The Who, What, Where, and Why of Faith
The "Who: of faith is, of course, Jesus Christ Himself. He said – "I AM the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved" (John 10:9a) and "I AM the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through Me" (John 14:6). This makes it very clear: not the Church nor the Bible are the door, the way to faith and eternal life; only Christ Himself, the living Word of God. The Church and the Bible are very important, but they should not be the center focus of our faith and worship. If they are, they have become idols. Rather, we must always be "looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith" (Hebrews 12:2a).
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Let us back up a little bit: "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Saving faith is more than thinking an idea is true. In that sense of thinking something is true, even the demons believe Jesus is God... and tremble! (James 2:19b). No, saving faith is entrusting ourselves to Christ, as we say in one of our prayers – "we commend ourselves and one another and all our lives to Christ, our Lord." "Lord" means He is the Master of my life and yours.
Now we come to the "What" of faith. As I stated earlier, the "Who" is Jesus, but who is Jesus – which Jesus? Is it the "Jus' bleeve in Jeezus" of the televangelist? Will any Jesus do just fine? No! The Arian, Nestorian and other heresies preach another Jesus, one who is not fully God and fully man. Mohammed picked up Arian teaching from an Arian priest – the Arians had been exiled from the Greco-Roman Empire into the Arabian deserts. The Arian and Muslim version of Jesus is not the pre-eternal, uncreated Son of God, just a godly man, a prophet.
Here's where the teaching of the Church and the Bible come in. Taken together, we call it "Holy Tradition" – that which is passed down from the prophets and apostles. Before the New Testament was officially recognized, there were many writings in circulation – some authentic from the Apostles or their scribes, some were from genuine believers who were later disciples of the Apostles, and some were just plain heretical or fantastical. Then in 325 A.D., the First Ecumenical Council pronounced anathema on Arianism and distilled the true teachings in the Nicene Creed. You may wonder why this Creed doesn't begin with "I believe in the Holy Bible, the inspired written Word of God, the only authority for faith and practice." It's because the official full Bible didn't exist until 381 A.D. when the next Council (of Constantinople) recognized the canon of the New Testament. So for 350 years after Christ was on earth, we didn't have the New Testament: oral tradition passed down from the Apostles and the Creed predate the NT.
What is the "Where" of faith? Is it merely a church building? No! Of course, buildings are convenient places to gather for worship, but the Church isn't just a bunch of buildings. One of the Greek words for "church" is "sunkentrosis" that literally means "the gathering." Another Greek word for it is "koinonia" that means "fellowship" or "partaking" or "communion" as in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 – "The cup of blessing which we bless, isn't it the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, isn't it the communion of the body of Christ? Because we, who are many, are one bread, one body; for we all partake of the one bread."
So gathering together to partake of the Lord's Supper is where the Church is constituted. How can it be the very body and blood of Christ? Because He said so, and He has the authority to make it so. If I don't like people speediing past my home, so I make a "Speed Limit: 15 MPH" sign, that doesn't make it a real speed limit sign because I don't have the authority to do that. But Christ has divine, supernatural power and authority! As I stated earlier, we pray – "we commend ourselves and one another and all our lives to Christ, our Lord." The "one another" is very important: it's nearly impossible to be a "Lone Ranger" Christian – we need each other's encouragement and support in order to stand firm in the faith. As one of America's founding fathers said, "We must hang together, or we'll hang separately."
Lastly, we've come to the "Why" of faith. We have faith because it gives a reason to live. Without faith in the risen Christ, life doesn't make sense – "If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then 'let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die'" (1 Corinthians 15:32). Why fight wild beasts in the arena, why struggle against the wild passions? Why not just indulge our lusts, go for the gusto? Because "now Christ has been raised from the dead!" (v. 20a of that chapter). As I stated at the outset, the "Why" of faith is more than merely thinking some vague thing is truly "out there somewhere."
The "Why" of faith is based on a firm foundation: on the incarnation of God in Christ, the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of a real, tangible, historical Person, our Lord and Savior. It isn't just having faith in faith, or as the song "I believe" goes – "I believe... in all sorts of nice, warm-fuzzy words." That is simply circular reasoning, like "Be good because it's good to be good" or "play nice because I said so." Such words might work for a three-year-old, but they're not enough to carry us through ridicule, "cancel culture," persecution, and suffering for our faith in Christ.
The answer to the ever-present "Why?" is the everlasting Who.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! Christ is among us! He is and ever shall be!
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