Brian Hennessy

(Published in The Jerusalem Post Christian Edition – November, 2010)

It’s sad to see how the word “faith” has become little more than a synonym for “religion.” People ask, “What faith are you?” Meaning, “Are you Christian? Jewish? Hindu?”

In the Bible, faith is never presented as a religion. It is always an individual response to a word spoken by God, and blesses the one who believes enough to take action. In the book of Hebrews we are told, “by it, men of old gained approval” (Hebrews 11: 2).

That means, ironically, that no faith is needed to practice a religion. Religion, which comes from the Latin word religari, meaning “to bind,” simply asks its adherents to bind themselves to an agreed-upon written list of doctrines and practices.

I mention this because I see how this misunderstanding about faith has damaged the relationship between Jews and Christians over the centuries. For we have primarily dealt with each other as members of different, utterly irreconcilable religions. For fellowship to be possible, either Jews must convert to Christianity, or Christians must renounce Jesus, undergo circumcision, and keep the Sabbath. And we know that’s not going to happen.

To complicate things further, our two religions have so many flavors, that it’s hard to say which one truly represents Judaism or Christianity. For a Roman Catholic is as different from a Quaker in his theology and practices as a Lubavitcher from a Reconstructionist.

But perhaps it is time to look past our traditional religious expressions and rediscover an amazing spiritual truth: both groups were founded on the same principle of faith, based on the same promises made by the same Living God.

So how do we recapture this lost commonality? We simply take Isaiah’s advice and look back to the one to whom all the promises were first made, namely Abraham, “the father of all who believe” (Romans 4:11).

 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who gave birth to you in pain: When he was one I called him, then I blessed him and multiplied him.” (Isaiah 51:1,2)

In other words, we must follow the example set by Abraham, for “Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6; Galatians 3:6).

Abraham’s story is of course familiar to all Bible-believing Jews and Christians alike. How he courageously packed up his family, left his native country and headed for an unknown land, motivated solely by a promise from God that one day this land would be his and his descendants, even though both he and his wife were about ready for the rocking chair.

And because Abraham believed God’s words, all this came to pass.  It is sobering to think that if he had not believed, there would be no Israel. And no Bible either, since all 66 books were written by his descendants.

Even more sobering is to realize that religion played no part in him gaining such favor with God. The righteousness reckoned to him had nothing to do with attending religious services. Or observing any days holy. Or getting the approval of a clergy member. Or doing anything remotely connected to the later traditions of Christianity or Judaism. He only believed the words of God and acted on them.

Over and over, God shows through the lives of the heroes of Israel that faith, not religion, is the only way to please Him and experience victory. And even though faith was clearly the guiding principle in Israel, it was never officially stated as such until God spoke through the prophet Habakkuk centuries later, declaring, “The righteous will live [continuously] by faith” (Habakkuk 2:5).

Although Habakkuk’s words thus established faith as the true “religion” of Israel, the words of this “minor prophet” flew pretty much under the radar for centuries. Besides, the nation had received the Mosaic Law by then, so whenever Israel was inclined to live righteously, which sadly wasn’t often, keeping the commands of that Law seemed to be the guiding principle.

It wasn’t until Saul/Paul threw a spotlight on Habakkuk’s words that faith finally came out of the closet, so to speak. And Paul only did so because he was forced to explain how gentiles could be deemed righteous in God’s eyes when it was clear to everyone that they neither knew the Law nor kept it.

In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul quoted Habakkuk (see Romans 1:17) to prove that acting on faith is the only way to obtain God’s approval. Which made those Jews who thought it could be earned only through adherence to the Law, and those gentiles wanting to continue serving their fearsome idols, furious. “Just believe in Jesus and find instant favor with God?” they scoffed. “What nonsense!”

That’s when Paul, taking Isaiah’s advice, pointed back to Abraham, asking, “What shall we say then that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has learned?” (Romans 4:1). And he argued, that since God deemed righteousness the result of faith in Him, He couldn’t also award it purely on the basis of works. Otherwise it is “not credited as a favor, but as what is due” (Romans 4:4).

And for those who thought that only a circumcised Jew could be deemed righteousness, Paul asks when Abraham was credited with this righteousness Was it before he was circumcised or after? He reminds us that it was before, in order that “he might be the father of all who believe, without being circumcised” (Romans 4:11). God knew Abraham would have many descendants who, due to circumstances, would be living apart from the nation and its laws. And He wanted those descendants who were “far off” to have the same opportunity to get in on the promised inheritance as those who “were near.”

“For this reason it is by faith, that it might be in accordance with grace, in order that the promise may be certain to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law [Jews], but those who are of the faith of Abraham [Gentiles], who is the father of us all, as it is written, ‘A father of many nations have I made you.” (Romans 4:16; Genesis 17:5)

Now I understand the number one stumbling block to true unity between our two communities is disagreement on whether Jesus is Messiah or not. But we have allowed our religious traditions to replace our founding principle of faith and to separate us further, and not just from each other, but even from God! For as God said through Isaiah, “This people draw near with their lips, but they remove their hearts far from Me. In vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrine the traditions of men” (Isaiah 29:13; Mark 7:6,7).

Are our two religions in all their variations vain “traditions of men?”  Without faith, what else can they be? Take Christianity. Nowhere in the New Testament do we find that Jesus came to start a gentile religion. That religion with its earthly sanctuaries, professional clergy, and holy days grew out of the teachings of the Church Fathers centuries later. And as for Judaism, are not all current forms of this religion simply combinations of rabbinic teachings and Mosaic Law, sometimes with faith, often without?

Now I am not so naïve as to think either community will willingly put aside its religious traditions and unite on the basis of common faith alone. Or even our common heritage. So for now we must be satisfied with uniting around our common love for Israel, and let that love begin to heal the wounds we have inflicted upon each other over the centuries. One day soon, Messiah will come and put us all on the same page.

September 2010                                                          www.bhennessy.com