Faith is not a thing

It’s a truth that’s transformed not only my evangelism, it’s transformed my life. It has lifted countless burdens and focused me on what’s most important. The truth is this: faith is not a thing. 

Here’s what I mean. Faith is not a substance that I summon up. It’s not a muscle that I flex. It’s not a contribution that I offer to God. And that really needs saying because we’re often tempted to think in those terms. Here’s how it happens…

We are taught the precious gospel reality: we are saved by faith, not by works. But then we imagine that, instead of working our way up to heaven we must believe our way up to heaven – and so we swap a ladder of ethical fervour for a ladder of spiritual fervour. We are warned away from thinking that external acts can save us (good!), but what is taught implicitly – and sometimes explicitly – is that, instead, we are saved by internal acts, or at least one internal act: this thing called faith. And so we remain enslaved to works; it’s just that the new works are mental and/or emotional. 

This is not the gospel. The gospel is that I am saved by Christ. My works are not answered by my faith. My works are answered by His work! We don’t swap one kind of ladder for another, we swap all our ladders for the cross where Jesus comes all the way down to save us. When I simply rest in that truth, we call that faith. But faith is not the thing that saves. Jesus is! 

How does this help my evangelism? Well, when it comes to sharing the faith, I do not encourage my friend to turn within themselves and drum up a feeling called faith. That would be like descending into a deep well in order to discover sunlight. That would be the spirituality of Dutiful Derek.

Dutiful Derek

Imagine the conversation between a father and his son, Dutiful Derek. The father says: ‘We’re going on holiday to Switzerland and as we watch the sun rise over the snow-capped Alps, we will be awestruck.’ Dutiful Derek says: ‘Do I have to be awestruck?’ The father says: ‘What an odd question. It’s not so much a case of “have to”, but when you see the view you will be awestruck.’ Derek sighs deeply and says: ‘If I must!’

Later, his father says: ‘Derek, one day you’re going to meet a girl who will steal your heart and you’ll fall in love.’ Derek says: ‘Do I have to fall in love?’ The father says: ‘Well… when you meet the right person you will fall in love.’ Dutiful Derek sighs and says: ‘I’ll try my best.’

Later, Derek encounters an evangelist who says: ‘I’ll proclaim the glory of Jesus and you will put your faith in Him.’ Dutiful Derek says: ‘Do I have to put my faith in Jesus?’ And once more the response to Derek is the same. Yes, Derek absolutely does have to put his faith in Jesus, but what kind of ‘have to’ are we talking about? It’s the ‘have to’ that arises from a heart captured by glory. 

When Derek sees sunrise over the Swiss Alps, he simply is awestruck. When he meets the right girl, he just does fall in love. But how tragic it would be if Derek mainly hears from the evangelist his duty to believe. Because the beautiful view, the beautiful woman, and the beautiful Saviour are all alike. They have a glory to them that needs to be seen. Once seen, this glory will draw from us the correct response. But when this glory is beautiful and we are simply dutiful, we have lost the plot. We must be blind.

What is evangelism then? It’s not basically about summoning Dutiful Dereks to the requisite faith. Evangelism literally means ‘heralding good news’. It’s pointing to Jesus: more glorious than the sunrise; more beautiful than the love of your life. Faith is not a substance believers must push out of themselves. Faith is the loving response Jesus pulls out of you by His glory and grace. Evangelists do not preach ‘faith’, we proclaim Him.