January 2022

One of the major themes of the Bible is justification by faith. Early in the Hebrew Bible we read that Abraham “believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6 NIV) Abraham believed the incredible things that God told him, for instance, that he and his wife Sarah would have a child when he was almost a hundred and she was ninety years old. And when God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, this child of their old age, Abraham proceeded to perform the sacrifice, only to be stopped by God at the last moment. In the New Testament, the lesson of justification by faith is made explicit, and we are told that we cannot be saved by our good works, for all of us fall short, and sin repeatedly. Jesus dying on the cross is a divine reenactment of the sacrifice of Isaac, but without the last-minute reprieve. The parallels between Jesus’s death and the sacrifice of Isaac are unmistakable, the main difference being that Jesus’s sacrifice is carried out. Christians are called to have faith in that saving sacrifice, and this can be a hard thing to do. Many just can’t bring themselves to believe, and then what? Should those who can’t bring themselves to believe the Gospel despair? No, but perhaps they should pray for help with their unbelief. Just as we aren’t saved by our works, we can’t force ourselves to believe something we simply cannot believe. To believe, or not believe, is a kind of action, an act of assent, as it were, and it can’t be forced. Believe, if you can, and if you can’t, pray that your unbelief might be healed. –Christopher Simon

We get dressed every morning to prepare for the work of the day, putting on our uniforms, as it were, and dressing appropriately for both the work ahead and the day’s weather. Why not clothe the soul with the protective garments of faith as well? In the grand scheme of things, our immortal soul is worth infinitely more than our corruptible bodies, and thus we should take greater pains to protect it. The faith and knowledge that God loves us and wants us to be well while we carry out His will is a protective garment greater than anything we have in our closets. A great addition to the morning routine is to “gird up your loins” with the garments of faith and thanksgiving, remembering that our primary mission and the very meaning of our life is to love God with all our hearts, and to love our fellow man as we love ourselves. How wonderful that we can put on the garments of faith each day and go out into the world prepared to do God’s work! – Christopher Simon