The power and triumph of faith

[AI translation] Years ago, I sat at the bedside of a dying man and spoke to him about the grace of God in Jesus Christ, the reality of forgiveness and the certainty of eternal life. He listened in great silence, and once he sighed: "But I would like to believe in all this as much as you do! I have never believed in God, but now it is my only wish! It is the wish, the wish, the prayer of many people today: but it would be good to have real faith, to have more faith, to have more faith! At such times we see what a great gift, what a great grace faith is! There are moments and situations in life on earth when one sees very clearly that without faith not only is it not possible, but it is not even worth living! But I dare to say from experience that this is true not only in difficult situations, but in all situations of life: without faith, all life on earth is a meaningless mess, a whimsical game and a miserable adventure! Not only for the man in distress, but for man, for the possibility of true human life, it is indispensable to have faith! That is why I would like to talk now about three men whose example shows us the essence, the power and the triumph of faith, not only demonstrated, but also worked in us by the Word of God!1) First of all, then, the deepest essence of true faith becomes clear from the conduct of these three good friends. Their faith was not a rational faith, as ours often is. It did not consist in the understanding and acceptance of certain doctrines and dogmas. True faith is not something on a theoretical plane, it is not about understanding and holding true certain statements about the existence of God, his power, his immortality, Jesus... What would Sidrach, Meshach and Abednego have understood in that predicament, under the threats of the mighty heathen king, by any beautiful and true theories, what would it have helped them if they had only known the truth, if they had only had any firm intellectual conviction that their faith and their world-view were the right, the pure, the divine? They would have got nowhere with such faith! Their faith was something much more personal, much more existential than a mere theoretical conviction. Nor was their faith just a romantic faith that only manifests itself in lofty, beautiful emotions. They also used to confuse faith with emotions, with a certain higher mood. Some people say that the reality of God is not to be described and understood, but to be felt. The existence of God must fill the heart of the believer with a heavenly sense of majesty, of sublimity. Well, I do not think that when Zedrach, Meshach and Abednego stood before Nebuchadnezzar and heard the sentence of the fiery furnace awaiting them, I do not think that in that hell on earth any sublime and majestic heavenly feeling of heavenly existence was wafting through their hearts! Faith is different from emotion. It is also clear from their example that faith is not a matter of certain kinds of action. There is also such a moral misunderstanding of faith, as if faith consisted in works, faith and works being one. There is no doubt that faith and action are very closely related, and even intertwined, but it does not follow that good action is the same as faith. Those three men there in the burning fiery furnace were paralysed in all sorts of actions by the ropes by which they were bound, and even if they had wanted to, they could not have done any good deed, either to each other or to others. But their faith could not be paralysed by threats, by cruelty, by ropes, by the burning fiery furnace.
So, the deepest essence of faith is not a function of reason, not a matter of emotional life, not even a matter of deeds, but something else: namely, a personal relationship with Someone, a personal relationship with Someone. Believing: it means being in living communion with someone, existing in a higher context. Just as in friendship one cannot exist alone, the concept of friendship implies that at least two people are together in some intimate relationship with each other: so faith is such a relationship, a communion between God and man. Faith is the mysterious link, the bond by which the invisible God takes hold of my life and puts it in his hands! By which Jesus Christ is placed at the centre of my life. From this comes, as a consequence, thinking differently, feeling differently and acting differently. But first in faith is relationship, communion!
2) This is also evident in the behaviour of these three people. If they were not in a living relationship with the God they serve, they would not dare to say so boldly to the face of the dreaded pagan king, "Behold, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us out of the burning fiery furnace, and out of your hand, O king, will he deliver us." (Dan. 3:17) This bold statement can be taken on the lips of any believer today and spoken with equal confidence. But: very important here is this by-phrase: "our God whom we serve". It means that while we are with Him, He is most certainly with us! As long as we are ready to serve Him: we are most certainly under His helping protection, whatever happens to us! As long as Sidrach, Meshach, and Abednego choose suffering rather than sin: they can look the tyrant Nebuchadnezzar in the eye with boldness! That is why they were able to remain hopeful and hopeful in the most desperate situations, even in the most vulnerable. It was not because their faith was so strong and unshakable, but because the unshakable power of someone else overcame, took power over and held them: the power of the God in whom they believed, with whom they were in contact there and then. And that is indeed true, so much so that even if the gate no longer protects, God still protects. Oh, how many pictures the Scriptures give us of this, as if to urge us to dare to trust in Him. God calls Himself in the Bible a rock, a shelter, a refuge, a certain help. He compares His faithfulness to a shield, a breastplate, a covering of wings. All this so that in the uncertainty, in the confusion of the earth, in the thousand perils of life, the believer in Him may remain courageous, serene, confident. I have often said that a believer is not an optimist, just as he is never a pessimist, but a believer is a man of hope. And even if everyone loses hope: the people of God, the children of God, still proclaim God's dominion over all earthly and human powers with hope. The people of God do not look for a solution from the side, from the right or the left, from the East or the West, from the North or the South, but from above, from God whom they serve!
