Friday, August 3, 2007
Faith vs. Works
Words from Mark again! I just finished the 10th chapter of Mark and had an interesting thought cross my mind. Mark was mentioning some people like, Bartimaeus, who was blind and called to Jesus from the gate of Jericho. Jesus didn't lay his hands on him, he didn't spit in the dirt or stick his fingers in old Bart's ears. He simply asked, "What do you want?" Bart simply responds, "I want to see." That was it! And what was "that," you might wonder. It was faith. Jesus said that his faith had healed him. It occurred to me recently that some of the pageantry that Jesus showed in healing certain people wasn't because he needed to do that, but because the person he healed needed to know that he actually did something. In many cases though, you see him heal people without even seeing them or by them just touching the hem of his cloak. Some people need their faith enriched to the point of being healed (a sign), whereas others simply need to know that they can reach out and touch Jesus (in biblical terms physically but in our terms metaphorically). I know, I know! The title of this post says Faith vs. Works. Well, as I was reading this, it also occurred to me that there has been an age-old debate on whether faith or works get us to heaven. Well, the actual answer I believe is, neither. Grace gets us to heaven. But in the name of arguing this point, isn't the argument silly. One perpetuates the other, doesn't it. If you have true faith, doesn't it compel you to do works in the name of Christ? And if you are doing works in the name of Christ, doesn't the outcome perpetuate your faith. Something to ruminate on, I guess.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment