9/25/24

When I was a student at the University of Alabama, I took part in a “soul-winning” class that taught us how to go door to door and witness to others about our faith. My best friend at the time, David, and I would go to the freshman guys’ dorm, Paty Hall, on Friday nights and go from room to room sharing the gospel. We prayed with several guys – and some of them were actually sober!

There's lots of  good to be said for this; being prepared to share our faith is important, and I’ll be writing more about that soon. However, one of my issues with the class was there was no follow-up. It was as if we were getting notches on our gun; we would get someone to pray a prayer of faith with us, encourage them to find a local church, and that was that! When I was a student at the University of Alabama, I took part in a “soul-winning” class that taught us how to go door to door and witness to others about our faith. My best friend at the time, David, and I would go to the freshman guys’ dorm, Paty Hall, on Friday nights and go from room to room sharing the gospel. We prayed with several guys – and some of them were actually sober!

There's lots of  good to be said for this; being prepared to share our faith is important, and I’ll be writing more about that soon. However, one of my issues with the class was there was no follow-up. It was as if we were getting notches on our gun; we would get someone to pray a prayer of faith with us, encourage them to find a local church, and that was that!   

Another of my issues with the class was that we treated “faith” as simply belief, and once someone expressed “faith” in Christ, they were in.  There was no baptism, no discipleship, no follow-up of any kind . . . 

I have repented of all that, and have prayed that those fellows would eventually find a true experience with God. 

But, you might ask, isn’t it belief —  faith —  that saves us?

Yes, but it’s deeper than mere belief. I can say I believe the sun’s going to rise again tomorrow, but that’s not the sort of belief that saves. To explain, let me begin with a story from the early history of the church; Pliny the Younger was governor of Pontus/Bithynia from 111-113 AD, during the reign of the emperor Trajan. Christianity was illegal, and it was Pliny’s job to find those accused of being Christians and interrogate them. After being interrogated repeatedly, those who persisted were executed. Here’s part of the letter Pliny wrote to Trajan about his process:


An anonymous document was published containing the names of many persons. Those who denied that they were or had been Christians, when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods, and moreover cursed Christ–none of which those who are really Christians, it is said, can be forced to do–these I thought should be discharged. Others named by the informer declared that they were Christians, but then denied it, asserting that they had been but had ceased to be, some three years before, others many years, some as much as twenty-five years. They all worshiped your image and the statues of the gods, and cursed Christ.


Statues of the gods were brought in as well as a statue of Trajan. Why? Wouldn’t it just be enough to worship the other gods? Why was a statue of the emperor brought in? Because the emperors of that time were considered living, breathing gods on earth. The gods may rule from Olympus, but the emperor’s rule was on earth: visible, concrete, and immediate. 

For Pliny, Trajan is the living emperor-god who demanded the ultimate loyalty of his subjects. 

Christians, for Pliny, weren’t just expressing their faith in “another god,” like the other gods of the time. The Romans believed in many gods and would have welcomed Christ as one among many. The Christians rejected all other gods.

But it was more than that.

The very first Christian creed was the simple statement, “Jesus is Lord,” and Lord was a title the emperor claimed for himself. To be a Christian meant complete allegiance to the resurrected Jesus, enthroned as King of the universe. When the true Christian gave allegiance to Jesus the king, they were rejecting the emperor’s claims to be  god, the supreme ruler, and a savior. 

That was 2000 years ago . . . what does it have to do with us?

Everything. The Greek word translated “faith” in the New Testament is pistis, and we usually think of faith as “belief.” 

But it is more than that! 

The word had an entire range of meanings including belief, loyalty, faithfulness and allegiance. We usually stop with “belief,” when in reality, “belief” is the part of faith that gets us in the door. 

As I’ve pointed out over and over this year, God saves us for a purpose; God is reclaiming His lost world, and he invites us to be part of the reclamation process. We’re to take up our original vocation of being the image of God, ruling over God’s creation. To be part of that begins when we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that He died and was resurrected.

That’s faith as belief. 

But there’s a so-what question that has to be answered. Jesus is Lord of all? So what? What does that mean in my life and in the lives of those around me?

This is where the other meanings of “faith” come into play. To say that Jesus is Lord is to acknowledge that no one else is: Caesar is not, I am not, the person I work for is not, the person I love (or think I love) is not, my children are not, famous people like actors, musicians and politicians are not. 

Jesus is Lord, and my allegiance is solely to him. My loyalty is ultimately to him. I will live a life of faithfulness to him. Jesus is my King. My Christian life is not solely what happens for an hour on Sunday morning! That is a launching pad for everything else that happens through the week, and everything that happens is lived under the lordship of Christ.

What does that look like? I’ll go deeper next week. 

 Blessings,
Pastor Terry

PS - the entire letter of Pliny to Trajan is very interesting, including a description of early Christian worship. It’s worth a look: https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/texts/pliny.html