Tag: 1 Corinthians 12:9

Faith in the faithfulness of God: A meditation

Fr Dr Saji K Mathew2 Comments

Jesus Christ is the pioneer/author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). The definition of ‘faith’ requires excluding the worldly ownership of it which otherwise credits only the flesh. Anything of the flesh gets reduced as a reason to boast in it, leading to Satanic pride. On the contrary, ‘faith’ as a gift from the one who pioneered it (Jesus Christ) opens up to a world of spiritual absoluteness. Therefore, faith is a journey that starts in the human life from the moment s/he is gifted with it, grows every moment by remaining connected to the source of faith, until it is perfected in the kingdom of heaven. Hence, God said, I am the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 1:8). 

Faith as a higher order (spiritual) entity is not a quality developed and shaped within the human faculties, and demonstrated as an individual’s spiritual efficiency. Instead, faith is a journey to the assured destination (Hebrews 11:1), which begins with Jesus, advances through Jesus, and culminates in Jesus by being with Him forever. This means the world cannot experience true faith by ignoring the source of faith. Hence Jesus is the Alpha of our faith, clearly representing human dependency for faith on the divine. 

Jesus Christ being God incarnate, faith could be traced as (in other words) originating from God. If we have to name the source of faith, we can name it as the faithfulness of God. More clearly, human faith originates from the faithfulness of God. Therefore, a brief understanding of the faithfulness of God is essential. 

Deuteronomy 7:9 and Isaiah 49:7 unequivocally state that God is faithful. The faithfulness of God is embedded in the covenant He made with mankind at different stages of history. As a matter of fact, a covenant is  a mutual relationship between two parties to it. God’s relationship with mankind starts with a covenant as read in Genesis 1:28 – God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.  

If we look back to history, we will acknowledge and appreciate that mankind’s fall and roller coaster relationship with God never tainted the latter’s promise as His faithfulness is to all generations (Psalm 100:5) and endures forever (Psalm 117:2). The visible evidence of God’s faithfulness is the fertility and dominating presence of mankind on the earth.

God continued repeating His promise to the following generations, as a reminder of His faithfulness. For instance, we read about God’s covenant with Noah in Genesis 6:18 But I will establish my covenant with you….., as an assurance that though He is destroying the wicked generation, the first promise remains intact. Moreover, the ‘first covenant’ is repeated as we read in Genesis 9: 1-2 …..Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are delivered. We see here a reminder that God’s faithfulness does not change.

Moving forward in history, God has never tried to forget or bury His promise, a mark of His faithfulness. After Noah, Abraham was assured of God’s faithfulness, this time by means of an oath (Genesis 22:16) – so that mankind could understand the way they understand. This oath followed a repetition of His promise of multiplication …..I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the seashore….(Genesis 22:17).  Moreover, God made sure that Abraham’s son Isaac, and his grandson Israel are aware of the covenant as we read in Genesis 26:4 and Genesis 35:11 respectively. 

By the time of Moses, God extended the message of His faithfulness from individuals (Adam, Noah and the Patriarchs) to cover the entire population as we read in Exodus 19:5 and Deuteronomy 29:10-11. As a faithful servant, Moses made sure that God’s covenant was known to all the people by way of arranging it to be read in public (Deuteronomy 31:10-11). Prior to this, God Himself ordered that the future king of Israel should have a copy of the covenant, read, and follow it, so that he may never think of himself above the covenant (Deuteronomy 17:18). This means the king should be drawing regularly from the faithfulness of God and guiding his subjects. The failure of the first King could be traced to his failure in relying on the faithfulness of God. Saul’s failure led to the rise of King David who not only submitted himself to the faithfulness of God, but also paved the way for the fulfilment of God’s faithfulness through a renewed covenant (Jeremiah 31:31; 2 Samuel 7:12-13).  

As said earlier, covenant  represents mutual relationship, and it embodies the faithfulness of God. A metaphorical description of this could be the spiritual visualisation of the covenant as the outer shell/layer of God’s faithfulness which is the core. Unfortunately, mankind often failed to maintain the same degree of commitment to the covenant relationship that God extended, as evident from the history recorded in the Old Testament. This failure prompted God to offer a renewed covenant through prophet Jeremiah 31: 31-34 The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah……..

The author of Hebrews exposited this in 8:6-13. Accordingly, there are better promises in the new covenant. Moreover, there is now a mediator (Jesus Christ), anointed to pioneer and perfect the faith of mankind, by being faithful to the faithfulness of God. A point to note here is that the new covenant was not because God’s initial covenant had flaws. Hebrews 8: 9 allays such doubts by stating explicitly that since the people did not continue in my covenant…, the aim and objectives of it could not be achieved. This said, Hebrews 12:32 does  praise a few Old Testament personalities who submitted themselves to the faithfulness of God and even suffered for it. However, the conclusion is Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect (Hebrews 12: 39-40).  

