Transactional or Relational Faith

Bro Koay Kheng Hin

I want to start my message with a short story. 

One day God decided to do a site visit to one of the churches. He'd send an angel to visit one of the church as a messenger. Somehow the church heard of it and the church board was told that there will be a visit from an angel. So when the day came there was two angel that came instead and the church board asked who is from the Lord. And both said they were from the Lord. Obviously, one was not and the church board needed to find out which was which. 

So the church board asked what message do you have so that we can tell who is from the Lord? 

The first angel came and said I came in a Lamborghini and came dressed smartly in a tie. I came to tell you that the Lord will prosper you in all you do and you will have good success.

The first angel also told the church, God is going to bless them with long life. All your children will be professionals. And you will be promoted. And when you go to heaven the Lord will welcome you as the good and faithful servant. So the board thought this is good, the real stuff. Promises of God.  

The second angel came in a Proton Saga. Like Bro Hooi's. The second angel said be ready. The time of persecution is coming soon. Jesus is coming back so be prepared. But worry not for I will be with you. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you. 

During the first century, this will not have been a problem. The wave of persecution took most of their possessions or even their life away. So they had no problem because they look forward to the coming of the Lord. 

But today there may be a board that would call an EGM to see who is the real messenger. 

The question is this, what is your most treasured possession? The first is about temporal wealth. The second holds fast on the confession of your faith. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God. 

If you look into your heart, what is your most treasured possession. Your money? Your health? Your children? Or your faith in Christ?

1 Peter 1:6-7
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

There are two words that come out strongly. 

One is trials. 

This was a time when the church was undergoing persecution. There are two types of trials. One is due to you standing up for Christ. The second type of trial are those that we all go through. The trials of circumstances. Like your health failing you. You finances fail you. Or relational issue. Or your children go through a difficult time. 

Peter said these trials are for a little while. They don't last forever. They will end. Peter writes that these have come that their faith may prove genuine. When God allows it, he is in it and he is in control. It is the time of the testing of our faith. It is easy when all are well in our life. But testing comes when things go the other way. Will we still say praise the Lord and still come to church? That is the test. 

Someone once said: "A faith that is not tested cannot be trusted." Most of us see short term. When we go through a problem all we want is a solution to the problem. When the doctor say we are not well we look to immediate healing. We want a solution, nothing more, nothing less. 

When we go through a trial he is interested in you and want to mould you to be more like Christ. People who have not gone through a specific problem cannot see the issue of those problems. It is in the furnace of suffering that spiritual maturity happens. 

I am currently on a high. Last day of school was on Friday so I decided to ask my colleagues about death. And they said "why go and talk about death?" Usually they stay about 45 minutes but that day they all cabut in 20 minutes. People fear suffering. We know we live in a fallen world. For us, God doesn't want us to fear anything or anyone except him. That is holy fear. When we look at suffering we are realistic. In suffering, in Christ we are overcomers and if God allows it, he has a purpose. 

This is one of the purposes of God where he can work out things for good. That is theological. 

I read this about 2 years ago from a famous philosopher and I think he got it right. 

The mark of humanism is suffering. But he said there is one antidote for suffering. Diluted suffering. It is not suffering that matters but whether you find meaning in suffering. If you find meaning, the suffering is diluted. I thought a lot about this. 

Like working. Most of us work 8 hours a day. Now imagine you work 2 jobs a day. 16 hour work day. Will you suffer? You will suffer. You won't say, wah, I enjoy working and no sleep. You will look to the day when you can just work one job or better still retire and not have to work. 

But if the man says he's doing it for his children, every time he goes to work and he sees his two children, and that he goes to work for them, his suffering is diluted because he found meaning for it. It is difficult for him but it is well worth it because it's for his children. 

Looking back on it biblically, we know God will not waste our suffering but has his purpose that is good for us, then we go through it with God's perspective and meaning and the intensity of the suffering will lose its sting. 

Hebrews 12:11
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

As Christians we will go through trials but we are different because God is in our suffering and he has a purpose to work it out for good. 

The second word is faith. 

1 Peter 1:7
These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Peter used gold to compare and he says it's far more precious. Here I want to linger a little more. 

The word faith in verb form is belief. But when the word stands alone, we must look at it carefully. I see two types of faith. 

Transactional Faith. 

When things are good they praise God. When things don't go well they ask why. Then their language change. I do so much for the Lord why is this happening? When a person ask these questions, often it will move into a transactional faith. When I belief I expect something good to appear in a concrete manner. 

Transactional faith is well exemplified by my father. When my brother accepted the Lord, my father somehow found out about it when food that was offered to idols, my brother didn't eat. My mother asked why didn't eat? Stomach ache? In the end my brother said he's baptised and became a Christian. My parents practiced self control. And asked me to go buy Indian Mee for him. 

