Faith In Christ?

Ask any Christian in America if they put their faith IN Christ and they will respond “Yes!”

Ask them if they believe that their faith in Christ will save them from their sins and allow them to live in heaven for eternity, and they will say “Yes!”

I know if you had ask me the same question a few years back that is how I would have responded, but I have been shown the importance of one word. It is the difference between ‘in’ and ‘of.’

The Bible is careful in how it describes our journey of faith. There are those who put their faith in God or Jesus, and they are the religious. Then there are those who enter into a completely different level where their faith exceeds that of the religious. Those are the people who have received the gift of faith from Christ.

The difference is to whom the faith belongs. Are we putting our faith in Christ or do we have a faith that belongs to Christ, of Christ, and are we being led by this dynamic faith?

Anything I have made, or any effort I make is always imperfect and will fail at some point. I can create a faith in Christ that I work at with a great deal religious passion. I can stand around all day and say over and over to myself, “I believe, I believe, I believe…” and still be riddled with doubts. The Bible tells me of a man who encountered Christ and said “I believe, help my unbelief.” Man…that is true for me, how about you?

How does Christ help our unbelief? He offers us the gift of faith that comes with His Holy Spirit. He offers to measure it out to us in degrees that we can handle. If we want more all we have to do is be faithful with what we have been given, ask for more and He will give more.

“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”

-Romans 12:3

Clearly faith is a gift of God rather than something we create. In the parable of the talents Jesus shows us that as we use the gift of faith we have been given, we will receive even more according to His purpose, BUT it is Christ who gives faith and in different proportions according to what we can handle and the world needs.

What difference does the articles ‘in’ and ‘of’ make…all the difference in the world! Do we have our own personal faith in Christ, or have we received the faith of Christ in our hearts? How are we relating to this gift and are we using it for the glory of God? The answer may be the difference between more religion and stepping into a whole new world of faith.

If God Disappears…

“I’ve lost me faith. How can I get it back?”

This is a question that is becoming more and more common in ministry. Because of the confuse regarding what is faith and religion, most of us are having a hard time understanding the question.

David Sanford is going to attempt his answer of the life changing question in a book to be released this fall: “If God Disappears: 9 Faith Wreckers and What to Do About Them” Sanford details nine reasons he uncovered through listening to stories of those who exited the church and abandon faith. Most of the time, Christians leave because of a "wounded" experience. They either deliberately walk away due to questions and doubts that go unanswered or they feel that God has walked away or "disappeared," observed Sanford.

The numbers are astounding. Barna research group confirms that the church is loosing about 1 Million parishioners in America each year. Over the last several years about 31 Million have walked away. To quote Sanford:

"Any business that is losing 31 million customers is going out of business," he told a room of Christian journalists and editors. "[It] is the greatest crisis among Christians today in the U.S., Canada and some parts of Europe…We must break the silence in our publications.”

I know where Sanford is going with this book and understand how he is attempting to build people up and help them rethink their theology of God. Is attempting to answer the age old crisis of why bad things happen to good people, or why a Good God would allow such pain and suffering in this world. This is the same urgent need that has spawned the popularity of the fictional book “The Shack.”

This summer I had two wonderful conversations with a young woman and a young man who shared the very same question with me. They were in crisis and didn’t know what to do. They both had attended church and considered themselves Christians at one time but had walked away from God, one even thought of himself as an agnostic moving toward atheism.

What I discovered just by listening to their stories is that they were not Christians who were born again in the Spirit of Christ by the faith of Christ, but they were people who followed a religious form of Christianity. They did not know the difference between faith and religion. They acted and bargained with God with Christian terms but they relied on a religious understanding. In all fairness they knew no other way. When I asked to explain the difference between faith and religion they were at a loss.

I am glad to report that after one conversation with them they made the choice to move beyond religious Christianity and move into the Faith of Christ. That faith came with power that made a difference in their hearts, attitudes and direction. The conclusion that God has brought me to believe is that most Americans are religious but not really born again Christians. They have not the real faith that can change their world.

As new books come out on how to help the million people who will leave the church this year, I am afraid that they will get only another religious list of things to do without using this moment to leave religious efforts behind for the peace of Christ.

They next blog will deal the difference between a Christian religion (which must fail) and the Christian faith (which cannot fail.)