It’s About Faith

Today’s post is about faith. Actually, this week’s posts are about faith. There is no purpose for faith if the faith God gives us isn’t first used to receive God’s salvation through faith in Jesus. For guidance for salvation, click here: Salvation

Faith’s merit

We have no hope without faith (Hebrews 11:1). We cannot be delivered from God’s coming wrath and judgment without faith. We cannot ask God for anything without it. We cannot please God without it. We can have no affiliation with Christ’s Church without it. In fact, we are told in Hebrews 11:6a, “And it is impossible to please God without faith.”

Now faith does not have some intrinsic value, itself. Instead, its purpose is to enable us to invite God into what we do, think, say, and pray. A better way of saying this might be to say that God invites us to join Him, and we join Him by faith. First and foremost in our faith-walk is our faith in Jesus (Romans 10:9–10).

God is always the focus, never faith.

Faith’s purpose

Now consider this: God is indivisible. Neither you nor I can have a piece of God. When we are reborn and reconciled to God, we don’t get a piece of God living in us. No, God lives in us; all of God, the indivisible God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (John 14:19–21). God lives in us. Faith is how we interact with Him.

You may ask, “How can all of God be in you and in me?” God is infinite. If we consider God’s nature mathematically, we understand that infinity cannot be added to, subtracted from, multiplied, or divided. So, when God enters what we do, think, say, and pray, nothing is impossible for the all-powerful God is in it (Matthew 19:26). In fact, Jesus told His disciples, and through them to us, that if we have even the tiniest of faith in God, then nothing is impossible for us. Matthew 17:20

Why would Jesus make a statement like this? Yes, it is true, but what assignment did Jesus give to this statement? We can tell that Jesus spoke this truth intending for it to accomplish something.

By reading chapter seventeen in the book of Matthew, we understand that Jesus’ intent was not to empower His followers to rearrange the earth’s terrain. Now we have two statements from Jesus: 1) nothing is impossible for God and 2) nothing is impossible for faith. Therefore, faith must be the thing which connects our prayers to God (Mark 9 connects Matthew 17:20 with prayer).

Faith’s condition and test

When it comes to Jesus saying that faith can move mountains, I can hear you saying, “Hold on there, Mister! Jesus didn’t mean what He said. Well, He meant it, but it was spiritual. Well, not even that. Jesus was just trying to get His disciples to have some faith.” I disagree.

What Jesus said, He meant. Regarding our wielding of faith, God has given us a condition that must be met and a test we must administer. We find God’s condition in James 4:3: You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. And the apostle Paul tells us how we must test our use of faith.

That is the extent of God’s constraints. Our faith must be submissive, loving faith, under the authority of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Photo by chris liu on Unsplash

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