Faith Under Fire
by: Jahan Berns
July 17, 2024
“Because trials and tests reveal the genuineness of your faith. Your faith is tested just as fire tests and purifies gold—moreover your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So, when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. 1 Peter 1:7”
If you have seen the 1981 movie “Chariots of Fire”, you would no doubt have been moved by the magnificent and sentimental music of Sir Hubert Parry’s anthem “Jerusalem” The movie was a huge success, winning four Academy Awards including Best Picture. The storyline is even greater than the music.
The movie predominantly featured the story of Olympic hero Eric Liddell, “the Flying Scot,” who won the 400 meter race and the gold medal at the 1924 games in Paris. But Liddell wasn’t always a hero. Leading up to the Olympics, Liddell was the subject of intense public scrutiny and ridicule because he refused to run the qualifying heats for his best race (100 meters). They were scheduled on Sunday. Liddell wanted to honor the Lord’s Day as holy- he would not violate the fourth commandment by running on Sunday. His faith came under intense fire as both the great and small in Britain publicly shamed him in the press, pubs, and public squares.
His convictions remind me of the story of the three Hebrew young men that refused to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol. Because they worshipped Yahweh, they would not worship any other god, even if it meant roasting in a fiery furnace. (See Daniel 3.) For their refusal to compromise, the king threw them in a blazing furnace that was heated seven times. The miracle of their story is twofold: 1) They refused to compromise their faith in the face of a fiery death; and 2) when the earthly king threw them into a raging inferno, the King of Kings came down into the fire and would not let them die.
Both the Hebrew boys and Liddell were vindicated by God. Because they did not bow, they did not burn.
Liddell resorted to running the 400 meter race because his convictions wouldn’t allow him to work/race on the Lord’s day. Albert Mohler commenting on the outcome of Liddell’s faith wrote, “Liddell was left to run the 400 meter race, an event for which he was not favored and to which he knew he brought liabilities in terms of his racing form. But run he did, and he ran right into the history books, winning the gold medal with a personal story that shocked the world, even in the 1920s. His intensity of Christian conviction was already out of style and often ridiculed, but Eric Liddell became one of the most famous men in the British Empire and the larger world of athletics.”
Watch Eric Liddell’s historic faith race.
The Bible teaches that genuine faith like Liddell’s will always come under fire. Why? 1 Peter 1:7 holds the answer: “Because trials and tests reveal the genuineness of your faith. Your faith is tested just as fire tests and purifies gold—moreover your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So, when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”
Western Christendom tends to lull us into thinking our faith journey ought to always consist of mountaintop experiences. That’s a fallacy. The Bible is replete with heroes of faith whose fame germinated out of the soil of intense pain and suffering. There are no exceptions: those that would drink from the cup of Christ’s glory, must also drink from the cup of His suffering.
Worship
Prayer for Today
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for my faith in you. Please work in my life and make my faith genuine. According to James 1:2-4, I pray that I will consider it nothing but joy when various trials and tests come my way. Thank you for the assurance that the testing of my faith through my daily experiences produces endurance leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace. May this endurance have its perfect result and do a thorough work, so that I may be perfect and completely developed in my faith so that I lack nothing. In Jesus precious name.
Further Study
Read Daniel 3; and watch Chariots of fire. Ask the Lord to show you how you can continue to live out your faith boldly before your peers; and the rest of the world.
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To love well as Christians, we must grasp the depths to which love went for us and understand how deeply we are loved. The Bible tells the story of a good Father who passionately loves His children, giving the most valuable possession of heaven to redeem us. Love paid a high price for us.