Saving Faith In Jesus

In my life and in my work I’ve seen, generally, three types of faith regarding Jesus.

Intellectual Faith:
I’ve counselled numerous Pastors who have held this type of faith. They possessed Doctorates in Theology. They filled their respective houses of worship. From a Biblical perspective their stated doctrines were bang on. But a relationship with the living Christ was beyond their ability to describe. Instead, their ability to cope with the stresses of life was based on various mood altering drugs, or relationships; both hetero and homosexual, or through accumulating the material things that so many in today’s world seem to look to reflect back to them their value and worth, security and belonging. By and large these were individuals who told me in detail about their ability to speak in tongues, and prophecy even though their children hated them and their wives wanted to leave them.

Temporary Faith:
“Please God, if you will just get me out of this mess I promise to live for you forever.” We tend to hear about those few (less than .5 % is my guess) who actually follow through on this type of ill conceived promise. More common is the person who rushes home to tell his story of rescue, only to slowly and inexorably slide back to the mundane and corrupt life from which he has emerged just a few hours previous.

Saving Faith:
This is the decision to accept the offer of salvation that Jesus has presented, either through a friend, a sermon, a movie, a song, a Bible passage or in whatever form it may have come down the chute. A saving faith in Jesus comes to someone who has weighed the evidence, weighed the consequences and decided to take the step toward what his heart is telling him is the real deal. This faith is humble, quiet, grateful and strong