John Calvin on Faith, Part III
Doubt and Unbelief
However, I must admit that I am a tad puzzled by the statement, "O thou of little faith." The difficulty is in harmonizing a rebuke for having "little faith" with Christ's teaching that "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you" (Mt. 17:20). Since a mustard seed "is less than all the seeds that be in the earth" (Mk. 4:31), then isn't having a "mustard seed of faith" equivalent to having "little faith?" If so, why would Christ rebuke His disciples for having little faith? Isn't little faith sufficient to move mountains?
What's common to all the above mentioned Scriptures are the equal references to doubt and unbelief. For example, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou DOUBT?" In Matthew 17:20, Jesus began His answer to the disciples' question, "Why could we not cast him out?," by saying, "Because of your UNBELIEF."
Doubt and unbelief are a neutralizing factor to faith. The little faith Christ is referring to is simply another way of saying "doubt and unbelief;" and the presence of doubt has a debilitating affect on the force of faith. This is best illustrated in Peter's attempt to walk on water:
What then is the difference between you, me, and Elijah--since he was only as great as the God that was with him? The difference lies in this wonderful clause provided to us by James:
However, after God told Elijah that He would send rain upon the earth (I Kings 18:1), Elijah went to the top of Carmel (v.42) and prayed seven times for God's promise to be fulfilled (v.43). When did he stop praying? When on the seventh time his servant saw "a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand" (v.44). Only a man of little doubt would interpret the little cloud as the initial answer to his prayers.
The lesson here is that Elijah is just like us. He suffered the same passions as we do. The difference was the way in which he viewed God and His Word. God had told Elijah that He would send rain, and according to God's promise, Elijah prayed with earnestness AS IF the promise could only be fulfilled through his prayer of faith. Do we pray in this manner? What would change in our lives, and in our world, if we took God's promises as seriously as the men of Scripture? What's sad is that we often pray in an opposite fashion. Calvin ridicules such prayers:
2. Ibid., 3.20.11.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid., 3.20.12.
5. John Calvin: Calvin's Commentaries: Harmony of the Evangelists, Vol. I (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1996), 327f.
6. Calvin, Institutes, 3.2.15.
For unbelief is so deeply rooted in our hearts, and we so inclined to it, that not without hard struggle is each one able to persuade himself of what all confess with the mouth: namely, that God is faithful.[1]We cannot please God without faith (Heb. 11:6), and therefore, we bring Him displeasure by our unbelief. On more than one occasion, our Lord rhetorically asked His disciples, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" (Mt. 14:31; c.f., 6:30; 8:26; 16:8) When taken in conjunction with endless passages encouraging faith, it appears that God is at war against unbelief.
However, I must admit that I am a tad puzzled by the statement, "O thou of little faith." The difficulty is in harmonizing a rebuke for having "little faith" with Christ's teaching that "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you" (Mt. 17:20). Since a mustard seed "is less than all the seeds that be in the earth" (Mk. 4:31), then isn't having a "mustard seed of faith" equivalent to having "little faith?" If so, why would Christ rebuke His disciples for having little faith? Isn't little faith sufficient to move mountains?
What's common to all the above mentioned Scriptures are the equal references to doubt and unbelief. For example, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou DOUBT?" In Matthew 17:20, Jesus began His answer to the disciples' question, "Why could we not cast him out?," by saying, "Because of your UNBELIEF."
Doubt and unbelief are a neutralizing factor to faith. The little faith Christ is referring to is simply another way of saying "doubt and unbelief;" and the presence of doubt has a debilitating affect on the force of faith. This is best illustrated in Peter's attempt to walk on water:
And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? (Mt. 14:29-31)James certainly has Peter's example in mind when he explicitly states that the crippling power of doubt will leave a man believing with no results:
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. (James 1:6-8)In commenting on these passages, Calvin also highlights the explicit admonishment the Scriptures give regarding the force of faith that is so lacking in our time:
"Let him ask in faith, with no wavering" [James 1:5-6]. There, opposing faith to wavering, he most appropriately expresses the force of faith. Nonetheless, what he adds must also be noted: that they who in doubt and perplexity call upon God, uncertain in their minds whether they will be heard or not, will gain nothing [cf. James 1:7].[2]Is this why so many of our prayers go unanswered? Is this why our prayers regarding the successful advancement of the Kingdom, and the undoing of the powers of darkness, end up as nothing more than ritual, recite, and liturgy? Are we provoking God with grand sounding prayers that we don't anticipate He'll answer historically? Calvin seems to think so:
It is amazing how much our lack of trust provokes God if we request of him a boon that we do not expect.[3]This is not the prayer of faith (James 5:15) that Scriptures calls us to exercise. I have heard too many prayers that do little to stir my own heart, let alone move God to act on our behalf. The prayer of faith is "effectual and fervent" (James 5:16), and is modeled after a great prophet of power, Elijah, whom James states, "was a man subject to like passions as we are" (v.17). The NIV translates this: "Elijah was man just like us."
