“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.” Hebrews 11:6
Faith in God does not look for loopholes, end arounds, or exceptions to His laws. There are none. Faith takes God at His Word and acts decisively, without doubt or reservation.
Now, we who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone for salvation, have been justified freely by His grace. As the just we are commanded to live by faith, to walk by faith and not by sight.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”. Hebrews 11:1
Faith in God is substantive. It’s not vacuous or ethereal. It is the measurable, concrete foundation and evidence on which our hope rests. By faith we believe that what we desire and what we say will come to pass.
The substance of our faith is the knowledge we have of the Word of God, of His promises, His prophecies, HIs wisdom, His knowledge and His understanding, of His will and ways revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
One thing, perhaps above all others, that pleases God is faith. Jesus was always deeply moved by it. So, it only follows then that faith is an essential factor of our Christian life if we desire to please God.
Only Love is greater than faith because it is the motivation for our Faith, and Hope is the image of the fulfillment of our faith, indeed the ultimate desire of our faith.
Faith in God’s Word is knowing His Word, believing is Word, and acting in accordance with His Word, forsaking our own ideas, thoughts, passions and inclinations in the natural realm of human understanding.
“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12
Faith is fundamental to our lives with God. On the foundation of our faith, we build virtue and on virtue we build knowledge, and on knowledge we build temperance, and on temperance, we build patience, and on patience we build godliness and on godliness we build brotherly kindness, and on brotherly kindness we build love (charity).
“For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. 10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:8-11
Everything that God has promised from the beginning of life in the Garden of Eden to this day has not failed to come to pass. And all that He has promised from today until Jesus returns will surely come to pass. So, it is foolishness to regard His Word with any attitude less than absolute, unequivocal, uncompromising respect, trust and fearful obedience to it, knowing that everything in this physical realm is passing away. Only His Word is True and will remain.
Above all we must know that with God nothing is impossible. All things in creation were created good and man was created very good. But when Adam forfeited his goodness and rebelled against God there came a cataclysmic disruption and corruption of all things at the deepest level; of their existence. The mark of sin changed everything at the molecular level. Sin and death were imprinted on the DNA of every man, woman, child, and living creature that was created on the earth in the sea and in the air. All God-given natural desires became corrupted.
Now, no matter how many schemes and inventions man attempts to employ to fix sin, apart from submission to the work of Jesus Christ for salvation, he cannot! All his efforts result only in more corruption and degeneracy. There is only one solution and only one sacrifice that can restore mankind to righteousness, and that solution and sacrifice is Jesus Christ.
Therefore, above all things, have faith in God and take Him at His Word. He is Just, He is compassionate, He is full of mercy, and grace in Him abounds to all HIs children. But He is also the Righteous Judge who will not wink at sin. He paid too high a price to redeem us from sin to let the wicked, who rebel against His love and reject His grace, go free of HIs judgment.
Consider these Words of Jesus:
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. 35 For I have come to “set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; 36 and “a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ 37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. 40 “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. 41 He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.” Matthew 10:34-42
We were not born again to remain, as we were, without Christ, in sin and death. We were born again to overcome the brokenness of the world and through faith gain the transformation of our lives into the image and likeness of God.
“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” 1John 5:4