Can You Choose Faith?

Quinquagesima Sunday| Luke 18:31-43| Pastor James Preus| February 11, 2024

There is a false teaching, which states that you must make a decision for Jesus in order to make Him your Lord and Savior. It is called Decision Theology. At first it sounds good, because of course you should believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Jesus should be your choice. The problem with Decision Theology is that it teaches you that you are capable of accepting Jesus into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior by your own strength and reason. Decision Theology teaches that it is up to you, the power is in you to believe in Jesus as your Savior.

And this is a problem, because the Bible clearly teaches that you do not have the power or ability by your own strength or reason to believe in Jesus Christ. Rather, the Bible teaches that your old sinful nature cannot accept Christ, cannot choose Christ, is blind to God’s grace, and can only resist Him. Genesis 6:5 states, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” St. Paul declares in 1 Corinthians 2, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (vs. 14) And Jesus Himself says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” (John 6:44) St. Paul again writes to the Ephesians in chapter two that we are by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind until God makes us alive in Christ Jesus. This is why Jesus said to His disciples in John chapter 15, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”

So, Decision Theology is totally unbiblical. And it is dangerous, because it focuses sinners in on themselves and their own abilities instead of on God’s grace in Christ Jesus, which is revealed to us in His Word and Sacraments. This is why we teach our children and continue to confess our whole lives from our Small Catechism, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”

Our Gospel lesson for today clearly displays this biblical truth, which is so clearly articulated in Luther’s Small Catechism. Jesus spoke clearly to His disciples that He would be arrested, shamefully treated, killed, and that He would rise again on the third day. Yet, the Evangelist notes, “But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.” Consider that! The holy Apostles, the holiest men to ever live, chosen by Christ Himself, who spread the Gospel to the nations at great peril to their bodies and possessions, who by the Holy Spirit wrote the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, by which we know and believe in our Savior Jesus, these same men did not understand the Gospel proclamation when it was spoken to them. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not grasp it. This shows that it is not within man to believe in Christ, no matter how smart, educated, or holy he is. Faith is a pure gift from God, bestowed by the Holy Spirit without our works or worthiness, as St. Paul writes in Titus 3, “He saved us, not by works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, through the washing of regeneration and the renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

This is also why we baptize babies. Those who hold to Decision Theology say that we should not baptize babies, because babies cannot have faith. Well, who said they cannot have faith? They do, because they think faith is our work of believing, and they don’t believe babies can do that work. But faith is not our work, but a gift from God, which God can give to babies even as he gives to adults. In fact, Jesus makes clear that unless you turn and become like a little child, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18:3) and to such children belongs the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 19:4).

Faith is such a thing that a little child can have it, while a grown man with great intelligence and learning cannot hold on to it. Not because faith is for simple minded people, but because faith is a pure gift, which the sinful pride and sinful reason cannot grasp by its own strength. Faith is made up of three things: knowledge, assent, and trust. Faith cannot be just bare knowledge. That is the faith of demons, which cannot save (James 2:19). So, you are not saved simply by knowing the facts about Jesus’ death and resurrection. Faith must also have assent, which means, to agree with this knowledge and accept it, as well as trust, which holds on to the promise that you are forgiven for the sake of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection.

The Psalmist says in Psalm 22, “You made me trust You at my mother’s breasts.” … and “from my mother’s womb You have been my God.” Now, that is a beautiful description of faith, which shows that God can give faith even to nursing infants. Now, what kind of knowledge can a nursing baby have about God or Christ? I don’t know; enough for him to trust in God. How much knowledge does an infant have about his mother and father? Enough to assent to their love and to trust in them. In fact, an infant will often have better knowledge, even if it is less than a teenager, because an infant does not trust the touch of a stranger, while teenagers often throw caution to the wind and act against their better knowledge.

So, we see from Scripture, and from our own experience, that God can give saving faith to little babies, so that they can trust in God with full confidence, while the mightiest and strongest among us cannot find the strength in themselves to trust in God. God can give knowledge of salvation to little children with the faith to accept it and trust in it, while the smartest and most educated among us exhaust their intellect, yet cannot find it in themselves to believe in God’s promises in Christ Jesus. The Gospel is such a thing that a little child can wade in it, yet a giant can drown in it. Faith in the Gospel is a gift of God given by grace through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is why we baptize babies, because Scripture promises that Baptism, through the power of God’s Word, works forgiveness of sins, grants the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38) and Salvation (Mark 16:16), and even grants faith through new birth into the Kingdom of God (John 3:5). Those who profess Decision Theology claim faith as their work, and so, they also claim Baptism as their work, which they do in obedience to Christ to show their faith. Yet, all this is God’s Work, both faith and Baptism, which He is able to do for babies as well as for adults.

