How Shall the Righteous Shall Live by Faith?
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Think of Abraham — leaving his country, setting out for a distant land while not knowing how he would survive. He packed possessions, bundled up his family, and accounted for all the potential losses ahead — knowing that enemies would likely be in his path.
Jesus honors us as we walk and step out in faith before Him. As we take our personal times with Him, so sweetly hearing His voice of truth in our hearts and being led in our spirits, we bring heart and spirit to bear in our daily lives. Jesus is near, and He is leading us all to live lives of faith in a darkening world, according to the faith He has apportioned to each one of us. God has made us righteous by faith, and He increases our resolve to endure and persevere in faith as long as we keep stepping forward in the faith He has thus far given to us.
We do not want to be like the servant who gives his master no return. Not at all. We want to be like the virgins of the gospel parable with lamps prepared for their master’s return. So, by faith, we press on. We don’t allow the discouragements of our sin keep us from truly pressing on. Abraham was a failure — he lied about his wife, among other sins — but He also kept believing God. And look at how God honored him. God “believes” our faith as we walk in it, and as we confess our lack of it. We must simply walk with Him in honesty and trust that in Christ the breastplate of righteousness has truly descended upon us, over our very hearts to protect us.
Do you admire that faith of Abraham to step out? I do.
Do you admire the faith of Abraham to keep trusting in God, while knowing his own faults and failings — believing God would not leave him? I do.
We may trust in ourselves and our own solutions to get out of difficult circumstances. This is to transgress God’s jurisdiction for us. Living by faith may cause us to find ourselves in some predicaments. But these are opportunities to see our faith grow, as we depend on the solutions of Jesus.
But when we transgress, Jesus is present to hear our repentance and is utterly faithful to plead His righteousness before the Father. Isn’t God good? The psalms proclaim that God is good and does good always. So, how can we know that the faith we have in God for His righteousness to become ours is a good faith? Well, we see how He leads us by faith to good places where we can thrive and be fulfilled. He desires that we would bear much fruit in all righteousness. And this righteousness is produced by faith — a faith in the God whose character we admire and come to emulate in our days here. We, the righteous in Jesus, live by faith. We trust that it is this life of faith that does overcome the world.
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Lianna Davis is author of Keeping the Faith: A Study in Jude and Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss. She is also a contributor to We Evangelicals and Our Mission with Cascade Books. Lianna is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and a student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She lives in Illinois with her husband and daughter. You can learn more about her writing at her website.