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The Object
of Our Faith
"When
we are faithless, He remains faithful
When the Apostle John says, "This is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith" (1 Jn. 5:4), he is saying that there is amazing power in faith. It is not faith, in and of itself, that has such power but rather the Object of faith. The object of the believer’s faith is the Lord Jesus Christ and our faith overcomes the world because of who He is. "Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." (Jn 16:33) We might all have been tempted, as the disciples were, to ask our Lord, "Increase our faith!" (Lk. 17:5) but Jesus gently exposed the error in their thinking as only the Light of the world could do. He said, "If you had faith as a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea;’ and it would obey you." (Lk. 17:6) What Jesus was saying by comparing faith to the smallest of seeds was that it is not the amount of your faith that has power but the object of your faith. "All things are possible to him who believes" (Mk. 9:23) only when that belief is in the One with whom all things are possible (cf. Matt. 19:26). The Apostle Paul wrote, "It is of faith that it might be by grace" which might be paraphrased, "It is of nothing on our part that it might be by everything on God’s part." Therefore let us not make anything of "our faith" but everything of the Object of that faith. Many teachers today urge believers to examine their faith to be sure they "truly believe." Yet it is not our faith that saves us but the One in whom our faith rests. If one’s faith is in false gods or in one's own good works, those things can never save. But the one whose faith is in Jesus Christ is secure forever and can rest assured because, and only because, of who his Lord is. Our rest is in Him, not in our faith. We are well-pleasing, beloved sons and daughters of God because our faith is in Him of whom the Father spoke, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17). We are righteous because our faith is in Jesus Christ The Righteous. And though we may die, we shall live because our faith is in Him who said, "I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore" (Rev. 1:18). We are what we are because of who He is and apart from Him, we are nothing. When our minds are set on the Lord Jesus Christ, our faith is immovable. Why? Because He is our Rock! The writer to the Hebrews encourages us when he writes, "Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Heb. 12:1-2). When the cares of this world lay heavily upon you, look at your Lord and all that He is and "consider Him who endured…so that you will not grow weary and lose heart" (Heb. 12-3). Look at the Light and the darkness will be overcome! |