3) The faith of the three men in the story goes even further, the whole situation takes a dramatic turn when they say: 'God can save us, but even if he does not, even if it is not God's will to save us from the fire, even if we know that he can, our relationship with him is not broken! We still trust Him, we still believe in Him, we still serve Him alone! What is it: can faith take into account the possibility that God will not save us? Yes, because faith does not mean that I have God's power, but that I place myself at His disposal! I surrender myself to the will and power of God. Faith is not arrogant presumption, but humble submission to God. It means that whatever God says, we can humbly say it to Him: Yes, Lord! And this "yes, Lord" does not mean a light nod of the head, as people without thought and will tend to nod their heads at everything; nor does it mean a desperate surrender, resignation to an unchangeable destiny, but a submissive and willing bowing to God's will, an unconditional acceptance of God's word, even if it is a judgment on us. This is the test of faith: can you believe in God, in His truth, His promise, His victory, His power, even when everything around you seems to be the opposite? If God does not do what one expects and hopes of Him: well, then there is no need to collapse, to despair, to complain that I have hoped in vain, begged in vain, trusted in Him in vain, - because God is still God and I am still His! It is not always failure and hopeless defeat that it seems to be! The most terrible failure of the world, where human injustice and evil reached its climax, was the cross of Jesus Christ on Calvary. But only apparently. For this human defeat is in fact the greatest victory of all: God's victory over the world! Ever since, every tired, weary, worried, sad soul has been breathing in the invigorating air of God's presence, renewing its faith, drawing strength and victory for its own struggle. It is precisely by sharing with us Jesus in every form of our earthly destiny, from birth to suffering to death, that God has filled every stage and every turn of earthly destiny with His presence. There is no affliction in which God is not present, no suffering which He has not experienced, no temptation which He has not overcome.
For Jesus not only took upon Himself all our afflictions, bore all our sicknesses, suffered under all our sins, but in all of them He remained victorious! He filled it all with His divine victory. Faith in the victorious Jesus is victory over the world! Because this faith means that God is alive, I am His child, I am adopted, I am accepted, I am His in life and in death! In the most desperate of situations, I can say it with courage: I am accepted into God's eternal plan, into His eternal mind. He is my Lord, my Father, He wills good for me, I can entrust my destiny to Him. Even if He does not do what I expect and hope for, my destiny, even through suffering and misery, is full of His loving mercy!
Witness the fate of these three men in the story: behold, our Lord did not keep them from the burning fiery furnace, but kept them in the burning fiery furnace! For there with them was a mysterious fourth. Who else could it be but the One who promised: where two or three are gathered... And where Christ is present, death, even the fires of hell, lose their power. "And the greatest triumph of the faith of the three good friends was not that they finally came out of the fire with their nerves, skin, mind and soul intact, but that the heathen king was shaken and brought to his knees before the power of their God! Three believed steadfastly, and one king came to his senses. Your faith is not only the private, private affair of your soul with God, but, together with my faith and the faith of other Christians, it is the earthly base, the strategic fulcrum, from which the Heavenly King Himself is conducting His spiritual manoeuvres in this world, so that at last every knee shall bow to Him and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father! That is why the faith of a church, the ability to truly believe, is so crucial! And so to believe is not to know, but to believe: freely! For you too, it is free!
So say it with me:
I trust in you with a strong faith,
That you will do all things,
What you promise in your holy word:
That you will return to me in mercy,
And forgiving my sins,
Grant me eternal life.
(Canto 231, verse 2)
Date: 26 November 1956.