And these all, having obtained
a good report through faith,
received not the promise:
God having provided some
better thing for us, that they
without us should not be
made perfect.
Hebrews 11:39-40
It is here clearly shown that God is in control of all that occurs here on earth and that in His economy, His dispensation (not dispensationalism, that is wrong theology) God has provided for those who have gone before and for us until He comes again for all of His children, both the ancient ones and the ones dead, the ones alive, all to be a family of God in His prepared home for His children.
Faith, it is faith, and I am taking time to teach about faith as I started yesterday. Yesterday I wrote about historical faith and how it often excluded moral and spiritual truths, but has reference to present facts, but a problem exists by this type of faith for it often is not taken seriously and awakens no real interest even though it is accepted intellectually.
There is a faith of miracles, a faith that consists in a person's conviction that a miracle will be wrought by him or in his behalf. There is an active sense in this type of faith if a person is persuaded that he himself can or will work a miracle: "And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place: and it shall remove; an nothing shall be impossible unto you" (Matthew 17:20). "And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover" (Mark 16:17-18). These Scriptures have and are being used for all sorts of theology and lead men and women to do things that have an aroma of truth, but is it and what do these Scriptures mean?
Context, context, context, is what determines a correct understanding of Scripture, so what is the context leading up to this verse? A man came to Jesus upset for His disciples could not cast out a demon that this man has and the son still was plagued by this demon. Why could not the disciples cast out the demon? Jesus bemoaned, not just the disciples but: The Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to Me. And Jesus rebuked the devil: and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour" (Matthew 17:16-17). Why did Jesus speak the way He did? Remember this was spoken not just to the disciples but to the people for there was a number of people present. Jesus pointed out that this generation was faithless so they could not receive blessings from God, so also was there a problem with the disciples for the had a weak faith disabling them to not do the works for God, that they might have otherwise done. Is it not nice to have the grace of God and enjoy this grace? Yes! But when a person in their lack of Authentic Christian Faith or are faithless is simple a perverseness that causes great grief to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as demonstrated in the above verse. It seems as though the question by the disciples to not do what they wanted to do was more about them and their displeasure rather than simply having a faith that they should have had due to the fact that they were travelers, followers, present when Jesus did miracles and should have known that by Him they could do miracles. But this was not the case for they were displeased with themselves, maybe even a bit embarrassed for not being able to cast out this demon. Notice this and this is important: Jesus cast out the demon, and this was immediate as was the case with all His miracles, time was not needed to heal a person, all was done immediate.
It was not that the disciples lacked faith, they did, but their faith was weak and ineffectual. This does not mean that they are unbelievers but by our unbelief we come short of that which is good. There is a power in faith, even a faith so small as to be as small as a mustard seed which is one of the smallest seeds on earth. Unfortunately, our faith does not even reach this size even though many think they have a faith that surpasses the size of this small seed. Our faith is not in faith for our faith is not based on what we can do for Jesus Christ, our faith has as its foundation Jesus Christ and what we can do with Jesus Christ. Too many, are attempting to work for Jesus and this is absolutely a wrong attitude. It is Jesus and Him alone that does the work, we are the means working with Him to accomplish His work. Our dependence is not on our ability, our faithfulness to attend a Church, a Bible study, etc., our knowledge; our faith is dependent and has confidence in Jesus Christ and His promises for only He has the strength and ability for miracles. Our faith, our sincerity, any powers granted to you can perform much more than casting out demons, or healing a person from a disease, all this is temporary for that person will die in time. The greatest work granted to you is to take the Gospel to others so that Jesus can do the work of salvation. Faith in miracles is not saving faith, it may accompany saving faith but is not that which saves a person.
There are those who are being taught that they can perform miracles and go about striving to find someone that they can cure, by prayer, or by touch, etc., and have anecdotal stories about such healing but do not have facts, but they have come to believe in such as to be from God. They become so excited, euphoric reaction, a group euphoria that infects people, students of such schools that that teach this form of works. Even Roman Catholics follow this line of theology about miracles and will make a person a saint due to some miracle that they are said to have performed. We as Protestants deny this but not at the exclusion that God can still perform miracles.
Tomorrow I will attempt to examine the verses of Mark 16: 17-18, for there is a teaching, and there are teachings that are not only controversial, but are misleading people to do things that displeases God.
Nevertheless He saved them
for His name sake, that
He might make His mighty
power to be known.
Psalm 106:8
God's might is made known through our faith
Richard L. Crumb
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