Faith, Biblically Speaking
I’m reconsidering what the Bible means when it talks about “faith”.
I used to think that it meant that you have to believe that God exists, and I do believe that is included, but that’s not really the crux of it. (no pun intended)
It seems silly to imagine someone arriving before God, after a long life, and God patting them on the head saying “Nice work, you believed in things you could not prove.”
In fact, that seems downright ridiculous. Why would God want to reward that? There’s endless crap that I cannot prove that I could claim is true and force myself or others to believe, but it would be wrong. That’s actually a lie, to be technical. God is opposed to lying, generally speaking.
Isn’t “belief” what “gets us to heaven”? We need to BELIEVE in Jesus taking our punishment for our sin so that God can forgive us, right? Actually, that’s sort of true but also misleading in its wording. Notice that these statements could be taken multiple ways.
“Jesus took the punishment for our sins” – That sounds like some penalty had to be paid and He stepped in to absorb it on our behalf so we are cleared. But it could also mean that He is now experiencing the punishment that we are experiencing, so we experience it together. He didn’t “take our place” necessarily, instead, He joined us by putting Himself in a position to endure what we must endure. Maybe, God isn’t rewarding us for believing something we can’t prove, but instead He is teaching us that “God is with us” by enduring our punishment with us (death) and He has not left us nor forsaken us, and we must renew our mind with that truth, and in doing so we no longer feel rejection due to our sin but instead feel acceptance in spite of our sin.
Sin separates us from God, right? Again, sort of true but misleading in its wording. Perhaps it does separate us but only because of us and not so much the sin, as its effect is in our mind. We self-judge and run from God (as did Adam and Eve) because of our sin, so we are separated from God because of our sin. Again, BELIEF that God has neither left us nor forsaken us reconnects us to God because the separation was IN OUR MIND.
Secondly, perhaps most importantly, belief is vision, without which God’s people perish. If you only believe what you can see then you are pointless. You’re just a mirror in an echo chamber. On the other hand, if you have a vision of a better future, then you are exercising faith, believing in what is not yet real, and forging it into existence. THAT is faith that can change the world.
