Sin, Knowledge, and Faith

Spirituality Column #203
September 28, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
(Indianapolis north suburban home newspapers)

Sin, Knowledge, and Faith
By Bob Walters

Why does one believe in Jesus Christ?

Is it to:
a) Escape one’s sin,
b) Increase one’s knowledge, or
c) Because our faith tells us to?

Defining and justifying one’s belief in Christ can be a lonely, confusing enterprise.

Our increasingly schizophrenic, postmodern society systemically tries to both acknowledge truth and deny the existence of God, self-righteously insists on goodness but scoffs at morality, and smugly claims heaven as its own while rolling its clouded eyes cynically at the person of Jesus Christ.

But clear-eyed to Christ some of us are drawn. All are invited in grace, but the world tugs hard against the heart that hears the heavenly hearkening of Jesus.

Sin generates pleasure and fear, and fear pulls some toward the Cross. The pursuit of pleasure, of course, pulls the other direction.

If Jesus is presented merely as a “get out of jail” pass, some will misinterpret that as a divine call rather than the selfish, empty escape that it often is; for guilt always focuses on us, not the Lord.

Knowledge is the exclusive province of Christ. He is the Word of God from the beginning of the world (John 1:1), and knowing Christ – which is the New Covenant brought by Jesus – is the only way to know any part of God.

But alas … who pursues Christ in order to obtain knowledge? Secular science has replaced the throne of God as the public seat of knowledge. Where in science does one find grace, or mercy? Facts, please. Let us discover the facts.

“The postmoderns,” to quote Joe Bottum, “say there is neither Good, nor right and wrong.” Justice becomes an opinion or an open-variable equation. Do the math; there is no God.

Faith is an agonizingly simple enterprise. The intuitive examine their heart. The aware learn from experience. The intellectual study the evidence. God is near. Be still, and know it (Ps. 46:10).

Proving faith is agonizingly difficult. I can prove faith only as I can prove love … by my actions, by my joy, by the depth and fullness of my life. Yet the proof is in my heart and, like all eternal things, unseen (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Believers may arrive at Christ’s hem quaking in guilty fear, or possibly seeking ultimate wisdom. How real and wonderful it is when the indefinable quality of faith animates the undeniable fact of God in our soul.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) weeps for those whose walk with the Lord is a guilt trip. The best answer is C.