There is an interesting theme that runs through the latter episodes of the popular show The Chosen, where a few of the characters, particularly Simon, proclaim that “faith is not my problem.” Each of the characters is experiencing some sort of confusion or trial and has been admonished for having too little faith. The premise seems to be though their belief in Christ is firm, their trust of him is shaky at best. They are struggling to reconcile who they know Christ to be and the trial that is before them. Simon laments after experiencing a great loss, “Faith isn’t my problem. I’m furious. He is who he says he is. I don’t believe it, I know it. He’s the first and the last. He can do anything. How could he let something like this happen to me? He could have prevented it but he did not.”
The difference between faith and trust is nuanced, but that nuance looms large in the face of great trial. I have written much lately about the profound losses of several people close to me. My brother’s son to addiction. My good friend’s daughter to a seizure. And now another unexpected loss of a child of a colleague and friend. Further from home, but equally devastating is the great earthquake in Turkey and Syria, and the continuation of human atrocities all across the globe. It’s overwhelming, and if I’m honest, an unsettling challenge to my faith. Or more specifically, a challenge to my trust of the One whom I know to be real, present, and exactly who he claims to be.
Faith
Noah Webster’s definition of faith, as it applies to theology, is:
The assent of the mind or understanding to the truth of what God has revealed. Simple belief of the scriptures, of the being and perfections of God, and of the existence, character and doctrines of Christ, founded on the testimony of the sacred writers, is called historical or speculative faith; a faith little distinguished from the belief of the existence and achievements of Alexander or of Cesar.
But that is just the beginning of the definition. The challenge for the Christian is to move to and to live in the next portion of Webster’s definition:
The assent of the mind to the truth of divine revelation, on the authority of God’s testimony, accompanied with a cordial assent of the will or approbation of the heart; an entire confidence or trust in God’s character and declarations, and in the character and doctrines of Christ, with an unreserved surrender of the will to his guidance, and dependence on his merits for salvation. In other words, that firm belief of God’s testimony, and of the gospel, which influences the will, and leads to an entire reliance on Christ for salvation.
Moving from an “assent to the mind or understanding of the truth of what God has revealed” to “an entire confidence or trust in God’s character” in the midst of great trial or sorrow is, full disclosure, sometimes my problem.
The Bible has plenty to say about faith, and sometimes what is says presents a challenge to trust.
Ask whatever you ask in prayer, and you will receive, if you have faith. (Matthew 21:22)
And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11:22-24)
Truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,’ and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20)
All things are possible for one who believes. (Mark 9:23)
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. (Hebrews 11:1a)
Tell that to my brother. Preach it to my friends who lost their daughters. Placate the grief of those in Turkey and Syria with these true words. This is a great sticking point to belief for those who don’t have faith. But it can also be a barrier to trust for those of us who do.
From Wrestling to Trust
Coming to trust in Christ is a hard-won conclusion which often requires wrestling with him. Like Jacob, who wrestled with God and was blessed with a limp (Genesis 32), many Christians who have come to the realization that God is trustworthy have done so through trial and sorrow. My brother, my friends, are all limping as a result of God’s blessing. It is a holy limp, one of beauty wrought from pain.
The promises of the Bible to people of faith are mostly hard truths followed by great reward. Christ did not come to rescue us from pain. He came to give us peace while we wait, and the sure hope of a secure future in and with him.
When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? (Psalm 56:3-4)
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. (Isaiah 26:3-4)
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. (John 16:33)
What is the reward, the prize for coming out on the trusting side of a wrestling match with God? The extinguishing of fear. A supernatural peace. An assurance that God has overcome all of the challenges of this fallen world. It’s the peace and the assurance of a secure future that is the prize. It is Jesus Christ himself who is the reward! When that settles in a human heart and mind, a greater trust is the result.
Sin’s Scale and Scope
R.C. Sproul was once asked the question, “If God is slow to anger and patient, then why when man first sinned was his wrath and punishment so severe and long lasting?” His reply is now infamous:
This creature from the dirt defied the everlasting holy God. After he said the day you will eat of it you shall surely die. And instead of dying, he lived another day and was clothed in his nakedness by pure grace and had the consequences of a curse applied for quite some time. But the worst curse would come upon the one who seduced him, whose head would be crushed by the seed of the woman. And the punishment was too severe? What’s wrong with you people!? I’m serious. This is what’s wrong with the Christian church today. We don’t know who God is. And we don’t know who we are. The question is, why wasn’t it infinitely more severe? If we have any understanding of our sin, any understanding of who God is, that’s the question, isn’t it?
When asked a similar question, John Piper answered:
I would say that the physical horrors in the world can make sense to us and have meaning and eventual righteous resolution only if we come to embrace the biblical reality that sin against an infinitely wise and just and good God is a moral outrage greater than the physical outrage of centuries of global suffering.
Sproul and Piper are not saying that each individual bit of human suffering is in direct proportion to each person’s individual sins. What they are saying is that the magnitude of the consequence of human sin, effected in the garden, is in direct proportion to the magnitude of the massive holiness of God. The magnitude of God’s holiness is impossible for us to fathom without wrestling through our faith, and more importantly, without an immense working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Piper went on to say:
If we’re going to see God as good and just and wise, we have to undergo such a profound mental and spiritual Copernican revolution of mind and heart so that God ceases to be a planet circling the sun of humanity and becomes the massive, blazing, glorious sun at the center of the solar system of all things. God becomes supreme reality. His being becomes the supreme worth and treasure of the universe. Only in this way will the moral outrage of sin be seen as worse than the physical outrage of suffering.
The Reality of God’s Goodness
The greatest reality in life is the preeminent goodness of God. His holiness is good. His absolute authority over all he has created is good. His love is good. His gospel is good. Even his wrath is good for those who have come to this conclusion.
This world is fleeting, a vapor, a mist. Eternity is where we shift our gaze, and for those who have embraced Christ, it is where we will see the vindication and eradication of loss, sorrow, pain, grief, and trial. Faith and trust will no longer be separated by nuance, but joined in absolutes, with full sight and complete understanding, as we walk through Heaven’s streets without even a hint of a limp. And while we wait, we join with the Apostle John in declaring, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).