Faith is Manifested in Brotherly Love

Faith is Manifested in Brotherly Love

Colossians 1:4a

Please turn to Colossians 1:4 as I'd like to remind you of the verse that we are dealing with today. Obviously I'll only be dealing with a little of it. "Because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints." That's it -- "your faith in Christ Jesus" is the little part of the verse we will be talking about. It's in connection with that that we are reading these verses in John 5. It's part of what faith in Christ Jesus means.

John 5:17-47, "But Jesus answered them, 'My Father is working still, and I am working.' This was why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God." Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all that he himself is doing; and greater works than these will he show him, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and give them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life."

"Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself, and has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."

"I can do nothing on my own authority; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I bear witness to myself, my testimony is not true; there is another who bears witness to me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to me is true. You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. Not that the testimony which I receive is from man; but I say this that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But the testimony this I have is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear me witness that the father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen; and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent. You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men. But I know that you have not the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father; it is Moses who accuses you, on whom you set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

You can tell yourself even though those words are familiar to you that there is a whole attitude in that chapter there where Jesus is very clearly drawing them into the same experience he has with his Father. He's concerned with their relationship with him as he is with his relationship with his Father. That's what faith in Christ is. I bring it up now so that you will see the value of these readings and be able to think it through. The verse we are studying has Paul rejoicing and thanking them because of their faith in Christ Jesus.

It's so easy to drift right in to the common, shallow, light interpretation to that phrase. "Faith in Christ" -- Oh, yeah, I have faith in Christ. You're saved by faith in Christ. By faith in Christ I am justified." Wesley puts it very well, "Faith is not just a speculative rational thing, a cold lifeless assent, a train of ideas in the head but a disposition of the heart." [John Wesley's Teachings, Volume 2: Christ and Salvation] It seems that is one of the great weaknesses in our present day and has been for generations.

Faith in Christ is so often interpreted just as Wesley says “a speculative rational thing, a cold lifeless assent; a train of ideas in the head” and not as it is outlined here in this chapter -- a disposition of the heart. A relationship with Jesus that is close, deep and intimate and is daily and continuous. It is what governs your life. So often it is expressed here is the secret -- if you're not sure whether something is right or wrong -- think; what would Jesus do? Dear love us; bless our dear stupid hearts, we think that is deep. We say that's it.

Of course if you examine it, all it is is a speculative rational thing. It's an assent. It's saying I remember the kind of life Jesus lived now would he do that. I couldn't imagine him doing that. So I won't do that. It's purely a human thing; purely a psychological inference, an intellectual assent. It is not a thing that comes from the heart. Of course we are busy, whether we are aborting or not aborting; whether we are supporting this subject or that subject. We are playing on that level of the mind; of the intellect and of ideas. Nothing touching the heart of the spirit. No touching of the spirit; just on that level below it.

I would say the greater part of Christendom in the East and West is that. Most things come down to that. It's the old forensic gospel: we should die for our sins, Jesus died for us, and so we don't need to die. It's that. It's that building on that whatever emotion you can. Of course in today's world building on it with whatever political view you think it supports. There's little of the heart of Christ; little of the heart of God in it. Of course when you read chapters like this in John you realize Jesus is not saying to you, "Here this is what you have to believe. If you believe this you'll have eternal life. Believe this little thing and you'll have eternal life." He's saying this is the relationship I have with my Father and you will have this relationship with me, therefore you will be a part of our relationship. So we will all be one together.

It will be a heartfelt, deep attitude that is brought about by his Spirit in us. When you talk about faith in Christ you are talking about something deeper. I came across an old commentary some years ago. Actually I was struck by it because it was such a beautiful set of books. We might have it in our library. It's by Gill. He comments on this verse in Colossians, "We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus." He says, "This expresses the matter of their thankfulness or what it was they gave thanks to God for -- their faith in Christ. By which is meant not only their hearty assent to the whole doctrine of faith concerning the person, offices and grace of Christ; their soundness and steadfastness in it and their sincere, constant confession of it but the grace of faith in them; the operation of Spirit of God in their souls which had not Moses or any other man but Christ for its object; by which they looked unto him as their Savior, went onto him as such, ventured on him, committed on to him, leaned and relied upon him; that grace which comes from him has him as its author and publisher and returns unto him and lives on him.

