The only thing that counts

“. . . The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

(Galatians 5:6)

Looking back, like many people I guess, for me becoming a Christian began with a process.

I remember as a boy, that I just believed that God existed, though where that came from I don’t know, because my Dad was a confirmed, even belligerent, atheist in those early years, and my mum’s faith could fairly be described only as nominal.

Occasionally, I would pray to God. Or really, I suppose, I would just ask Him to do stuff for me. And I must at the time have been sufficiently positive about His answers to my prayers for them to sustain my rudimentary faith. Though I must admit that in hindsight I have the sneaking feeling that the faithful prayers for me by two sets of Christian Godparents, may well have significantly influenced my spiritual journey.

But then, around the age of 12, prompted probably by the fact that God had failed to comply with one of my requests, I concluded that God must just be a figment of my imagination and I clearly remember deliberately deciding that I would no longer have any more to do with Him. A resolve that I wilfully maintained for the next five years.

However, at 17, and in the Sixth Form at school, the young teacher who had taken me for Economics at O-Level, turned out to be not just my Economics teacher at A-Level, but also my teacher for compulsory RE.

Garth Ratcliffe, as he was called, was a very significant influence on me. Not only was he frighteningly intelligent, a wicked practical joker, in both senses of that word “wicked”, and, it turned out, was a fearless and impressive advocate of the Christian faith and, as a direct result of his influence, I began to re-examine my position towards the existence of God.

So, while opting out of taking a seat on the coach he was organising to visit the Billy Graham Crusade at Earls Court, in London, I chose instead to make my own visit and it turned out to be what is sometimes referred to as a “Divine appointment”.

As I listened to Billy Graham, I felt that God was telling me that the only way I could resolve the question of whether or not He was real, was to take a step of faith; to put my trust in Him, and I would then find Him to be as good as His word.

So along with many others that night I “got up out of my seat” and went forward, was prayed for, and received Christ as my Saviour.

This morning, my message for us, is prompted by my response that evening at Earls Court that has turned out to be life defining. An evening when I took a step of faith and discovered that God’s word can indeed be trusted.

Now, as a dyed in the wool “slow learner”, I have to record that while I immediately began to see the benefits of that step of faith and began to grow in experience and understanding in my Christian life, I perhaps failed to fully connect with the key spiritual truth that I had employed that night. A truth that the Apostle Paul points to when he writes to the Colossians in Colossians 2:6 (NIV) “Therefore, AS YOU RECEIVED Christ Jesus the Lord, SO WALK in him...“ AS YOU RECEIVED, SO WALK.

This is one of those truths that is so stunningly simple and obvious that many a block-head like me can very easily miss it entirely.

So HOW did I receive Christ? Well, I received Him as an act of my will through a step of faith.

And this is my point this morning, and, it is a really simple point. If, on the basis of those words of Paul to the Colossians, I RECEIVED Christ through “a step of faith”, then that is the way I must now walk in Him.

The fact is though, as in life in general, a single step is NOT enough. Putting one foot in front of the other as a one-off event just does not do it either physically or spiritually. It is insufficient. What is needed is not just a single step. What is needed, is a series of steps, or, to give it its technical name, a WALK! A walk of faith!

We take a step of faith to become a Christian, yes, but then to LIVE the Christian life we need to keep taking those steps of faith until we find ourselves walking in faith.

As Christians, Paul tells us in Galatians, “You are all sons (or daughters) of God THROUGH FAITH in Christ Jesus,” (Galatians 3:26, NIV84). In other words, he is reminding us all of how we got into this Christian life. He’s pointing out that we got here by FAITH. And, if we got here by faith, and if we are to follow his instruction to the Colossians, then “as we received Christ Jesus the Lord” by faith, we will need to “walk in him” BY FAITH.

Now unfortunately part of our problem as Christians is that we are very much inclined to doubt that faith can really be enough. We feel that there should be more to it than that. We can feel that there should be something that WE should contribute. Something that WE should do ourselves. God has done His part, we think, but now we should do ours. And the thought that all we need to do is to have faith in what God has done, is somehow difficult to accept.

