Steemchurch:Believe in the gospel - What is faith?

Each person has to make their own choice.

It is important to clarify this because many people think that in order to be Christian they do not have to make a personal decision. Some believe that they already are by the mere fact of having been born in a home or in a nation of Christian tradition. After all, they are not Jews, nor Muslims, nor Buddhists, so they must be Christians. But the truth is that our Lord Jesus Christ explained that a personal decision is required that consists in "repenting and believing". Each adult has to make this decision freely and consciously.

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That was the problem of the Jews. They believed that because they were descendants of Abraham, they automatically became part of the people of God, but John the Baptist warned them of their dangerous mistake:
(Mt 3: 8-10) "Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. already the ax is laid at the root of the trees, therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. "
The Lord Jesus Christ always insisted that each person must make their own decision. Let us remember the parable that he told about the sower who sowed the seed in different types of land (Mark 4: 1-20). The sower represented the same Lord, who sowed the Word in the hearts of people through preaching, and who always respected the different results that were produced. And so did his apostles when they brought the gospel all over the world.
But all this changed when centuries later Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. It was then that some Roman emperors forced their subjects to submit to baptism because they thought that by passing through that rite people would become Christians immediately. Later, in later times, more extreme means were used. For example, on many occasions, Jews who lived in Spain were given the choice between converting to Christianity or being burned at the stake. And something similar happened with the natives that the Spaniards found when they arrived in America; They were given the choice between a sword and a cross.
But none of these forms of "doing Christians" respects the freedom of the human being or has anything to do with what the Lord taught. And although it is true that times have changed, and fortunately no longer commit such crimes in the name of Christ, however, has been the idea that a person can become a Christian without making a decision personal. For example, Catholicism continues to teach that a newborn child who receives the sacrament of baptism is already a Christian and a member of the church for his entire life. But that is totally false, since a child of a few days does not have the capacity to make a decision of that type. In addition, experience has amply demonstrated that Catholic countries are full of baptized people who do not want to know anything about God or Christianity.
We insist, each person must decide for himself freely. This is a simple matter to understand. Just as we would not like someone to force us to marry a person we do not love, in the same way, we would not want someone to decide for us to become Christians for life without asking if we want it.
On the other hand, there are people who assume that because they are creatures of God, they are automatically their children, and therefore they no longer need to convert. But this is also false. The Word of God teaches us that in order to become his children we have to be born again through faith:
(Jn 1: 12-13) "But to all who received him, to those who believe in his name, he gave them power to become children of God, who are not begotten of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of man's will, but of God. "
And there are still others who think that because Jesus died on the cross all over the world, then all people are saved without having to do anything else. But while it is true that the offer of God's grace is available to all men, and his desire is for all to be saved (1 Tim 2: 4) (Tit 2:11), however, it is necessary that Each person receives this gift through faith and repentance.

Finally, all these false ideas separate us from our true personal responsibility. And in fact, if it were true that we can become Christians against our will, we would complain bitterly. It would be like those people who are forced to accept a certain political ideology because they are living in a country under a dictatorship. But God does not act like that, since that would seriously damage the moral freedom that God in his sovereignty has given to each man.

And of course, a decision imposed by force would never produce an authentic love for God. Those who have the misfortune to live under a totalitarian regime, may at times appear to have some sympathy for their dictator, but never for love, but for fear of reprisals. And of course, God does not seek that of the subjects of his kingdom, because the love that is achieved by force is never authentic. God is not going to convert human beings into machines that automatically fulfill their will because they have no chance to choose. God has given man free will. It has given us eyes, but also eyelids, in such a way that we can close them and not be forced to see the beauty of creation if we do not want to. And in the same way, at a spiritual level, we can choose to live in darkness and close our eyes so as not to see the beauty of God's holiness or to get close to him.
Therefore, what God expects is that each person makes his own choice voluntarily, with an adequate knowledge of its implications. No one can decide for us, although it is true that others can guide us along the way, but finally, each of us has to make a personal decision.
There is something we have to do, because Christianity is not the mere passive acceptance of some affirmations. For example, when the Philippian jailer met Paul and Silas, he asked: "What must I do to be saved?", To which they replied: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved" (Acts 16: 30- 31).
Repentance and faith
As we are seeing, the Lord Jesus Christ expects an answer from each one of us that should consist of repentance and faith. When he began his ministry he expressed it this way: "Repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). And the apostle Paul, addressing the elders of Ephesus, reminded them that their ministry among them had consisted in witnessing to Jews and Gentiles "about repentance toward God, and about faith in our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). .
As we see, both are essential and must go together, forming an indivisible whole. It is not possible to enter the kingdom of God without having both.
In our previous study we consider that repentance starts from the recognition of our sins as an offense against the holy God. When we sin, we are expressing our rebellion against God and our desire to live independently of him. Therefore, repentance necessarily implies a desire to give up our sins in order to turn to God, believe in him and submit to his will. In this way, he becomes our Savior and also our Lord.
Both things have to go together. There is no point in repentance that does not lead us to believe in God, nor will it help us to believe in God without repenting of our sins. After all, the latter is the problem of the demons: they believe in God, but have no intention of submitting to him (James 2:19).
We could say, therefore, that when we repent and believe in God, we are reversing what happened in Eden during the fall. There the man rebelled against God and decided to live independently of him, but through repentance we made the contrary decision to subject ourselves to his will. In Eden, man gave credit to the suggestions of the serpent and came to distrust God, but through faith we believe in him again. Therefore, both are necessary to enter the kingdom of God that Christ came announcing.
What is the faith?
Now, it is important to clarify this concept in light of the Bible because today there are many things that pass through faith but in reality they are not.

