The Goal of Faith...According to Paul

In Christianity we make our own priorities, and much of the time they say more about our culture than they do our faith. It's an odd coincidence that the people the Church rejects most concertedly and vocally are minority groups culturally as well. The bible, on the other hand, shows us a God who rejected the socially dominant groups in the first century: the religious elite, the fabulously wealthy, those at the top of the power and status ladders. The principle is a simple one: all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3.23). We are all saved on an equal basis; by faith and faithfulness.

After a critique of endless genealogies that promote speculations compared to divine training that is known by faith (or "faithfulness", depending on your translational philosophy...1 Tim 1.4), Paul drops a bomb in 1 Tim 1.5:

But the aim of such instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience and sincere faith (again the Greek word 'pistis' can go either way, "faith" or "faithfulness")

Lest that fly by us without impact, consider what Paul is not saying: the goal is not perfect behavior; the goal is not astute learnedness; the goal is not status in the Christian community (the Religious Elite had that); the goal is not this set of political beliefs or that set; the goal is, as it always is with Paul, love. He does the same thing in 1 Corinthians 13, right in the middle of a dense discussion on spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12-15). This is not a regular ol' love, the best that we can produce from our most concerted efforts; no, this is love from a katharas kardias...love from a purified heart, implying an outside agent that has accomplished the purification. We can't drum this up. It will never be a product of our emotional efforts. We'll never get it aside from an act of revelation from God.

Paul doesn't stop there though. He knows that there's more to it. We also must have a suneideseus agathes...a good conscience. Notice again what Paul does not say: he does not say a "clean" conscience. Don't you think he would have said that if that's what he'd meant? It's not like Greek doesn't have terms available to say that very thing. Paul means that we must have a conscience that is in good working order, one that points us toward what God desires and away from the things he doesn't. It's like having working smoke alarms in your house.

Paul rounds everything off with pisteus anhypokritou...a genuine faith. This is the product of the first two elements; it grows organically and can't be faked or forced. We can't broker somebody else's faith; We have to own our version through purification and the application of a working conscience, both of which are established as a work of God, then walked out by us.

In the end, Paul sticks to his usual guns. Love is the endgame, a goal unto itself from which everything else flows naturally. We can't make it up though. All we can do is seek the presence of God, then be open and available. We are plants and God is sunlight. We can't avoid being changed when we place ourselves in his presence.

He's Standing Right in Front of Us

John 7 tells the story of Jesus at the Festival of Booths with the rest of the Jews. The Festival of Booths recounts the time that Israel wandered in the desert, living in tents and trusting in YHWH for everything. The whole point was to remember their faith, to recall the way YHWH came through for them, and to look ahead to the day when he would provide the permanent solution to their wanderings in the person of the Messiah. If you get this, then you get the irony of the passage: the Messiah is standing right there in front of them, and all they can do is doubt based on a misunderstanding of his birthplace (Jesus grew up in Galilee, but he was born in Bethlehem...see the first few chapters of Matthew and Luke).

I'd like to feel self-righteous about this, except that I do the same thing all the time. Jesus stands right in front of me all the time, his works plain to see, and all I can think to do is ask questions based on the data I *don't* have. He wants to guide and bless me, while I want to "know" him by the proper application of the scientific method. He can't be known that way - no one can. He can only be known through relationship, and that starts by taking him at his word and experiencing his being.

We must love our Lord as he presents himself to us and not by building constructs, boxes into which we place his various attributes, filing them away into neat, distinct compartments. We cannot know our Savior by the study and correct application of doctrine; we must take him as he reveals himself to us, first in scripture, then by practice.

Relationship is the goal. If Jesus has become a bug, ready to be pinned to a board, STOP. Something is wrong.

Drawn by God

"For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father." - John 6.65

This verse speaks a very simple truth: God must change our hearts; we will never this thing on our own. As a matter of fact, one of the things that I teach often about the gospel is this: if you can wrap yourself around it without a work of the Holy Spirit, then it's something less than the true gospel. It's not that it's necessarily "bad news". It's simply not good enough news. It may be partially true, but it's not the whole truth.

We need the Holy Spirit to draw us to the right relationship with God, but we needn't make it about predestination. We are drawn by God into lives of faith and repentance, and it's his kindness and love that do that. Predestining one group of people for eternity in hell is one of the least loving (or just) things I can think of.

Many of Jesus' disciples left him because they were trying to think their way through this rather than letting God change their hearts (Jn 6.60,66). Peter's declaration in 6.69 stands out by contrast; that's what gives it tremendous meaning and significance. Peter isn't intellectualizing this. He has received the gift that the Holy Spirit holds out for all of us: the desire and ability to let go and be drawn into the Mystery that transforms.