[To receive the most benefit from this study, please begin at Part 1 which can be selected from the menu to the right.]
Great Faith Recognizes the Authority of God's Word
"And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching Him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest comes under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth: and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to them that followed, Verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel. And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour." (Matthew 8:1-13)
As many years as I have read the Bible, I must admit that I did not ever quite understand this passage of scripture; at least not until the Lord began to show me the meaning of authority and its purpose in my life. Now this passage is rich in meaning and full of truth for me – of the kind that produces new life.
This is a detailed explanation, perhaps one of the clearest definitions given of what "great faith" looks like. The passage illuminates the key elements of this "great faith" in such a way that, by the work of the Holy Spirit, we can see it; and for some of us, like me, perhaps for the very first time.
"Lord, I am not worthy":
When authority is truly recognized, we will humble ourselves in the face of it. Where there is no humility, there is only rebellion against authority. The centurion made a public confession of his unworthiness. He was not alone with Jesus, there was a multitude of people surrounding and following Jesus as He had just come down from the hillside on which he taught what we now know as the Beatitudes. Therefore this was not "lip service" humility, this was true humility displayed in the centurion. Such as the kind that we must have if we are to obey the commandment to "confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, so that ye may be healed." (James 5:16) Pride will not allow such an action. And the result will be: continuation of the disease of which we need to be healed which is SIN.
If we look at this in terms of our Christian walk, we have all seen those who call themselves by the name of Christ, and yet in which the flesh is strong. The thing we will see lacking in these folks will be humility. There will be, instead, a boasting of fleshly or worldly things because where humility is lacking, pride is present. We can clearly state then, that the problem in this one's life is rebellion to the authority of the Word of God. But rather than apply this diagnosis to others, let us first look to the disease rampant in ourselves. If our gaze remains on others, never looking to our own hearts, we will never receive the healing of the Word in our lives. In this humbling of ourselves, first and foremost, we are to follow Jesus.
Yet, how can we humble ourselves and submit ourselves to an authority that we do not truly believe is greater than ourselves? For that is often what our lives declare: that we have no need of a great God for we are sufficient unto ourselves. Until, of course, that giant appears before us that we are unable to conquer, then, sometimes only momentarily, we look for One greater than ourselves.
If we have truly grasped the creation power of God, how can we continue to exalt ourselves above God? How can we continue to replace His will with our own? Has anyone, even the most skillful of doctors, been able to recreate from nothing all that our own bodies are composed of, and to do so by merely speaking it into existence? We are hugely deceived until we can see that all authority in the universe belongs to God alone. We are hugely deceived until we submit fully and completely to that authority.
The submitting of Jesus to the complete and full authority of the Father is given testimony to first by His humility and meekness….and then by His power. The centurion, a Roman Gentile, not even a Jew, recognized the creation power of God in Jesus Christ.
"…speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed":
How did the centurion come to recognize this creation power of God in Jesus? The first few verses of Matthew 8 explain this for us. Jesus had just healed a leper as he was coming down the mount on his way to Capernaum. I've been to that area. It is a short walk between the grassy hillside known as the Mount of Beatitudes to the poor fishing village of Capernaum (now only in ruins, perhaps as a sign of the judgment Jesus pronounced over it in Matthew 11:23-24). It was as Jesus was entering Capernaum that the centurion came up to him. I suspect that the centurion, perhaps assigned to the area for "crowd control", had witnessed the healing of the leper. Being a man who understood authority, far better than those of us in today's rebellious society, the centurion obviously recognized that Jesus could not have healed the leper, literally rearranging the molecules of his diseased flesh, by merely a touch of his hand and speaking the words of healing, except by the authority of the God of the universe. Jesus literally "commanded" those molecules to rearrange themselves into new flesh! The centurion recognized the "commanding" voice of the authority of the Creator in Jesus. And the centurion's faith was obviously aided by the Holy Spirit as well, even though we are not told that. We know that helping our faith is His job and He performs it in each of us who are willing and in need, as was this centurion.
How much this speaks to us of the need for us to understand this authority! For because of the centurion's understanding, Jesus pronounced him to be of "great faith." Faith, therefore, is not some ethereal superstitious belief. It is simply an acknowledging of the authority and therefore the power of GOD, OUR CREATOR!