1. Practical trust in God
   We could define faith as trust in someone whom we consider superior to ourselves. Therefore, when we say that we have faith in God, we are saying that he is greater than we are, that we need him, that we depend on him, and that we trust him to do for us what we need.

We could say that our faith in God would be similar to the attitude of a blind man who wants to go to a place he does not know, and asks for help from someone who can see to take him there. In the event that the blind person puts his faith in that other person, he would be saying that he believes that he can take him to his destination and that he is also trustworthy, so that he will not take him to a different place. Although really, the faith would begin when the blind man asked for his help and they began the journey together. Because authentic faith implies a practical trust, not a theoretical one.
It is said that Charles Blondin, the famous French tightrope walker and acrobat, asked a friend if he thought he was able to cross Niagara Falls on a rope carrying another man on his back. His friend knew that Blondin had already crossed the falls several times in different ways: blindfolded, inside a bag, dragging a wheelbarrow, with stilts, taking a seat half way to cook and eating an omelette. So he replied that he did think he could do it by carrying a man on his back. But Blondin was not convinced that his friend really trusted him, so he asked him to go with him the next time, to which his friend refused.
This story well illustrates what true biblical faith is. It is useless to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ can forgive our sins and lead us to the kingdom of God, if we do not really put ourselves in his hands to do so. And unfortunately, there are many people who believe in their minds that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of the world, but who nevertheless never fully surrender to him to save them personally. Let's not forget, a purely intellectual faith is useless.
The Lord Jesus Christ expressed this same truth in a very simple way. He once presented himself as "the living bread that came down from heaven" and affirmed that "if anyone eats of that bread, he will live forever" (Jn 6:51). If we are hungry, it is no use if we are looking at the bread, we have to eat it. This implies a practical attitude on our part. But at the same time, this last illustration shows us how faith leads us to establish a deep and intimate relationship with Christ, because once we have eaten the bread, in a few hours it will become part of ourselves, being impossible to remove it from our organism. And in the same way, when we accept Christ by faith, he becomes part of us. And not only that, but it also becomes the sustenance of our lives.

1. Faith is not a worthy work
   Faith has absolutely no merit in itself; Its value lies exclusively in the object in which it is placed.
   Sometimes it has been said that faith is an empty hand that reaches out to God for help, and has been illustrated as if it were a man drowning and barely manages to get his hand out of the water asking for help. This was expressed by the psalmist:
   (Ps 143: 6) "I extended my hands to you, my soul to you as the thirsty earth."
   Therefore, if the person is finally saved, all merit must be given to the Savior. No one should think that salvation is in the hand of sinful man who extends desperately seeking help, but in the hand of God, who is the one who can and wants to save us by his grace.
   It is important to clarify that there is no merit in the faith, especially to those religious people who confuse the faith with the fulfillment of certain rites. For example, it is easy to meet Catholic people who say they have a lot of faith, when in reality what they mean is that they practice their religion a lot and participate actively in their rites. In that case, it is easy for these people to believe that their faith brings some merit for salvation, but that is because they have not understood the true nature of biblical faith.