What then is the difference between you, me, and Elijah--since he was only as great as the God that was with him? The difference lies in this wonderful clause provided to us by James:
"He [Elijah] prayed earnestly..." (v.17)The example of earnest prayer was Elijah's dual prayers that rain would be first withheld and then granted to Israel. James apparently has additional information because the story of Elijah in I Kings makes no mention of Elijah praying "that is might not rain" (James 5:17b). He simply appears from nowhere in I Kings 17:1, and announces to Ahab "there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word."
However, after God told Elijah that He would send rain upon the earth (I Kings 18:1), Elijah went to the top of Carmel (v.42) and prayed seven times for God's promise to be fulfilled (v.43). When did he stop praying? When on the seventh time his servant saw "a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand" (v.44). Only a man of little doubt would interpret the little cloud as the initial answer to his prayers.
The lesson here is that Elijah is just like us. He suffered the same passions as we do. The difference was the way in which he viewed God and His Word. God had told Elijah that He would send rain, and according to God's promise, Elijah prayed with earnestness AS IF the promise could only be fulfilled through his prayer of faith. Do we pray in this manner? What would change in our lives, and in our world, if we took God's promises as seriously as the men of Scripture? What's sad is that we often pray in an opposite fashion. Calvin ridicules such prayers:
Now what sort of prayer will this be? "O Lord, I am in doubt whether thou willest to hear me, but because I am pressed by anxiety, I flee to thee, that, if I am worthy, thou mayest help me." This is not the way of all the saints whose prayers we read in Scripture.[4]Earnest prayer is the greatest cure for doubt and unbelief. This is what our Lord indicates in our cited example in Matthew 17 when He concludes, "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (v.21). Calvin comments on this text are illuminating:
This kind goeth not out. By this expression Christ reproved the negligence of certain persons, in order to inform them that it was not an ordinary faith which was required; for otherwise they might have replied that they were not altogether destitute of faith. The meaning therefore is, that it is not every kind of faith that will suffice, when we have to enter into a serious conflict with Satan, but that vigorous efforts are indispensably necessary. For the weakness of faith he prescribes prayer as a remedy, to which he adds fasting by way of an auxiliary. "You are effeminate exorcists," said he, "and seem as if you were engaged in a mock-battle got up for amusement; but you have to deal with a powerful adversary, who will not yield till the battle has been fought out. Your faith must therefore be excited by prayer, and you are slow and languid in prayer, you must resort to fasting as an assistance." Hence it is very evident how absurdly the Papists represent fasting to be the specific method of driving away devils, since our Lord refers to it for no other reason than to stimulate the earnestness of prayer. When he says that this kind of devils cannot be cast out in any other way than by prayer and fasting, he means that, when Satan has taken deep root in any one, and been confirmed by long possession, or when he rages with unbridled fury, the victory is difficult and painful, and therefore the contest must be maintained with all our might.[5]The Scriptures, as I mentioned above, show us that God is at war with our doubt and unbelief. Why? Because faith is the force that advances His power through His people as they bring the judgments of God to bear upon ungodly kings, nations, and cultures. By faith Elijah destroyed the false prophets of Baal; spurred a revival in Israel; brought severe judgment upon Jezebel; and deconstructed the house of the beast (Ahab). The Bible is replete, as Hebrews 11 testifies, of many such saints that prevailed by faith. It should be obvious that you and I must also learn to despise our own doubt in the same manner God does; in order that the neutralizing force of unbelief would be uprooted from our hearts. So says Calvin:
Surely, as often as God commends his Word to us, he indirectly rebukes us for our unbelief, for he has no other intention than to uproot perverse doubts from our hearts.[6]1. John Calvin: The Institutes of the Christian Religion in Two Volumes, Trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1960), 3.2.15.
2. Ibid., 3.20.11.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid., 3.20.12.
5. John Calvin: Calvin's Commentaries: Harmony of the Evangelists, Vol. I (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1996), 327f.
6. Calvin, Institutes, 3.2.15.
