Once he feels its flame, a child will never doubt the candle\u2019s heat. Likewise, the English Reformer William Tyndale once wrote that those who \u201cfeel\u201d their faith will stand firm in the truth of Scripture and the promises of God.
\nTyndale, convinced that English men and women needed to hear God\u2019s Word in their own language, published in 1526 the first English New Testament translated from the Greek text. Throughout the 10 years of ministry that followed, he often spoke of \u201cfeeling\u201d — a term he used in his earliest translation of Romans 5.<\/p>\n
In this passage, the apostle Paul writes that we have peace with God because we are justified by faith. Moreover, by God\u2019s grace we have hope. In fact, faith gives us hope even amid tribulation. For this reason, we should rejoice in suffering. After all, Paul writes, suffering produces perseverance, which produces \u201cfeeling.\u201d At least, \u201cfeeling\u201d is the term that Tyndale used to translate a Greek word, dokimen , rendered elsewhere as \u201cexperience,\u201d \u201ccharacter\u201d or \u201cproven character\u201d (Romans 5:1-4).<\/p>\n
In a note, Tyndale referred the readers of his translation to James 1:2-3, where a related Greek word, dokimion , is used. Here, James calls believers to rejoice amid tribulation, since the \u201ctesting ( dokimion ) of your faith\u201d produces perseverance, which itself leads to complete Christian maturity. But, whereas James emphasizes the testing of faith through suffering, Paul in Romans 5 emphasizes the result — that is, the tested, refined and proven faith (or, perhaps, person of faith). He writes that such \u201cfeeling,\u201d in turn, produces a hope that is assured by God\u2019s love. And this love has been poured into the believer\u2019s heart by the Holy Spirit and has been displayed by Christ\u2019s death for sinners (Romans 5:4-11).<\/p>\n
Christians feel their faith, therefore, when refined by the intense heat of suffering, pain and persecution.<\/p>\n
Tyndale wrote in 1528 in his book, \u201cThe Obedience of a Christian Man\u201d: \u201cMark this also, if God send thee to the sea and promise to go with thee and to bring thee safe to land, he will raise up a tempest against thee, to prove whether thou wilt abide by his word, and that thou mayest feel thy faith and perceive his goodness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tyndale noted, \u201cFor if it were always fair weather and thou never brought into such jeopardy whence his mercy only delivered thee, thy faith should be but a presumption and thou shouldest be ever unthankful to God and merciless unto thy neighbor.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cTribulation for righteousness is not a blessing only, but also a gift that God giveth unto none save his special friends… For Paul in the fifth chapter to the Romans saith, \u2018Tribulation maketh feeling,\u2019 that is, it maketh us feel the goodness of God and his help and the working of his Spirit… Lo Christ is never strong in us, till we be weak.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speakers at the Missouri Baptist Convention\u2019s \u201cSowing in Tears\u201d conference translated Tyndale\u2019s message into 21st-century English. \u201cYou will suffer,\u201d said international evangelist Sammy Tippit, who has trained pastors and proclaimed the Gospel in the hardest-to-reach regions of the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the missing message in America… Suffering is part of the Christian life,\u201d Tippit said. But hope only comes, he added, when we are hopeless, when our hope lies only in God.<\/p>\n
Suffering strips from us the confidence that we may have in ourselves and in our own resources. It is at that point, when we have nothing to guide us but God\u2019s promises, that we feel our faith. As Tyndale\u2019s better-known contemporary, Martin Luther, once wrote, \u201cBut this is the glory of faith, simply not to know: not to know where you are going, not to know what you are doing, not to know what you must suffer, and … to follow the naked voice of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the way, Tyndale ultimately felt his faith in 1536. Latched to a stake, he was strangled and burned because he wanted people to read Scripture for themselves, in their own languages. As we seek to follow God\u2019s call in our lives, would we also risk feeling our faith to scatter God\u2019s Word abroad and reach people with the Gospel?<\/p>\n
________<\/p>\n
Benjamin Hawkins is associate editor of The Pathway ( www.mbcpathway.com ), newsjournal of the Missouri Baptist Convention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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