The Big Picture of the Bible: Chapter 08 Faith Responds

8 FAITH RESPONDS Something is wrong. You go to the doctor. He runs tests and discovers that you have a life-threatening disease. He calls in a prescription of the medicine you need that will save your life. You obtain the medication and what do you do? Do you take the medicine? If you have understood the doctor’s instructions and you believed what the doctor has told you, you will take the medicine. What you have just experienced is belief in action, better known as faith. What made animal sacrifice work? It derived its power from the faith of the believers. The followers of God understood His instructions and they believed that killing the animal would remove their sins. So they acted and performed the animal sacrifice according to the instructions God had given them. One couldn’t just believe in animal sacrifice (Heb 9.22) any more than merely believing in medicine will make one well! The origin of true faith is, and always has been, by the instruction of God. Romans 10.17 emphasizes this point: “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Additionally, sacrificing without understanding why, would have been useless. Sacrifice derived no power from superstition, tradition, or ignorant obedience. Hebrews 11.6 defines genuine faith as having two elements-belief and action: “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Obedience from the heart is the type of faith that God has always desired. Here are some Old Testament examples of this type of faith as seen in Hebrews 11: “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice”(v 4). “By faith Noah … moved with fear, prepared an ark” (v 7). “By faith Abraham… obeyed … and went out” (v 8). “By faith Abraham… offered up Isaac” (v 17). We see clearly that the kind of faith required by God is action based upon belief. Saving faith has always required this belief-based action. In the New Testa- ment, James even asks rhetorically, “Can such faith [without action] save a man?” (Jas 2.14). James even points out that the devils themselves were all believers. If belief alone saved, then the devils would be saved! Gas 2.14-26). Could a stron- ger argument against ‘belief alone’ be made? Also, the removal of sin by animal sacrifice was a gift, not a work. If grand- mother sends you a birthday check, you do not earn the gift because you endorse the check, take it to the bank, and have it cashed. Because you believed that grandmother had the funds in the bank you acted on faith and did the things you needed to do to accept her gift. When Old Testament persons sacrificed an animal they had done nothing to earn removal of sin. Because they believed God’s promise of the removal of sin they were only accepting God’s gracious gift (signing the check) when they sacrificed the animal. The action of obedient faith is not accomplishing some work that earns anything but is doing what God has told us to do to accept His gift. True faith is made complete by action (obedience) from the heart (belief).By Kenneth W. Craig