What is the life of faith in the disciple of Christ? Faith is always centered on Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The work of God the Spirit is to bring us to believe in Jesus and to keep us believing. How important is this faith? “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). If we are Spirit-led believers of Jesus, we want to please the Lord at all times. (If we are not, we want to please ourselves.)
You begin your Christian life in faith. You hear that you are a sinner with God’s sentence of death hanging over you. You hear that God’s Son came to earth to take the sentence on Himself when He died on the cross. The third day, He rose from the dead. Now He is ready to clear the slate from birth to now for those who ask Jesus to forgive their sins. All forgiven. All forgotten. All by believing His promise of eternal life to those who believe Him, apart from any penance or do-overs or make-ups. Jesus paid it all. You believe, and the life of faith continues.
You simply believed. Then the wrath of God was removed. Your sins were forgiven. You were born again into the family of God. You received the Spirit of God. God became your Father in heaven. You did not work hard to get these benefits of faith. You did not go through 12 steps. You did not strain and stay up nights to figure out what to do next. As you started, so you continue the faith life.
What, then, is this life of faith? It’s a life where we read the Bible daily with the view to learn more about Christ so we know what else to believe Him for. We want an educated faith in the Savior, not guesses; not public opinion. There is no life of faith if there is no serious Bible reading. There, the faith is all about believing the ideas originating in your own head. You are believing in yourself.
Look at Psalm 23. When David, a shepherd, wrote that psalm, he knew exactly how God was working in his life. He had read the Old Testament books of Moses enough to gain a clear picture of God. David saw in God all these traits of a shepherd. He did not merely write a soothing poem about the attributes and works of God–he lived them out.
Because he believed God was a shepherd who was watching over him, he lived hour by hour in his faith life viewing his God guiding him, a dumb sheep, where he needed to go. He had peace that he was protected from his enemies, however dangerous they were. He had peace because the Lord was leading his life, however aimless it appeared to be.
The words he penned matched the reality of his heart. Without faith, we worry, fret, and stress. We take matters into our own hands because we have no clue who God really is, how loving and caring He is to His own sheep as a good Shepherd. We do not know because we do not read. We trust in our meager resources over God’s unlimited storehouse of wisdom and power and love.
The life of faith is knowing God, hearing His voice, and responding to it in our heart, soul, mind, and body as it grips us and pulls us along. We take up His mindset about a matter and act accordingly. “Lord, You are my Shepherd. I don’t know what this day will be like, but that’s okay because You have everything in hand.”
When you wake up in the morning, you read your Bible and find something to worship Him for. “Lord, you are a wise Shepherd who knows all things. Teach me Your paths as I read your Word. You are also a Creator. Mold me according to Your will that I may live for you. You are guiding me even as I read this, and I trust You and praise You.” Faith without works is dead–and these works express your faith indeed!
The life of faith means you are living with a God who is active in your life in the moment. He is a present-tense God. “I am the Bread of Life.” Not, “I was the Bread of Life.” The life of faith is a life of confidence because you know Him, the God who is Love, and He is directing your life. It is an educated faith because it comes right out of the Bible. You don’t toss and turn trying to figure God out, but read and ponder what the Bible says. No more, no less. No “what if” scenarios. You read and believe Him, right now, in the present. It is a life of praise because your Commander is constantly directing His troops, ordering all things together for good. He is the True Vine, and is the reliable source for your life, the branch that is plugged into the Vine.
The person of faith reads the Bible and listens to familiarize himself with his Shepherd’s voice (John 10:27), because the disciple has learned that there is still some faith directed self-ward that hijacks the Christ-centered life. That self-centered life robs him of peace, joy, and love, all of which flows from the Vine to the branches when faith is active. Branches without faith have been dropped from the vine and need to be transplanted by a revival of faith in Jesus Christ. No faith? Back to the Bible! Faith comes by hearing God’s voice, and hearing comes by the Word (Rom. 10:17).
Faith sees the invisible. It sees self in the kingdom of God. It sees a glorious inheritance (Rom. 4:13) and rejoices though it seems out of our grasp. It sees self as a redeemed bride (Rev. 19:7, 21:9), as precious jewels (Mal. 3:17) to the heavenly Bridegroom, though the mirror shows an unlovely picture.
Our one goal is to learn who Jesus Christ is and adjust our thinking so we live with the reality of His care for us. This is what it means to “diligently seek him.” With a firm knowledge of the Son, we will respond with actions that reflect His own character. Faith will produce fruit and works that reflect a changed heart and mind.
Believing the Word of a holy God, we reject those things that are unlike Him. We believe the consequences of sin spelled out and change our lives for the better. Our faith causes us to change even the way we think. Faith produces these works.
Believing the Word of a holy God, we find the world is darkness and His kingdom is light. The institutions of man are crumbling and shot through with plans of men who look only to themselves for redemption. The waters of the earth have failed, one hymn says, so we trust God above them all, and He lifts us up on eagle’s wings. God works in response to our faith.
When you read your Bible and learn a new thing about your Savior and praise Him, that is a faith that is working in love (Gal. 5:6). If you read of His command for you and obey it, then that obedience is the work that faith produces. The life of faith is one that is always living and responding to the reality of God’s life accompanying you. This is what the Bible means by “led by the Spirit” (Rom. 8:14).
Our faith life began with trusting the Christ who died for our sins and rose again to deal with our sins. That faith results in eternal life (John 3:16). All these steps above to know Jesus more are a furthering of this eternal life, which Jesus defined as knowing the Father and the Son (John 17:3). This eternal life is enjoyed in the present by faith. The faith life is an expression of a relationship with God.
Faith sees the biblical promises of God as done and given. It is working according to the knowledge that “God is with us;” that “God is for us;” that God has delivered us from the “power of Satan to God.” That He has brought us from “darkness to light.” In the midst of the darkness of this world, Your God is surrounding you with His light. In your life of apparent chaos, the Shepherd is leading you in purpose and fulfillment. All this because He is God, and Christ has become your life and destiny by faith.
