What, exactly, does it mean to “just have faith”? For many, it easily becomes a flippant expression for simply throwing up one’s hands when it seems like there are no easy answers and just hoping for the best. In the meantime, it also becomes a convenient excuse to go your own way and do your own thing. An older man named Mark laughed off serious notions about God and the Bible, citing various conspiracy theories and suspense novels as being more interesting. It seems like in every generation there are major obstacles to a serious consideration of the Gospel, and ours is no exception. We may be the generation of information overload, entertainment and distraction, as so many people like Mark seem thoroughly unconcerned that they might be distracted away from some of the valuable truths that can be found in the pages of Scripture.
The subversive ideas of worldly knowledge and entertainment may seem more interesting in contrast to established Gospel truths, but there may come a day when the tide is turned and the Gospel itself once again becomes the radical, subversive idea that so many early Christians received in the first place.
The problem, as I see it, is that whether the Gospel is perceived as a pillar of society or a subversive alternative is really irrelevant. We need it just as much either way. Mark felt totally at ease laughing about the various alternative possibilities for what might happen when we die. He claims he will “just have faith” and see what happens. This is why he needed to see his sin and the judgement that awaits him upon leaving this life. It might be easy to joke and mock and take lightly the things of God now, but as Jesus said “I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken.”
To “just have faith” isn’t enough, for there are endless possibilities of who or what we can put that faith in. No, biblical faith is faith in a God who has revealed himself in history and recorded in the pages of scripture. Flippant references to faith aren’t enough, for the faith that pleases God is a faith that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11)
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