The meaning of Belief in Jesus Christ (Contd):
Faith in Jesus: It is evident from what Jesus said to Nicodemus that implicit belief in him meets the requirement of faith in him for salvation."No one ever went up into heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man whose home is in heaven. This Son of Man must be lifted up as the serpent was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, so that everyone who has faith in him may in him possess eternal life" (John, 3: 13-15). That this faith is satisfied by an implicit belief in him may be seen from what follows the passage quoted above. There Jesus elaborates on certain preconditions and consequences of faith in him that would justify the sufficiency of implicit belief in him for salvation. The preconditions are these: The reason why God sent His only Son into the world was that His love for the world was beyond measure with the purpose of granting eternal life to all those who have faith in His Son. Similarly, the intention of God in sending His Son was not for judging the world, but in saving it through him. The consequences immediately follow those preconditions in that the man who has faith in God's Son does not come under God's judgment. On the contrary, the unbeliever has already been judged because he did not give his allegiance to God's only Son (See John, 3: 16-18).
Verification of Faith: Faith in Jesus required for our salvation is verified by a test proposed by Jesus himself that equiparates faith with implicit belief in him. "Here is the test: the light has come into the world, but men preferred darkness to light because their deeds were evil. Bad men all hate the light and avoid it, for fear that their practices should be shown up. The honest man comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that God is in all he does" (John, 3: 19-21). Faith in Jesus is necessarily tied up with our practices in daily life whereby it is verified or falsified. If our practices conform to the light, we shall not hide ourselves in darkness and would come out into the open for everyone to see what we really think, say and do. On the contrary, evil people cannot afford to do that as their evil thoughts, words and deeds cannot stand the scrutiny of light that enlightens everybody. If faith in Jesus implies verification of it by our practices, our practices necessarily reveal the kind of faith we have in Jesus. When the practices of someone correspond with the attributes of light , he or she has implicit belief in Jesus who is the light of the world.
Belief in Jesus in the Old testament: If anyone were to still think that implicit belief in Jesus Christ does not sufficiently meet the Gospel requirement of faith in Jesus, we may point out the biblical understanding of the same in the very first century. Jesus himself endorsed the sufficiency of implicit belief in him by referring to the faith of Abraham and David in their lifetime. "Your father Abraham was overjoyed to see my day; he saw it and was glad" (John, 8: 56). Jesus asked the Jews how Christ could be the Son of David when David himself in Psalm 110: 1 called him his Lord (See Luke, 20: 41-44). It means that David's knowledge about Christ could only be implicit and yet he was saved by his faith in him. The same is true of all those who were justified by faith as detailed out in chapter 11 of the Letter to the Hebrews. Explicit mention of Christ is made by the author of this Letter while talking about the faith of Moses. "He considered the stigma that rests on Christ (God's Anointed, the Messiah) greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for his eyes were fixed upon the coming day of recompense" (Hebrew, 11: 26). By the very fact that Moses preferred to suffer hardship with the people of God rather than enjoy the transient pleasures of sin as the prince of Egypt, he implicitly took part in the destiny of Jesus Christ and was justified. Similarly, Christ was the spiritual rock that traveled with Israel through the desert during their exodus from Egypt (See 1 Corinthians, 10: 3-4)
Walking Models: If a case could be made out for implicit belief in Jesus Christ from the very beginning of the world, much more should it be relevant after the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ with the mission of the Church to proclaim the Gospel. The Church has to bring to the fore what is already implicit in every human being, i. e., the image of God enhanced by the presence of Jesus Christ. Education in general is an activity that attempts to draw out the potentialities inherent in children and Gospel Proclamation is an activity of education for every human being. Education implies training that presupposes models and specimens which we believers are called to be. Believers are expected to be walking models of Gospel values in their everyday lives. (To be Contd).
Faith in Jesus: It is evident from what Jesus said to Nicodemus that implicit belief in him meets the requirement of faith in him for salvation."No one ever went up into heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man whose home is in heaven. This Son of Man must be lifted up as the serpent was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness, so that everyone who has faith in him may in him possess eternal life" (John, 3: 13-15). That this faith is satisfied by an implicit belief in him may be seen from what follows the passage quoted above. There Jesus elaborates on certain preconditions and consequences of faith in him that would justify the sufficiency of implicit belief in him for salvation. The preconditions are these: The reason why God sent His only Son into the world was that His love for the world was beyond measure with the purpose of granting eternal life to all those who have faith in His Son. Similarly, the intention of God in sending His Son was not for judging the world, but in saving it through him. The consequences immediately follow those preconditions in that the man who has faith in God's Son does not come under God's judgment. On the contrary, the unbeliever has already been judged because he did not give his allegiance to God's only Son (See John, 3: 16-18).
Verification of Faith: Faith in Jesus required for our salvation is verified by a test proposed by Jesus himself that equiparates faith with implicit belief in him. "Here is the test: the light has come into the world, but men preferred darkness to light because their deeds were evil. Bad men all hate the light and avoid it, for fear that their practices should be shown up. The honest man comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that God is in all he does" (John, 3: 19-21). Faith in Jesus is necessarily tied up with our practices in daily life whereby it is verified or falsified. If our practices conform to the light, we shall not hide ourselves in darkness and would come out into the open for everyone to see what we really think, say and do. On the contrary, evil people cannot afford to do that as their evil thoughts, words and deeds cannot stand the scrutiny of light that enlightens everybody. If faith in Jesus implies verification of it by our practices, our practices necessarily reveal the kind of faith we have in Jesus. When the practices of someone correspond with the attributes of light , he or she has implicit belief in Jesus who is the light of the world.
Belief in Jesus in the Old testament: If anyone were to still think that implicit belief in Jesus Christ does not sufficiently meet the Gospel requirement of faith in Jesus, we may point out the biblical understanding of the same in the very first century. Jesus himself endorsed the sufficiency of implicit belief in him by referring to the faith of Abraham and David in their lifetime. "Your father Abraham was overjoyed to see my day; he saw it and was glad" (John, 8: 56). Jesus asked the Jews how Christ could be the Son of David when David himself in Psalm 110: 1 called him his Lord (See Luke, 20: 41-44). It means that David's knowledge about Christ could only be implicit and yet he was saved by his faith in him. The same is true of all those who were justified by faith as detailed out in chapter 11 of the Letter to the Hebrews. Explicit mention of Christ is made by the author of this Letter while talking about the faith of Moses. "He considered the stigma that rests on Christ (God's Anointed, the Messiah) greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for his eyes were fixed upon the coming day of recompense" (Hebrew, 11: 26). By the very fact that Moses preferred to suffer hardship with the people of God rather than enjoy the transient pleasures of sin as the prince of Egypt, he implicitly took part in the destiny of Jesus Christ and was justified. Similarly, Christ was the spiritual rock that traveled with Israel through the desert during their exodus from Egypt (See 1 Corinthians, 10: 3-4)
Walking Models: If a case could be made out for implicit belief in Jesus Christ from the very beginning of the world, much more should it be relevant after the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ with the mission of the Church to proclaim the Gospel. The Church has to bring to the fore what is already implicit in every human being, i. e., the image of God enhanced by the presence of Jesus Christ. Education in general is an activity that attempts to draw out the potentialities inherent in children and Gospel Proclamation is an activity of education for every human being. Education implies training that presupposes models and specimens which we believers are called to be. Believers are expected to be walking models of Gospel values in their everyday lives. (To be Contd).
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