"Believe to Understand"

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone sharing your faith and they look at you as if you are from another planet? Have you experienced that frustration that comes when what you are sharing makes perfect sense to you, but the individual you are talking to has no clue? Have you tried to "convince" someone to become a Christian only to have him/her mutter something about how foolish it all sounds? Have you met that person who tells you that they have read the Bible many times, but get nothing out of it? I am sure all Christians have experienced something like this one time or another.

Much of our frustration comes because we have bought into the notion that if we can get a person to understand, they will believe. We are convinced that it is just a matter of educating them about the truth. If they understand, we conclude, they will surely see how reasonable it is and dive right in. But it doesn't work that way. There are those who have spent a lifetime studying, and even attempted to pattern their lives after Jesus' teachings, but never came to faith. This doesn't make sense to us. But that is because we believe!

Mary, breathless from the vigorous run from the empty tomb, shouts to the disciples that Jesus' body is missing. Peter immediately takes off to check it out for himself. John, "the one whom Jesus loved, is right on his heels. Upon arriving, John stopped at the entrance. Peter barges his way in. John follows. In his gospel John notes that when he went in, "he saw and believed." The account doesn't end there. John goes on to explain, "They still did not understand from the Scripture that Jesus had to raise from the dead" (John 20:1-9). How can this be? He must have understood, because he believed! At least, in our way of thinking that's the way it works. But it doesn't.

We come to Christ "by grace though faith," not "by grace through understanding." This does not mean that our faith is blind, unreasonable, ill informed, or devoid of intellect. Far from it. Christianity is a thinking religion. But one does not come to faith through understanding. Rather it is our being confronted by the person of Jesus Christ. John ran into the tomb and believed. It was his faith that opened the door for him to later gain understanding through the Scriptures. We do not understand to believe, we believe to understand.

This is one reason preaching is in a category all its own. It is not a "persuasive speech." It is not an apologetic dissertation. It is hanging the holy possibility out before the hearer so they may "see and believe." We can never "argue" someone into the Kingdom, or educate a person into believing. Witnessing is not a logical explanation of the Gospel, answering the questions of the uniformed. It is a Spirit empowered testimony of the power of the Gospel of Christ that brings a person to a place where they can "see and believe." Seeing does not guarantee belief, but is necessary for it. And "seeing" is not physical sight. That's why Jesus told Thomas the doubter, "blessed are you because in seeing you believe, but more blessed are those who believe though they do not see." Seeing is that Spirit enablement to come face to face with Jesus, which requires a decision. It is like devoteD atheist kneeling at the altar to accept Jesus Christ into his life. When the pastor ask him what brought him to the place he would abandon his atheism to accept Jesus the man replied, "I have a logical, reasonable answer for everything, except the testimony and life of my godly mother."

Beloved, we must not abandon all efforts to reach the lost for Jesus. We must present the good news in every possible form we can. And we must not demand God to explain everything to our understanding's satisfaction. We need to abandon the notions that if we can just get the lost to understand they'll come to Christ and that if God would explain it all it would be easier for us to believe. Understanding is not what we need. We need Jesus! We need to see through eyes of faith and believe. Then, let us get deep into His Word so we can add knowledge and understanding to out faith.

Keep Close To Jesus
Pastor Gerry