Faith and Works: The Divine Dynamic Duo
Is religion about belief or about action?
I think we need to move people away from this word “religion” because it doesn’t properly hammer down on relationship with God. I won’t talk about other religions because I know little and do not understand many.
Religion is ‘the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods”. Belief is the key word here because it encompasses everything. We can also substitute the word belief for FAITH. And the Bible defines faith beautifully.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) KJV
So, whenever we believe or hope for or have faith about something, we’re trusting that we will get that thing or that it will happen when it hasn’t yet. So, when people ask, “Do you BELIEVE in God?” they mean, ‘Do you have faith and trust that he exists? Are you bold to proclaim it even when you haven’t seen him?’ Faith is the foundation and the building block of religion. It’s the first stone to be set for building a relationship with God.
Hebrews 11:6 goes on to state, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.”
But then if we believe in God, what next?
Faith To The Test
In Genesis 22 of the Bible, we see a perfect example which will answer the question we began with. Abraham (who at the time was called Abram) and his wife, Sarah, (who at the time was called Sarai) had waited years for a son that God had promised them. The first test of faith was in Abraham’s patience. After 15 years of waiting for the promise, God visited Abraham again and assured him that the promise would be fulfilled in due time. It took another 10 years after the reassurance for Abraham and Sarah to give birth to a son who was named Isaac. But the test wasn’t over.
Years had passed before God spoke to Abraham concerning Isaac. But God asked him to sacrifice him up as a burnt offering. God asked Abraham to, with faith, give up the promise that he had spent 25 years waiting for. And Abraham obeyed. He took Isaac up, bound him upon a structure he had built, and attempted to, well, murder him. But an angel of the Lord appeared at the last second and told Abraham that he had passed the test.
But where did such faith come from? Check this out.
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. (Hebrews 11:17–19) NKJV
No wonder Abraham was referred to by God as “My friend”(James 2:23). He knew that even if he did sacrifice Isaac, God would be able to raise him up from the dead. He knew that the promise of God in his life would be fulfilled and the promise was going to be carried out through Issac. It was Abraham’s grounding in God’s word regardless of what he could see with his physical eyes that kept him steadfast in faith and in obedience to God.
God sometimes may be telling us to do things that don’t make sense to the human thinking or logic. And the beautiful thing about it is He doesn’t have to make sense. Because He is God.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. (Isaiah 55:8) NKJV
We don’t think the way He does or see things the way He sees them. He’s in a different class altogether. Our job as Christians and believers is to have faith and the utmost trust in the word of God and to act in accordance to our faith. And this is because of the simple principle that faith cannot exist without works.
Faith and Works
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (James 2:26) NKJV
Our faith is made clear and proven through our works, what we do. If we say we believe in God and we go about living contrary to his will, then wherefore do we have faith? Our faith would be dead because we cannot back up our faith with works. Do you know what I consider to be the greatest example of this? Jesus.
God gave Jesus to us to redeem us. To save us from the world and reconcile us back to God as His people. God didn’t wait for us to straighten up and straighten out before he gave his only Son to be sacrificed at the hands of the men he came to save. God so LOVED us that he gave Jesus to us in HOPE (which also means in FAITH) that we would receive Him and be saved. And what does 1 Corinthians 13:13 say?
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(I Corinthians 13:13) NKJV
I hope this helps give a little bit more understanding as to what God wants from us, His children. To understand that we must first believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again for our sins, and then to obey the commandments he has given us to live our lives here on Earth in holiness and righteousness.
Okay, that ends this post. So, get outta here and I’ll see you in the next one.
