Matthew 22:29 “Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.”
We have seen thus far that God requires us to live by faith, and that He has given each one of us more than enough faith to do just that. It cannot be stressed enough just how important it is for believers to understand the truth that every saint already has all the faith they will ever need. So why is this biblical truth so important to understand? The reason is because when believers understand this particular truth, their focus no longer becomes distracted by the fictitious goal of constantly trying to get more faith, but rather they can focus their attention on the real issue, which is knowing the power of God. In the above quoted passage of scripture our Lord Jesus, in speaking to the Jewish sect called the Sadducees, made the comment that the reason they were mistaken in their thinking was because firstly, they did not know the scriptures. In other words they did not know how to rightly divide the word of truth. And secondly, our Lord said that they also did not know the power of God. And so we see a principle revealed to us by the Lord Jesus, which is that there are two components to correct biblical thinking i.e. rightly dividing the word of truth and knowing the power of God. With regards to the subject of faith toward God, we have been addressing the first part by learning to rightly divide the word of truth on the subject, but it is the second part that we want to address in this section, i.e. knowing the power of God. In order to do that we firstly need to remind ourselves that the doctrine is called faith toward God and not just the doctrine of faith. So why is that terminology important? The answer is because as believers our faith must be placed in God and in His power, for as we have already mentioned, because people already have faith it is entirely possible for them to exercise their faith in their own natural abilities, but that is not the biblical concept of faith. The biblical concept of faith is that the believers’ faith must be placed in God and His power, for it is God’s tangible and transformative power that is released through our faith. The reality of God’s power is a stumbling block for many Christians, because although they acknowledge God’s power intellectually they do not believe in God’s power being manifested in reality in this life.
Michael E.B. Maher
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