by David Gibson<\/p>\n
The people of His hometown did not respond positively. Jesus marveled at their unbelief (Mark 6:6).<\/p>\n
A Gentile centurion believed Jesus could heal his servant simply by speaking the word-without even coming to his house (Matthew 8:5-13). Jesus marveled at his great faith-greater than He had found in His own nation.<\/p>\n
In both cases, Jesus marveled [the same Greek word is used in both passages] for obviously different reasons.<\/p>\n
Most of us can probably be found somewhere between the Nazarenes’ unbelief and the Gentile centurion’s strong faith. I can certainly identify with the poor fellow who cried out to Jesus, “I do believe; help my unbelief!<\/em>” (Mark 9:24 NASB).<\/p>\n Some believe God exists but fail to act on it. And yet “faith without works is dead<\/em>“-even the demons believe (James 2:14-26). During Jesus’ earthly ministry, certain religious leaders believed in Him but would not admit it for fear of losing the approval of their peers (John 12:42-43). Can unconfessed faith save?<\/p>\n Jesus’ disciples had an active faith. They left all for Him and followed Him closely. But on more than one occasion, He rebuked them: “You of little faith<\/em>” (Matthew 8:26; 14:31; 16:8). They had some growing to do, but they did grow.<\/p>\n One thing is certain: We are not stuck where we are. Unbelievers can become believers if they choose to accept the abundant evidence.<\/p>\n Is our faith small? It can grow. Abraham “did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith<\/em> . . .” (Romans 4:20). As we read his story in Genesis, we can see him growing.<\/p>\n Gideon needed a lot of help to overcome his doubts, and so did Thomas (Judges 6-7; John 20:24-29). But once they were given the reassurance they needed, they took hold.<\/p>\n God’s word is the source of our faith (Romans 10:17). The more we study it-and act on what we learn-the stronger our faith grows.<\/p>\n If Jesus looks at us and marvels, will it be because of our unbelief or our great faith?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by David Gibson The people of His hometown did not respond positively. Jesus marveled at their unbelief (Mark 6:6). A Gentile centurion believed Jesus could heal his servant simply by speaking the word-without even coming to his house (Matthew 8:5-13). Jesus marveled at his great faith-greater than He had found in His own nation. In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[674,49],"class_list":["post-70591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-change","tag-faith"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":93624,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-jesus-marveled-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":70591,"position":0},"title":"When Jesus Marveled (Baggett)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 1, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Michael R. Baggett There are many occasions when individuals and crowds marveled at the gracious words and mighty miracles of Jesus. Did you know there were times when Jesus marveled at individuals and groups? There were ways people behaved that caused Jesus to observe with wonder. On one occasion,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63754,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-jesus-marveled\/","url_meta":{"origin":70591,"position":1},"title":"When Jesus Marveled (Hamilton)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 8, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Download Audio Text: Matthew 8:5-13 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even the seemingly small things within the Bible are significant. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I find it puzzling that people claim that the Bible is inspired, as we are told in II Timothy 3:16-17, but then turn around and want to modify it. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92263,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/nothing-impossible\/","url_meta":{"origin":70591,"position":2},"title":"Nothing Impossible","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Clifton Angel Jesus comes down from Mount Hermon (see Matthew 17:14-21; Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-42). Peter, James, and John are with him. They witnessed the transfigured Christ talking with Moses and Elijah about his coming death (Matthew 17:1-13). It was so magnificent that Peter wanted to worship all three\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85380,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-desperate-man\/","url_meta":{"origin":70591,"position":3},"title":"A Desperate Man","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Adam Litmer His son's life is on the line, and he's desperate. He's heard about a great healer named Jesus. Packing up his son, he rushes off to find this man. He will beg Jesus to heal his son as he has reportedly healed so many others. When he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88604,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/faiths-opposites\/","url_meta":{"origin":70591,"position":4},"title":"Faith\u2019s Opposites","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 12, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Gibson Light is the opposite of dark. Good is the opposite of evil. Hope is the opposite of despair. Zeal is the opposite of apathy. What then is the opposite of faith? Faith Is the Opposite of Sight \"For we walk by faith, not by sight\" (II Corinthians\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84663,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/rational-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":70591,"position":5},"title":"Rational Faith?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 17, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The faith we are to have in Jesus is based on testimonial evidence that has stood the test of time since it was first scrutinized in the first century. Each gospel writer (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) was quite aware of the scrutiny they were under\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Progress is possible!<\/h2>\n