GALATIANS II: DISCOVERING HOW WE TRUST JESUS
Steve Behlke
August 19, 2008
More "trusting Jesus" stuff, because the female-elder debate is not top on my list of absolutes...
"Okay, Steve, trust Jesus, that's what you keep telling us. Fine, we want to, we know we should, but how do we trust Jesus?"
That seems to be the question I'm hearing.
Recently someone said to me, "It's easier for me to have concrete things that I must do than to simply 'trust Jesus.'"
"Trusting Jesus," she said, "sounds so vague."
Someone else just told me she had to do certain things to be saved. She said something like, "Someone else can 'trust Jesus,' it was more real for me to do these things."
Someone else told me, "People want to trust Jesus but they need to know how to trust Jesus."
Yikes. How on earth did something as simple and relational as trusting Jesus or believing in Jesus or living by faith in Jesus, which are standard fare akin to "spiritual ABCs" in the New Testament, become so foreign to Jesus believing, Gospel living Christians today?
Paul says, "The righteous shall live by faith."
"No!" we say, "Give us concrete things to do!"
Jesus tells us, "Trust God, trust also in Me."
"That's too abstract," we say, "give us a checklist of three or four things that we should do."
To trust Jesus is to believe and to accept Him precisely as He is revealed in the Scriptures. To trust Jesus is a personal thing; personal in us; personal toward Him.
It is more than trusting what Jesus says or does, though that is part and parcel with it. Trusting Jesus cuts directly to who Jesus is. Ultimately, we trust who Jesus is; so that what and who He and the Bible says He is, He is to us personally.
Who is Jesus? He is God. GOD. God! The Personal, Living, Loving, Lord God Almighty!
Knowing Jesus this way, believing this, is essential to trusting Jesus. Jesus is God with us, Emmanuel, God is now one of us, full of grace and truth, and mighty to save.
To trust Jesus is to put certain hope, personal assurity in Jesus: In Jesus as God. Jesus as Savior. Jesus as Friend. In Jesus who lived. Jesus who died. Jesus who rose from the dead. In Jesus who loves. Jesus who helps. Jesus who forgives. Jesus who cast out demons. Jesus who calmed storms. In Jesus who is worshiped by men and women and children and angels and waves and rocks and trees and all of creation. Each one of these statements represents something of our relationship to Christ, they help us to know Jesus, to trust Him.
Trusting Jesus is less managable than relating to God by following a set lists of things to do, set orders, principles, or laws. It's one thing to study books about marriage and follow certain steps, but it's a whole different ballgame when you marry. Same with trusting Jesus, He is not a biblical principle to apply, a simple set of verses to practice, or a black-and-white Law to obey.
Jesus is not a lever that we pull on to make something good happen. Trust is involved. He cannot be manipulated. He's not tidy. He's not practical. He's certainly not drab. He's GOD, truly, personally. He's innovative, daring, dynamic. He is LORD over all. He draws outside of the box. He is always to be counted on, for He's true and faithful and trustworthy, but we must not expect Him to do things our way or to do the same thing the same way the same time every time.
Jesus doesn't follow a set of blueprints every time He acts in our life. Jesus does things differently at different times. He healed one blind guy one way and another blind guy another way. Sometimes He healed. Sometimes He delayed. Once He delayed so long the guy died; then He raised Him from the dead. This is the Jesus we're called to know and trust. He rebuked one storm; then walked on the water during another. One time He took the disciples up on a mountain to pray; another time He took them on a mountaintop and started radiating, glowing before them.
So maybe I'm seeing why it's more difficult to trust Jesus than to follow a set of directions. We need to develop the personal trust. We need to know Jesus theologically and personally. We need to stop looking at the Bible like a set of instructions. We need to see Jesus in the Scriptures. Spend time with Him in the Scriptures and also in life, in our life. We need to believe what the Bible tells us about Jesus and live by it, talk to Him, trust in Him, step out in faith and live in light of who Christ is to us!
Trusting Jesus means putting sure hope in Him, not altering or adding to or airbrushing Jesus or His character or His teaching; but worshiping and loving and relating to Jesus precisely as He reveals Himself in Scripture, submitting to Christ, so that we experience Jesus in our own hearts and lives.
