The God of the Storm and My Salvation (Part 1 of 2)

The Storm on the Lake

One day Jesus got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. They went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!”

And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid and marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

Luke 8:22-25

From Family Obedience to Creation's Obedience

Luke transitions from Jesus teaching a large crowd, where even his mother and brothers couldn't reach him, to this account on the sea. A sudden windstorm arises, Jesus sleeps, the disciples fear, and Jesus rebukes the wind and waves, bringing calm. He asks, “Where is your faith?” The disciples marvel, “Who is this that he commands even the winds and water, and they obey him?”

Recall that Jesus described genuine believers—his true family—as those who hear and obey God's word. Here, even the wind and waves obey Jesus' word. The context remains obedience, but Jesus introduces faith, essential for understanding how we obey.

Genuine family members listen to and obey God's word. Creation itself obeys Jesus at his word. Luke places this story here to assure us of the truths in his gospel.

Jesus Sleeps Through the Storm

Jesus says, “Let’s go across to the other side,” and they set out. He falls asleep. Then the windstorm hits, filling the boat with water—they're in real danger. The Sea of Galilee is notorious for sudden storms, even on calm days. In a small fishing boat, this is life-threatening.

Yet Jesus sleeps. The disciples wake him: “Master, Master, we are perishing!” In another account, they ask, “Don’t you care that we’re about to die?” Jesus, even asleep, is unconcerned. He knows his destiny: he will not die in this storm.

Jesus purposed his death on the cross—not here. No storm will thwart his plan to save you. He faces a far worse death: Roman crucifixion, plus bearing God's eternal wrath for your sins—an eternity of punishment only the eternal Son of God can pay.

Jesus had to be fully human to die and fully divine for his death to have infinite value. Confident in this mission, he sleeps peacefully through the storm—sinless, undisturbed.

The disciples haven't grasped this yet. They wake him, fearing death despite Jesus in the boat.

Jesus Rebukes the Wind and Waves

Jesus wakes, rebukes the wind and raging waves—and they obey. They cease; perfect calm follows. The disciples, terrified anew, marvel: “Who is this?”

Jesus rebukes both wind and waves explicitly. The sea becomes like glass. You've never rebuked a storm and had it stop—yet creation, without will or personality, obeys Jesus instantly.

Imagine sailing with your teacher when he commands the storm to stop, and it does. Terrifying power. They are dumbfounded, questioning his identity.

Where Is Your Faith?

Jesus asks, “Where is your faith?” Not “Where is your obedience?” These disciples have seen miracles, yet panic. As experienced fishermen, they knew such storms could hit, but forgot who was with them.

Faith here means trust. Without trust in Jesus, you can't believe he'll do good in your life or save you. If I promised a mansion for $20, few would trust me.

Jesus probes deeper: with him, you have eternal life. Why fear perishing in a storm? The disciples are short-sighted, focused on the immediate.

We often live for temporary comforts, fleeing discomfort. Jesus ends their storm but rebukes them. In another account, they plead, “Increase our faith.”

The God Who Controls the Storm

This storm wasn't accidental—God sovereignly brought it. Jesus, the God of the storm, sleeps through it. He rises only because they wake him, not from fear.

Consider Job: righteous, wealthy, devoted. God allows Satan to afflict him—not for sin, but to display his sovereignty. Job says, “The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away.”

Job 1-2 (context of God's sovereignty)

Joseph tells his brothers: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”

Genesis 50:20

The one you want in your storm is the sovereign God who controls it. Jesus demonstrates: no storm stops his salvation of you. He calmed physical storms to prove greater power—forgiving sins.

Physical healing is temporary; faith, hope, and love endure. Salvation and gospel ministry outvalue health. With Christ, eternal life trumps any storm.

Faith Produces Obedience

Faith—trust in Jesus—enables obedience. Hearing God's word and seeing Jesus' works produce it. Without trust, obedience fails, no matter how you strive (like the 613 commands).

James reminds us: break one command, you've broken them all. Faith from God's word is the key to belonging to Jesus' family—listening and obeying.

Luther's Realization of Salvation by Faith

Of course you were born in sin. The very conception of your life was too late to start. This was the point of realization that Luther came to. He knew that he had to try to obey Jesus. He knew that he had to try to obey God. When he looked into the Scriptures and saw the standard of perfection that existed, he was very angry with God. Why in the world would you say that we need to be saved, but then the way that you would make us be saved is so absolutely impossible?

Then one day it clicked—but not the right way. You got struck by lightning. There's another day that clicked where he started realizing that what the Scriptures were talking about is that the way you're saved is not by trying to achieve that standard of perfection. The way you're saved is trusting in Jesus's standard of perfection.

If there's a way for you to be treated as the guy who could calm the storm, maybe, just maybe you would be accepted by God. If there's a way that you would be treated as the guy that observed the law perfectly, just maybe you might be accepted by God. Because otherwise there's not a snowball's chance in purgatory that you'd ever be able to do it. Disclaimer: purgatory does not exist. That's why it's a joke.

That's exactly what happens to you by trusting in Jesus. When you trust in Christ, then you are considered as having lived the life of Christ, having died the death of Christ, and being fully accepted by God.

Where Is Your Faith?

When Jesus is saying, where is your faith? the question that I'm asking is the absolute synonym: Do you trust God? Do you trust God that there is an eternal life and that there is an eternal death? That when you die, you're going somewhere. And that if you trust God, the work of Jesus Christ is fully capable of preventing you from going to eternal death and enabling you to go to eternal life, and that it is such a perfect work that you will never be judged negatively. Is that something that you trust?

Where is your faith? Do you trust in Jesus Christ? Because here's the revelation from this passage of Scripture: even the winds and the waves obey Him. How much more do I owe Him my obedience? But I can't obey Him unless I accept that kind of risky, radical trust. It says I can go into dangerous situations and not be concerned by that.

Again, some of the most dangerous situations that we could be in is saying, "I'm a Christian," being defriended on Facebook or unfollowed on Twitter. Is it ever so sad and disappointing that you log onto Twitter and that follower count is minus one? Oh, here beloved, your trials and tribulations. James says to count it all joy when you fall into various social media trials, knowing that testing your faith on the internet is going to produce godliness like you never had.

Seriously, do you trust God? Do you have such an attitude towards Him that you're willing to place your entire life in His care and control? Or is everything that I've said just now a complete waste of time? Bummer that you even came to that and you could have been paying for it. I'm not sure I'm the one who needs to get it right. Bring up video games in the point of salvation—completely missed or therefore made exactly.

Is this something that you will do, that you are doing, that you place your entire life in the care of God Himself, knowing that He will do what is best for you? Is there something else that is completely insignificant as compared to Almighty God that you would rather spend?