2. Faith has value only if placed in Christ
   We often listen to people who tell us that they have a lot of faith in this or that virgin or saint. But that has nothing to do with what the Bible teaches.
   In the first place, because all human beings without exception are sinners and we need a Savior. Even the Virgin Mary herself recognized this when she looked at her own baseness and rejoiced in God as her Savior (Lk 1: 47-48).
   And secondly, because many of the people who make these kinds of affirmations, are not thinking about even a person of flesh and blood, but in an image carved by men that is in some church. This, in addition to being clearly forbidden in God's law (Ex 20: 4-6), is ridiculed in the Bible on many occasions. For example, the prophet Isaiah speaks of the absurdity of making carved images and adorning them beautifully and then bowing to them (Is 44: 9-20) (Is 40: 19-25), and the Psalmists speak of their uselessness and the foolishness of those who trust in them (Ps 115: 4-8) (135: 15-18).
   Other people make statements such as: "the important thing is to believe in something". But this, which may sound very nice, is equally false. The Bible affirms that the only faith that saves is faith in Christ. The Lord himself affirmed:
   (Jn 14: 6) "Jesus said to him: I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father, but by me."
   And his apostles preached the same thing:
   (Acts 4:12) "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given to men, whereby we must be saved."
   If believing in anything is the way to enter the kingdom of heaven, then God should not have sent his own Son into the world to die for sinners. In fact, it would not have been necessary for him to give us his Word to teach us the way of salvation, because after all, all we need is to believe what our heart tells us.
   In any case, as popular as this idea is, it is evident that the God who reveals himself in the Bible does not agree with it, and has clearly said that he will not accept the things that those who believe other things do. . Do we really believe that God is going to approve the crimes committed by extremist Muslims? Or will it justify the abuses that the Catholic Church and its popes have committed for centuries against all those who did not think like them? However much faith they have in their beliefs, God has already said in his Word that he repudiates these attitudes.
   But if it were true that the important thing is to believe in something, in that case we would have to accept any belief of men. That is completely absurd. We would be forced to validate the most unusual beliefs, such as, for example, the first church of SpongeBob that worships the popular animated character; or the Maradonian religion, whose god is the well-known soccer player Armando Maradona and loves a ball; or the religion of the Jedi, inspired by the saga of "Star Wars".
   Moreover, we should also admit that there is some kind of virtue in believing things that are clearly against the Word of God, and in many cases, common sense, such as the church of euthanasia, which has as its main commandment "You shall not procreate", and its four "sacred" pillars are sodomy, cannibalism, suicide and abortion. Or the Raelians, who claim that life on Earth was created by beings from another planet through genetic engineering, and rely on cloning as a weapon to achieve immortality. Or Lacrimology, which proposes that through physical and mental pain, and therefore through crying, it is possible to reach a higher spiritual state. Or most of the Eastern religions that believe in the reincarnation of the soul in different bodies. Or the Hindus, who consider the cows as sacred. Or the pantheists who believe that everything is god.
   In short, it is clear that the human imagination does not seem to know limits, so we can find anything in terms of beliefs. But to say that the important thing is to believe in something forces us to accept that completely opposite theories are equally true, something that is clearly impossible. For example, if we believe, as the Bible affirms, that God is the creator of everything, this is in clear opposition to what pantheism says when it says that all creation is god. Obviously, one of the two positions has to be false, and believing in a lie will never lead us to any good place.
   It is true that the idea that what matters is to believe in something is very widespread in this world, and that in this modern era in which tolerance is idolized, it seems that we are obliged to shut up before the greatest madness we can see in terms of religious in order to maintain a peaceful coexistence. But we can be completely sure that God is not going to take for granted what he has already said is false and has condemned in his.

As we said, biblical faith is never placed in what we want to believe, but in what God has revealed in his Word. Therefore, it implies submission and obedience to what God says.
It is important to keep this clear, because otherwise it can lead to painful mistakes. For example, if a man receives the news that his wife has detected a very aggressive cancer, he will probably say that he has a lot of faith that God will heal him. But without wanting to appear insensitive, this trust is not based on anything the Word of God has said, and it is possible that his wife will die. If such a thing happens, it will not be because God has failed to respond to the faith of the husband, but in reality, what will have failed will be the idea that he had about what is faith.
For some people, faith is a way of expressing their own desires. They say they have a lot of faith because they want something with great intensity. In the previous case, as is logical, the husband will have a strong desire that his wife be healed. But it is necessary to point out that there is no promise in the Scriptures that if we have faith all of our beloved relatives will always be healed when they are sick. That is what we want to believe, but God does not affirm it anywhere in Scripture.
We pray with faith trusting that God has the power to heal the sick, but we subject ourselves to his will and accept whatever he chooses to do. Sometimes we will see wonderful miracles of healing, but in other cases we will receive the strength to keep going in the midst of the loss.
This is what chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews tells us, which, as we already know, is devoted entirely to the theme of faith. There we find that among his heroes, some enjoyed great victories while others did not, but all of them were men and women of faith:
(He 11: 32-39) "And what else do I say? For I would be short of time telling of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, as well as Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms they did justice, they got promises, they covered the mouths of lions, they extinguished impetuous fires, they avoided the edge of the sword, they drew strength from weakness, they became strong in battles, they routed foreign armies, women received their dead by resurrection, but others were tormented , not accepting the ransom, in order to obtain a better resurrection, others experienced vituperation and scourging, and more prisons and prisons, they were stoned, sawed, put to the test, killed by the sword, walked from here to there covered with skins of sheep and goats, poor, anguished, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in the deserts, in the mountains, in the caves, and in the caverns of the earth. good testimony through faith, they did not receive what was promised "
In this paragraph we see clearly that faith does not always lead to immediate victory. Faith can have two types of outcome. By faith we can be saved from death and because of faith we may have to face death. Recall the case of Peter and James in (Acts 12: 1-17). The two were imprisoned because of their faith, but while Jacob was executed by Herod, Peter was miraculously released to continue his ministry. What does one end or the other depend on? Everything depends on the will of God at a certain time.
What is really important is to remember that true faith is nourished by the Word of God and its promises. Faith is our obedient response to what God has said. When we get out of there, we are treading on quicksand.
Therefore, we can say that authentic faith respects the entire Word of God. Whatever God says, the man of faith receives it and adjusts his life according to it.
Therefore, the Word of God has a fundamental role in faith. If we leave it aside, faith becomes a totally subjective issue and everyone will believe what they like the most. But if God has revealed himself through his Word, then faith must be limited to believing and obeying what he has said.