SEPTEMBER 14, 2023
“And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.” (Luke 8:25)
This response is quite marvelous. It is wonderful to behold how Jesus responded in the many different situations that Providence sent His way. But beyond that, it is good for us to understand why the Lord responded in this way. There is a way that seems right unto man, but the way of the Lord is always right.
Jesus asks His disciples this question immediately after they were battered by a storm. Jesus asks this question immediately after they begin to seek Him in great fear. Immediately after a time of great desperation, Jesus puts the question to each individual in the boat: “Where is your faith?” This is not how many men would answer their own immediately after such an occasion, but the Lord is not like other men. He has come to lead His own into the obedience of the faith. Many men would not answer in the same way that Christ answered because of unbelief. We may think, “If I press upon these men such a question at such a time, it may bring their destruction. They may not be able to handle it. They’ve already been crushed, why would I press upon them such a question and add to their difficulties?” But we men do not know better than the Lord. Rather, it is the Lord that is the All-Wise God!
What was the reason for Jesus’s response? As I have stated already, the Lord had come to lead His own into the obedience of the faith. The Lord did not have to fear. He has never thought that the elect’s salvation is dependent upon their strength. He has never worried about throwing His elect into fiery trials as if He should worry that “this trial will strip them of the salvation I promised them.” Jesus never had to fear in His responses because He knew that salvation belongs unto His Father. Jesus was leading them into the obedience of Faith. The obedience of faith is always worked out in two ways: 1. Being humbled, and, 2. Seeking and beholding the Lord. Faith is only apprehended through a right understanding of God’s Word, and this is not acquired without an honest view of self and a right view of the Lord!
1. By being humbled by the hand of the Lord. For the Lord resists the proud and exalts the humble. The fiery trials expose our unbelief. The fiery trials shed light on who we truly are. They do not hide back our faults or our shortcomings, but they expose the darkness so that it may become light.
2. We are driven to seek the face of the Lord and the Lord graciously reveals Himself unto us. We behold the only One Who is good. We behold the All-Sufficient God.
Our faith in Christ is always strengthened by being humbled and beholding the Lord. The Lord did not fear in responding the way that He did for He knew that His disciples thought too highly of themselves, and they needed to be brought low. The Tender Shepherd was working out their salvation even in this moment!
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