As we have discovered over the course of our study, the Christian life is to be lived by faith. The trials and tribulations of this life are the catalyst that God uses for our spiritual growth. These difficulties can cause us to trust God, or we can rebel against God and slow our spiritual growth.
God’s goal for us is to place our faith in Jesus and trust in His promises. Faith is defined as being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you don’t see. Faith is trusting, depending upon, and resting in God’s faithfulness. We all exercise human faith everyday. If you are sitting on a chair while reading this study, you have faith in the builder of the chair and the capacity of the chair to hold you up. Therefore, you rest comfortably in the chair’s ability—expecting it to hold you up. In the spiritual life, God wants us to practice trusting Him by resting in His life and His promises, expecting Him to work on our behalf to accomplish something that we could not do on our own.
As we discovered from a previous lesson, Romans 10:17 indicates that saving faith is self-contained in God’s living word. Also, faith is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is important that we meditate on God’s word and renew our minds in order to build faith. Our human faith, mixed with God’s saving faith, results in God’s power being released. Human faith by itself is worthless (1 Corinthians 15:14), but, linked with God (the power source), it results in God’s mighty work. Therefore, we are not trying to muster up our human faith to please God, but are trying to practice resting in God’s faithfulness and lovingkindness and appropriating His Holy Spirit-filled life.
The Christian is to live by faith in order to appropriate the practical godliness of Jesus Christ to work through us (versus our self-effort) in keeping God’s moral law (Ten Commandments) by our own human power. Our human effort to produce godliness either leads to conviction of our inability to do so or leads to self-righteousness. The purpose of the Ten Commandments is to convict of us of our sin, in order to lead us to Jesus as our life. Therefore, the normal way to live our Christian life is by faith—appropriating and resting in Jesus as our life to work through us on a daily basis.
Bible verses to think about:
A. Read Romans 4:1-5. This passage tells us that a righteousness (being okay with God forever) by faith preceded the Ten Commandments. The purpose of moral law (Ten Commandments) was to convict us of sin and lead us to trust Jesus as our abundant life. Read Galatians 3:19-26. Living by the law can be defined as trying to produce God’s holy life by our self-effort. (See Galatians 3:11-12). This is contrasted by a life of faith—drawing fresh resources from Jesus when needed.
B. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith. Read Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38, and Romans 14:23. These verses clearly indicate that the Christian life is a life of faith. Reread John 6:28-29. This passage implies that, in order to do the work of God, we need to have faith in Jesus. Read Matthew 13:58. This verse states that, because of the unbelief of the people, Jesus was hindered from doing miracles on their behalf.
C. Read 1 Timothy 1:8-11, Galatians 2:21, and Romans 7:6. The law is not made for the righteous (the Christian), because we are to live by childlike faith—drawing from Jesus’ resurrection life. The Ten Commandments are good, but they don’t help produce godly behavior. They tell us what to do but don’t give us the power to do it.
D. Romans 10:4 indicates that Jesus is the end of the law for practical righteousness (a godly life). This verse reveals that the Christian is no longer to live by self-effort, but is to practice childlike faith, resting in Jesus as our life to produce a godly life of love. Romans 13:10 asserts that love fulfills the law. God wants the end result to be a holy, godly, loving life; but He wants it done in a new way: by Jesus living through us.
E. The Bible illustrates that the Christian life is a fight of faith. The Bible affirms that it is a work of faith to believe. We are to practice setting our mind on the promises of God—expectantly waiting for God to act on our behalf. By practicing a life of childlike faith, we rest in Jesus as our life to work through us. (See Hebrews 4:10-11 and Matthew 11:28-30.)