and bold justice of Jesus
Christ. It takes divine madness to challenge the powerful on their thrones and
to stand with the poor and oppressed. It takes divine madness to love enemies
and to do good to them rather than to hate and attack them. It takes divine
madness to follow a star or listen to angels. Mary, for instance, was clearly
divinely mad.[4]
That which
stretches us beyond the limits of our rational mind is a divine madness called faith. Faith takes us beyond the limits of human reason so we can
enter into the realm of God’s truth.
Isaiah wrote about the relationship between God’s thoughts and human
reason. Speaking from God’s perspective, he wrote, “8For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts.”[5] When
you think you have God figured out, think again, because you are mistaken.
It is said
that the best that reason can do, and
the highest claims that even the most rationalist theologians can make for
reason, is to bring one to a point of saying, "I ought to believe." What brings a person to say "I believe" is not an act of will,
or reason, but grace.
For by grace you have been saved through [Facts? No!
- Reason? No!] For by grace you have been
saved through faith. Faith is the assurance
of things hoped for, the conviction
of things not seen. [6]
Human Autonomy
Third and lastly: is your salvation based on the life robber;
human autonomy? That is, is your salvation based on your own self-sufficiency?
Is your salvation based on how you have experienced life and how you feel about Christ and eternal life?
Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy
listed six questions he had to answer in life: Why am I living? What is the cause of my existence and
that of everyone else? Why do I exist? Why is there a division of good
and evil within me? How must I live? What is death - how can I
save myself?[7]
These questions represent human
autonomy at its core. Human autonomy is all about me. It is about what I
experience, what I think, what I gain, how I feel. When it comes to
Christianity, human autonomy nudges out God and inserts the human into God’s
place. It is idolatry of self. And
man is the church ever full of this today!
Dr. John
Rosen, a psychiatrist in
His being with
them communicates something that they haven’t experienced in years - somebody understands. But then, he puts
his arms around them and hugs them. He holds these unattractive, unlovable,
sometimes incontinent persons, and loves them back into life. Often, the first
words they speak are simply, "Thank
you."
Saving faith
is not based on human self-sufficiency. Faith is based on the reality of the witness
of the Holy Scriptures to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ
alone. Faith acknowledges that God as Jesus Christ has entered our ward, placed
his bed beside ours and holds us in his warm embrace. Faith believes that he is
with us even now. This is the faith to which all are called.[9]
For by grace you have been saved through [Facts? No!
- Reason? No! – Human autonomy? No!] For
by grace you have been saved through faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. [10]
Conclusion
Saving faith
has nothing attached to it but Jesus Christ as revealed in the scriptures.
Whatever I connect to God’s gift of faith negates the reality of faith making
it something else; something useless for life with God. Faith is the one place
where we have to let our guard down. It
is the one place where we have to do nothing.
Whatever facts, reason or human autonomy we connect to it negates it. If we do
not come before God naked and needy, then we have not come to God through the
gracious gift of faith.
Assurance of salvation can be
known only as faith transcends facts, reason and human autonomy. For salvation
is by grace alone through faith alone as revealed by Scripture alone.
[1] Craig Kennet Miller,
Postmoderns (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 1996), 95.
[2] Bruce J. Nichols, ed.,
In Word and Deed: Evangelism and Social Responsibility (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
1986), 126.
[3]The Holy Bible :
English Standard Version., Heb 11:1b.
[4] Tom Kinder, “Bearer of
light,”
[5]The Holy Bible :
English Standard Version., Is 55:8-9.
[6]The Holy Bible :
English Standard Version., Heb 11:1b.
[7] Stephen Zweig, The
Living Thoughts of Tolstoy (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1939), 4.
[9] Dr. David Beckett,
untitled sermon
[10]The Holy Bible :
English Standard Version., Heb 11:1b.