Faith That Amazes Jesus
Luke 7:1 After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. 2Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. 3When the centurion heard about Jesus,he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” 6And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 8For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 9When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” 10And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.
There are two components of this centurion’s faith in Luke 7 that we need to hone in on:
1) I’m not worthy enough to approach you because of who you are and who I am. Notice the Jewish elders don’t get it at all—“this man is worthy of your grace”, but twice he says, “I am not worthy.” In essence he is saying, you have ultimate authority therefore I have no right or basis for asking you for something.
2) If the Lord says something, it’s as good as done. Oh, if we could remain with those two categories impressed upon our minds at all times, we would glorify the Lord in incredible ways. First off, we are completely unworthy and unqualified to be called a child of God. We don’t deserve to be in God’s family; we don’t deserve to be saved from the wrath of God. We are to consider ourselves, as Jesus illustrates in Luke 17, unworthy slaves doing only that which we ought to have done when we obey Christ. I would encourage you all to think often about what you really deserve because it helps crush unbelief, which is manifested in the entitlement mindset that is so prevalent in our society. We live our lives thinking we deserve way more than what we do and then complain that we don’t obtain what that for which we think we are worthy. Consider also how this centurion’s mindset would affect our prayer life. Imagine starting our prayers with acknowledging that we are not worthy to approach the throne of grace nor do we deserve that for which we are about to ask. This would help us maintain a humble, believing heart.
Next, faith that pleases Christ takes him at his word. This faith does not make Him prove Himself anymore to us than what He already has done in the giving up of His life to save his enemies. Faith says: “I don’t need any other evidence of your goodness, wisdom, and sovereignty. You have given me more than enough reasons to trust You fully.” Faith then hears God’s word and concludes that since God said it, it must be true and right and good and wise and holy. We then do not allow anything from within or from without to discredit the word of God. Lastly, faith always acts on what it believes to be true since faith without works is dead. It’s this kind of faith or it’s a rejection of Christ. There might be varying degrees, but there is no middle ground.