BY GREG CRUM
“And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.” Philippians 3:9-11
“That I may know him…” That’s the summation of this faith we call Christianity, or at least it should be. Christianity was never intended to be organized like a club, lodge or social order, dependent upon a framework of rules and regulations to guide its followers towards unity of deed and conformity of group norms. No, Christianity, a movement that didn’t even have a formal name for over a decade after its inception, was always designed by God to be the outward collective of many inward relationships with the Lord Jesus.
That’s not to say that God is opposed to order or that there are not “dos” and “don’ts” in our relationship with Jesus (there are), but rather it is to say that our faith is more about knowing our God than knowing the rulebook instead.
Last week we began to write about the importance of knowing the God of our faith. We looked at a lesson taught to the early believers in Corinth and noted how applicable that lesson is for modern believers today. That truth told by Paul through the Holy Ghost? That our faith in Christ should stand on the power of God, not in the intellect of man!
In this day of science and reason in which we live, many scoff at the supernatural which the Bible plainly declares. If they can’t verify something with their five senses and prove it with the scientific method, it doesn’t exist in their minds. Sadly, to a large degree, this ideology has crept into the church, in every denomination and every circle. We have shifted our understanding of God from an awe of His power to a memorization of facts and figures concerning Him. Friends, knowledge is good, but knowledge without practical experience is hollow and eventually becomes meaningless.
The Apostle Paul realized this important truth; in fact, he had lived it. Paul was a very Scripturally educated man, one of the most educated in human history. However, through his experiences with Jesus, he had come to realize that it was more important to found his faith in the demonstration of God’s power than on an academic understanding of His precepts.
This echoes the warnings of James as well, doesn’t it? In James we read that faith without works is dead. Now, we know that faith comes by hearing and understanding the Word, so knowing and understanding the principles of God are good, but a faith in our knowledge of God’s ways is an incomplete foundation. What I mean is that what we know in our heads must be demonstrated in our lives for it to find God’s intended fulfillment. It’s not spiritually healthy just to know facts about God. We have to know the God of the facts!
Brothers and sisters, our faith must be founded on a real, living, active relationship with the God of the Bible. Now, please don’t take this as a slight against the Bible, I cherish the wisdom that it contains, but some people’s God is the Bible. That was never God’s intent in this gift to us. The Bible is to give us an understanding of what God is like and should encourage us to enjoy an active relationship with God, just like many of the people recorded in the Bible did.
Friends, is your faith founded in the demonstration of God’s power and in Bible-based experiences with Him? If not, I encourage you from this day forward to make your contact with God interactive. Read the Bible, but more than that, allow God to read it to you. In other words, let the Holy Spirit actively teach you as you read.
What’s more, don’t forget to pray daily. Speak to God and allow Him time to speak back to you. Finally, do what the Word says, don’t just read it and leave it at that. Step out and try what has been demonstrated in the pages of that wonderful gift to mankind.
Greg Crum is pastor of Calvary Temple Church in Lovely.