Having successfully pushed a wheelbarrow heaped with potatoes across the thundering waters of Niagra Falls,  the tightrope walker asked, “Can I do this with a man in my wheelbarrow?” An enthusiastic roar arose from the admiring crowd, “Yes, you can!”
They had good reason to believe he could. However, the tightrope walker pushed the threshold of faith beyond belief. “Who will be first?”
Belief in the tight rope walker’s ability is not the same as placing one’s faith in him. For someone to believe in him, in the sense of putting their faith in him, would demand leaving the safety of the crowd in order to climb into his wheel barrow.
Years ago tightrope walkers entertained crowds by crossing Niagra Falls. While aspects of the above story might be apocryphal, it highlights that principle that sometimes the threshold of faith exceeds mere belief. Scripture highlights several such faith stories.
Did God speak to Noah through a dream, a vision or some other means? We do not know. What we do know is God’s message. God promised to send a catastrophic flood destroying all land-based life. God instructed Noah to build an ark.
Noah did not merely believe what God revealed was true, Noah trusted God. To have faith in God’s message caused Noah to swing an axe.  Therefore the author of Hebrews wrote, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, constructed an ark in reverent regard to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (Hebrews 11:7).
Let’s not forget that time when Judah’s king instructed the people to have faith in God and in his prophets (2 Chronicles 20:20). Where was the threshold of faith? What was required of them to possess faith?
In this situation, to trust in God and in his prophets involved not only believing, but also obeying God’s message. On the following day they were to march out against their vast enemy, take up their positions, and then just stand firm to witness how God would fight for them (2 Chronicles 20:15-17). Sometimes in order to possess faith the obedience of faith must break forth.
Paul claimed that God intends for the gospel to produce “the obedience of faith” among the nations (Romans 16:25-26). In fact, the nature of Paul’s apostleship involved leading the Gentiles into the “obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5).
Rather than just gaze upon Christ merely with confidence that he can carry us across sin’s chasm to salvation, the gospel calls us to place our faith in Christ crucified. To become God’s people by placing our faith in Jesus entails being baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:26-27). If we have already relied upon Christ, let’s now proceed to live out the implications of what it means to be saved. Our lives should produce fruit, the work of faith.
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