Jesus tells us to trust Him for who He is; to take Him at His Word; trusting that He'll deliver the goods; He'll do what He says and more.
A couple of examples: (1) Jesus promises never to leave us or forsake us. To "trust Jesus" is to know and not doubt that He is God, full of grace and truth, and to believe that He is with us, that's His character, His promise, and God has not abandoned us, not even when we feel alone, not even when we sin really big and we feel rotten about ourselves, not even when circumstances make it feel and seem like Jesus is nowhere around. He's here. Believe it.
(2) Jesus promises eternal life to whosoever believes Him. To "trust Jesus" is to rejoice in who He is and that He's telling the truth, that we have eternal fellowship with God and eternal grace and eternal love because of Jesus, because He is God crucified for us, for our sins, and for our salvation. Right now. No matter what the devil says. No matter how crazy it sounds.
Personally speaking, because of who Jesus is and what He's done and what He said it all means, I do not doubt God's love nor my destiny. I trust Jesus for God's love today and forever. That's one of the main things I trust Jesus for! I know God delights in me. I know that God loves me. I know that my sins are dealt with and they will not be thrown in my face, for Jesus died for my sins, Jesus guarantees it, and I trust Him. God loves me, I trust Jesus for that. He says it's so. Take that, devil!
(3) The New Testament promise that as a believer, Christ lives in me. We must not depend on whether we feel that Christ lives in us! To "trust Jesus" is to believe that, "Wow, Christ makes His home in me, he's the guest in my heart. I'm not alone in here, just me, my sinful self and I. It's not just me talking to myself about what to do. It's not just me relying on my wisdom or my strength and making all the right decisions on my own. Christ lives in me."
This isn't something we make happen. It's something God says is already and always true of the Christian. We are merely, wonderfully, to believe it and to live in light of it. Christ lives in me. I cannot fully grasp the significance of this. It's spiritual; beyond science and rationality. Hey, I can't even explain how my own spirit and soul and body fully relate.
I don't really know where I end and Christ begins. But I do know that Christ lives in me and is one with me. God is as close in me as my own thoughts. And I love to peer in and look and see, as it were, Christ there, to look Him in the eyes, to behold His presence, to see His face and to take confidence in His promises and to know that I can (we can) do all things through Him...
Too general? Still too many blurry edges? You'd rather have some scientifically verifiable things to do? A check list that if you do this God must do that, like pulling a lever or pushing a button? Trusting Jesus isn't enough?
If so, it might be because "trust" itself is so hard for us today. Especially trusting someone we don't see. Jump into a dark room where you cannot see anyone but you only hear a voice. It all depends on whose voice it is. If I trust the person, I might jump. No chance otherwise. We too often trust only ourselves, and that's not always safe. We depend on ourselves, and that's dangerous. We only really know ourselves, and we don't always like what we know...
Trusting Jesus is predicated upon knowing Jesus, first from the Scriptures then by personal experience. Learning from the Bible, God's Word, from Christ, from the friends and followers of Jesus themselves, and then from being a friend and follower ourselves. Meeting Jesus, trusting Jesus and longing for more. Longing for more than knowledge about Christ, longing for Christ Himself.
The photo is from time indefinite
Hi Steve,
I agree with almost everything you wrote except for one paragraph that is confusing me. I'm quoting it below:
"Trusting Jesus is less managable than relating to God by following a set lists of things to do, set orders, principles, or laws. It's one thing to study books about marriage and follow certain steps, but it's a whole different ballgame when you marry. Same with trusting Jesus, He is not a biblical principle to apply, a simple set of verses to practice, or a black-and-white Law to obey."
In the last couple of years I've been hearing this a lot and it just doesn't make sense to me. When we first have Jesus revealed to us we either trust Him or we don't trust Him. After that hopefully and prayerfully we grow in our trust of Him. To me this was the infant stage of my new life in Christ and it required milk which was continual reinforcement and encouragement of who Jesus is and basic theology as Calvin so thoroughly learned and taught. Yes I'm beginning to accept and appreciate Calvin due to your good teaching.
However the whole Bible is our guide and is our instruction manuel. The didactic teaching is very important and what you wrote and what I've heard others say almost sounds like a dismissal of the teachings of Paul. Below is the definition of didactic.
