As we heard in the message today, we are called to live from faith to faith. The just shall live by faith. But living is an all-encompassing verb. Living by faith means walking by faith, singing by faith, fellowshipping by faith, eating and drinking by faith, reflecting by faith, and meditating by faith.
And faith requires an object. When you believe, you are believing someone, something. Biblical faith means apprehending, grasping, holding on to what God has spoken to us.
To attempt to have faith by cultivating a faithy sensation down in your heart is not dispensing with the need for an object. That is not an objectless faith; rather, it is faith trying to believe in itself.
Ultimately, there are only two choices—faith in God or faith in yourself. You know from experience how reliable you are, and so the word of the gospel comes to you as sweet relief. Lay it all down. Set it down. Take off your burdens. Trust in Christ.
He is set before you now. He is offered to you now. How can you know that you are genuinely trusting in Him? By knowing that you have abandoned all hope in yourself. Repentance turns away from self and, in that same motion, turns to God. That is what it means to repent and believe.
God’s devices for building us up in the faith are simple and subtle, warm and unyielding, accepting and holy. All this is only possible because Jesus died on a cross as a substitute for all our sin, sinfulness, and sinning. This He did wholeheartedly, because He wanted to make sure that you would be able to come here today.
Turn. Come. Accept. Repent. Believe.
So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.
Pastor Wilson, Thank you for being constant, in season and out of season to proclaim The Gospel with clarity and conviction. There are far too many “theologians” in the church who preach to itching ears and depraved hearts. The Word of Faith movement turns The Gospel on its head, teaching faith in faith instead of faith in God. Without the object of our faith, faith is useless. Were not the object of our faith The One in Whom we live and breathe we would be most miserable. Trying to “work up” our faith to be strong enough to move heaven… Read more »
This is an important doctrine and you voice it well. The object of our faith is Jesus Christ. When the object of our faith is our faith, then we are in an error that is far too common. The first gives us rest in Him, on His promises and His love. The second gives no rest and feeds on itself, leading to exasperation with Christianity. Compounding the issue is some pastors profiting off of the error–always promising rest just around the corner if we just had more faith; His rest is here, right now for all who wish to partake… Read more »
It’s about being “the just”, faith is an expression of the deeper religious motive. Putting the branch before the root is a mistake. No one needs to tell the tree to produce a branch, or make a leaf. The right root produces the right fruit. The fact that someone wants to have “faithy-feelings” is not the problem, because that desire is proof that the person is one of the just. Perhaps it is mistaken, but it is perhaps too a desire for the intimacy of the living Christ who grants His presence apart from, even despite of, our own mechanistic… Read more »
Something that has helped me is the fact that faith isn’t simply believing in God but believing that He is good and trustworthy. Adam knew there was a God, but he failed to trust in the goodness of God’s character. Satan “filled in the gaps” for him — with slander. This means that when Jesus said “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father,” it was a bit like saying a happy wife is the evidence of a good husband. The disciples knew the good character of the Father through the willing obedience of the Son. “The faith… Read more »
Brother Doug, thanks for this post… I am wondering if you might do a post about, or elaborate on, how the issues of temperament and scrupulosity intersect with the struggle for assurance, and how that struggle is exacerbated for some reason by the doctrines of grace (not due to any deficiency in said doctrines). I’m thinking of personalities like John Bunyan (particularly his obsessive compulsive thoughts described in “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners”). I have wavered in assurance for a number of years, and when reading Bunyan’s autobiography it was like I was reading pages of my own… Read more »