This is in fact the very issue, though perhaps in a rather specific way, that we see with the church in Galatia. And in Paul’s letter to the Galatians he mounts a forceful defence of the true gospel in response to those Christians from Judea who were Pharisees and had been unable to relinquish their commitment to the Mosaic Law. They had intentionally travelled to churches founded by Paul and taught them that Gentile believers must be circumcised and thus bound to keep the Law of Moses in order to be saved.

So that effectively salvation would be dependent not just on the grace of God but on a partnership between what God has done and what we do by fulfilling the requirements of the Law. The result though is to make the Christian faith a mixture of grace and Law which actually instantly negates the very truth and the power of the gospel.

So Paul’s letter to the Galatians tackles this issue head on explaining how this teaching totally undermines the gospel which is salvation by grace, through faith, alone, and in Galatians 5:2, (NIV84) Paul declares: “Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be OF NO VALUE TO YOU AT ALL.” He says: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” (Galatians 5:1, NIV84)

Paul is adamant that the true gospel supplies real freedom for those who will receive it by faith WITHOUT the requirement of any contribution, or of any merit, or any works on our own part. The gospel of grace IS SUFFICIENT, by itself, to meet all the requirements for personal righteousness for every one of us, no matter what our back story or our present failings.

If we accept it by faith we are set free from the penalty of sin because the gospel is not PRIMARILY (note that word), the gospel is NOT PRIMARILY, about setting our WILL free from the bondage of sin, but rather it’s power is to justly set our CONSCIENCE free from the guilt of sin solely because of the scale and perfection of Christ’s sacrificial death and His triumphant resurrection. It’s not at all about ANY righteousness of our own.

I love the power of Paul’s words to these Galatians, and therefore to us here in Lane End, in Galatians 5:6, (NIV84) where he says: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”

“The ONLY THING THAT COUNTS IS FAITH expressing itself through love.” Faith does it. Faith alone. Not faith PLUS our effort. Not faith PLUS our good works. Not faith PLUS our theology. Not faith PLUS our denomination. Just faith alone.

And Paul underscores this point in Galatians by saying in Galatians 5:4, “You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; YOU HAVE FALLEN AWAY FROM GRACE.” Because whenever we try to establish any kind of righteousness of our own, by the things we do, Paul is telling us, all we are doing in fact, is to put a wall between ourselves and our Saviour and to step right out of the place of grace.

We are effectively turning our back on Him and we are missing out on the free gift of grace He has provided for us at such great cost. Our own works just don’t do it – ever. “The ONLY THING THAT COUNTS IS FAITH expressing itself through love.”

Faith fuels the Christian life BECAUSE of what Christ alone has done. It was a perfect work. Perfect in quality and perfect in reach and extent. It was completely enough. Nothing more is needed. Nothing more from God and nothing more from us.

Jesus was born under the Law and kept the Law though no others could do so. He was completely faithful to His Father’s will. He was crucified though utterly innocent and was raised in order to redeem us all from the penalty of our sins. And we can now say of ourselves what Paul says in Galatians 2:20 (ESV) “I have been crucified with Christ. 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 FAITH in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

By faith, we have been crucified with Jesus and our past sinful identity was nailed to the cross with Him and He now lives His life in us. So we, according to Paul, are united both to the death AND to the life of Christ. We are freed both FROM our past sin by union with His death, and free to live FOR Him by union with His life.

Now if you are anything like me, at this point, a bit of a wobble sets in. Because, whilst we can acknowledge with our minds the strength of the argument from Paul that we were united with Christ in His death and so are united with Him in our new born again Christian life, there can be a sense of lingering doubt in relation to our personal experience because we are only too aware of the weakness of our own track record.

But it is at that point that we really need to go back and look at our first step of faith and ask ourselves what was actually going on?

First, to state the blindingly obvious, we take a step of faith when we acknowledge that something that we hear is TRUE and then we affirm our acceptance of its truth, BY ACTING ON IT.

