A L M A C I A S

WHAT WOULD JESUS THINK OF OUR FAITH?

When we study the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, we find that He was one of the most interesting personalities of the whole Bible. There has never been, and there never will be, anyone who could match His personality. He was such a tremendous man that not even the apostle Paul (who was one of the greatest servants of God who ever lived) could begin to compare to Jesus. Had we been given the privilege of being in His presence, I am sure we would have marveled at the lessons which He taught and the miracles He performed, and at the kind of man that He was. Even though the Lord caused many to marvel, He was not so easily marveled. As far as I know, we only have two instances recorded in which He marveled. One of these is found in Matthew 8:5-10, and the other in Mark 6:6.

We find that Jesus marveled in Matthew 8:5-10 concerning a Gentile man who came to Him and asked Jesus to heal one of his servants. The man was a centurion. When he asked the Lord for this favor, Jesus agreed and told him, "I will come and heal him." When the Lord said this, the centurion replied in a way that caused the Lord to marvel in a way that the people of Israel had never been able to do. What the centurion said was, "Lord, I am not worthy that thou should come under my roof, but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed." This man showed his great faith in the Lord by what he said.

What are some of the lessons that we can learn from this centurion? One such lesson is that here we see a man who was very humble. Not only this, he had great faith. The Lord wants us to have humility such as this. As we study the Scriptures, we learn that those men and women of great faith were also men and women of a humble spirit. Humility and faith seem to be two characteristics found side-by-side in the lives of many of the faithful servants of God we read about in the Scriptures. The centurion showed his humility when he told the Lord that he was not worthy for Him to come under his roof. This man showed his great faith when he told the Lord that all that was necessary for his servant to be healed would be for Jesus to speak the word. We, like this man, can also show our humility by what we think of ourselves and our worthiness. We can also show our faith by how much trust we put in God and in our Lord. If the Lord had lived during our time, would He have marveled at our faith as He did at that of the centurion?