The summary of the faith of the Old Testament generation could be described as their failure in staying focused on the source of true faith, the faithfulness of God. Instead, the people and later the Kings were found wandering away from the faithfulness of God, and trying to build up a faith system which was worldly and demonic- faith in foreign gods and idols. Yet, the faithfulness of God remained unaffected, and sent His only begotten Son out of His steadfast love (see John 3:16) who would help mankind with faith. Thus, Jesus Christ became the incarnation of God’s faithfulness, and a source of faith for mankind who were reeling under the weight of failure to build up true faith. As we read, Jesus offered the spring of faithfulness to all those who are thirsty (John 7:37 cf. Isaiah 55:1). Hence Hebrews 12:2 glorifies Jesus as the pioneer and perfecter of faith. 

The Greek word used for ‘pioneer’ is archegon which means originator, author, founder, prince and leader; and for ‘perfecter’ is teleioten which also means completer and finisher. These two words take us to Revelation 21: 6 …I am the Alpha  and the Omega, the beginning and the end, which sheds more light in understanding Jesus Christ as the author and finisher of faith as said in Hebrews 12:2.

Since Jesus Christ is the source of our faith, we have no alternative choice but to draw near to Him to build up true faith. Jesus brings everyone thirsty (of faith) to the source of faith which is the faithfulness of God. Revelation 21:6 relays the Lord’s announcement, To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life (also see John 7:37-38). These verses nullify the scope of faith independent of the faithfulness of God. In other words, faith is drawn from the faithfulness of God, and hence no room and scope for any form of demonstration of human capabilities.

The invitation to the feast of God’s faithfulness is extended to the entire humanity (Matthew 22: 9 cf. Luke 14:21-23), and to receive and accept the invitation is a blessing (see Revelation 19:9). 

The Hebrew word for faith, aman, clearly points to the dependability factor. Aman  has several meanings in Hebrew as listed below:

  1. To support with the arm, to carry a child- for e.g. Isaiah 49:23 (support); Numbers 11:12 (carry a child); Isaiah 60:4 (carry).
  2. To guard and bring up – Esther 2:7 (bring up); 2 Kings 10:1 &5 (guardian).
  3. To nurse (Ruth 4:16; 2 Samuel 4:4). 
  4. Sure, enduring, firm – Hosea 5:9 (sure/certain); 1 Samuel 2:35; 2 Samuel 7:16; 1 Kings 11:38 (enduring); Isaiah 7:9; 22:23 &25 (firm).
  5. Assured, lasting – Isaiah 33:16; Deuteronomy 28:59. 
  6. Faithful, trustworthy – Deuteronomy 7:9; Numbers 12:7; 1 Samuel 22:14; Proverbs 25:13; Jeremiah 42:5 (faithful); Isaiah 8:2 (trustworthy/reliable); Proverbs 11:13 (trustworthy); Job 12:20 (trusted); Isaiah 28:16 (trust); Psalm 78:22 & 32 (faith, believe); Isaiah 7:9; Psalm 106:24 (faith); Genesis 45:26; Exodus 4:1 & 5; Job 9:16; Proverbs 14:15 (believe),
  7. Verify, confirm – Genesis 42:20 (verify); 1 Kings 8:26 (confirm).
  8. Stand still – Job 39:24. 
  9. Right (turn to) – Isaiah 30:21.

The above meanings invites us to the varied and rich properties of faith which can only be drawn from the faithfulness of God. We also get to know how these varieties (as evident from the different meanings) converge in one true God. The different varieties that the faithfulness of God contains are support, nursing, guardianship, firmness, trust, assurance, confirmation, stability, and more of heavenly experiences, as the Hebrew word aman means. 

The richness of the faithfulness of God enables us to understand mankind’s need for someone who could guide them to the source of faith, the faithfulness of God. The provision of “something better” (Hebrews 11:40) justifies the difference between the faith of the Old Testament generation and the one pioneered and perfected by Jesus Christ. The “something better” or rather the best of faith cannot be achieved without the help of Jesus. In fact, it is He who distributes faith in varied measurement (Romans 12:3) not as a reward but as a gift (Romans 5:15; also see 1 Corinthians 12:9). 

