Jesus; the way out of death and the way into the good life.

I tell you the truth, said Jesus, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.

Resurrection happens to the dead and happens to everyone. Eternal life happens now and happens to those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. It is right, says Jesus, to honor the Son just as we honor the Father, whoever does not honor him does not honor the Father.

To some people, said Jesus, praise from people is more important than praise from God. That way of thinking is a barrier to the good life. A self-erected barrier. It is composed of bricks named, What will they think? Will I look foolish? Will it put me in difficult situations? How about dismantling that self-erected barrier? It can be done instantly by realising that the Father praises, approves, honors and supports the person who believes in Jesus. To believe in Jesus is to be united with the Father. Reflect for a moment on the situation of being united with and supported by God and then contrast that to the situation of continually trying to get the praise of people.

Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. Don't be afraid to believe, but be very afraid to remain alive without possessing eternal life.

(Gospel of John chapter 5 verse 19-45)

No emotions required

Faith really is a gift. Let me give an example: My friend Joan tells me that she has a spare ticket for a Christmas Carol Show and invites me to come with her. I show up, Joan hands in two tickets one for her, one for me, and we sit down and watch the show. Faith in Joan meant that I believed she had the tickets, I believed the show was the time and place she said, and I went along. In the same way faith in Jesus means I believe he was/is speaking the truth and I believe him to be trustworthy.

There are no prerequisites: If faith were a mystery than only mystery solvers could receive faith. If faith is a goal then only certain people can make the journey.

Faith is a gift because the object of my faith is trustworthy, not because I worked up some strange emotion called faith.

Emotion does accompany faith but it comes as a result of God's faithful response to our decision to believe in him. Ecstasy sometimes accompanies faith but it is not required and usually happens to us after some great evidence of the trustworthiness of God.

So if you're working up your faith, rest. The greater part of todays world has found that God can be trusted. God can be relied upon. That's a starting point. Faith grows but you are not asked to grow it before you receive it.

FAITH: It's all around

Circumstances make a difference. The gift of faith in Jesus is scattered all around but that doesn't mean everyone receives it. Some people never notice it; it's a language they haven't learned. Some people have the beginnings of faith but loose it easily, they want a god made after their own imagination and when that doesn't happen they give up believing. Then there are the people (lots of them) who receive faith eagerly and are proud to have faith and even think of trying to develop it, but life is too complicated, too demanding, too crowded; faith gets pushed away; it is true that they value faith and wish they could attend to their faith needs but before then they have to work and play and earn and spend. There is another group, the people who believe. For them the opportunity to believe is something to be grasped eagerly. They start and continue to believe, finding answers to their questions as they continue to trust God. The harder their circumstances the more they nurture their faith with times of fasting and praying and meeting together to understand the scripture.

Faith is a gift from God, he makes it available to all people. Who receives faith depends partly on a person's attitude to faith. Whether they keep faith partly depends on how carefully they nurture their faith.


Matthew 13:18 (NRSV)
18“Hear then the parable of the sower. 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

FAITH: trusting in ourselves.

The search for faith may start out with disappointments. We may be disappointed when we learn that God does not regard how sincere we are but who we sincerely trust. Now we meet another disappointment, trying hard is not enough! That is a real disappointment. Our own effort to be acceptable to God is something we can produce and control, we get pleasure from following certain rules of religion and believing that we are going to be congratulated and thanked by God for working so hard at right-ness, and it isn't so! That really hurts.

Jesus tells the story of a man congratulating himself for all his hard work, he does this as he is praying. He reminds God of the way he follows the religious law, he fasts twice a week, he gives one tenth of all his finances to the temple funds. He actually tells God how grateful he is that he is not like the less religious people. Jesus states, in his story, that all this isn't enough to impress God. Then Jesus includes a man who is despised by the rest of society, he works for the occupying army collecting taxes for them, taking money from his own countrymen to give to foreigners. This man stands in a less than prominent place and simply prays, "God be merciful to me a sinner" Jesus is impressed by that prayer, he says that man began to be put right with God.

So is it only social failures who can hope to be accepted by God? No, social successes, moral upright citizens can be accepted by God but on one basis only; that basis is transferring faith from their own good works to the work that Jesus has done.

In one way this tax collector was truly fortunate, he was able to understand that he needed God's mercy and forgiveness, the morally upright religious man couldn't understand that. He could see that other people might need mercy, but he couldn't see his own need.

We used to call it 'conviction' and with that word we meant an act of the Holy Spirit which convinced people that they needed God's forgiveness and mercy. Some people are so afraid of conviction that they won't go near a church that might shake their faith in themselves.

There are many Christians who still secretly harbour the notion that they are not bad people, and privately think that God should congratulate them for having the good sense to choose to believe in Jesus. Jesus would call it exalting ourselves (we want to ask what is wrong with that, doesn't society teach us to believe in ourselves?) This kind of faith is untested; people who believe in themselves will readily transfer their allegiance to another leader. There is another kind of Christian faith which puts all confidence in the leader and would not dare transfer to another because we know that only this leader (Jesus) can save us from ourselves and make us acceptable to God.

For some people blessing comes in disguise. It comes in the form of conviction. They are visited by the Holy Spirit who shows them the comparison between their own right-ness and God's right-ness and who convinces them that they are truly unacceptable to God, no matter how hard they try. Those people have received a blessing which is the beginning of all other blessings, they have learnt that Jesus Christ alone can make them acceptable to God, and if they are sufficiently blessed they have come to understand that they personally need mercy.

"God be merciful to me a sinner.' It is the cry of the blessed, who are no longer exalting themselves but who have been humbled in order that God might exalt them and make them his sons and daughters.

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Luke 18:9-14[9] Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: [10] "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. [11] The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. [12] I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' [13] But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' [14] I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."