And Jesus said to him, The 'if thou couldst' is [if thou couldst] believe all things are possible to him that believes.
Jesus comes down from the mountain and meets a crowd. His disciples have just failed to free a boy from a demon. The boy's father then comes to Him, and his plea starts with a doubt about what Jesus can do. The Lord's reply picks up the man's own word and hands it back to him. Where does the real obstacle lie in a desperate case like this?
The father had put a question mark over Christ. In His answer, the Lord moves that question mark to the other side of the conversation.
Jesus replied, "Your 'if you can' is really this — if you can believe." That is, He said in effect, "There is no 'if' on My side. The only 'if' that enters into this matter is on your side. It is not 'if I can do anything,' but 'if you can believe.'" This put the whole thing in the true light, and in a flash the man saw it. Seeing it, he believed, while confessing his former unbelief.
Once the "if" moves, a principle appears that reaches far past this one boy.
Power connects itself with faith. The difficulty is not in Christ's power. It is in man's believing. All things were possible if he could believe. This is an important principle. Christ's power never fails to do all that is good for man. Sadly, we may lack the faith to benefit from it.
Two things had worn the man down. One was inside him — the sheer weight of his son's condition crowded out any settled trust.
The father's distrust seems to have come in part from extreme anxiety... he felt more about himself than about the Lord. Here was the seed of unbelief. "Have pity on us" — his mind was full of the trouble, not resting on the Lord's power over it. That fills us with a sense of the difficulties we can see. Then we miss where the real "if you can" lies.
The other cause was outside him. He had already asked the disciples, and they had failed.
The power of Satan was there, and had been for a long time. Now the power of the Lord had come in grace. Yet the man says, "If You can... have compassion" — for the unbelief of the disciples had fed the unbelief of the poor man. The Lord, in a few plain words, declares that the question of power lies in the question of faith.
The saying is not limited to one healing on one day. Read alongside what the Lord says in the next chapter, its scope becomes startling.
Here the Lord surely points to the power of faith at work now. His words included believing in Him for present help and blessing. But they went further. He meant the faith that could draw on all that was in Christ, for every emergency along the way. In the very next chapter we read, "all things are possible with God" (Mark 10:27). So — and here is the marvel — whatever is possible with God is possible for faith.
Such a wide promise invites misuse, so writers are careful to say what faith rests on.
What is really imagination is very often called faith. It is not faith unless we have the word of God for it. It was only a little word that Jesus said, "Come!" but Peter could and did act on it. There is wonderful encouragement for us here. He can enable His saints to do what is impossible by human strength.
The father does not pretend to a strength he lacks. He admits the weakness and asks for help with it. That honesty is the healthy response.
He teaches the weak man who asked Him that the question of power turns on faith. God looks for faith, however great His own grace may be. What possible moral good could power secure without believing? On the other hand, all things are possible to the one who believes... "I believe; help my unbelief!" How healthy it is for a believer to feel and own his unbelief!
- The "if" moves. The father put the doubt on Christ's ability. Jesus put it back on the father's believing. There is no "if" on His side.
- The block is never power. The shortage was never in Christ. His power never fails to do all that is good for man. What may be missing is our faith to draw on it.
- Anxiety shrinks faith. A mind full of the trouble, instead of resting on the Lord, is the seed of unbelief. The disciples' earlier failure had fed the man's doubt too.
- The reach is God's own reach. Whatever is possible with God is possible for faith — not just for one crisis, but for every emergency along the road.
- Faith needs a word, and honesty. Faith needs God's word behind it. And the answer the Lord accepted was a man owning his unbelief while asking for help with it.
And immediately the father of the young child crying out said [with tears], I believe, help mine unbelief.
The father had just said to Jesus, "If you can do anything… help us." The Lord turned that "if" back on him, and this verse is the reply — faith and doubt confessed in one breath.
The father had put the question mark over Jesus. The answer put it over the father.
The father says, "If you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." The Lord's answer is literally this: the "if you can" is to believe. All things are possible to him who believes. Everything turns on the faith that counts upon Him. ... Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. The work of deliverance was complete.
The man's unbelief was not cold indifference. It grew out of a long-running distress, and out of watching the disciples try and fail.
The father's distrust seems to have come partly from extreme anxiety. The failure of the disciples no doubt increased it. But note, the cause of it is a lasting one, whether in pain or in joy; he felt more about himself than about the Lord. Here was the seed of unbelief. "Have pity on us" — his mind was full of the thing that troubled him, not of calm reliance on the Lord's power over it. This fills us with a sense of the apparent difficulties. We do not see where the "if you can" lies.
The father does not defend himself or pretend to a confidence he lacks. Writers treat that admission as a mark of a soul learning rightly.
He teaches the weak man who begs Him that the question of power turns on faith. God will have faith, whatever His own grace may be. What possible good, morally, could power secure without believing? On the other hand, all things are possible to him that believes. Even the disciples had to learn this. The father believed the lesson at once through his need, and he moves in the right direction under the Lord's guidance. "I believe: help my unbelief." How healthy it is for the believer to feel and own his unbelief!
Older translations add that the father cried out "with tears" — a phrase the ESV does not carry. Writers who follow them see the tears as the soil faith grows in.
Faith lives in a broken heart. "He cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe" (Mark 9:24). True faith is always in a heart bruised for sin.
And the faith he confessed was not something he manufactured on the spot.
The Lord is full of goodness. The poor father says with tears, "I believe, help my unbelief" — sincere words from a moved heart in which the Lord had already awakened faith. It was the anxiety for his son that weakened this faith.
The disciples had just failed publicly. The father came anyway, and got everything.
"O faithless generation," says the Lord, "how long shall I be with you? How long am I to bear with you?" ... He ends the sentence in which He rebukes their unbelief with these words: "Bring him to Me." Faith, however small, is never left without an answer from the Lord. What a comfort! Think of the unbelief, not only of the world but of Christians. Yet if only one person on earth still had faith in the goodness and power of the Lord Jesus, he could come to Him with a real need and simple belief. He would always find His heart ready and His power enough.
This is not only a story about a healing. The words have been read as the language of anyone who has bowed to God's verdict on himself but has no settled confidence yet.
When a soul bows to the judgment of God, he receives the testimony of God. But he may be like the man who said, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief." And God gives the faith that brings assurance of salvation.
- Cause. The doubt grew from anxiety. The father was full of his problem, not of the Lord's power over it.
- Gift. He did not produce this faith himself. The Lord had already awakened it, and it came out in tears.
- Honesty. He names both halves of his heart. Commentators call owning your unbelief healthy, not disqualifying.
- Reach. Faith is never too small for an answer. Real need and simple belief find His heart ready and His power enough.
- Result. The same cry fits anyone still unsure of salvation. God gives the faith that brings assurance.