When in the room alone with my parents, my parents complained about my brother. The Cantonese have a proverb. You must tell the emperor before you chop off the head. What's the point you chop off then only tell the emperor. If the emperor wants to spare the person also too late already. I told my parents that he's irresponsible. I said I will never be like that. My father said I have you I "pang sim". (Laughs)

Then my second brother became a Christian. I told my mother, don't worry. Trust me. I won't be like that. 

Then the day came, I became a Christian, I told my father I want to baptise and I want my father's blessings. So I am one step better. My brothers baptised then told my parents but I asked my parents before I got baptised. (Laughs) My father said you have my blessings and told me it is fated for me to be a Christian. 

My father said you can belief but do not be a fanatic. My father's faith is totally transactional. He prays and expects things or blessings. 

Relational Faith. 

But when it comes to Christ, it is not transactional. It is faith in Christ. In transactional it is faith in what God can offer. This is proper biblical faith. This is genuine faith that is worth more than gold. Faith in the God of circumstances. Not the circumstances. 

If you have been praying for blessings, like when is the money coming, then that's a transactional faith. But when you pray and trust in the God that provides the riches, the focus is on him, then it's relational faith. When you have faith in him even if the prayer is not answered. 

It's like if you have not prayed it's your problem. But if you have prayed, then it is Jesus' problem. That is relational faith. 

Hebrews 11:17-19
By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19 Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

The background is that God required Abraham to sacrifice his son. But before that God told Abraham he will provide Abraham a son and will through him give him descendants that is numbered like the stars. Here is where if you are Abraham, you will wonder since God promised that he will be father of many nations, why sacrifice Isaac? And that God has given him only one son and that he is in his old age. His conclusion is that God will raise him from the dead. 

What is your greatest possession? It would have been his son but in this case faith in God is his primary possession. If your faith is in your possession, in your substance then you need to fine tune your faith. Our faith needs to be on Jesus. 

Sometimes misfortunes fall on Christians. And we cannot explain so it's sometimes better to stay silent. 

I just watched the movie Interstellar. Some of us found it boring but I found it very interesting because I am a science teacher. Interstellar is an interesting story but I can tell you it won't happen. The man moved into a black hole and time became irrelevant. From a physics teacher, it cannot happen. The gravity is so great that I and my handsome face will become a dot. It's just a movie. 

Our faith goes beyond reason. It goes into the supernatural and goes beyond the natural. 

One of the great philosopher, a Christian contributed to human reason by saying that we cannot reason our way to God. God is above our reason. When we come to God, every intellectual or non intellectual have to take that leap to faith. And he used Abraham's position as an example. 

Faith is no longer faith if you can see it. It is something you cannot see. I have faith I'll be going to heaven. And I am often asked if you've not seen it how would you know? I say, if I've seen it I will not need faith. They have only reason. They have stagnant feet and cannot make that leap to faith. 

We know there are spiritual warfare all the time. The devil work day and night. I don't like to credit the devil but I must say he is more hardworking than us. When the devil looks at us, what is on his malicious evil mind?

Will he destroy our wealth and health? Like Job? The devil is not on that level. That is child's play. He may be evil but he is smart. He comes against you to turn you away from Christ. To attack us at the point of faith. He succeeds when one day he hears this, I was a Christian. The most treasured possession, guard it. If you lose everything you still have your faith in Christ. In Christ you have everything. 

And when the day comes, you can say it is well with my soul. I learnt the background of this hymn from Bro Hooi. 

Today I tell you the modus operandi of our enemy. Not everything is due to him. He will seduce and tempt you until you get into trouble and shake your faith. 

You work hard in ministry. Everything you do fails. He whispers and say its useless. He discourages you. 

Then the third way is he gives you wrong doctrine. Faith in the wrong Christ. 

But the devil is most dangerous when he encourages you. You may ask how?

I take Bro Jacob as an example. He has been worship leading for the last 30 years. And one day the devil whisper to him and said he is the best worship leader. And one day he comes up to worship lead and say he is the best and don't need God. 

After Bro Jacob gets angry with me so I also put myself in his shoes. I preach a sermon and I hear praises that I'm very good. And one day I think I no longer need God's anointing. Devil's praises and men's praises are very different. If your cell leader is doing a good job, praise and thank him. It is okay to encourage.

Hebrews 12:12
Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.

They were at that time heavily persecuted. There will be times when our faith level will be low. This verse is for us. There are two reasons given in Hebrew. 

Hebrews 12:16
See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.

This is the negative and a warning. Esau exchanged his birthright for a bowl of soup. The Hebrew is telling us that our faith is so precious that we sell off our spiritual birthright in exchange for the things of the world. Life is more than just a bowl of soup. 

Hebrews 12:2
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Look to Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith. And this statement by Paul shows his statement of life. 

2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

His faith in Christ was intact and a crown awaits him and not just him but all who waits for the appearing of Christ. 

So in our life whatever we go through, hold onto the faith of Christ.