I Believe

by Dave Wilkinson

Hebrews 11:1-6

July 1, 2001

"I believe for every drop of rain that falls, a flower grows.

I believe that somewhere in the darkest night, a candle glows.

I believe for everyone who goes astray, someone will come and show the way.

I believe, I believe."

But why do I believe these things? Do I have any evidence that these things are true? Well, I may hear a new born baby cry, or touch a leaf, or see the sky. But that isn't really evidence. It's just poetry. From my own experience I could just as well believe that for every drop of rain that falls, someone gets wet. If I'm lost in the woods on a pitch black night, I could believe that there is a candle glowing somewhere. That's logical. There are lots of Catholic churches and they always have candles burning. But it may not be close enough to keep me from stumbling over the cliff.

What do you believe as a Christian and why do you believe it? What does it really mean to say, "I believe"?

Pastor Earl Palmer of University Presbyterian in Seattle tells about going to an Easter service with his college-age daughter. He had an nagging sense that something was missing from the sermon but couldn't quite put his finger on the problem. On the way home he expressed this feeling to his daughter. His daughter observed, "The whole thrust of the pastor's message was that we should have hope for life because he has hope for life -- but not because God did anything powerful. There was no reason for hope except his attitude." That's a big hole.

Do you have hope because other people have hope? Do you believe because it makes you feel good? Well, you have to have more than that. You'd better have more than that for life and death. Because life is real. Death is also real. You need more than a hopeful attitude or a positive spirit. You need a firm anchor in the truth. You need a strength that is outside of your ability to hold a good thought.

One regular feature of meetings of the Presbytery is the examination of candidates for ordination to the ministry. Any delegate to the meeting may ask the candidate any question they choose on their experience, plans, understanding of the Bible or Christian faith.

Some years ago our Presbytery was considering a candidate from one of our more liberal churches who had attended a seminary that was more devoted to feminist theology and gay liberation than to the Biblical gospel. This candidate seemed to have a hard time being particularly clear about the content of her Christian faith. So I decided to help her along by posing a hypothetical situation. I asked her to imagine that she has been brought into the Critical Care Unit of a hospital to talk to a dying man. She only has about five minutes to communicate before the morphine kicks in and makes communication impossible. As she approaches the bed the man says, "I'm going to die. I'm afraid to meet God. You've got to help me."

I asked the candidate "What would you tell him?"

She didn't much like the question. She protested that this was an artificial situation -- while every experienced pastor sadly knows that it's anything but artificial. She floundered. She knew how to say, "I'd enter into a period of study and mutual exploration and suggest a few books" but she didn't know how to say, "Jesus Christ died for you. You can give you life to him here and stand before God washed clean and without fear." She didn't know how to say that. Maybe she didn't know that for herself.

What would you say? What do you know? Is there is an anchor for life outside your emotions --outside you're happy thoughts -- outside you're optimism that rainy days produce flowers?

I hope so. A firm anchor for life is what we claim to have when we affirm the Apostle's Creed.

Look at how the Creed begins -- "I believe."

What do we mean when we say, "I believe?"

Belief, or faith, in Scripture is a verb, an action word. It's made up of three parts: knowing, trusting, and doing. True faith involves our minds, our will and our behavior.

It starts with the mind. Christians don't check their brains at the door of the church. We think. Our faith is based on things we can know from Scripture.

Faith is first of all an intellectual admission, that a certain person or situation exists. It is the acceptance of a fact or reality. This mental agreement aspect of faith gives it content. We learn and agree with the truths that God is our creating Father, that Jesus is the Christ, and that the Holy Spirit is God our Comforter.

Now many people outside the Christian faith assume that there is nothing more to Christian faith than agreement with the idea of God's existence.

But agreement to certain concepts is not enough for saving faith. In fact, even the devil can believe in this sense. Satan knows that certain things about God are true such as His power and holiness. He doesn't like them but he knows that they are true. As James writes in James 2:19: "You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe and tremble." Mental assent is the easiest part of faith. It is an admission which does not require any responsibility about what you believe.

But true belief -- saving faith -- means trusting as well as knowing. That's the aspect of the will.

The Apostle's Creed was originally written in Latin. Its first words --Credo in Deum-- are traditionally translated "I believe in God." But this is only one of several possible ways of translating these words. More accurate translations would be "I have confidence in God," "I put my weight down on God" or simply "I trust in God." The English translation "I believe in God could just mean "I am of the opinion that there is a God." But it is meant to be a much stronger statement-- "I put my trust in God."

For faith means trust. When I declare that "I believe in Jesus Christ," I am not just saying that there once was a man called Jesus. I am affirming my trust in Him. True faith is the response of our whole persons to the person of God. It is our joyful reaction to the overwhelming divine love we see revealed in Jesus.

Faith is both our recognition that something wonderful has happened through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and our response to what has happened. Faith realizes that God loves us, and responds to that love. Faith is saying yes to God. It is a decision, an act of will to trust God.

And, finally, true faith is obedience. This is the behavior part. I like the way John Wesley defined faith as having 3 elements -- head knowledge; heart knowledge -- trusting; and pocketbook knowledge -- the practical expression of what we believe by what do we do with our money. This is what James means when he writes that "we are called to be doers rather than just hearers of the Word of God." For true faith is like the root of a tree. If it is sound, the tree will bear good fruit.

Now suppose you developed blood poisoning. You know that Penicillin is an antibiotic that can cure this illness. But believing that penicillin can cure your blood poisoning isn't enough to cure you. It is only by taking capsules of the antibiotic that you can be cured. So it is with the gospel. Believing that it can transform your life is one thing. Allowing it to do that is something else.

Faith is not just about believing in God; it is about trusting Him and allowing Him to take hold of us and transform us. Coming to faith doesn't mean merely having a new idea. It means recognizing in our minds who God is and what He is like, and responding to Him in our hearts.

A surprisingly large number of people who think of themselves as Christians never get further than accepting the truth of Christianity. They believe that God is there -- but they have never met Him. They believe that God is able to forgive sins -- but they have never allowed God to forgive their sins. They believe that God is reliable -- but they have never relied on Him. They affirm Jesus as Lord -- but they rarely obey him.

Do you see yourself here? Is this you? If so, the remainder of this Creed will become a lot more interesting and relevant if you allow your head agreement faith to become personal trust in God that makes a difference in what you do.