Saint Paul explains how Jesus was qualified to pioneer and perfect the faith for the sake of mankind. …..He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death-even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted and gave Him the name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bent….(Philippians 2:8-10). The humility of the last Adam (Jesus Christ) demonstrated His faithfulness, and through the authority, He could fulfil the faithfulness of God promised to the first Adam (Genesis 1:28). Accordingly, we see Jesus measuring out faith to be “fruitful and multiply”, in John 15:5; and “fill the earth and subdue it” in Matthew 28:19-20; and dominate it in Mark 16:17.  

Since faith is a gift measured out by God, we look up to the mercy seat in the heavens (Psalm 123:1) in the same way ….as the eyes of the servants look at the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress….(Psalm 123:2). Moreover, faith is not acquired by one’s own work but is a grace of God, there is no room for humans to boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). This is evident from the example of Jesus’ brief conversation with the father of a boy with a spirit of seizure. When Jesus clarified the unlimited expanse of faith, the boy’s father cried out Lord help me with my unbelief (lack of faith) (Mark 9:22-24). 

As said in Romans 12:6, faith is measured out and bestowed to individuals in different proportions. This does not mean that the individuals just walk away with whatever they have received and use it at their own discretion. The expectation regarding its use is embedded in the fact that faith is collective. This means the varied measures of faith received by each individual must be used for helping others, as each person is a member of the body of Christ (Romans 12:4-5). In other words, faith, though gifted on an individual basis, can only be enjoyed collectively, by sharing with one another. Hence, we see Saint Paul not considering himself high but humbled longing to share and draw encouragement from the faith of the Romans (Romans 1:12). This mutual sharing leads to fructification and multiplication (Genesis 1:28) of faith, of course by living in the faithfulness of Jesus Christ (John 15:5). 

In summary, God’s eternal relationship with mankind started when Adam and Eve were created. The faithfulness of His relationship was articulated through his covenant (Genesis 1:28). This covenant relationship continued through Noah, Abraham, Moses and the Old Testament generation. The faithfulness of God was given a human embodiment through Jesus Christ, at the appointed time. 

The gospel witnesses the descending of the faithfulness of God through Jesus Christ who first pioneered and perfected faith, and imparted the faithfulness of God to mankind. The vertical dimension of faith is thus discerned when God descended to earth from the heavens. Once descended, the first step was to pioneer and perfect the faith so that everyone thirsting for faith knows the sources and could draw from the faithfulness of God. The pioneering of faith is evident through the faithfulness of the Son of God (Philippians 2:6-8), who after being successful, qualified Himself to measure out faith to mankind. The humility of Jesus Christ was the point of initiation of the horizontal dimension of faith, through the disciples (Matthew 28:19-20), which then spread out to the whole of mankind, and is continuing until the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The vertical and horizontal dimensions of faith represents the vibrant relationship between mankind and God. Jesus Christ opened a new and living way for us (Hebrews 10:20), and whoever approaches God through this living way has full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:22), which is the vertical dimension. In the same way as God is faithful (Hebrews 10:23) in His relationship with mankind, the responsibility to honour this relationship rests with mankind who is expected to drive the horizontality of the relationship by loving one another and sharing (Hebrews 10:24-25) the faith drawn from the faithfulness of God. 

In short, we draw faith from the faithfulness of God, and keep growing our faith by sharing it with our fellow beings, and look forward to perfecting our faith in Jesus Christ at His second coming.

May God help us to develop faith in the faithfulness of God!!

In Lord’s service

Fr Saji K. Mathew

God-persons and Corporate Churches: And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?

Fr Dr Saji K MathewLeave a comment

The focus of this blog is on Jesus’ prophetic question whether He would be able to find faith when He returns (Luke 18: 8b). In other words, how easy or difficult is it to find (true) faith in the contemporary world overshadowed by pseudo god-persons and corporate churches rule.

God-man is actually a term used to characterise Jesus Christ. We can see this term used to describe the incarnation of God the logos (John 1:1&14) in the writings of Origen (3rd century). Sadly, this concept has lately been hijacked by ‘ordinary people making extraordinary claims’ (Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, second President of India) with the primary objective of profiteering. As a result, lately, there is a parallel claim for divinity, obviously prompted by Satan, to distract the innocent from true faith. Jesus said, ‘for false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect’ (Matthew 24:24). The Bible suggests that the distractors and deceivers have always been there since the beginning of the gospel. For instance Romans 16:18 states ‘for such people do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the heart of simple minded’. St Paul described such people as destined to destruction as their god is their stomach (Philippians 3:19).

