We read in John 15:22-24 (NIV) something that Jesus said regarding the spiritual leaders of his day. He says, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father.”
Notice that these leaders were in a sense “off the hook” in terms of being held accountable for their sins up until they heard the teaching of Jesus and witnessed what he did. Jesus gave them sufficiently satisfying reasons for them to put their faith in him. They refused to do so and so their guilt stood.
That suggests something to me regarding the nature of faith. To exercise faith is to give allegiance to that which you have sufficiently satisfying reasons to believe is true.
If you are wondering or doubting that something is true, you won’t hand your life over to it. You just can’t. You’re not buying it. You’re not convinced. What you need is not more faith, you need more information and a willingness to act on that information. When your mind is satisfied and you can say something like, “yes, I can see that. That makes sense,” then you are ready to make a decision, to respond, to trust, to exercise faith and move forward in doing what your new understanding requires of you. Had those leaders made good on what Jesus said and did to help them realize who he was, they would have all they needed to begin to trust in him and become his disciples instead of his enemies.
