The Believer’s Faith

The Believer’s Faith

By Apostle Felix

16  I refuse to be ashamed of sharing the wonderful message of God’s liberating power unleashed in us through Christ! For I am thrilled to preach that everyone who believes is saved—the Jew first, and then people everywhere!
17  This gospel unveils a continual revelation of God’s righteousness—a perfect righteousness given to us when we believe. And it moves us from receiving life through faith, to the power of living by faith. This is what the Scripture means when it says: “We are right with God through life-giving faith!”

Romans 1: 16, 17

We have heard it said before that faith is NOW! The question is, what is faith! If faith is not well explained, it can lead to misplacement of faith. What I mean by that is that, one can claim to have faith, but not the faith of Jesus. There are so many faiths around, but the faith of believers in Christ is different from the other faiths. What distinguishes a believer’s faith is the revelation of God’s righteousness in Christ which has been given to those that have believed in the atoning work of Christ. There is that common faith that can be derived from good self-esteem, education, position, and power. One, who is not a believer in Christ can believe for a car and can acquire a car. That was faith at display. We have seen men and women, who have established great companies and businesses because they believed they could. That was faith. But there is faith that is exclusive to children of God.

16  we know full well that we don’t receive God’s perfect righteousness as a reward for keeping the law, but by the faith of Jesus, the Messiah! His faithfulness, not ours, has saved us, and we have received God’s perfect righteousness. Now we know that God accepts no one by the keeping of religious laws!

Galatians 2: 16

The believer’s faith is the faith of Jesus. What is the faith of Jesus, then? The faith of Jesus is that the righteous One died for the unrighteous. The perfect died for the imperfect ones. The holy One gave Himself for us, so that we can be made righteous and holy. Jesus is enough to make anyone who comes to Him righteous and holy. The faith of Jesus is complete in itself. It odes not need anything else to make it complete.

17  “If we are those who desire to be saved from our sins through our union with the Anointed One, does that mean our Messiah promotes our sins if we still acknowledge that we are sinners? How absurd!

Galatians 2: 17

Paul taught that faith in Christ alone is enough. He expressed that thought in Galatians 2: 17, that seeking justification through faith in Christ alone does not make Christ a promoter of sin.  Paul emphatically rejects the idea that grace leads to licentious living, arguing that true faith in Christ destroys the power of sin rather than encouraging it. The early church had its reservations about the gospel apostle Paul preached. This was because it eliminated all human participation in the salvation of man. Religion prides itself in human faith – man’s works. We often struggle to receive and accept the finished work of Christ.

18  For if I start over and reconstruct the old religious system that I have torn down with the message of grace, I will appear to be one who turns his back on the truth.
19  “But because the Messiah lives in me, I’ve now died to the law’s dominion over me so that I can live for God. 

Galatians 2: 18, 19

The faith of Jesus is not dependent on the works of the law. The law and grace are not enemies or two opposing forces. The law is good and holy but lacks the power to save man. While grace has the power to save man from sin. The law shows man how filthy he is, while grace shows man how he has been forgiven in Christ. The law identifies man as a sinner, while grace identifies man as righteous.

20  “My old identity has been co-crucified with Messiah and no longer lives; for the nails of his cross crucified me with him. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, and dispenses his life into mine!
21  “So that is why I don’t view God’s grace as something minor or peripheral. For if keeping the law could release God’s righteousness to us, the Anointed One would have died for nothing.”

Galatians 2: 20, 21