The Content of Faith
one
Content
a. Recall that Faith is not believing something you can’t really know…
i. Faith is to trust God
ii. That what He tells us is true
iii. And if it’s true we should act on it
1. Otherwise, we didn’t believe him in the first place
b. To have faith we need a relationship with God
i. Faith is, above all, faith in God – it’s a faith in His credibility, it’s a trust in Him that comes from knowing who He is.
1. That trust, that knowledge, that relationship, is what makes us certain that He would never mislead us – and thus our faith is made certain.
c. But of course, you can’t believe someone without believing what they say.
i. I can’t say to my wife, “Of course I believe in you, and your trustworthiness and reliability. But I reject what you’re saying as falsehood.” That will not work.
d. No more can we pretend to have faith in God if we don’t believe what He revealed and said.
i. If we don’t accept that certain things are true, that certain statements, certain doctrines are true –
ii. then we can talk about how spiritual or religious we are all day long, but we don’t have the virtue of faith.
two
Jesus Christ as the Fullness of Revelation
a. It is in Jesus Christ that God has revealed the fullness of Who He Is, What He has done, and What His plans are for us
i. Jesus has revealed Who God is:
1. That God is a Trinity, Father Son and Spirit – an infinite community of love
2. And that God’s infinite love in Himself has expressed itself with an unfathomable love for us.
ii. Jesus has revealed the fullness of what God has done for us
1. How He has come to us in the form of man, to give His life for us, and lead us to everlasting life.
iii. Jesus has revealed what God wants for us
1. He has given us, especially in the Sermon on the Mount, God’s instructions for how to live
2. And He has described to us, and shown us through the Resurrection, the eternal glory that has been prepared for us.
b. So, to have faith in God’s revelation is simply to have faith in all that Jesus has revealed to us.
i. God actually came to earth and told us what we need to know.
ii. If we accept Him, we will accept His message.
three
The Scriptures and the Church
a. We need to have faith in Jesus and His message.
b. But unless the Scriptures are reliable, we can’t ever know what Jesus was like or what was part of His message.
i. After all, if some parts of the Scriptures are bogus, how can we be sure which parts reflect Jesus and His teaching and which parts don't?
ii. So we have to have confidence that the Bible is reliable if we have any confidence about what Jesus wanted us to believe
c. But, of course, the Bible comes from the Church
i. The apostles and those authorized by them who were the ones who wrote the Scriptural account of Jesus
ii. And then the successors of the Apostles – the Popes and the Bishops, who decided which books should count as Scripture and which shouldn’t.
iii. So unless the Church, headed by the successors of Peter and the apostles is reliable, then we can’t have any confidence that Scripture is reliable.
d. We must have confidence in the reliability of the Scriptures to have faith in Jesus.
e. And we must have confidence in the Church to have confidence in the Scriptures.
i. Which means that the content of faith is found in Jesus Christ, as expressed in the Bible and the Church’s teaching.
four
Can’t pick and choose
a. Wait a minute – does that mean that to have faith you need to believe everything in the Bible, and everything officially taught by the Church?
i. Yes, it does.
ii. It doesn’t mean you have to understand or even know the details about everything in the Bible and the Church’s teaching,
iii. but you must accept that it’s all true – because, again, only if it’s true can we have access to Jesus – and only if we have access to Jesus can we believe God’s revelation in Him.
b. Now some people want to play a percentages game, and accept most of what the Bible and the Church say, while rejecting other things.
i. They figure that’s still a high enough percentage to get a passing grade.
ii. But faith doesn’t work like that.
1. Imagine if I get pulled over for speeding, and the first thing I says is, “Officer, do you realize how many laws I’m not breaking?”
2. The same with faith – if you knowingly reject just one doctrine of the faith, it means you’re using your own your own private judgment, and not God’s testimony, as the ultimate standard for what you accept as true.
a. And that means you don’t have the virtue of faith anymore. It means you’ve chosen to accept or reject God’s message based on whether it sounds plausible to you. You’re not relying on God – you’re relying on yourself. And there’s nothing supernatural, or virtuous, about that.
five
Being Home
a. St. John Henry Newman said that when you’re out, alone, in the storm, all you have to see by is your own personal lamp.
i. But when you come home, your house is so illuminated that you don’t have to rely on your own private lamp anymore.
b. That’s the Catholic Church, and the gift of faith God offers us through the Church.
i. Sometimes people have to rely on their unaided private judgment to find the Church – but when you come home, the light and the fullness of Jesus’ revelation through Scripture and the Church means we aren’t just left to our own devices.
c. Thank God! Thank God we aren’t out there in the storm on our own, desperately trying to make sense of things by ourselves, with our small, easily confused minds.
i. Thank God He’s given us the full content of faith to illuminate our intellects about Who He is and who we are –
ii. Thank God for the light of faith that allows us to rest secure in the full truth of existence.
iii. Thank God for the Church, our home, and for the gift of faith.