I hope you are finding our preaching series on Romans helpful. On Sunday we come to part five of eight, and we will be focussing on Romans 8.1-17 in which Paul contrasts living according to ‘the flesh’ with setting your mind on and being led by ‘the Spirit’.
One of the features of this letter is Paul’s emphasis on faith. For example:
‘I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith.’ 1.16
‘We hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.’ 3.25
‘Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ 5.1
In chapter 4 Paul explains how faith was at the centre of Abraham’s relationship with God.
Elsewhere we find the same theme: ‘By grace you have been saved through faith.’ Ephesians 2.8
There is, however, a danger that people misunderstand what Paul is saying here. He is not suggesting that God accepts people if they believe the right things. As if we could present someone with a creed and ask them if they agree with the various statements. Faith is not simply giving mental assent to certain doctrines.
The story of Charles Blondin might be helpful. Charles Blondin was a famous tightrope walker in the nineteenth century. He was best known for his amazing high wire walks across the Niagara Falls. The story goes that he performed all sorts of impressive variations of his act, even walking across on stilts! He made it look easy, but then he would call for a volunteer to be carried across on his back or in a wheelbarrow. Believing that Blondin was an amazing tightrope walker was not difficult. People could see for themselves his extraordinary talent, but when he asked people to trust him to carry them, that was a different story! Lots believed, few trusted.
You can imagine him calling out to the crowd, ‘Who believes that I could carry someone across the Falls on my back?’. The crowd would have cheered, but when he asked, ‘Who’s coming first?’, you can imagine them all silently looking away!
There is a big difference between accepting an idea and putting your faith in it. You can believe in someone’s abilities, but trusting your life to them is something else.
God is looking for those who will trust him. It’s by putting our confidence, our faith, in what Jesus has done for us that we come into a relationship with God.
As Paul says, ‘the only thing that counts is faith working through love.’ Galatians 5.6
I look forward to seeing you on Sunday for the next instalment in our Romans series!
Stephen