Faith At Any Cost

Can you imagine how much courage it took for Martin Luther to stand up against the established religious practice of the day, the tradition for over a thousand years, to state what he believed to be true about God and His character? I’m sure it cost Luther his job, his status, maybe even his friends and family. He held his convictions so strongly that he faced public ridicule to bring attention to the differences between what the Bible teaches and what was being practiced by the established church.

I’m sure John the Baptist went through the same thing. The son of a priest, a relative of Jesus Christ, he began to speak about the coming Messiah. It seems this should have been welcomed news to the Jewish people. The Messiah was their whole focus. They knew God was sending Someone to redeem them, to restore them, yet they refused to hear John’s message when he proclaimed the Messiah had come.

Noah faced similar circumstances. A flood was prophesied; total destruction would result. He gave people an opportunity to escape certain death, but they did not hear him.

When Saul (now known as Paul) was converted on the Damascus road he changed from being a killer of Christians to one of the strongest proponents for the cause of Christ. People were skeptical, thinking it was perhaps a ruse to entrap them. Now we use Paul’s writings to learn how to live the Christian life.

I’m sure as you read those short paragraphs that things came to your mind. Some immediately applied these thoughts to the current political turmoil in the United States and the need to overthrow the “other party”. Others had ministers or ministries come to mind whose belief systems are clearly not scripturally based and should be brought down. Others thought of “the rapture” so you could escape all the madness in the earth. For me, this shows a tendency in human behavior to allow things to drift from the original intent of things to a place of apostasy and turmoil, but also the faithfulness of God to bring individuals who will do His bidding, to speak truth regardless of the consequence.

It cost Noah 100 years of his life, but he saved mankind. It cost John the Baptist his life to hold to his convictions, but he gave himself to introduce mankind to their Savior. Paul gave up his prestige and position in order to represent Christ to his world. Luther opened himself up to public ridicule and shame in order to stand for what he believed was right. What has your faith cost you?