Yet, this does not mean that you do not need to pay attention to God’s preaching and Word and can just wait around for the Holy Spirit to flip a switch and make you a Christian. Although faith is not achieved by the power of the intellect, God still works the intellect to create and sustain  faith. The Holy Spirit convinces consciences to accept Christ by opening their eyes to the Scriptures and regenerating their hearts to believe. And it is only through pondering and learning the Gospel from Holy Scripture that a person can be brought to faith and kept in the faith.

Consider the short sermon, which confounded the disciples. Jesus foretells His own suffering, death, and resurrection. Jesus said that this would be done to fulfill the Scriptures. Genesis 3:15 said that the serpent would bruise Christ’s heel, even as He crushed the serpent’s head. David prophesies of Christ in Psalm 22 saying, “They have pierced my hands and my feet.. and divided my garments.” (vss. 16 and 18). Isaiah prophesies in chapter 53, “But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed.” (vs. 5). All this was accomplished when Jesus said, “It is finished” from the cross (John 19:30). Yet, the smartest scholars of the Old Testament deny that Jesus fulfilled these prophesies to this day.

Next, consider the details Jesus chooses to tell His disciples of concerning His passion. “The Son of Man will be mocked, shamefully treated, and spit upon.” Why include these embarrassing and seemingly unnecessary details? And doesn’t it make it more difficult to follow Him? Men can venerate a hero, who dies valiantly in battle. But a man who is mocked, treated with scorn by His enemies, even spit upon? No, this is one from whom men hide their faces (Isaiah 53:3). But these details are far from unnecessary, for they express the very reason Jesus suffered and died.

When you look at the shame and abuse endured by Christ, you should see your own sins. What did Christ ever do to deserve shame? What does He have to be embarrassed about? How about you? Are you ashamed for anything you have done or said or thought? Would you be embarrassed to have your secrets revealed? Are you deserving of honor, or do you deserve the shame brought upon Christ? Scripture says that through faith you are the temple of the Holy Spirit and that Christ dwells in you. Have you honored Christ with your body, or have you abused Him, shamed Him, and driven the Holy Spirit from you with your idolatry, hatred, or sexual immorality? The mockery, the slaps in the face, the shameful spitting, these are done to Jesus by our sins. We did this to Him! Jesus tells His disciples of these humiliating details to emphasize that He goes to the cross to bear and take away our shame and guilt.

So, those who hear the preaching of Christ crucified must realize the shame their sins warrant and repent of them. And those who hear the preaching of Christ crucified must recognize that Christ dies to take their sin, guilt, and shame away. He bore the shame, so that we would not bear that shame before God’s judgment throne. This can only be expressed through the preaching of the Gospel. And this can only be believed through the conversion of the Holy Spirit.

So, our Gospel lesson leaves us with the perfect example of saving faith: The blind beggar. All who will be saved must be like this blind beggar. He lacks the senses to recognize what the commotion is, yet when he is told it is Jesus of Nazareth who comes, he has the better knowledge that this is Jesus, the Son of David, meaning, the Christ, who is his Lord. What does he have to offer Christ? Nothing. He’s a beggar. So, all who receive mercy from Christ are beggars, who receive purely by grace. Scripture promises that the Christ would open the eyes of the blind (Isaiah 35:5), so this blind beggar trusts that Christ will do for him as Scripture promises. So, we poor sinners see that Scripture promises that Jesus is our Savior from sin, death, and hell, so we cry to Him for salvation. We don’t deserve what we ask for. We have done nothing to earn it. We are beggars. And Christ gladly gives to beggars.

Faith makes you a blind beggar. You don’t trust your own senses, but the Word of God. You don’t rely on your own power, but on God’s. And you do not earn your salvation, but receive it by grace from your loving Savior. Many resist being called a beggar. But we who see the shame of our sin and how willing Christ is to forgive us are glad to be beggars of Christ. For those who beg from Christ receive what they ask for. Amen.