by
Elizabeth Achtemeier
*EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION:*
_Last year, the Women’s Ministry Program Area bestowed “Women of Faith”
awards on three women. These three awards were the cause of a great deal of
consternation in the church. Since that time, General Assembly Council has
adopted a policy for all such awards that should keep controversy to a
minimum in the future._
_However, Dr. Elizabeth Achtemeier has taken the issue one step further in
an article she wrote for Presbyterians Pro-Life. Because the board of Voices
of Orthodox Women is in agreement with Dr. Achtemeier, and because we
believe that she did a wonderful job of expressing her (our) convictions, we
have excerpted the article for publication here._
*______________*
” … is faith something that the woman has developed on her own? Has she
worked and accomplished the feat of believing in the Lord Jesus Christ? And
so should she therefore be honored? Not according to the New Testament!
Faith is a gift from God, the Apostle Paul tells us. Now abideth faith,
hope, love, these three all gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 13; 12:1, 9). And so
Paul writes in Romans of “the measure of faith which God has assigned. . .
(Rom. 12:3), and he declares that “Faith comes from what is heard, and what
is heard comes by the preaching of Christ” (Rom.10:17). Faith is the result
of God’s working, not the result of some woman’s.
To be sure, there is a reward given to faith. Genesis tells us that Abraham
believed the promise of the Lord, and the Lord “reckoned it to him as
righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). The New Testament avers that by faith in Jesus
Christ we may receive the forgiveness of our sins and entrance into eternal
life, not to mention the joy of Christ and peace that passes understanding.
But the faith itself comes not by human work, but as the gift of the Spirit,
and if anyone is to be honored for it, should that not be the Giver, God.?
Whenever the authors of the New Testament epistles give thanks for the faith
of some congregations, it is not the people who are thanked but God (cf.
Rom. 1:8; Eph 1:15-16; Phil. 1:3-5; Col. 1:3-4; 1 Thess. 1:3-4, etc.),
because it is God who has given the faith through the work of the Holy
Spirit. Should the Lord, then, not be the recipient of any honor given to
faith?
*The true honoree*
There are, of course, many admonitions in the New Testament to stand fast or
firm in the faith, to keep the faith, to walk by faith, to grow in faith,
even to suffer in faith. And we do indeed honor those who, like Paul, “have
fought the good fight” and “finished the race,” and “kept the faith” (2 Tim.
4:7). But such saints of the church are usually honored after they have
indeed finished this life. And any one of them would tell us, “It was not I
who lived, but Jesus Christ who lived in me” (Gal. 2:20). Saints are persons
who honor God and not themselves with their lives, like John the Baptist
declaring of his Lord, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
Surely that is the path pointed out for us Christians to walk, in all things
“to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” And so to make every reward we give
a song of thanksgiving to the Lord.
___________
Reprinted with the permission of Dr. Elizabeth Achtemeier from Presbyterians
Pro-Life *NEWS*, Fall 1999