From Faith To Faith: A Reflection

Peter tells us that our faith is of utmost importance, more important than anything money could ever buy us. Paul echoes that sentiment when he rates it among the top three virtues for every believer to aspire to obtain. In fact, the author of Hebrews says we are lost sinners without it – “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” Our whole lives as Christians moves in the direction of growing in our faith. Our salvation begins with it and steadily progresses with increasing measures of it, until that day all our hearts long for, when our faith become sight and we see Him as He is.

My mind bridged a gap tonight as the lingering words of these last several months of sermons finally settled. Our church has been meditating on the Gospel as described by Paul in Romans. It’s been a fly-by approach, soaring over passages that great commentators like Luther and Calvin spilled thousands of pages of ink on. For as many times as I’ve heard the Gospel, this thought I’m about to share has never crossed my mind.

The cross itself is all about faith. From start to finish, we know that we are saved completely, our every sin, past, present and future is covered, paid for in full, by the death of Christ. “It is finished” was Jesus’ last words. There is no more payment due, even for the sins that we have not yet committed. It’s as if God has given us a glimpse into the end of the story, but we haven’t flipped through all the pages of the book yet to see how we get there.

The cross promotes faith. Our very identity as Christians comes from the work that Christ accomplished on the cross. We cannot call ourselves Christians without faith, for faith is at the core of who we are; we are trusting by faith, not by sight, in the accomplished work of Christ. It’s done, it’s over with. We owe no more to God. Paul puts it well – the life we live in the body we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave His life for us.

The insight I gained tonight came from reflecting upon how easily I can believe that Christ forgave my past sins. But when I face my current sins with the realization that God was completely sovereign and aware that I would stumble today, I am struck by just how much the cross being the centerpiece of our lives paves the way for faith – it sets the example. God has already said “righteous shall live by faith” – by trusting in His complete and finished work of salvation for our behalf, even for those sins not yet committed. God, who created time, but is Himself outside of it, chose to use one act in history – one Man’s death – which OT believers looked forward to and we NT believers look back on – to save us. He doesn’t need faith to see how that works exactly, because He’s God – and I think because He’s outside of time. But we do. Because we are bound by time. And somehow, for reasons I cannot even begin to comprehend, God acted in time to save us, even though He knew the end from the beginning. How many times have we asked the question “Why doesn’t God just take us up to heaven right now, if we’re saved already?” Yet God sovereignly and righteously ordained that our salvation should come through one act of history, one life span, 30 years in one geographical location, and yet that One Man’s Life and Death be sufficient for all of history. I’m not sure I will ever fully get how that works! Yet it was when the fullness of time came, that He sent His Son to die on a cross – and that death would provide the way out for anyone who chose to believe.

The very act of trusting in the cross for salvation demands faith because we now look back on this singular act of history and trust that God has somehow made it possible for that great act of atonement to cover for past, present and future sins, not just our future sins, but the future sins of our children and their children and their children. Time is essential in understanding why it takes faith to be saved. Because we’re believing that this one act of history is sufficient for us for the rest of our lives. God who created time ordained that salvation itself takes time, even though in God’s eyes (and He calls it to become more and more so our perspective) it is already finished. The book’s closed. You’re saved. No more worrying that the next time you sin, the cross won’t be sufficient. It doesn’t work like that.

Perhaps none of these thoughts are sounding profound to you. But at least for me, I am marking this night as yet another point on my spiritual journey where the Holy Spirit brings to light a Scriptural truth that I have “known” all my life but never really understood until now, namely: that the righteous shall live by faith, from faith to faith.

May God increase our mustard-seed sized faith into something that really can move mountains. May our Lord not return a second time and say, “Oh ye of little faith!” Instead, let His affirmation be, “Never have I seen such faith as this in all the world.” May He multiply the fruit of the righteousness He has already provided for us and will continue to dish out in small portions for each day’s need as He sees fit. Truly, at the end of the day, all we will be able to say is “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift” and “To Your Name Be the Glory.” Amen.