The question ‘And yet when the son of Man come, will he find faith on earth’ could be read as a conclusion of the parable of the widow and the unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8). Jesus contrasts God’s quick justice to the unjust judge’s delayed justice. As the legal maxim goes ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. A person dealing with justice (judge) is in an extremely responsible position and hence is expected to be zero tolerant to injustice. It is the person’s institutional and societal role and obligation to impart justice with prudence. Unfortunately, in this case the judge describes the self as having ‘no fear of God and no respect for anyone’ (Luke 18:4) albeit, he decides to grant justice to the widow so as to avoid getting worn out (Luke 18:5).

On the contrary, our eternal judge, God almighty, is ever keen to impart justice to His chosen ones without any delay (Luke 18:7-8). Even then, He is not expecting faith to be found on the second coming. In other words, faith would become extinct by that time. Prior to exploring the possible reason behind this obsoleteness, it is important to understand what exactly faith means.

According to Hebrews 11:1, ‘faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen’. When we cry out to Jesus, we do it in the backdrop of faith as defined in the above verse. Prayer in faith is the perceived realisation of future in spirit. Jesus said, ‘whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours (Mark 11:24). There are other similar verses on faith, said by Jesus Christ. (For instance, see Matthew 17:6 & 21:22). Besides, please be aware that faith is a gift of Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:9). Therefore, when we pray in faith we simultaneously believe in the fulfilment of a futuristic subject (of our prayer).

The spiritual visualisation of this futuristic dimension is well articulated in Hebrews 11:4-12:2 where the faith of so many of God’s children starting from Abel to many Israelites is listed. It is so spiritually inspiring to note Hebrews 11:39-40 where it states that despite such strong faith, they did not receive what was promised, ‘since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect’. It is indeed amazing to discern that their faith was not affected due to non-realisation of hope in their earthly life.

God is just (2 Thessalonians 1:6); He loves justice (Isaiah 61:8), and executes justice for the orphans and the widows (Deuteronomy 10:18). He continues to be the same and never changes, for according to Hebrews 13:8, ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever’. But unfortunately, we human beings do change. Even after receiving answers to our prayers and getting justice executed, we often fall back. St Peter quotes Proverbs 26:11 in his epistle (2 Peter 2:22) to describe this fall as ‘a dog’s return to its vomit’.

This fall could be better discerned by understanding the way the enemy (Satan) works, as detailed in the parable of weeds among the wheat, in which the enemy sowed weeds among the wheat (Matthew 13:24). The enemy sowed weeds when the sower (of wheat) was not alert. In the same way, our faith gets corrupted due to the lack of being alert to Satan’s designs. Consequently, we now see around a diminished faith where weeds have outgrown wheat, or rather material visualisation has outgrown spiritual realisation, leading to the growth of a ‘wicked and adulterous generation seeking signs’ (Matthew 12:39). This has lately paved the opportunity for many pseudo-god-persons to sprout and burgeon. Having said, the commitment of many individual evangelists and missionaries cannot be negated either.

It has lately become a fashion to stage spirituality by way of ‘miracle performances’ as if they are the only way to make people believe in the power of God. This has further extended to the commercialisation of spirituality with advertisements and other publicity stunts using the social media. It has now boiled to a state that many or most people are unable to believe in Jesus and His power without seeing such demonstrations. ‘Seeing to believe’ is a commercial slogan rather than a spiritual one. Jesus said to St Thomas, ‘blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe’ (John 20:29). Instant spirituality is less based on faith (in Jesus) and more on immediate material realisation, ‘today and now’. Such attitude prompts an ‘eat, drink and be merry’ (Luke 12:19) approach which is detrimental to spiritual life.

The poisonous mushrooming of pseudo-divine individual entities has eventually led to corporate churches confined to ‘five star or even seven star’ gatherings in ultra luxurious settings as opposed to Jesus’ call for ‘carrying the cross to follow Him’ (Mark 8:34) by entering through the narrow gate (Matthew 7:14). Apparently, as if imitating the corporate leviathan, the humble masses are forced to carry heavy loads and the so called god-persons not even moving their little finger (see Luke 11:46).

Our aim and focus must not be ‘this worldly’ but heavenly, rooted in a faith which is futuristic and realistic. In order to achieve what we aim, we need to follow the ‘pioneer and perfecter of faith’ (Hebrews 12:2), Jesus Christ. We are expected to follow Him by ‘denying all the ungodliness of the present age, and living sensibly, righteously and godly’ (Titus 2:12). In this way, we wait for the ‘appearance of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ’ (Titus 2:13). If we do so, then Jesus, in His second coming would be able to find faith somewhere in the corner of this world. Let us prepare ourselves not to disappoint Jesus at His second coming.

Lord please be kind and have mercy on us. Amen.