Last week we concluded our posting by proposing what I believe to constitute what “walking by faith,” or “walking in the Spirit,” ( i.e.,
“Jesus living through me – Galatians 2:20) actually looks like:
1.) We are walking by faith like “little children“ (Matthew 18:2-5), only knowing and believing what our Heavenly Daddy has told us, experientially, in our hearts (ginosko knowledge), rather than simply intellectually, in our heads (eido knowledge).
2.) As “little children,” we “walk in the light” with our brothers and sisters in the Lord, constantly owning and repenting openly for the sin which light exposes (1 John 1:4-10).
3.) As “little children, walking in the light,” we will leave the house every morning to interact with the world, spreading Kingdom life, wherever we go, with whomever we meet, in our regular daily tasks—naturally, spontaneously and unconsciously (NSU).
This “Little Children’s Crusade” is the unstoppable force of us, the church, scattered over the whole earth, ruling over it in whatever we do, wherever we go, just as we were created to do (Genesis 1:26-28). The Gates of Hell cannot stop us (Matthew 16:18), for we are answering the “Lord’s Prayer” TODAY: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).
And it is occurring, right now, all around us, if we have eyes to see! Charlie Kirk is a classic example. Wherever he went and with whomever he met, the Kingdom of God was his interest and topic of discussion. Another word for “kingdom” is GOVERNANCE! Charlie was like a little child, walking in the light, spreading God’s Kingdom by discussing the Governance of God—POLITICS—his area of interest and calling.
One of the speakers at Charlie’s funeral was an outstanding Christian man who, in his eulogy of Charlie, mentioned Aristotle very approvingly as a classic example of Charlie’s approach to life. Here is an example of Aristotle himself, discussing his approach.
“Anything we have to learn to do we learn by the actual doing of it; people become builders by building and instrumentalists by playing instruments. Similarly we become just by performing just acts, temperate by performing temperate ones, brave by performing brave ones.” Aristotle held that we acquire righteousness by doing righteous deeds, just as we acquire skills by practicing.
This quote by Aristotle is from Gerhard Forde’s excellent book, “On Being a Theologian of the Cross” (pp. 104). Forde goes on to point out in his book that this is the very opposite of “living by faith,” i.e., “naturally, spontaneously and unconsciously” (NSU), as a “little child!”
Thomas Aquinas, one of history’s two most influential Catholic theologians along with Augustine, synthesized Aristotelian philosophy with Christian doctrine in the 13th century. His works attempting to harmonize faith (Christianity) with reason (Aristotle), particularly the “Summa Theologica,” have been seminal in the development of Western thought. He believed that truth could be discovered through BOTH divine revelation and human reason, and that these two sources of knowledge complement rather than contradict each other.
I believe this is a wicked, Satanic trap that tricks us into thinking we can participate in our own salvation (sanctification) as we climb an imaginary righteousness ladder. We believe we will perform progressively better and better as we diligently work to obey.
However, one of the first verses we probably learned as new Christians completely destroys this righteousness-by-practice heresy: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that (faith is) not of yourselves (not anything you have of your own), it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast”. (Ephesians 2:8, 9).
These verses tell us that we not only cannot muster up careful obedience, nor scholarly reason, but we don’t even have the simple faith to believe the gospel on our own! We cannot even “make a decision for Christ”—until God Himself gifts us with faith!
And HE WILL DO SO, in His own time and in His own way! We are all on different paths to the City With Foundations, but make no mistake, we will all arrive there! You and I are Little Children, destined to be a part of the Children’s Crusade. We’ll look at why that’s a done deal—next week!
