Beyond Belief
My guess is every one of us has experienced the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. What is that? It’s the phenomenon where something you recently learned or noticed or started paying attention to suddenly appears to be everywhere.
Many of us experience it when we purchase a new car. Let’s say you purchase a Nissan Rogue. Suddenly on your commute to work, you start noticing the roads are full of Nissan Rogues. It seems that half the drivers on the road are driving Nissan Rogues. “How did I not notice this before?” you wonder. “Nissan Rogues are everywhere!” I know this happens because four years ago I bought a Nissan Rogue. They are everywhere!
I have found that many times when God is trying to teach or reveal something to me, he makes use of the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. I start seeing it everywhere.
Recently, it came to me in Luke 11. Jesus is in the middle of one of those group conversations where some people are amazed at his teaching and others are scoffing at it. Through his brilliant intellect he turns the arguments of his detractors on their heads, and an admiring woman in the crowd shouts out, “God bless your mother–the womb from which you came!” It’s her way of saying, “You are amazing, Jesus!”
It’s Jesus’ answer that caught my attention:
“Jesus replied, ‘But even more blessed are all who hear the word of God and put it into practice.’” -Luke 11:28 NLT
What is the idea I’m seeing everywhere?
What we do, whether we live out the Scriptures or not, matters.
Maybe that seems obvious, but in practice, I’m not sure many of us live as if it’s true.
During the course of my life, the dominant message I’ve heard proclaimed about Christianity centers on belief not behavior.
“Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?”
“Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins?”
“Do you believe that Jesus rose again?”
When these beliefs are assented to, we say that the person has “crossed the line of faith” and is now a follower of Jesus. Is that really all there is to it?
Don’t misunderstand me, I think belief is incredibly important. Jesus himself said:
“For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life.” -John 6:40a
If you don’t believe Jesus is who he said he is, don’t believe in the atoning work of his death, don’t believe he actually rose from the dead…it’s game over. Without belief, following Jesus makes little sense. Without belief, Jesus becomes only an ancient version of Captain Kirk or Luke Skywalker; a character that die hard fans want to learn trivia about, but not someone worthy of real-life allegiance.
Belief matters. And yet, too often we operate as if it’s all that matters. James, the brother of Jesus, is one of the most vocal voices in Scripture warning us of an oversized emphasis on belief. He reminds us:
“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” -James 2:19 NIV
If demons are believers, surely following Jesus involves something beyond belief.
With echoes of James’ warning, author Tara Beth Leach writes:
“It’s possible to believe in Jesus and not have Jesus driving our lives.
It is possible to believe in Jesus and live in a way that is counter to the kingdom of God.
It is possible to believe in Jesus and live nothing like Jesus.
It is possible to believe in Jesus and live as citizens of this world instead of the kingdom.” -Radiant Church, p.36
Belief is not sufficient. What we do, whether we live out the Scriptures or not, matters.
But don’t just take my word for it. Here’s a small sampling of Jesus’ teaching on the matter. When you start paying attention, you see it everywhere.
“Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching…Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.’” -John 14:23-24 NIV
“...everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.” -Matthew 7:26 NIV
“Jesus said to the people who believed in him, ‘You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.’” -John 8:31 NLT
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” -Matthew 7:21 NIV
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” -Luke 6:46
What we do, whether we live out Jesus’ teachings or not, matters.
And yet, some of us get nervous when we begin to stress the importance of behavior. I get it.
I grew up with a very behavior-focused understanding of following Jesus and consider myself a bit of a recovering legalist. I can remember in college trying to convince my Christian roommates that we should only be listening to Christian music because it was music that honored God. Looking back, I can see how I was trying to set parameters for what made someone a “good Christian” so that I could feel good about myself when I followed my own rules. The only thing that came out of that is that I now sit in complete ignorance when my peers talk about “the music we grew up listening to.” Please don’t quiz me on 80s rock or 90s hiphop.
Others of us get nervous about stressing the importance of behavior because we believe it smells of works-righteousness. “We are saved by grace, not works!” is the protest. To that I would say, “I agree.” I think part of the problem is that we view grace and works as opposites. We think we have to choose between them. But I don’t believe that’s how Jesus, Paul, and the first century Christ-followers would have seen it.
To understand the relationship between grace and works, it might be helpful to reflect back on the relationship in the Old Testament between the Covenant and the Law. If you flip back to the first books in your Bible, you will discover that God first establishes a Covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15). Through this covenant, initiated solely by God and reliant on his faithfulness, God declares that Abraham and his descendants will be his people and he will be their God. He enters into a covenantal relationship with them not because they did anything to deserve the honor, but because they were God’s chosen people. This is grace.
The Law, given several centuries later to God’s people through Moses (Exodus 20), did not set aside the Covenant. In Galatians, the apostle Paul reminds us:
“The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise. For if the inheritance could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise.” -Galatians 3:17-18
The Law did not replace the Covenant. The relationship between God and his chosen people was still grounded in his covenantal grace. The Law provided instructions on how people were to live because they were his chosen people. Following the Law did not make them his people; following the Law marked them as being his people.
In the new Covenant, initiated solely by God and established through Jesus’ blood (Luke 22:20), God made a way for all people to become part of his chosen people through faith in Jesus Christ. This is grace. And belief plays an important role in initiating us into that grace. However, this faith also includes works. After all, as James warns us, “...faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26)
That is why Jesus and the other New Testament writers stress the importance of following his teachings. Scripture provides a vision for how we are to live because we are his people.
Obedience to Scripture does not make us his people; but obedience marks us as his people.
In this way, faith and works are not opposites. Belief and behavior aren’t in conflict with one another. They are like the two sides of a coin. One belongs to the other. Because we believe, we follow Jesus’ teachings. We follow Jesus' teachings to embody our belief.
And I think it is incredibly important that we recognize this because of another Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. My guess is we’d all see it if we took the time to reflectively examine our lives. So many times the pain, conflict, and struggles we go through come because we try to believe in Jesus, yet behave however we want. I’m not saying that everything hard we go through is connected to our own actions. Definitely not. But I wonder how often we’d see evidence of a connection if we started paying attention.
What might be different in our relationships if we’d followed Jesus’ wisdom to do to others what you would have them do to you? (Matthew 7:12)
What might be different in our finances if we’d followed Jesus’ call to store up treasures in heaven not earth? (Matthew 6:19-20)
What might be different in our world if we learned Jesus’ upside-down way of loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us? (Matthew 5:44)
Jesus has a vision for his people that leads to human flourishing. It’s his Kingdom Way. But we will only find it if we are willing to move beyond belief and actually follow him.
After all, Jesus’ invitation to his first disciples wasn’t just, “Believe me.” It was, “Follow me.”
Are you ready to follow him beyond belief?
