Christian Fellowship Community Group
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The wisdom of the fathers
THE FAITH OF CHRIST JESUS Part 1
There are different kinds of faith; when you have a special wish to bring to God in prayer, He usually grants you a confident feeling as a sign that He has heard you. This gift we usually call "our faith". Some people are more receptive to such grace than others. But the true faith - the only performance, God demands from us - must be simple and easy for everybody.
"Give more faith to us" (Luke 17.5) the disciple asked the Lord. The answer must have been surprising: "If you HAD faith," said the Lord, implying they did not yet have the true faith. "If you had faith as small as a mustard seed". The mustard seed means in the Bible always the smallest measure. So the Lord said, the smallest measure of the true faith is able to move mountains.
This true faith, as we understand it, God tried to teach Adam and Eve, when He warned them of the deadly fruit of the tree of knowledge. The true faith is an act of the will; it is related to obedience, but is much more than that. It means submission of our spirit to the Spirit of God who wants us this way to be lifted up to a higher realm.
Adam and Eve did not learn this faith, but of Abel we read that he became the first hero of faith. (Hebr. 11) Although he could not yet fully understand the teaching of God's atonement, he offered a bloody sacrifice, an innocent being for the sake of men's sin.
And after him are named a lot more heroes of faith who possessed this true faith. However the author and perfecter of our faith is Christ Himself, as He walked on this earth as the Son of Man; such faith is seldom found. - "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?"
(Luke 18.8)
This painful question means NO! - He won't find this faith among the people of God in general; for that Jesus won't find it among unbelievers goes without saying. Only the overcomers will possess it, for as members of His body they carry His blood in them.
One of the clearest examples of the nature of true faith - the faith of Christ - we can find in
John 17, when He prayed:" I have finished the work which you have given to me to do" and "now I am no longer in the world" (verses 4 and 11) These words the Lord spoke before Gethsemane and Calvary, when the work of salvation was still in front of Him, and the lashes and nails of the soldiers would soon prove that He was still in the world. But in the thoughts of God the Son was always in the house of the Father, as we hear Him say in John 3, that the Son IS IN HEAVEN, while visibly, he still could be seen on earth.
In God's thoughts the lamb was slain "before the foundation of the world". Christ was the blind and deaf servant of the Lord (Isa. 42.18) who spoke the words, the Father gave Him and paid heed only to the thoughts of God. These were His reality and His world, He lived in. The blind and deaf consent to the thoughts and words of the Father was Jesus' innermost nature, the nature of His faith - which is the true faith.
Faith does not mean emotion; feelings come later. Faith means to say YES to the thoughts of God, without feeling or seeing - yes even understanding. This simple, weak YES is infinitely precious in God's sight, it is true faith, the faith of Jesus in us. to be continued
(by M. von Brasch)
THE FAITH OF CHRIST JESUS Part 1
There are different kinds of faith; when you have a special wish to bring to God in prayer, He usually grants you a confident feeling as a sign that He has heard you. This gift we usually call "our faith". Some people are more receptive to such grace than others. But the true faith - the only performance, God demands from us - must be simple and easy for everybody.
"Give more faith to us" (Luke 17.5) the disciple asked the Lord. The answer must have been surprising: "If you HAD faith," said the Lord, implying they did not yet have the true faith. "If you had faith as small as a mustard seed". The mustard seed means in the Bible always the smallest measure. So the Lord said, the smallest measure of the true faith is able to move mountains.
This true faith, as we understand it, God tried to teach Adam and Eve, when He warned them of the deadly fruit of the tree of knowledge. The true faith is an act of the will; it is related to obedience, but is much more than that. It means submission of our spirit to the Spirit of God who wants us this way to be lifted up to a higher realm.
Adam and Eve did not learn this faith, but of Abel we read that he became the first hero of faith. (Hebr. 11) Although he could not yet fully understand the teaching of God's atonement, he offered a bloody sacrifice, an innocent being for the sake of men's sin.
And after him are named a lot more heroes of faith who possessed this true faith. However the author and perfecter of our faith is Christ Himself, as He walked on this earth as the Son of Man; such faith is seldom found. - "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?"
(Luke 18.8)
This painful question means NO! - He won't find this faith among the people of God in general; for that Jesus won't find it among unbelievers goes without saying. Only the overcomers will possess it, for as members of His body they carry His blood in them.
One of the clearest examples of the nature of true faith - the faith of Christ - we can find in
John 17, when He prayed:" I have finished the work which you have given to me to do" and "now I am no longer in the world" (verses 4 and 11) These words the Lord spoke before Gethsemane and Calvary, when the work of salvation was still in front of Him, and the lashes and nails of the soldiers would soon prove that He was still in the world. But in the thoughts of God the Son was always in the house of the Father, as we hear Him say in John 3, that the Son IS IN HEAVEN, while visibly, he still could be seen on earth.
In God's thoughts the lamb was slain "before the foundation of the world". Christ was the blind and deaf servant of the Lord (Isa. 42.18) who spoke the words, the Father gave Him and paid heed only to the thoughts of God. These were His reality and His world, He lived in. The blind and deaf consent to the thoughts and words of the Father was Jesus' innermost nature, the nature of His faith - which is the true faith.
Faith does not mean emotion; feelings come later. Faith means to say YES to the thoughts of God, without feeling or seeing - yes even understanding. This simple, weak YES is infinitely precious in God's sight, it is true faith, the faith of Jesus in us. to be continued
(by M. von Brasch)
strwy
Glory to the lamb of God
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