"Just" Believe
While he was still speaking, people came from the synagogue leader’s house and said, “Your daughter is dead. Why bother the teacher anymore?” When Jesus overheard what was said, he told the synagogue leader, “Don’t be afraid. Only believe.” -Mark 5:35-36, CSB
“The one condition of God’s working is that we trust Him: this is not an arbitrary demand, but a demand necessarily springing from the very nature of the relation between Godhead and humanity. We are called to trusting, dependent love and obedience, for this is the biblical meaning of faith, not merely intellectual assent. Such faith is the only fitting acknowledgement of God’s power; and so it is an essential to salvation, though it is only the means of God’s working, and not the source.” -R. Alan Cole
“Hard-core realists who breathe the air of skepticism will always be with us. They will mock our faith in a crucified Jew and ridicule our trust in a God we cannot see. They will laugh at your love for the Savior who has cleansed you of sin’s defilement and given you spiritual life by His atoning work on the cross. Nevertheless, believe. Have faith- not faith in faith, which is spiritual nonsense, but faith in the omnipotent, sovereign Lord Jesus whose authority and power are absolute and know no rival.” -Daniel L. Akin
Faith is the theme and keynote of Mark 5:21-43. The woman, subject to bleeding for 12 years, believes and so receives healing and relief from her suffering. Jairus believes Jesus can heal the sick by the laying on of hands (v23). Now (v35-36) the challenge of his faith is: Can Jesus do anything about death? Jesus words to him are calling out his greatest hinderance to faith, fear and calling him to greater belief. The trouble is we often don’t think about what Jesus is asking Jairus to believe. He wants him not to believe in some vague notion of theistic optimism, a sort of “God’s got this” mentality. Rather, Jesus is calling Jairus to believe in Jesus. He is calling Jairus to have, “…faith in the omnipotent, sovereign Lord Jesus whose authority and power are absolute and know no rival.” But that is just the tricky part. Often our experience with others, in whom we’ve put faith and experienced their failure, informs our level of faith in Jesus. We live in the age of skepticism. Angst and doubt are in the air we breathe. We trust fewer and fewer institutions, people and things. All of that is rather unhelpful when it comes to ‘just’ believing in Jesus. First, because we struggle to believe anyone or their promises to us. And second, because believing in Jesus is quite an altogether separate exercise from the belief we have in any other person. Here is One whose promises are never broken. One whose faithfulness does not end. Here is One who brooks no rival and remains undefeated. One whose purposes are always accomplished. One whose love is limitless and who covers our mistakes with His insurmountable grace. As Christians, our faith is not in faith or in the church or in the pastor. Our faith is first and last in Jesus. Believing Him. Taking Him at His word. Looking to Him in desperate moments. Obeying Him in full confidence that when we do as He asks, His purposes will be accomplished. When we talk about trusting Jesus, there can be this abandon which we so rarely give without later regretting. This is a faith with no hold out. Jesus is our rescue and there is no fallback plan. Everything we’ve got is in this one Person. This is not regrettable. Such belief is rewarded because it is not misplaced. Jesus will not fail. His authority and power are absolute. That is why unqualified faith makes sense. So, let me encourage you, have faith in Jesus. Let it be desperate faith. Faith that has no hold out. Such unbridled trust in Jesus will not disappoint you.