Righteousness by Faith Alone

By John Blase

I hope you’re not like me. But I bet you are, at least when it comes to what we hear in the news these days. I’m suspicious of everything that bangs my eardrums. 

Discerning fact from fiction in this digital age is now a full-time but necessary job. The whole intent behind fake news is the spread of misinformation, hoaxes, bogus stories, or whatever you want to call them. It’s not that this is some new phenomenon, but that the reality of social media brings an ease of spreading the stuff like never before.

Preachers, teachers, writers, and communicators of the gospel find themselves in this cultural moment. But in a very real sense, as people of faith, we do too because we all have a platform nowadays. And into this fact-checking mentality and culture we bring Scripture, which is filled with strange stories of people being made from dust and ribs and axe heads that float in water. Then there’s that virgin birth that eventually led to a man who claimed to be God—who died, was raised to life, ascended to heaven, and then sent His Spirit to live in His followers. 

In the minds of some, Christians are the original fake-newsers. Who in their fact-checking mind would believe our message? And what are we supposed to do about it? We must persist. But as we persist, we must be diligent to not fall into the spreading of what some call the larger category that includes fake news: bad news. 

The good news is that if we’ll simply stop trying so hard to save ourselves, we’ll find that there is One who has already taken care of all that and then some. His name is Jesus, and His ears are poised and ready to respond to all who would call on Him—Jew or Greek, free or slave, American or Arabic, doctor or school bus driver, grandparent or hipster.

For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  —Romans 10:13

When we fact-check that verse, we find that the phrase “everyone who calls” means, well, everyone who calls. And we find that “the name of the Lord” is Jesus, that virgin-born man who claimed to be God. And that last phrase—“will be saved”—is a fact you just have to take on faith.