Faith and salvation

What is the place of faith in the born again process? As an extension, we can also ask what is the place of faith when it comes to believing God for answers, or 'breakthroughs', or for some miraculous response, whether it be for healing or for some financial miracle?




I do know for myself, from the time I "accepted Christ", it has always been a battle of striving for faith to believe God as mentioned above.




I realize now that I was always looking for some sort of faith formula, where I can always get, or obtain a response from God on - yes, wait with bated breath - my own terms! Now I can see that this looking for this faith formula was connected to the deep unrest I always had from the time I had consciousness of thought, and could think.




Life for me began in the context of a 'devout' Roman Catholic family. 'Devout' mean't that you NEVER missed a single Sunday mass because that would almost constitute 'mortal' sin, and the forfeiture of heaven, and into the welcoming hands of hell! Yeah, I was definitely super scared of hell and all of its ramifications. I would do ANYTHING to escape hell, and sure enough, the opportunity presented itself.




At fourteen, I was 'witnessed' to by my class-mate. He said that I had to be 'born-again' if I wanted to enter heaven. Incidentally, Freud sure was right when he finally changed his postulation of man's basic anxiety stemming from 'thanatos' (death instinct), and not narrowly squared from 'libido' (sexual energy) merely.




He was quite right. However, the Scriptural writers had beaten him to this insight, literally, two to three millennia prior. Now, in retrospect, I wonder how come I have never heard about this death instinct from Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism?




Anyway, back to my story. My desire for a faith formula was with the hope that this faith formula would be the means for me to obtain all I have heard about God and His generous gifts, and how I may obtain them 'by faith'. Thirty-four (34) years from the time I "accepted Christ" would lapse before I finally came to the truth!




And guess what? There was no faith formula. Nope, none whatsoever.




And yet, I found peace, finally! Rest for my troubled soul finally became my experience in the first quarter of 2012. And the formula? Amazingly, it was always there in the Judeo-Christian scriptures. Something unbelievably simple. Not easy, but simple.




'Repent, and believe the Gospel of the Kingdom of God'!




Yup, like I had never heard this message before? Yeah, I was the super blur and 'duh' dumb one.




God had to take thirty-four years for the 'penny to drop', in my case. Does it have to take that long for you?




So is there a faith formula?




Actually, there is.




As mentioned, the formula is success really simple. Let me say it again, simple, but not easy.




It involved D E A T H!




Especially, an initial death to our intellect. Now, before you jump up and say, 'I KNEW IT! These Christians are a bunch of friggin anti-intellectuals', remember, Western civilization, and the whole idea and enterprise of academia, and of the university, began with Christians.




Just a cursory glance at history would reveal the abundance of evidence of education being right at the centre of the Christian missionary initiative.




Yes, yes, of course, sadly the so-called colonialism of the Portugese, Dutch and British, which sorely tainted the missionary endeavor did not endear Christianity to the locals, however, education remained as a pillar of the Christian message.




So, chill!




When I refer to a death, at its core, I am referring to the DEATH of the human nature!




Isn't it revealing, when discussions revolve around why so and so did such a horrible thing, or to Hitler's genocide, Stalin's atrocities, Pol Pot's 'killing fields', Idi Amin's supper of actual human hearts, Lenin's 'putsch', Ceascescu's despotism, and on and on the list of despots, brutal dictators, murderers, serial rapists and killers (Ted Bundy, and of his ilk, Jeffrey Dahmer), we finally shake our heads and in feigned sorrow, say, 'it's human nature'.




When we curse the police force for corruption, and the government for bureaucracy, we often-times dip our tongues into the acid of racism. I have heard the purest person speak forth racist thoughts and beliefs. No one is exempted from the poison of 'human nature'. We are inherently, and innately, self-centered.




Only the Judeo-Christian scriptures is brutally frank about the reason why there is a restlessness in the human soul. An aching which the existentialists so eloquently described as 'angst'. No one is spared. Not Noah, not everyone's favorite Bible hero, King David. No one. In fact the Bible quotes God as saying, 'All have sinned, and fallen short..."




So back to my story. Well, what happened? How did I find rest? How did I find grace to live amidst life's challenges and trials?




Actually, I had to say that Rest and Grace was looking for me all the time, but I was so busy looking inside and away from them. Finally, I began to listen to a bald-headed preacher and teacher from - of all places - New York! The sin city of the world! Yup, the Rev Dr Timothy Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church (he would never know this unless he stumbled upon this posting) is responsible for being God's secret (literally!) agent in that I 'somehow' discovered his mp3 messages. Find them here ...http://sermons2.redeemer.com/




So began an amazing journey into grace, the heart of Jesus! And Jesus Christ, the heart of the Gospel!




I began to listen, and listen, and listen, and what a change has been affected in my life!




Here's my attempt to distil the amazing Gospel:

1. If we are really, really honest with ourselves, we will agree with Jespers, Heidegger, Kierkegaarde, Feurbach, Pascal, Aristotle and Plato, that there is a reality beyond empiricism.

2. Deep introspection reveals that there is an existential 'hole' in the human soul, or consciousness. Freud confirmed as such. Not that we needed Freud to confirm this truism, but he made it popular during a milieu of brave new discoveries.

3. Human-kind is 'fixated' upon themselves (thanks, Freud for that concept!). This fixation upon self moves mankind to such destructive lengths, even to self-destruction.

4. The closed-door universe and empirical enterprise has been thoroughly de-constructed by Derrida and Rorty, who in turn, have been de-constructed by their own de-construction!



5. Honesty will make us admit that we are teaching as laws, what are only theories, like the Theory of Evolution.



6. We just refuse to admit, even after whatever thousand years of human existence, that we cannot find the answers within ourselves, or society, or culture, or in man-made religions.

7. Perhaps, we need to look outside.

8. Will you consider what the Galilean carpenter said? He essentially said that the only way to rest and peace was through Him. Yes, and coming to Him mean't that you had to lay aside yourself, with all your claims to omnipotence, all your claims to intellect, all your claims to strength and wisdom, and be willing to rest entirely on what He did for us.

9. Jesus the Christ, Yeshua ha Masiah, Ieasous Chrestos, Yesu, is the Son of God, and indeed, God Himself! Miss this point, and miss the whole point of life! And because of His identity as the God-man, He is the only mediator between Divinity and man. The only One who can fill that existential 'hole' in our hearts.

10. Take note, this is NOT easy. Simple, but not easy. It means that we are indeed willing to be made willing as we are confronted by our sinful nature, the 'human nature' which needs to be dealt a death blow.

11. Freedom and liberty are gifts of God. And it comes when we are confronted through the Gospel message of our utter hopelessness without God's solution through the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and His resurrection.

12. Listening again, and again to the Gospel, and welcoming the word of truth contained in the Gospel, will lead us to 'repent', as we are enabled by God's Spirit, to relinquish control of the god of ourselves, so that the true and living God may enter into our existence, and show us how true living is.









Finally, as grace and peace through Jesus Christ found me, my prayer is that grace and peace will find you. Realize that you have no control in the salvation process. Your only contribution to the salvation event, and moment, is your utter sinfulness! And when we come to God in our utter bankruptcy, He will pour out such grace and mercy, we will wonder how we missed this before!




As we begin to enjoy and learn more of the grace of God found in Jesus Christ and His gospel, we will find a width, a length, a depth and a height which is inexhaustible. Grace more than enough for the hardest trials, and most difficult circumstances life may throw at us. This grace causes us to be so thankful, and so positive! And in the context of our careers, productivity to our organization!




Many blessings of His grace and mercy!