It's not uncommon for someone, nowadays, to ask if you are a believer. I don't have a problem with that at all. It does seem to to be somewhat cryptic even though there's nothing necessarily misleading about the query. It is somewhat amusing in that there's an almost never ending list of things a person might believe. I'm obviously a Christian but for me that's more than a belief or even a creed. There are times when reading the Bible that you see a repetition of words that are linked together such as mercy and truth. The implication would seem to be that one is conjoined to the other. Mindless mercy could easily go astray bereft of benefit without an acknowledgment of corrective or behavioral truth; just as truth without ministering mercy would be obstructive to life altering renewal. As far as belief takes us, I can't but wonder if our belief, on its own, is enough to substantiate a cohesive ground, sufficient enough to stand on. Will the faith to fuel my belief be enough to sustain it. After-all, believe systems reside in our creeds, our politics, denominational alliance, and several different religions, all at odds with each other. Yet, they all claim authoritative supremacy. The only constant in each consistency lies entirely in the claim.
Where does the authority reside? This isn't just a modern day enigma. We have historical insight all the way back to Adam and the commonality of differential precedents take root from the beginning. God was right there. Christians will say; you need Jesus. If that's true, I still have some reservations. Just as mercy and truth, belief and faith, are bound together through mutual necessity, I believe the same has to be true of a defensible bedrock for Christianity. Jesus when He teaches us to pray begins with; "Our Father who art in heaven". Jesus prays to his Father in Gethsemane; Jesus makes intersession on our behalf, of our prayers, which are, in turn, prompted by the work of the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives after our surrender to God. Sometimes my thinking leads me through strange avenues of quandary. I'm not a theologian. I do endorse C.S. Lewis' analogy of another disputation concerning faith and works. Trying to discern which is of greater importance is like deciding which blade of a scissors is most important. For me, there has to be a conjunctive unity between aspects of Christian truth that can survive a severance of functional reality, whether it's belief and faith, mercy and truth, faith and works, or most importantly the trinitarian person hood of the one true God that makes a cord of three as one.
Conjunctive: Closely united; serving to unite. Unity: The state of being one; oneness
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. James 2:18
For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and the he shall shall reward every man according to his works. Mathew 16:27
And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which sees the Son, and believes on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:40
Verily, verily, I say unto you,The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for what soever things he does, these also does the son likewise. John 5:19
After this manner pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Mathew 6:9
Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. Mathew 10:33
Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bound them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart. Proverbs 3:3
All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. Psalm 25:10
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