Written by professors, graduates, and others in
the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary community, these reflections, prayers, and spiritual practices will take you along the journey with Jesus through the cross toward resurrection.
Sunday, March 16, 2014
• Romans 4:1–5; 13–17
This passage, a favorite of Protestants throughout the ages, offers a memorable depiction of faith. But what is faith? Some people understand faith as equivalent to belief. We have faith when we believe something to be true; we lack faith when we don’t believe. The test of our faith, in this view, is whether we agree with statements about the Christian religion. Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Do you believe that he died for the sins of the world? Do you believe in the resurrection of the body? Answer “yes,” and we have faith; answer “no” and we lack it.
But this passage — and the Old Testament stories about Abraham that it refers to — says something more about faith. Faith involves more than words we say with our lips or beliefs we form in our minds. Faith, instead, is a posture of trust. An example will illustrate the contrast I am making: I can believe that my teenage daughter is a good driver by telling her so. But I have faith that she is a good driver when I give her the keys and have her drive the family to visit her grandparents. On the way, I might even fall asleep in the passenger seat. See the difference? In the first instance, I am simply saying words; in the second, I am acting in accordance with that statement, trusting that my daughter will carry us to our destination safely.
Abraham trusts the remarkable promises that God makes to him: that God will give him a new home far from his ancestral land (Gen. 12); that as an elderly couple, he and his wife, Sarah, will have a son (Gen. 17); that his offspring will be as numerous as the stars (Gen. 22). Abraham trusts in God’s word and acts upon that trust. He goes to a new land; he prepares for the birth of a child; he lives into God’s promises.
Christian faith also makes astonishing claims: that God loves the world without exception; that God sends God’s beloved Son to save it; that God raises this Son from the dead. These promises are made in a world where much seems untrustworthy—from political leaders that fail to keep their word to TV commercials that we assume to be false. Amid these empty slogans is the promise of God’s Son given for the world, a promise renewed every year at Lent. To “have” faith is more than believing a few statements about Jesus Christ; it is to trust in the living God who sent him and to act out of that trust.
Holy and Loving God, teach us to live not out of fear, but out of trust. You have given your Son to the world. And that is the source of trust that will cast out any fear. Amen.
– Dr. David Hadley Jensen
Professor in the Clarence N. and
Betty B. Frierson Distinguished Chair
of Reformed Theology and Associate Dean
for Academic Programs
For the glory of God and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary is a seminary in the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition whose mission is to educate and equip individuals for the ordained Christian ministry and other forms of Christian service and leadership; to employ its resources in the service of the church; to promote and engage in critical theological thought and research; and to be a winsome and exemplary community of God's people.
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