From Bishop Peter Carrell
There is a fascinating theological debate which has rumbled along for several decades now, straddling the turn of the 20th century into the 21st.
At risk of over-simplification, it is a debate about whether a Greek phrase in some of Paul’s letters means “faith in Jesus Christ” or “faithfulness of Jesus Christ”.
The former meaning has been hugely emphasised in the writings of the great Reformers, in the preaching of great evangelists: what God looks for by way of response to the announcement of the Good News is our faith and not our works. Will you or I put our faith in Jesus – entrust our lives to him – as a response to the inherent invitation of the Good News to believe in Jesus?
The latter meaning has been spurred by the possibility that we might think of our faith as something we contribute to our salvation. Without a personal faith in Jesus, we won’t be saved. That can sound like “my faith in Jesus” is my contribution to being saved, thus diminishing the conviction that when Jesus died on the cross for me, he did everything needed to save me. From such an angle, looking at Jesus dying on the cross, we can see sense in thinking that it is “the faithfulness of Jesus Christ” which is critical to our salvation: by being faithful to God’s will, obeying God every step of the way, even to the point of experiencing death rather than avoiding it, Jesus exhibits the ultimate faithfulness to God’s plan for saving humanity. Through his faithfulness, Jesus Christ accomplishes through his death on the cross everything needed that we might be right with God.
Of course, to benefit from this amazing gracious gift of salvation brought about through Jesus’ faithfulness, we ourselves need to respond to God, to say “Yes” to God saving us – and the act of saying this “Yes” is an act of faith – we trust that God has done for us in Christ what we could not do for ourselves. Our faith is in God. And even that faith is God’s gift to us (Ephesians 2:8). Somewhere in this theological debate is the possibility of affirming the faithfulness of Jesus and the importance of our personal faith in Christ.
This Easter, let’s rejoice in God’s faithfulness, expressed through his Incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, who obediently went to the cross that we might live (Philippians 2:5-12; Hebrews 12:1-3). Let’s be a people of faith in God, eager and keen to entrust our lives to the One who Loved us so much that in Christ he died and rose again for our sakes.