The voice of the psalmist reminds us that saving faith is an ongoing dialogue.
Not long ago I was chatting with someone I had just met in the Dominican Republic. I was explaining to him that I lived on the other side of the island. Dominicans tend to be very interested in this sort of case. Why would someone from America, the land of opportunity, make a home in Haiti?
“What do you do there?,” he asked in broken English.
“I’m an educator and a missionary.”
“Oh! I see. I believe in God, and I believe in Jesus, but I’m not a Christian.”
Interesting isn’t it that he assumed that I was a Christian missionary. How often to do you hear about hindu missionaries, or buddhist missionaries, or missionaries from any other faith group? (I’m not suggesting that they don’t exist, I’m just suggesting that missions does not tend to be a major part of the doctrinal profile of other faith groups)
Anyway, I thought my friend’s comment was interesting, but not uncommon. It just got me thinking a bit.
There is a major different between believing in God’s existence and having saving faith. After all, Satan and all his demons have excellent theology, do they not? They know about the Trinity, they know about the substiutionary atonement, they even know all too well about the great victory of God in Jesus, but they don’t have saving faith.
Saving faith is a when someone walks in intimacy with Jesus—when someone has an ongoing dialogue with Jesus.
I believe in Barack Obama. I believe that Barak exists and is the current President the United States of America, but I don’t know Barack and Barack doesn’t know me (there’s an excellent theory out there that suggest that you cannot truly know someone unless they also know something about you—that intimate knowledge of the other demands reciprocity).
There is a substantial difference between knowing who someone is, and knowing someone. Salvation does not come when we recognize God’s existence. Salvation comes when we know God personally and we invite God in to know us personally. Perhaps a better word to use than “faith” to describe this dimension would be “trust”.
I find something quite fascinating about this. This means that God wishes to be known personally and intimately. God trusts us to know him and wishes us to trust him to know us. This is based entirely on Jesus’s work on the cross. God doesn’t just want people to know about him, he desires for people to know him—to experience him and what he’s like. He wants people to personally experience his blessing, his favor, and his grace. God doesn’t want us to share our lives with him. No, he wants to share his life with us.
This is the nature of the ongoing dialogue of faith. God wants to talk with us. He wants us to call upon him. He wants us to be honest and authentic with him. He wants to be in dialogue with us. He doesn’t want us simply to be aware of his existence. He wants to be involved in our comings and goings. He desires to help orchestrate the events of our lives and relationships so that he can bring life and substance into our midst. He wants to be in dialogue with you and with me.
The great tragedy of humanity is that we have been fooled into thinking that God doesn’t want to be involved in our affairs, nor does he care to be known. What better way to put that lie to sleep then putting on flesh and walking amongst us. Not only walking amongst us, but also meeting human needs.
Jesus didn’t walk around saying, “I’m God, know me.” He walked around entering into people’s sufferings, their problems, their pains and their hurts and healing them. He enters in and says, “Let me carry that burden for you.” He says, “breath, come to life, I am with you.” Jesus comes saying, “Trust me.”
God wants to be known and we wants to know you.h This is a part of what the birth of Jesus is all about.