The Fall
If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. 2 Timothy 2:13 NASB
Faithless– You’re doing great. You’re learning more and more about the depths of the Bible. You’re drawing closer to YHVH. Your actions are more consistent. You feel a greater sense of responsibility and dedication.
And then you fall. You didn’t expect to stumble. Something that you thought was well behind you suddenly trips you up and, crash—you’re face down in the mud again. Trying to regain your balance. Slipping and sliding. It’s as if you suddenly stepped off a cliff in the dark. You start thinking that maybe all the times of devotion were just illusions. That maybe you really are condemned, hopeless—lost to the life you tried to leave behind that has now gripped you from the grave. You wonder if it will always be like this: apparent progress followed by certain regress. As my friend said, “Now, I’m not even sure I’ll emerge from this crisis stronger/wiser etc. Maybe I’ll just wither and die. Maybe I’ll just become an awful person and continue to live like that.”
Paul writes about this kind of failure. The Greek word is ápistos, easily recognized as the negative of pistos, usually translated “belief.” But our recent investigations have shown us that pistos is not the kind of mental assent or doctrinal declaration we once thought it was. pistos is an active response to God’s reality. It’s the Greek equivalent of Hebrew emet, more like trust or reliance. That’s Paul’s point. Our lack of trust, our doubt or failure, does not, in any way, diminish God’s faithfulness. We can disappoint, but we cannot destroy. He will always be willing and able to renew the relationship.
Perhaps it helps to unpack the Greek word ápistos. It certainly can’t be contained in the idea of doubt or disbelief since we can continue to believe God exists and is concerned about us even when we are failing in our responses to Him. ápistos is more than mental fatigue. “Faithless” is about behavior, the failure to live up to Kingdom expectations regardless of intellectual assent. So, demons believe but they don’t act accordingly. They are faithless. Faithless is acting without allegiance to the design and intention of the Kingdom. It is “self-in-control” behavior. That doesn’t mean it’s always obvious. Perhaps that’s why Paul spends so much time listing both attitudes and actions under the category of “works of the flesh.” Often “faithless” is a single abusive word, a misdirected thought, a mistaken conclusion, an air of superiority. It doesn’t have to be overt. Coveting is on the list, and it is invisible to everyone else. If we think that ápistos is not believing the right things, we will miss the whole point of Paul’s letters. It’s not what you believe that really matters. It’s what you do! Say what you want even if it’s totally incorrect, but acting without regard to the Kingdom is the real root of faithless.
Since the Gentile intellectual coup of Hebraic living, the West has moved toward Immanuel Kant’s view of faith, that is, religion as a purely rational exercise. Kierkegaard attempted to correct this, but he leapt off the cliff of irrational opposition and left us without grounds for acting. We in the West cannot recover by going further down either road. We will have to turn around and go back to the good news of the Kingdom; that God acts through the obedience of men and women. The Kingdom is about how we live. As Heschel notes, “The central issue is not Truth in terms of a doctrine, but veracity, honesty, or sincerity in terms of personal existence.”[1]
“The vast majority of people are satisfied with compromises, or they remain unaware that they are worshipping a multitude of gods, that their actions constitute a maze of contradictions.”[2]
Topical Index: ápistos, faithless, belief, action, 2 Timothy 2:13
“Irrational exercise”; “purely rational assent”; these are alike flesh-generated cognitive actions of mind. Even though they present as opposites, they both come from the same factory. We manufacture (are a source of) both as a mental exercise, but neither of them are faith.
We have been so trained in the dualistic ‘separation’ of mind and body that we now ‘believe’ to the bottom of our souls that, somehow, mental activity is somehow ‘separate from’ the activity of the flesh, but it isn’t. Science has concluded that not only do thoughts in the brain originate elsewhere (some studies have traced theta waves to the region of the heart); every time the brain fires, there is a corresponding change in every cell of the body. Even more mysteriously, things around us and IN us that are not, technically speaking ‘us’ (our inner and outer biome) also experience changes because their lives are dependent upon our choices/actions. Thus, there is no such ‘thing’ as ‘mere’ mental assent (whoops! that doesn’t make any sense: must be evil!). It turns out that that is just one more fiction between the ears, too. I think religion is now finding itself embarrassingly far behind science. Isn’t it time we take another look at this?
I think we have also been trained to think that belief is something WE bring to the altar: that belief is ‘our’ part of salvation, but that isn’t what the Bible teaches at all. We can no more manufacture belief (are a source of it) than faith can be separated in our nephesh. The Bible says faith is a gift of God; continuously being enacted in us by the action of the Holy Spirit. We are all given “a measure of faith” to spend as we wish. The correct response to that measure – just as it should be to all the gifts of God – is to say “thank you” and promptly put it back on the altar of first fruits to be blessed/increased. At no time were we ever supposed to take the gift (think it is ‘ours’) and run! That measure of faith is the first step in the dance, initiated by our Partner. (The next step – which IS our step – is to ask for more, of course!)
