Clarification, please

Last week I wrote a column in which I compared pressing toward a greater faith to the vocal technique of reaching for a slightly higher note than the one you need to hit. Except I didn't say "pressing," I said "striving," a word choice that cost me dearly. I could just have easily have used "pressing," or "reaching for"-which would have amounted to the same thing-and the point would have sailed through committee. But I'm glad this matter came up.

One commenter noted, "I would like to say that I do not think your faith is dependent on your efforts. That is very dangerous ground." A few comments later, we read, "I agree with [the aforementioned commenter]. Many cults are based on your works." This one directed us to Ephesians 2:8-9 and Romans 4:4-5.

Brothers, is it really possible that we are not allowed to urge for striving (or "pressing," or "reaching for," or "seeking") for greater faith without setting off the fire alarm of "works righteousness"? I confess to being caught off guard here. Is it really possible that Christians can have no sense of the idea that we need to yearn for the "increase" that Scripture everywhere beseeches us to? Is it really possible that the idea of pressing on to greater faith needs to be contended for?

I would not trouble you with a column responding to the responses except that it is so life-and-death a point, and the misunderstanding of it is so endemic and persistent. Is not confusion on this issue at the root of the prevalent tepidness, complacency, and defeat in our walk with Christ?

The commentators know very well that the Apostle James rounds out the Apostle Paul's theology by reminding us about Abraham "that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness'" (James 2:22-23). Do we have to go another few centuries in these bloody rounds pitting "faith" and "grace" against "works"? The New Testament is full of imperatives. It presents a dynamic tension of faith and works. Isn't that settled by now? Why are we always stuck here? Why can't we embrace the whole of the Word of God instead of this endless, needless polarization?

I am afraid that people who can only conceive of faith as something "positional" and static don't even know what faith is. How can they? Who has ever exercised a moment of faith that didn't have some "pressing" toward God in it? It is only in the exercising of faith that it is faith. Otherwise we just have a theological concept of it rather than the reality of a vital force in our lives.

As for "grace": Do the contenders of "grace alone" (when by it they mean, without works) even understand what grace is? Grace is the favor from God by which we are enabled to walk in His ways by His Spirit in obedience. Grace is a provision by which we may exercise faith in the concreteness of our lives.

Besides the grace/faith/works quagmire, there is one other thing I would like to bring up for our consideration: Do you think that we, brothers and sisters in Christ, can arrive at the place where we can read or listen to one another in a generous and open-minded and understanding way, without a knee-jerk compulsion to pigeonhole every single statement into one of two categories: heresy or non-heresy? It is a good thing to stand up for good doctrine. But it is not standing up for good doctrine to seize upon popular buzzwords or shibboleths rather than intelligently and lovingly weighing the whole of a thought.

Please respond to my response to your response. And then I would like us to "strive toward" or "press toward" or "desire" or "reach for" or "seek" the unity of love that God means us to have.

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