Faith is not a transaction

Sanctuary cross of Edgewater Presbyterian Church. Photo: Gerald Farinas.

When I was growing up in Hawaii, I learned early that land is more than property. It isn’t just something you own, buy, or sell. Land is sacred. It gives life.

The ocean feeds us, the soil grows food for us, and the mountains shelter us. To treat the land as a transaction—something to profit from—is to miss the point. Land is gift.

Faith is like that too.

Faith is not a transaction. It’s not something we buy, or trade, or bargain with.

Faith is a gift that God gives, a gift that roots us and nourishes us.

God’s gift, not our deal

In our Presbyterian tradition, we believe that faith always begins with God. We don’t create it on our own and we don’t earn it.

The Scots Confession of 1560 says it like this, “We confess and acknowledge that this faith, and the assurance of the same, proceeds not from flesh and blood, that is to say, from no natural powers within us, but is the inspiration of the Holy Ghost” (Book of Confessions, 3.13).

Faith doesn’t come from us. It’s God’s Spirit at work in us.

Faith as belonging

When we treat faith like a deal, we end up turning God into a banker keeping score. But God isn’t a banker. God is a parent. God is a friend.

Faith is not about what we can get—it’s about who we belong to.

The Bible says, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19, NRSVue).

The Heidelberg Catechism says the same thing in its very first line:

“That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ” (Book of Confessions, 4.001).

Faith is not about keeping accounts. It’s about belonging.

Transformation, not reward

If faith were a transaction, then faithful people would always be healthy, wealthy, and happy. But we know that’s not true.

Even Jesus suffered.

Faith does not buy us an easy life. Instead, faith changes us. It helps us grow in love, mercy, and justice. It makes us more like Christ.

Coming back to the land

When I go back to Hawaii, I remember that the land is still sacred, even when people try to treat it like just another commodity.

It reminds me that faith is sacred too.

It’s not something to be traded for blessings.

It is gift, it is relationship, it is life-giving trust.

It’s all grace

Faith is not a transaction. It is not a bargain, a contract, or a deal.

Faith is a gift of grace. Faith is trust.

Faith is belonging.

And faith is our grateful “yes” to the God who already said “yes” to us in Jesus Christ.