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“Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!” the father in Mark 9:14-29 confessed to Jesus. That confession should also be on our lips every day of our lives as baptized children of God—we should confess our sinfulness, and we should confess our faith. But confession is not something we are able to do on our own, without the Lord first giving us His Holy Spirit. The Word of God is the only thing that can enable us to confess our sin or faith. His Word of Law reveals our sin and unbelief, and His Gospel delivers forgiveness of sins, which creates faith and moves us to ask the Lord to get rid of the sin and unbelief that remain in us. The Lord speaks first, and only then can we respond with a correct confession at all. This is what happens in Mark 9. The father of the demon-possessed boy did not realize his unbelief until Jesus rebuked him, but after Jesus spoke, then the man was able to confess: “Lord, I do believe! Help my unbelief.”
But first he was rebuked. After the disciples had been unable to overcome the power of the demon, the man got to speak to Jesus directly as he had hoped to all along because he thought Jesus would be able to help. But the man also doubted. He said to Jesus, “ If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” That’s a big “if.” It expresses uncertainty in the power of Jesus. You can tell Jesus took it this way because He said incredulously, “ ‘ If you can!’ All things are possible for the One who believes!”
“The One who believes” is Jesus. First and foremost here, He is referring to Himself. He is the only-begotten Son of God according to His divine nature, and according to His human nature He is the One who has always believed in God the Father without ever doubting, without ever wavering, and so for Him, all things truly are possible.
Saving faith looks to Christ alone to find God and His salvation. Look to Jesus, to whom all things are possible, especially our eternal salvation. Unlike us, Jesus never doubted God’s power nor did He ever doubt God’s good and gracious will. In the garden of Gethsemane, as Jesus faced the prospect of death by crucifixion under God’s wrath against our sin, Jesus prayed, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36). He submitted to His Father’s will and trusted that God would raise Him from the dead.
Although the Father placed all of our guilt and shame upon Christ and afflicted Him with the torments of hell instead of us, the Father was always near to save His Son and to vindicate His righteous cause, the cause of saving us. Christ was put to death for our sins and raised for our salvation, and since “all things are possible for
the One who believes,” His death was able to accomplish forgiveness for all of the world’s sins and His resurrected life is able to grant the greatest of all possibilities—everlasting life—to all who believe in Him. “For God loved the world this way: He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
And such promises from God to us in the Scriptures— His assurances that He is for us in every case, that He will never leave us nor forsake us, that He will not destroy us but keep us eternally safe—His promises make us bold to cry out, “Lord, I do believe! Help my unbelief!” When Jesus promised the father of the demon possessed boy, “All things are possible for the one who believes,” it was likewise an invitation to believe and to pray for help against all doubts. “Lord, I do believe! Help my unbelief!” Jesus invited the father to ask for a sign of God’s power over the devil and when Jesus cast out the demon and healed the boy, the Lord affirmed the father’s faith and drove out his doubts. And note well that the weakness of the father’s faith was no obstacle in the way of Jesus helping him. And He will do the same for you, even if— especially if!—you are weak in faith. “Lord, I do believe! Help my unbelief!” Amen.
