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Commentary on "Faith and Healing"

RICHARD PEIFER

 

Day 4: Tuesday, May 4, 2010

 

Overview

“Faith is a connection with God that comes from knowing His power and resting on His promises to act on our behalf. The effects of faith in God bring health to our minds and bodies.” (SDA Teacher’s Quarterly, P. 67)

 

Observations

I understand the important link between a proper attitude and healthy emotions, but the lesson’s equating of faith and attitude/emotions leaves me wanting more. This is where my criticism expressed in Saturday’s lesson comes to bear.

Note the working definition of faith quoted above. This is a definition almost devoid of the “in here” nature of our relationship with God. Instead, this kind of faith is limited to “knowing His power and resting on His promises to act on our behalf” – definitely an “out there” definition.

The fact is God already has acted on our behalf. In one brief moment of time (although thirty-three and one-half years in our reckoning), the Christ-event changed everything. He who had no sin became sin for us. He reconciled us to God. He did nothing less than remove sin as the great chasm of separation between humanity and God. But He didn’t stop there. He rose from the dead, the first-born of salvation, in order to offer us eternal life. This two-part gift – forgiveness and eternal life – is ours as the completely free gift of grace, the gift of gifts. Jesus went back to the Father so that the Holy Spirit could be given to us as the deposit guaranteeing our salvation. And finally, God gave The Revelation to John so that we could know that Jesus was not only victorious in our timeline, but for all eternity. Our future is absolutely certain. The Lamb wins!

This is our hope. “Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:16-20).

Faith is applying hope to this moment. Faith is real only in this moment. We can exercise it neither in the future nor in the past, but only now. “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1). Why? Because God swore by Himself that surety and certainty are true. So, I choose to live every moment as if I’m already with Jesus in the New Earth, because, in fact I am. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6-7).

This hope and faith cannot be understood, let alone exercised, if the only God I know is outside of me. I may in fact know Him to be the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving God of the universe, but He is useless to me “out there.” The only way to exercise faith is to have eternal life now, as testified to me by the indwelling Holy Spirit (see 1 John 5:9ff). The Holy Spirit’s testimony confirms hope and enables faith. As always, it is all of Him and none of me.

Only now can we begin to talk about healthy attitudes and healed emotions. The human spirit must be renewed by the indwelling Holy Spirit in order for the soul – the mind, emotions and will – to be renewed. Both the human spirit and soul must be renewed before we begin to see a positive impact on our flesh. Even then, because of indwelling sin our flesh is not likely to respond as we would like. In fact, our flesh never will be renewed. It must be replaced (see 1 Corinthians 15:50).

This is what keeps faith from being wishful thinking. The humanist researchers cannot understand this, nor explain it, so they are left with writing it off to superstition. If they refuse to acknowledge the indwelling Christ, how can they do otherwise?

 

Summary

  1. While it is true that our attitudes and emotions have a tremendous impact on our health, the approach to faith taken in this lesson falls far short of what God intends for us.
  2. Because we can know beyond any doubt that we have eternal life, life given to us by God Himself, we can respond to His initiative in our lives.
  3. Faith, anchored in the reality of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27), is that response.

 

GO TO DAY 5

 

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