Believe the Word of God - Part One

Believe the Word of God – Part One

Matthew 8:5-13 & Romans 4

Eugene H. Peterson, a retired Presbyterian pastor, author of more than twenty books one of which is The Message and a scholar of biblical and Ancient Near East languages, reminds us that the Bible was originally a verbal book before it was written down.  The guidebook for our faith and the textbook of life was transmitted orally like the great epics of classical literature before scribes began to copy it onto papyrus and parchment.  Long before the invention of the printing press in Gutenberg, people knew the Bible with the same exactitude as many of us who pore over the pages of scripture.  Somewhat incredibly to us, our forebears in the faith believed genuinely in the Word of God although they did not have the book to consult.  They had the promises of God in their hearts and they accepted them without question.  They truly believed that God is who His Word reveals Him to be.  They did not question whether He has done the great and mighty deeds that they had heard from generation to generation. 

Moreover, they did not waver in their faith about the fact that God is capable of doing everything that He promises in the Bible.  Like a verbal covenant and oral contract between good friends or longstanding business partners, they took God at His word.  Often we have heard, “A man’s word is his bond.”  Your word obligates you to support it with integrity of action.  Likewise, the Word of God compels our Heavenly Father to fulfill His spoken promises to His people.  Essentially, the Bible which is the written record of His promises and deeds is a compilation of the spoken Word of God.

In the fourth chapter of Romans, the apostle Paul discourses upon Abraham’s impressive example of faith.  He says “Abraham believes God and it was accredited to him as righteousness.”  Remarkably, Abraham lives more than four hundred years before the Law is written down.  You recall the covenants that God makes with Abraham in Genesis 12 and 15.  In the first instance, God directs Abraham to leave his home and travel to the land where God sends Abraham.  There, Abraham, as the father of faith, will become the father of a great nation, the number of which the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore cannot equal.  Multiple material blessings accompany this promise.  However, in the second occurrence, God promises this man of one hundred years of age whose wife is ninety-nine years old that he and she will have a natural child who will be the seed of this nation.  The author of Genesis, in the sixth verse of the fifteenth chapter, says, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.”  What an amazing promise for God to make!  It is equally astonishing that Abraham unconditionally and unwaveringly accepts this promise.  

Believe the Word of God - Part Two

Believe the Word of God – Part Two

Matthew 8:5-13 & Romans 4

Although Abraham and Sarah did not posses the intricate knowledge of human anatomy and biology that contemporary researchers possess, they knew enough to realize the monumental and seemingly insurmountable nature of this promise.  Nonetheless, Paul greatly commends Abraham for his steadfast faith, genuine trust and enduring hope in the promise of Almighty God.  Paul cites Abraham’s example because Abraham was” fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He has promised.”  Admittedly, Abraham does not deserve excellent marks for perfect action.  You will invoke immediately the debacle with Hagar and Ishmael.  You may also mention the time when Abraham lies to a king of another country and says that Sarah is his sister.  Also, you may cite the time that Sarah laughs when the angels visit to reaffirm the divine promise a year before its actualization.  Yet, Abraham stubbornly refuses to surrender his genuine belief that Almighty God, the Creator of the universe and the Maker of all that is seen and unseen, has the power to accomplish this miraculous promise. 

Without a bound leather Bible to read daily, Abraham utilizes the practice of spiritual disciplines such as prayer, meditation, worship and affirmation of the Word of God to deepen his relationship with God.  One imagines they communicated like very best friends.  Accordingly, Abraham relies solely upon the Word of God as God’s faithful character reveals the worth of His promises.  Simply put, Abraham believes God’s word.  His example of perseverance challenges us to believe similarly the promises of God found in the Bible.  Lest we be guilty of biblical idolatry, we must remember that we do not relate to the pages of the book but the God that the book reveals.  Rather than reading verses for the sake of memorization, we can affirm the Word of God as the answer for our daily challenges.  Using the Bible to learn more clearly the character, faithfulness and grace of Almighty God, we have the same privilege as Abraham to receive the fulfillment of God’s eternal and irreversible promises in our lives.

The companion text, Matthew 8:5-13, records “The Faith of the Centurion.”  Upon Jesus’ entry into Capernaum, this Roma soldier and Gentile approaches the Lord about the excruciating suffering of one of his servants.  The centurion embeds the earnestness of his plea in his description of the servant’s affliction.  “My servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.”  Interestingly, this Roman military official appeals to this Jewish outcast for healing of his servant.  According to Luke’s version of this story, the centurion may have utilized his connections with the Jewish community by asking the local synagogue leaders to approach their fellow brethren on the centurion’s servant’s behalf.  Nevertheless, this direct or indirect appeal demonstrates genuine faith, which the author of Hebrews states is necessary in order to please Almighty God.  Actually, the centurion’s boldness reminds us that genuine faith is acceptable in the eyes of God.  There is no prerequisite that the possessor of that faith be a believer in the doctrinal sense.  The soldier’s humility, honesty and integrity suffice to move the heart of God to compassion for the servant.

The servant’s pain presents the fundamental dilemma in this story.  Both he and the centurion are unnamed.  The servant, as a person on the bottom rung of the social ladder, should hardly warrant such special attention.  His master, the centurion, represents the power of Rome.  In this particular situation, the imperial power is limited to assistance this lowly unnamed individual who would ordinarily be ignored or whose potential loss of life would be relegated to collateral damage in the larger scheme of life.  Yet, his pain is brought before the Lord.

Jesus answers the centurion and says, “I will go and heal him.”