So note then that faith is activated or initiated by something we HEAR. As Paul in fact confirms to the Christians in the church in Rome when he says: “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard THROUGH THE WORD OF CHRIST.” (Romans 10:17, NIV84). So it is the Word of God that instigates, or births, or brings, FAITH into being, in our lives.

It is a particular characteristic of God’s words that they will conceive faith in our hearts and minds. Really HEAR God’s words and faith WILL rise up inside you. It is inevitable. It is the nature of what God’s words do because they are inherently creative and unimaginably powerful.

And the prologue to John’s gospel makes it clear that Jesus Himself is the very personification of GOD’S WORD because it says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, AND THE WORD WAS GOD. He (that is, the Word, that is Jesus) was with God in the beginning. Through him ALL THINGS were MADE; without him NOTHING WAS MADE THAT HAS BEEN MADE.” (John 1:1–3, NIV84) So if Jesus, the Word, MADE EVERYTHING, then it underscores that He is the ultimate source of all creative power. So if we put our faith in the ultimate source of creative power, Jesus, we can be absolutely sure that He will be as good as His Word.

But then, also speaking of Jesus, the writer of Hebrews tells us: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, SUSTAINING ALL THINGS BY HIS POWERFUL WORD.” (Hebrews 1:3, NIV84) So from this we know that God’s Word is not only creative but it is also SUSTAINING. And Jesus Himself said: “. . . “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but ON EVERY WORD that comes from the mouth of God.’”” (Matthew 4:4, NIV84). God’s word actually sustains our Christian lives.

God’s Word then is amazingly powerful; it is the creative source of the faith which transforms our spiritual lives and makes us useful in God’s purposes, and it sustains and strengthens us as Christians, because when we really hear it, it generates and it regenerates belief, faith, within us.

So God’s Word is THE power source in our lives. It acts within us CREATIVELY and it is the means by which we are SUSTAINED spiritually. And this is WHY taking steps of faith, WHY walking in faith, plays such a major part in our spiritual growth and development.

This is why too, it so critical for all of us as Christians to make a place in our lives for God’s Word. Because if we do we are opening ourselves up to the faith generating creative and sustaining power of God in our lives.

This is why reading God’s Word should not be seen as an optional extra in the Christian life. This is why listening and thinking intensively when the Word is being taught or preached is so critical. This is why making time to study the Word for ourselves is invaluable if you desire to be the person God wants and intends you to be.

As Paul reminds the folk in Rome “But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming:” (Romans 10:8, NIV84) So maybe, the first rule for moving from just the occasional step of faith in our Christian lives, to a WALK OF FAITH, is to make a practice of keeping the Word near you. Keeping the Word in your mouth and in your heart. Because, if we feed ourselves with the Word, and if as we’ve seen, the Word is the source and wellspring of faith, then it will also be the means by which we instigate, fuel and energise our own WALK OF FAITH.

And a walk of faith is critical to spiritual progress and, more importantly perhaps, it is the cornerstone of a life that pleases God because as the writer of Hebrews makes crystal clear: “… without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God, ...” (Hebrews 11:6a, NIV84)

Treasure the Word in our hearts, and we open ourselves up to THE most creative power on the planet, a power that can transform OUR lives and make US useful servants of God who will understand and appreciate that our only righteousness is that which we have by faith in Christ.

Do that and we will begin to see our lives develop, not in terms of self-enhancing good deeds and self-righteousness, but in terms of the obedience that issues, not from a sense of obligation, compulsion, or competitive striving, but from the love that God Himself has put into our hearts. A love that will more and more want to please and rejoice the heart of God and that expresses itself not just in our worship and praise, but also in acts of genuine selfless love to others as a reflection of the all-surpassing love of our Saviour Jesus.

Our challenge today is to look back at that step of faith we made when we became a Christian and to determine that we will apply that lesson to every aspect of our Christian walk.

This way, making a decision of our will to take God at His Word, and to step out decisively in faith on the strength of what God’s Word tells us, is THE way to please God, and it is THE way to personal fruitfulness, to spiritual growth and blessing. Why? Because:“The ONLY THING THAT COUNTS IS FAITH expressing itself through love.”