I never understood that prior to beginning this study. I never understood how great was my own rebellion against God! I never even saw it AS rebellion until the Holy Spirit illuminated these passages for me and the ones in the preceding post, part 3. But once I saw it, I repented. And I am still finding areas that have not been surrendered or submitted to the authority of God, and I repent of these as well, as the Lord reveals the depths of my sin. There is more to be said about defining those areas of rebellion in our lives that will be discussed further into this study. But there is still one key element that remains for us to examine in this passage of Matthew.
"…but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Jesus is speaking to those who consider themselves to be part of the kingdom of God. That could be us as well, could it not? I don't believe we can simply lay this charge at the feet of the religious Jews of Jesus' time. Perhaps these are folks who believe they are safe and secure in the Lord, when in reality they are not, because they have not submitted themselves to the authority of God in Jesus Christ. There are many passages using this terminology - found mostly in Matthew: 8:12; 13:42; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30 with one final passage found in Luke 13:28. Keep an eye out for "unfaithful servants" in these passages and then ask the Lord to show you what is meant by "unfaithful servant". Obviously, a servant is not a stranger, but is part of the master's household. How did he get there, unless he was brought in by the master himself? But the question is: will he be allowed to stay if he is unfaithful? There is a warning here; something for us to heed. And we must endeavor to pay close attention to all warnings that the Word gives us. We must not skip lightly past them.
It is Jesus who gave us access to the Father; and all that He IS has been given to us through the Holy Spirit to be utilized in glorifying Him. What Jesus accomplished for us could not be accomplished by ourselves. It HAD to be accomplished through Him alone. Without Jesus Christ we have no hope. But there is also scripture that says "he that endures to the end will be saved" (Matthew 10:22) which tells us that something is required of us; not in terms of paying for our sin, for only Jesus could do that. There is no other sacrifice for sin but His (Hebrews 10:26) that the Father would accept, certainly not our own works. That would be putting ourselves back under the law again, instead of under the Spirit of grace by faith. But we can choose to yield ourselves to Him, to yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit believing (as in Jude 1:5) that HE can and WILL accomplish in us that transformation into holiness, known as sanctification, which happens in us only as we are willing to submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit so that we may walk in obedience to the Word.
Those who believe we are on a "free ride" to heaven have misinterpreted the grace of God. We have been purchased with a great price, a priceless price, and are not our own to live as WE please. We are to be slaves, not to sin, but to the One who paid the price for our rebellion with His own Life.
Remember the passage where our works (our building materials) will be tried?
"According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." (I Corinthians 3:10-15)
It is the fire of the Holy Spirit that tries the things with which we build on the foundation of Jesus Christ here and now: are those materials of the flesh or of the Spirit? If we do not allow that fire to refine us here in the process known as sanctification, then perhaps we can expect that refining to happen later. At a time when we should be rejoicing, we might find ourselves weeping instead. At greatest risk are those who believe that just because they have believed in the name of Jesus, they are saved, all is done and they can now sit back and let the flesh rule. They do not understand that "the name of Jesus Christ" is another way of saying the "authority of God as displayed through Jesus Christ". It is not just the words "Jesus Christ" that saves us. They are only words until we understand (and submit to) the authority that backs the name. Remember those folks who tried to cast out demons "in the name of Jesus" (Acts 19:13) and were instead beaten up by them? They learned a difficult lesson in humility that day! Seems the demons know more about true authority than we do! And these "pretend disciples" were no threat to the demons because they were not walking in the authority of Jesus like Paul was; they thought only speaking His name was enough. They were wrong! We see a lack of this understanding all around us. But it does not have to be so. We may not fully understand all scripture yet, but it takes very little effort to know that we have a responsibility – and that is to walk as Jesus walked in every way; including humility that submits to the authority of God.
All that is required of us is to acknowledge the authority of God in Jesus Christ, repent and pray, and humble ourselves in complete obedience to His Word, allowing the will of the Lord to accomplish in us what He will, submitting our own will to Him completely (2 Chronicles 7:14). Then will our rejoicing be made complete in Him.
"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:1-4)
When we understand the authority of God in Jesus, all scripture takes on new meaning…speaking life to us instead of judgment and death.
Tomorrow, "Under Cover of Darkness", in part 5 of "Mighty Through God."
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