Jesus Christ · On Salvation
Faith
No word is closer to the center of Jesus’s teaching, and none has drifted further from how He used it. He praised faith wherever He found it, marveled twice at its absence and its presence, healed “according to” it — and when He talked about it directly, He said three startling things: that its honest form can say “help thou mine unbelief” in the same breath as “I believe”; that a mustard seed’s worth of it outweighs a mountain, because its power was never in its size; and that the question hanging over history is not whether He will return, but what He will find when He does.
“Help Thou Mine Unbelief”
— Mark 9:22-24 — the most honest prayer in the GospelsA father with a demonized son, and a request with an “if” in the wrong place: “if thoucanst do any thing.” Jesus hands the “if” back — the commentators all catch the reversal — and the man, suddenly aware of both what he believes and what he doesn’t, cries out the sentence that has kept honest faith on its feet ever since: “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” Jesus heals the boy. The mixed faith of a desperate man, honestly confessed and pointed at the right person, was enough.
“It often throws him into the fire or into the water, trying to kill him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” “If You can?” echoed Jesus. “All things are possible to him who believes!” Immediately the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!”Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe,.... As the man put an "if" on the power of Christ, Christ puts an "if" on the faith of the man; and tacitly suggests, that power was not wanting in himself, but faith in him; and should that cure not be performed, it would not be owing to any inability in him, but to his own incredulity.
John Gill· Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748), on Mark 9:23
If Thou canst Believe - This was an answer to the inquiry above. I can furnish a sufficiency of power, if thou canst but bring faith to receive it.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Mark 9:23
Seeing the case stood still, waiting not upon the Lord's power but his own faith, the man becomes immediately conscious of conflicting principles, and rises into one of the noblest utterances on record.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Mark 9:23
Second, His appeal to Christ for help against his felt unbelief--a feature in the case quite unparalleled, and showing, more than all protestations could have done, the insight he had attained into the existence of a power in Christ more glorious them any he had besought for his poor child.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Mark 9:24
The Seed and the Mountain
— faith measured by its object, never its sizeA MUSTARD SEED
about two millimeters — proverbially the smallest thing sown in a Galilean field
“Increase Our Faith”
— Luke 17:5-6 — what provoked the request, and how He answered itWorth noticing what drove the apostles’ one recorded request for a spiritual upgrade: not miracles, but the command to forgive a brother seven times in a day. Unlimited forgiveness felt like it needed more faith than they had. Jesus’s answer gently corrects the arithmetic of the request — not more, but real: faith the size of the field’s smallest seed already commands the deep-rooted tree, because the mover was never the faith.
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord answered, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.Lord--(See on Lu 10:1). increase our faith--moved by the difficulty of avoiding and forgiving "offenses." This is the only instance in which a spiritual operation upon their souls was solicited of Christ by the Twelve; but a kindred and higher prayer had been offered before, by one with far fewer opportunities.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Luke 17:5
Increase our faith - This duty of forgiving offences seemed so difficult to the disciples that they strongly felt the need of an increase of faith. They felt that they were prone themselves to harbor resentments, and that it required an additional increase of true religion to enable them to comply with the requirements of Jesus. We may learn from this: 1. That Jesus has the power of increasing the faith of his people. Strength comes from him, and especially strength to believe the gospel. Hence, he is called the Author and Finisher of our faith, Heb 12:2.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869), on Luke 17:5
The Mountain
— Matthew 21:21-22 — the promise, and its own conditionsThe morning after the fig tree withered, Jesus made faith’s largest promise — mountains moved, “all things whatsoever ye shall ask.” Two honest notes keep the promise in its own frame. Clarke records that “rooting up mountains” was the rabbis’ standing idiom for conquering great difficulties — the hearers heard hyperbole with a real referent. And verse 22 carries the promise’s address: in prayer, believing— faith here is not a force aimed at objects but trust aimed at God, exercised on its knees. Henry’s sentence has never been improved on: faith is the soul, prayer is the body.
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”If ye have faith, and doubt not - See on Mat 17:20 (note). Removing mountains, and rooting up of mountains, are phrases very generally used to signify the removing or conquering great difficulties - getting through perplexities. So, many of the rabbins are termed rooters up of mountains, because they were dexterous in removing difficulties, solving cases of conscience, etc. In this sense our Lords words are to be understood. He that has faith will get through every difficulty and perplexity; mountains shall become molehills or plains before him.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), on Matt 21:21
All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. Faith is the soul, prayer is the body; both together make a complete man for any service. Faith, if it be right, will excite prayer; and prayer is not right, if it do not spring from faith.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Matt 21:21-22
“Thy Faith Hath Made Thee Whole”
— the sentence He said over and overFive separate times the Gospels record Jesus sending someone away with this sentence — the woman with the issue of blood, blind Bartimaeus, the Samaritan leper, the sinful woman at the Pharisee’s table, the blind men of Matthew 9. He never said “my power hath made thee whole,” though it had; He credited the receiving hand rather than the giving one, as if to teach forever how much He honors the trust that simply takes Him at His word.
“Daughter,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be free of your affliction.”the sentence in its most famous instance — a touched hem, and a trembling confession.
“Shall He Find Faith on the Earth?”
— Luke 18:8 — the question He left openAt the end of a parable about persistent prayer, Jesus asks a question He does not answer — the only one of its kind in the Gospels. It is not a doubt about His coming; the verse asserts that. It is a question about what the coming will find, and it turns every reader’s eyes from the calendar to themselves. Henry read the question’s weight exactly: faith is the great thing Jesus Christ looks for.
I tell you, He will promptly carry out justice on their behalf. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.where faith's supply finally comes from — its author and finisher.
Yet when the Son of man cometh, will he find faith upon earth - Yet notwithstanding all the instances both of his long suffering and of his justice, whenever he shall remarkably appear, against their enemies in this age or in after ages, how few true believers will be found upon earth!
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), on Luke 18:8
The question implies a strong negation: No, he will not; he himself foresees it. (1.) This supposes that it is on earth only that there is occasion for faith; for sinners in hell are feeling that which they would not believe, and saints in heaven are enjoying that which they did believe. (2.) It supposes that faith is the great thing that Jesus Christ looks for.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Luke 18:8
Where It Points
— the hand, and what it takes hold ofEverything Jesus said about faith resists the two modern distortions equally: faith as a private mood, and faith as a force. In His usage it is a hand — small, often trembling, honest about its own unbelief — whose whole power is in what it takes hold of. The doctrine built on His teaching has its own pages: believing unto life, the just living by faith, and the works that show faith is alive.
Closing
A father’s divided heart, a seed against a mountain, a sentence spoken over the healed, and a question left hanging over history. Jesus never asked anyone for great faith — only for real faith, in Him. The rest, He supplies.