Faith is not an exercise of mind or even spirit. Therefore, real faith, like all real things, manifests in the entire nephesh or it is not ‘real’: i.e. can be found in reality. If faith is not simultaneously being enacted in the body (action) it is not going to be found in the mind or spirit, either – at least at that particular moment, in that particular place.
We can generate spiritual nonsense and fiction between the ears all day long: it’s called insanity; or, anything that does not have a corollary in reality. In fact, we were not created to be a source (generator) of ANYTHING! If it starts with us, it isn’t ‘real’ in the first place. Why we think that in the realm of spirituality that is somehow different is, I think, exhibit A of just how well we have been trained to be good little pagans, working our way to paradise. It turns out that ‘faith’ – as a cognitively generated exercise that we have been taught to ‘do’, anyway – is, because it is being cognitively generated, just so much more works, and therefore is just as “dead” as anything else that is flesh-originated. No wonder we can get so tired trying to keep on ‘doing’ it!
I think it is high time we take this good long look at what faith actually is. Thank you, again, Skip.
Skip, certainly has been my experience. But I’m hoping that as time goes by and I gain more ground I am less prone to the slippage !
I think I’m finding that God is certainly working on the bigger picture. We get fixated on a How grateful I ampart of our lives that isn’t working and it is easy to get all tangled up and lose focus. But God is always working i.e. He Who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ Jesus. As you said, he remains faithful, he cannot deny himself. God is not a man that he should lie…. has he said and shall he not do it or has he spoken and shall he not make it good! Behold I have received commandment to bless and have a blessed and I cannot reverse it. Seems to fit in this scenario. But we get discouraged with ourselves and end up laying in that mud for a season, it seems. It’s almost like we have a temper tantrum with ourselves and maybe we are saying to God “OK God, I tried and you didn’t help me to break through, here I am again “. As a good parent does, he doesn’t react to our carrying on. He knows our frame, he remembers that we are but dust ! He observed us as we were being created in the womb and he continues to keep his eyes on us, even in our fits and starts! How grateful I am that his compassions fail not, they are new every morning, great is his faithfulness ! Also Psalms says “if you Lord, should mark our iniquities, oh Lord,who would stand, but there is forgiveness with you that you might be feared“.
Good words I needed to hear today. Thanks
My beloved Skip: Thanks for our interaction, it’s apparent my words failed,but what you have just said is where I’m arriving. Shalom
Skip, you say, “‘Faithless’, is about behavior, the failure to live up to Kingdom expectations…”. And, you also say, “He will always be willing and able to renew the relationship.”
Yes, it is about behavior! And, yes, under CERTAIN CONDITIONS, he will always be willing and able to renew the relationship! However, sorry, but I’m not convinced we’re looking at this word and verse entirely correctly. Look at it in context of the preceding verses.
“The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we ENDURE, we will also reign with him; if we DENY HIM, he also will DENY US; if we are FAITHLESS, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny HIMSELF.”
I don’t think “faithless“ here means merely to “FALL” SHORT of Kingdom expectations. Here, I think, “faithless” means something more akin to DENYING HIM, as in blaspheming the Ruach ha Kodesh, “crucifying again the Son of God”, and living accordingly. THAT’S FAITHLESS!
Dying with him and enduring, we shall live and reign with him. DENYING him, WE shall be denied BY him, yet HE will remain FAITHFUL (…..to HIMSELF…..) because he cannot deny HIMSELF!
Yes, “faithless” means more than just not having right beliefs! And it DOES mean NOT having right ACTIONS! But falling short IN faith is not the same as falling FROM faith. Falling short IN faith is not being “faithless”. There remains a sacrifice for falling short IN faith! But if one GOES ON SINNING DELIBERATELY, that one has fallen FROM faith. The one who GOES ON sinning DELIBERATELY…..THAT one has fallen FROM faith, and for THAT one there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins!
”For IF WE GO ON SINNING DELIBERATELY after receiving the knowledge of the truth, THERE NO LONGER REMAINS A SACRFICE FOR SINS, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.” [Heb 10:26-27]
“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an EVIL, UNBELIEVING HEART, leading you to FALL AWAY from the living God.” [Heb. 3:12]
“For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, AND THEN HAVE FALLEN AWAY, to restore them again to repentance, since they are CRUCIFYING AGAIN the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to CONTEMPT.” [Heb. 6:4-6]
THAT is “THE fall”……FROM faith!!!
“The fall”…..IN faith…..is not good, but it is not so GREAT, either!
“The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way; THOUGH HE FALL, he shall NOT BE CAST HEADLONG, for the LORD UPHOLDS HIS HAND.” [Psa 37:23-24]
Bearing the LASTING FRUIT of repentance is very, very significant! However, the bottom line is, NEVER EVER STOP REPENTING! AND……DON’T GO ON SINNING DELIBERATELY!
“ A broken and contrite heart, he will not despise.”