Faith over the abyss
22 10 2007
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“Faith is not a ground on which we can place ourselves, not a system which we can obey, not an atmosphere in which we can breathe. Viewed from a human perspective, what was once called religion, conviction and law becomes rather the abyss, anarchy, void. But ‘the law of the faithfulness of God’ [Rom. 3:27] – which is to say, ‘the law of faith’ – is the place where only God can hold us, the place where there is nothing else but God himself, God alone.”
—Karl Barth, Der Römerbrief 1922 (Zollikon-Zürich: Evangelischer Verlag, 1940), pp. 84-85 (English edition, p. 110).
( HT: Faith and Theology)
It’s been a long and fruitful journey once I found myself freed from the confines of understanding “faith” from a legalistic, contractual, human-centered point of view (especially the influences from the Word of Faith Movement during my teenage years). While it was concrete enough for a young Christian to grasp its teaching, and very inspirational, but as one grows in life experience and understanding I found myself exploring “Faith” with richer and deeper implications … especially the most basic of it all - TRUST. The rest springs out from there.
I know exactly what you mean… I am also still trying to come to “terms” with a different perspective, and expectations, on faith and also the church.
It’s in a way like becoming a teenager in the spiritual sense, no more a child yet not an adult, trying to fit in. To some you sound so wise and to others you’re so awkward and clumsy.