"You have so much potential!" "This is, potentially, the best...(fill in the blank)" "This company has the potential to make millions." "He didn't live up to his potential." "This team could, potentially, be a major force to be reckoned with, this year." Potential...there is, perhaps, no other word in the English language with as much implied hope as this one. It's, actually, a very powerful word.
I've been doing some studying in the area of "potential energy" this week. Did you know that the same amount of energy is present in each of the following? A bowling ball falling from 20 feet up, a bowling ball landing on your head after falling from 20 feet up, and a bowling ball sitting on a shelf 20 feet above your head. I know what you're thinking... "Wait a minute, how in the world is there as much energy present when that ball is sitting still as when it smacks me in the head?" Well, my friend, the answer is that while on the shelf its energy is in the form of potential energy! When the ball falls off the shelf its potential energy is transformed into kinetic energy...and, when it lands on you a good bit of that energy is transferred into your skull.
Think about how we use the word in other situations and it's clear what we really mean when we say someone or something has potential. What we mean is that all the ingredients needed for something great to happen are there...they just need the right circumstances to be realized.
Now, I know your wondering why all this talk about potential and potential energy. Well, as I've been studying on it, it's become clear to me that potential energy is, potentially, one of the best analogies we can find to explain true saving faith. Let's follow this course for a moment...
The letter to the Hebrews contains one of the most well-known explanations of faith in Scripture. It says that "faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) In other words, real faith carries immense potential because it's more than just hoping or wishing. Faith is knowing! And, really it's more than just knowing because true faith, inevitably, leads to something. Faith, with all of its amazing potential takes what can't be seen, namely belief in a great and wonderful God, and makes it real!
I realize that you may be wondering, at this point, "I believe that faith is real, but how is faith a real thing?" Enter James. James, the half-brother of Jesus, shows us how real faith finds its completion. In other words, he explains how the potential of faith is transformed into reality. In the letter bearing his name, he says the following, "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can his faith save him? ... Faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead by itself." (James 2:14,17) Did you catch that? James makes it clear that works are what transforms the potential of faith into something real! In fact, James would say that if the potential of faith is not realized by a transformation into works, then there really is no potential...and, therefore, no real faith!
Now, before you get too upset and claim that to be a works based salvation, I'd like to remind you that someone else had something similar to say about the subject. In fact, it was James' half-brother, a fella by the name of Jesus, who said, "If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me will not obey my teaching." (John 14:23-24) So, according to Jesus obeying His teachings...or good works...are tantamount to having a real relationship with Him.
Do these works save you? By no means! You can't earn a right relationship with God by doing good. Works do, however, take the potential energy that is present in your faith and transform it into something real and demonstrable! So, good works are the realized potential of true faith! YOUR BEHAVIOR DEMONSTRATES YOUR TRUE BELIEFS! So, the question you've got to ask yourself, today, is, "How well are you living up to your true potential?"
No comments:
Post a Comment