{{2017_01_17_t1.jpg}} {{2017_01_17_t2.jpg}} {{2017_01_17_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2017_01_17|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_ix|| Topics Collection ix ]] ======God and Faith ...====== Tuesday, Jan 17, 2017. Why is faith so important? What is it that gives faith a prominent and key role in contrast to other things in life? You might think that knowledge should have this prominent role, or know-how, or wealth, or the ability to speak, or whatever! What is important with faith? {{2017_01_17.jpg }} **The Role of Faith ...** In the New Testament, faith has a key role for everything! Let us have a brief look into Romans 4, where the apostle Paul writes about the faith of Abraham: 20 No unbelief made him [Abraham] waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. 22 That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” 23 But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Romans 4) Here we hear that the faith of Abraham was a key element in his relationship to God. He achieved righteousness before God through his trust in him. And Paul argues that this is the same today, that our faith in Christ Jesus is key for us in our relationship to God as well. {{ 2017_01_17_2.jpg}} **Why faith? ...** > Why is it faith that is so important? The answer is linked to God himself, to his Character, to who he is and what he is. God is love - we are taught in the letter of John. God in himself is trust and truth and faith and love. When we are asked to believe, we are asked to get to know God. We are asked to turn ourselves to one of his key character features. Faith is so important because without faith there is no real community. It is all about real community - you might call it true community. God in himself is community - he is father and son and holy spirit. In himself he is complete trust. Jesus has shown this trust when he lives with us as a human. Faith is a core ingredient - without faith you cannot enter! The faith in Jesus has deep and far reaching consequences. We are justified by him, by his death and resurrection. Here, we come to things which sometimes seem difficult in our post-modern world. But we know guilt. We know it when people have hurt us, when we struggle ourselves with what we have done or experienced from others. Much more than our mental concepts our life itself contains the category of justice and justification. And in Jesus God has created this point of justification at the cross. It is death, and it is resurrection. We need it, our very soul, our body, our life. Faith is the core road for us here as well! (Roland Potthast) [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_ix|... more texts]]