Jesus is Author and Perfector of faith
If one died…then all died. Which also means, those that have died have also been raised. We have been made alive with Him, completely, totally, and in complete perfection.
See Romans 6:3-11 (NKJV)
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise, you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Here’s the fantastic TRUTH contained in Jesus: You are a new creation. Now. Not later. Not after Jesus comes again. Now.
The work is complete - the reality has been conferred onto you - even if we don’t fully understand the fullness of its power or grasp the wider reaching significance of all that Jesus has done.
The reality is, the truth of the new creation is forever true, whether our understanding comprehends it or not. In time we will grow to see more and more of its fullness. We have to understand that it’s not our comprehension of the truth that makes it true. Our comprehension of the truth does play a role, but not in validating or making the profound truth of what God has done any truer. Simply stated - truth…IS. Our understanding or felt revelation of this truth, what is known as our subjective experience, isn’t making it true – however - it is bringing that truth alive inside our everyday, lived experience of who God is and who we are in Him.
If God’s eternal truth relied on our AMEN to make it true, then we would be the ones having the final say over the purposes and power of an Almighty, Eternal, Sovereign God. We are just not that powerful. God will have His way, and by faith, we will catch up with His already completed plan as our eyes of faith become enlightened [as Paul says in Ephesians Chapter One]. In other words, we are waking up to the truth of a work of reconciliation that God has already fully and completely finished. What is true in Christ, right now, is you are fully reconciled to the Father. And…it’s not dependent on anything that you can bring to the table.
The faith of Jesus has birthed you
He is the author and perfector of faith. We haven’t invited Jesus into our lives - He has brought us into His life with the Father. The Message of the Gospel doesn’t demand faith; it supplies faith. Jesus Christ is our faith. We are saved by His unmerited grace a free gift. You see, it can’t be free but then also require a price tag, an action on your behalf, a set of behaviours, or prayers, or religious observances or a set of regular, daily faith practices, in order to make it true, maintain it or prop it up.
These statements might shock some of us.
“Wait a minute,” I hear you say. “Doesn’t my faith and action bring God closer to me,” as if God needs our approval to move in love towards us. Well…He didn’t need that response from us before the foundation of the world. Truth is, we weren’t even there! Yet His creative, redemptive and loving plan was in motion from the very start of Creation.
Certainly, there is a response you can make. And we should make it. But it’s NOT that our works or actions, or straining to believe, or confessing every detail of every sin we can think of, or serving in your church, or stopping to help old ladies across the road, or giving up your cigarettes, or volunteering at the local homeless shelter, or giving your money to something - or any other myriad of things that we can think of - activates God’s favour over us and makes our Christianity any more certain. Our response is simply in our rest and surrender; our thankfulness and ever growing, worshipful awareness - as our spiritual eyes begin to see again and our estranged, alienated, orphaned hearts begin to believe. As our inner being wakes up to the overwhelming truth of God’s presence that is already abiding with us and in us, we are made alive. There is nothing more you can do to make yourself more acceptable to receive His presence. Nor can you do anything that will force Him to remove His presence from you.
As Romans 8 says:
In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