I thought Gill was beginning to hit it. That it isn't simply a belief in Christ as God's Son or that he has worked some forensic deal with God over your sins but it is he himself is the one in whom we were made. It is in him and with him we were raised up and made part of his Father's family. Faith in Christ has the very 'IN" strongly in there. If you look up 'in' and its meaning, the emphasis is 'not movement but position.' It's explaining and describing a position in Christ, really part of Christ. So faith in Christ is being a part of him.

If you remember the verse in Romans which says you were 'baptized into Christ." The word there implies into or becoming part of him. So faith in Christ is that.

Then the truth that God made real to me as I thought about this this morning -- this is a difficult one to get over to you -- I can feel it but how do I express that. "Christ where do you want to put that book? Do you want to put it on the table?" That attitude would be right. I know it sounds stupid. But we are in him and he in us. There is no question -- if we go into a shop, I don't trail the wife along or expect my puppy to follow me -- I would ask her, would you like to go into that shop. That truly is faith in Christ where you would treat Christ as a real person inside you.

I don't know that would say your mind would be caught between thinking the thing you were concentrating on and then thinking of him but I think you can exist on two levels. I think your spirit can be in Christ and yet you can deal with the situation here. My plea is that faith in Christ is a real sense that Jesus is inside you -- that this is his life -- that these are his hands. He is in this, here he is today. He is here in me. He is here in me to bring his Father's world under his Father's will and he is in me and these are his hands. He has a say in this. I'm not involved in second guessing by asking what would Jesus do with this book. I feel he is there saying, "I'm here. Why not check with me?"

I think we have grown so used to the other that we miss a lot of the joy of the Savior's presence in us. Of course we miss the mass of the freedom from worry and anxiety that his presence in us brings. Undoubtedly we fall into all kinds of attitudes and tones of voice because we know he is somewhere here. But we haven't much time to wonder about what he thinks about the situation. So I think we miss a lot that our faith includes. We miss a lot in our lives because of it. Of course the world misses badly his touch. I always think that if I am curt or sharp with Marty or Irene. It's really trampling over the one within me who wouldn't dream of being like that. At that very moment, because of his love for us, he is endeavoring to soften it and give you the patience and the forbearance to receive it and still to love me. Of course it isn't just me. We are all involved in it in some form.

It does seem to be faith in Christ is more that. That is what faith in Christ is. I do think that's why the apostles operated as they did. You often wonder if it was both Peter and John who came to the gate and the poor man was with hand out and begging. I always wondered if Peter read it in some book or must have prepared to say that or maybe he just thought how can I get around this guy without giving him anything. Obviously when he said, "Silver and gold have I none...." it was the Savior inside him. He had no doubt it wasn't his hand that was reaching out. He had no doubt that his hand had no power to heal the man. He had no power to heal the man. It was Jesus in him. That's the whole meaning of the resurrection. It's that the Holy Spirit lived now not only in Jesus but he lived in these men who believed in his Son and had received their position from him. So Jesus now lived in them. Faith in Christ means that.

Of course we read in John 15:4, "Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." Without me you will not be able to do anything. So that in a sense is why we have such a powerless Christendom because there are lots of people going around saying we have faith in Christ but really they don't have faith in Christ as the Bible uses it.

I thought it was important for Communion today because that's what we do. You have to admit it isn't harder for the Father to make it clearer. This is my blood and this is my flesh. How much clearer can you make it to mean? Our faith in Christ means that he is in us and we are in him. In that sense we can live just as Paul said, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God." [Galatians 2:20] So I put this book down -- no, not I but Christ. You may say you can't be holy, holy all the time. No, but it seems to me the more you can remember what reality is, the more really you will operate yourselves and the more realistically you will deal with each situation and each other.

Let us pray.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each of us throughout this day and week. Amen.