Faith and Works - June 2

nathan made this entry on June 2nd, 2008
Topic(s): Faith

What does faith consist of exactly? In Rev. 14:12 it says that the people who live in the last days will have the faith of Jesus. In order to better understand what my faith should consist of, I should look at what Christ's faith consisted of. At the most basic level, most people would agree that having faith includes believing that God exists. They would also agree faith includes believing that God created us, that Jesus came and died for our sins, that we must believe in Him to be saved, and that He will come again to take us to heaven. The faith of Jesus most definitely went beyond this, though, right?

Jesus told His followers that their faith must exceed the faith of the Pharisees, which was no small statement. The pharisees were the preeminent followers of God in the people's eyes back then. Jesus told the pharisees that while they pay tithe on even their spices, they ignore the more important duties such as justice, mercy and faith.

James also indicates that faith must be more than just believing in God, as he points out that even the evil angels believe as much. And we know that faith must be more than believing that Jesus is Lord, because He said that not everyone who calls Him "lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven.

So what more was to Jesus' faith that we must have? Jesus not only believed that He would be raised from the dead, as we believe that God will save us from death, but He also believed that God would provide Him the strength to live without sinning while here on earth. This is the faith that we also must have. Compared with us, Jesus' situation was different. After all, if He had sinned it would have meant to the doom of the entire human race. That is not so for us. If we sin, we have assurance of forgiveness. However, the fact remains that Jesus says He has come to set us free from sin. Our faith must also include believing that God will give us strength to overcome all sins while living here on earth.

In other words, the faith of Jesus is not one of just forward looking to heaven, but one that is carried out in our lives in the present. We have faith not only that we will be saved from death in the future, but that we will also be saved from being slaves to sin while living here on earth.

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