"So Jesus answered and said to them, 'Have faith in God.'" (Mark 11:12)
The Interlinear Greek says, "Have the faith from God."
Okay, so I can either, "have the faith from God," or my own version of "faith." If we speak of, "Have faith in God," it leaves the impression, at least with me, that I have to come up with the, "faith." I believe that everywhere in Scripture we see "faith at work," we are seeing people who chose, "....faith from God." What the Blessed Trinity says, they received.
The disciples were amazed at what Jesus did, was doing, everything about Him. Yet, Jesus walked as the supreme "enigma" to those of the First Century. Most just did not know what to do with Him. They did battle with, "Do we believe His Words, His Works?" Matthew 28 tells us that even after the Resurrection, "When they saw Him they worshiped Him; but some doubted." How is this possible? They did not have, nor were they walking in, "the faith from God." It was "faith from themselves." Whatever "faith" the doubters had been exercising for the past 3+ years apparently had not "worked."
This is not some hard core "Calvinism." This is simply saying that what the world calls Christianity is that which the Bible describes several times in Romans, Galatians and Revelation as, "the faith of Jesus." It is Jesus' faith which is the true kerygma of the Church, of the Universe. To have, "the faith from God," is to accept the Words from God.
Father, in Jesus' Name, teach me, "the faith from [You.]" Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