"Didactic
adj.
...instructive, instructional, educational, educative, informative, informational, edifying, improving, preceptive, pedagogic, moralistic."
Isn't this the meat that infant Christians begin to eat once they are firm in their faith? I feel like the emphasis at The College Church is on milk more than on meat and it is very discouraging to me. Maybe infants who are in the process of losing their baby teeth and getting their permanent ones need to be tried on meat and perhaps have it ground up a bit until their chewing improves.
I agree that just memorizing Bible verses is not going to establish a relationship with Jesus Christ, but once that relationship is established then we do need to learn those verses and understand what they mean. I'm one who is all for expository preaching. I know some folks get impatient with that, though I don't understand why. Being taught the whole book(any book in the Bible)point by point, verse by verse is the one sure way to rid minds of misinterpretation. Of course that is contingent on the listener as to how much they want to believe the preacher, which then goes right back to trusting Jesus.
Dear Abba thank you for giving us The College Church; a safe place for the unsaved, the infant and the strongly growing Christians. Help all of us to be patient and encouraging as we walk together on that narrow path to your throne. Thank you for our very strong/weak,humble and loving pastor Steve. What an awesome and wonderful calling you have given to him. Thank you also for Polly, Matthew, Keziah, and Rachel as they all begin another year with us.
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You have great questions and fresh insights. Thanks. But please do not even consider that I am in any way dissing scripture or Law or the memorization of Bible passages or biblical principles.
When I said, "Trusting Jesus is less managable than relating to God by following a set lists of things to do, set orders, principles, or laws. It's one thing to study books about marriage and follow certain steps, but it's a whole different ballgame when you marry. Same with trusting Jesus, He is not a biblical principle to apply, a simple set of verses to practice, or a black-and-white Law to obey," I meant just that.
He's not a verse in the Bible or a biblical principle to apply. He's the Living God. Our relationship is with the God and author and dynamic and subject of Scripture, not with the written Scripture.
The Bible records Jesus doing certain things. He may do different things in us and through us today. Jesus does different things with different people at different times yet ALL and ALWAYS in harmony with His character which we learn about in Scripture.
Jesus is NOT manageable. I don't want to manage Him. He is God. His thoughts are beyond my thoughts. His ways are beyond my ways. He wants to do more than I can think or imagine.
I might be able to rightly interpret Scripture but Jesus transcends the written Word. The Sacred Text introduces me to Jesus, whom I now relate to, and I gladly know of Christ from Scripture but realize He is more than Scripture. Christ is in me. Christ lives in me. I don't live by principles, I live by faith in the Risen Lord who dwells in me.
Paul couldn't manage or control Jesus. He didn't want to. He wanted to be controlled by Jesus, by the Spirit of Christ.
He's not a principle to apply. He's not a black and white law to obey. He's the infinite God crucified and resurrected and given to us to empower our lives and to manifest His character and to lead us into life and mission and worship and death and resurrection. Jesus does new things, makes whole new covenants, prefers to make new wine in new wineskins, but always, ALWAYS in harmony with His biblically-revealed character.................. So know the Word of God! Love the God of the Word. But relate to Him through Christ who the Word points to, but who fulfills and transcends and enlivens and enfleshes and reproduces His Word in us...
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In reading sll this, and after Sunday's sermon which wss great by the way. It was
so nice to just be challenged with regards to how every day we just need to trust Jesus. I have friends, non beleivers who think in a very "New Age" way- I call it subjective truth and morality. I have deep conversations about Christ with some of them, talk about Jesus in relationship and the big thing for me is in their perspective they have a relationship with God in their own way (Buddist, New Age flowery
happy stuff). The whole trusting Jesus thing happens when we beleive who Jesus was and IS today- I feel ill equipped at times to make the connection between the truth of who Christ was and is and a life of grace through Christ.
Also, once people become Christians for non beleivers looking at "us" we all of the sudden have "moral" codes, conservative don'ts that in my opinion we sort of expect people to get with it
pretty quick.
How can we "evangelize" the gospel of who Christ is with grace as a the center, because it is grace that is unique to Christianity. Also I know you were a "truth" guy, where does truth play in evangelizing to our loved ones and friends? Any thoughts of this PSteve?
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