The Audacity of Our Faith

Tonight at a missions fellowship the speaker talked about an early missionary going to China to teach the Chinese about God.  My first reaction was, "What she really means is to teach them about Christ; surely we aren't being so arrogant as to think . . . ." Then it hit me. Yes, we are. We are arrogant as to think that Christians have a responsibility to teach people about God. 

And we're absolutely right.

God has revealed himself to man through the creation, but also through the scriptures, through the history of the Jewish people, and ultimately through Christ. All other perspectives are tarnished with the speculations of fallen man, speculations about God who has said, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways . . ." (Isaiah 55:8).

Christian faith is an audacious faith. Jesus said that no one would come to the Father except by Him (John 14:6). There is not other name, we are told by Peter, given to men by which we may be saved (Acts 4:12). Too often glossed over in John 3:16 is the certain declaration that Jesus is God's "only begotten son." Arrogant! Audacious! Truth.

It's not that the world needs only to be told about grace through Christ, the world needs to understand that this grace comes from the heart of a loving God. Are we arrogant to think we need to teach a religious people about God? So be it.  That's the audacity of our faith.