The mot­to for the Pu­das­jär­vi Sum­mer Ser­vi­ces quo­ted words spo­ken to Je­sus by Tho­mas, his dis­cip­le: “My Lord and my God”. When doub­ting Tho­mas saw the wounds in the Sa­vi­our’s hands, his ey­es ope­ned to see the re­demp­ti­on pre­pa­red by God. Je­sus’ res­pon­se ref­lects the es­sen­ce of faith: “Be­cau­se you have seen me, you have be­lie­ved; bles­sed are those who have not seen and yet have be­lie­ved.” (John 20:29).

We could ima­gi­ne that Tho­mas found it ea­sy to be­lie­ve be­cau­se he was ab­le to see Je­sus, lis­ten to His inst­ruc­ti­on, and even touch His hands that had been nai­led to the cross. While pre­ac­hing and per­for­ming mi­rac­les in His home town, ho­we­ver, Je­sus conc­lu­ded: “A prop­het is not wit­hout ho­nor ex­cept in his own town, among his re­la­ti­ves and in his own home.” (Mark. 6:4). Alt­hough many pe­op­le knew Je­sus, they did not see that He was the Son of God be­cau­se they lac­ked faith.

The wri­ter of the Epist­le to the Heb­rews says: “Now faith is con­fi­den­ce in what we hope for and as­su­ran­ce about what we do not see.” (Heb. 11:1). Hu­man re­a­son can ne­ver comp­re­hend God’s pro­mi­ses, which are on­ly comp­re­hen­sib­le through faith. Lut­her said: “I be­lie­ve that I can­not be­lie­ve in Je­sus Christ out of my own re­a­son and po­wer, nor come to him, but that I have been cal­led by the Holy Spi­rit via the gos­pel” (Small Ca­tec­hism).

Faith is a work of God. It can on­ly be pos­ses­sed by be­lief and trust in God and His word, not by any tem­po­ral cha­rac­te­ris­tics. As a con­se­qu­en­ce of the Fall, hu­man beings are prone to doubts and sin. Even those who pos­sess the gift of faith have this ten­den­cy. We can lose faith be­cau­se of sin. Sin draws us away from God and bre­aks our trus­ting re­la­ti­ons­hip with Him.

Apost­le Pe­ter pre­ac­hed the gos­pel of Christ in Cor­ne­lius’ home: “Eve­ry­o­ne who be­lie­ves in him re­cei­ves for­gi­ve­ness of sins through His name.” Many pe­op­le re­cei­ved the grace of re­pen­tan­ce in those ser­vi­ces. Pe­ter’s ser­mon was tes­ti­mo­ny of the de­ath and re­sur­rec­ti­on of Christ. Luke tel­ls us about the im­pact of that ser­mon like this: “While Pe­ter was still spe­a­king these words, the Holy Spi­rit came on all who he­ard the mes­sa­ge.” (Acts 10:44).

A per­son lis­te­ning to God’s word is loo­king in­to a mir­ror which shows their faults and er­rors. A re­pen­tant sin­ner is ab­le to hear the com­for­ting gos­pel of Christ, the words of for­gi­ve­ness which cle­an­se them of all sins. God’s word com­forts, strengt­hens and nur­tu­res us. It al­so gi­ves us the po­wer to chan­ge our li­fes­ty­le. It en­gen­ders love and gra­ti­tu­de.

The gos­pel of God’s king­dom is me­ant for all pe­op­le. Those who have re­cei­ved the gift of faith wish to bring this jo­y­ful mes­sa­ge to ot­hers. God has His own time for the work of the gos­pel. He gi­ves a time of se­arc­hing, when He awa­kens the per­son and al­lows His king­dom to ap­p­ro­ach that per­son. At that time it is pos­sib­le to re­pent and to be­lie­ve the gos­pel.

Ol­li Lohi

Trans­la­ti­on: S.-L. L.

Jul­kais­tu eng­lan­nin­kie­li­ses­sä kie­li­liit­tees­sä 2.4.2014