Confidence of Acceptability
People cannot obligate God by claiming that their faith is acceptable. Rather, God must tell us. But how? The proverbial “still small voice in the night” and the salvation experience too often lead to self-deception. “Speaking in tongues” must be taught and offers no hard evidence, just circular claims built on self-fulfilling prophecy. Some insist that their proof is in the Scriptures, which is no more than elevating one’s own understanding. No, God must tell us with blatant and unmistakable physical evidence. Examples follow over the next week.
“We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the power may be of God and not of us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7) The context of chapters 4 and 5 is evangelism. Those who observe this power are outsiders. When outsiders recognize that what you just did was obviously beyond your ability, you know that God thinks your faith is acceptable.
“God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:1 – 8) Following that are examples of different gifts. God promises gifts to the believers, not unbelievers. When you suddenly are able to do a good thing that you could not do before espousing faith, that’s a gift and your evidence. So, your gift cannot be singing unless you were essentially tone-deaf before faith, but a virtuoso after, and not after several years of voice lessons.
(John 17:20 – 23) Jesus asked that the unity of future believers be an evidence that He was for real. Further, He prayed that they be consistent in that unity and that they have His “glory,” which is a parade of positive character traits. Unity, consistency, and a boatload of positive character traits are not normal in this world. Jesus wanted to use those characteristics in the church as His physical evidence. When that happens, we have proof of our acceptability.
(Romans 8:13) Humanity has a poor track record of “putting to death the deeds of the body.” If you overcome a bad habit by superior self-control (and maybe a self-help book from Barnes and Noble), that is a good thing. If you have failed so many time you have lost count and have given up ever overcoming that weakness, and then, after becoming a Christian, that addiction disappears essentially overnight, that’s evidence that the Spirit is at work and that your faith is acceptable.
(2 Corinthians 3:16 – 18) We are being transformed into a parade of the character traits of God. Paul told the misfit Corinthian Christians that they were a work in progress while still breathing. If you have spent decades unsuccessfully trying to be more patient, and then in response to submitting a claim to God concerning that promise, you are remarkably patient, you have your evidence of acceptability. That change is an evidence to outsiders as well.
(1 Peter 4:7 – 11) Peter admonished Jewish Christians in Turkey to do these things “with the ability which God supplies.” Believers and unbelievers are quite capable of doing nice things. When someone does a nice thing for you, you should say, “Thank-you.” The gifts suggested by Peter caused unbelievers to comment on the character of God (glorify God), not on the character of the do-gooder. When that happens, you have your evidence that the Spirit dwells in you.
(1 John 2:27) Learning something without a qualified human teacher is rare. Abraham Lincoln was said to have been self-taught. An imposing list may be found by googling “autodidacts.” Nevertheless, such people are a low probability. Yet, John informed the faithful that they had no need that anyone teach them. The key word there is “need.” Teachers are not essential. When the untaught shock themselves by finding just the right thing to say about God when completely out of their depth, they have evidence that God has accepted them.
The notion that God is responsible for letting us know if our faith is acceptable can be unnerving, especially if we have been told all our Christian lives that we were “saved” or that we have been baptized, and that is all we need to know. But what is the alternative? If we tell God that our faith is adequate (because we said a prayer or had a feeling or performed a ritual), we have no assurance at all, just our claim with no evidence other than benchmarks made up by people. Certainly, people claim that their benchmarks are in the Bible, but, since growth is necessary, benchmarks must keep moving. Assurance comes only from accomplishing the humanly impossible.
Few church-goers have ever done anything that was clearly beyond the scope of what people can do. If I have never done anything unexplainable, all I need to do to find a miracle in my life is to read the New Testament and look for promises. When I find one I would like to claim but never knew about before, I should focus on it. Pray. Be open to weirdness. Don’t think of practical, possible, pedestrian ways to accomplish it. Be open to God doing it in an unimaginable way. If we box God in with how we think something should get done (Jesus called it “tempting God”), either nothing will happen or we will accomplish it by our own ability on a minor league scale. But even if we can get past ourselves and let something happen, we are not off the hook. Now we know how that one works; it is not faith to do it twice. We must move on to another promise, which is called growth.
Thomas Theology Hub 