Chapter 6: Why Should I Want Faith?

Go ahead and ask the unthinkable question. Why should I even want to live by faith? Why doesn't God just settle for a Christian who is living without serious sin, is obedient in loving others, gives generously of time and money, and does their fair share of service to keep Christian organizations active? Wouldn't that really be enough?

What purpose is served by trying to believe in things that can't be seen, waiting for things to happen which are improbable, and doing it all in such an unobtrusive manner that only God knows about it? It sometimes seems as though God makes it more difficult than necessary. He often withholds specific direction or the financial means for doing the job.

These are legitimate questions and complaints from the perspective of today's complacent Christian sitting in a comfortable church pew. Yet, when we understand God's reason behind faith, it makes perfect sense to trust Him.

Before looking at some practical biblical reasons for faith, let's first consider an important event that molded the perspective of Christians living in the 21st century.

In the early 4th century, Constantine became Rome's emperor. Because of a dramatic vision and subsequent military victory, he was convinced that God had directed him to rule Rome as a Christian emperor. On the surface, a Roman emperor favorable to Christianity appeared to be a welcome relief from the persecution of the earlier emperors Nero and Domitian. Shortly after Constantine began his rule, however, Christianity developed a very different character from that of its 1st century Apostolic founding. Now, rather than standing united against the common tyrant of Rome and pagan religion, the Church leaders began vying for positions of prominence. Constantine's rule recognized the ownership of church property and buildings. A clergy was established which had political power as well as ecclesiastical authority. Rather than the former threat of persecution for one's faith, there was now political advantage and wealth to be gained by becoming a leading churchman. The institutional Church took root.

Not all will agree with my assessment of this period of history. I feel, however, that starting with Constantine, a subtle shift took place in church life that we continue to struggle with today. In the 1st century, the Church was a highly diverse group of people who were united in their acceptance of Jesus as Messiah and Lord. The Church was not an institutional organization with buildings and a hierarchy of paid church staff. Believers were committed to the Jesus they had personally known, and their tie to each other was their common faith and the peril they faced in their hostile world. They had no sense of serving a denominational organization, nor was there a need to maintain church property and programs. For these early Christians, faith was a way of life that resulted from their life-changing knowledge of Jesus. It was because of Jesus that they suffered, and it was through Jesus that they could hope to survive.

Today, we can become completely immersed in a church organization that has little to do with a life of faith. The church property must be maintained. The staff must be paid. The Christian Education program must be planned and staffed. There is no threat to life from the local government. Instead, government is just a source of irritation in its demands for permits and paperwork in order to enlarge the parking lot or remove unsightly trees from the church property. Faith is viewed as commendable—and even desirable—but it is no longer perceived as necessary for survival in today's American Church.

With this legacy culminating in today's organized institutional Church, it is not surprising that we are asking ourselves if we really need to live by faith. However, if we would go back to the roots of our Christian experience and rediscover Jesus as the focus of our life, we would find that trusting Him in faith is the bond that gives strength and purpose in a world every bit as hostile to the Gospel as it was before the time of Constantine.

We need faith today just as much as the believers did in the Book of Acts because the same Deceiver is also our greatest enemy.

The Church in North America has become complacent in its presumed safety. As believers, we have been lulled into thinking that we are not in a life-or-death spiritual warfare that demands total commitment in faith to our Lord. We have been deceived. Our very survival demands that we live by faith. Only a sovereign God can lead and empower us to negotiate the complexities of the evil world in which we live.

Without faith, we are estranged from the empowering Jesus, allowing Satan to "devour" us in our apathy.

More than 22 years ago I began the process that has resulted in my current personal life of faith. Nonetheless, I did not start by asking Jesus for faith. Faith was the second step.

My starting point was a desperate cry to Jesus to give me a deep love for Him. Loving Jesus is the foundation for trusting Him.

In exactly the same way I suggested praying for faith in Chapter 5, I began praying first for a love for Jesus. I often came to Jesus, telling Him that I was His enemy^[1] and that I had no capacity within myself to love Him. Yet, I told him that I wanted to deeply love Him. I began spending long periods of time praying about this one issue. Daily I would ask Him to give me as much love for Himself as He wanted me to have. Sometimes, with a touch of humor, I would ask that if it was discretionary on His part, that He would give me the maximum permissible allotment of love for that day!

My acquaintances know me as a seemingly cold, non-people-oriented person who is unable to spontaneously express affection. Despite that personality, God began to give me a love for Jesus that moved me to my very core. Today I am so certain that I love Jesus deeply that it is the most unshakable truth in my life.

Loving Jesus is far from a completed process for me. I continue to implore Him to increase my love. Frequently during the day—while I am wiring an electrical panel or doing other mundane tasks—my mind is vibrantly alive with expressions of loving Jesus and my deep gratitude to Him for that gift.

Do I love Jesus as much as He wants me to? Absolutely! He has not withheld any of the love He wants me to have for Him today. For today, it is complete and perfect. He will do the same tomorrow, and next week, and next year!

There is no pride or arrogance regarding my love for Him. This love comes from Him, not me. There is nothing in me that could produce it and there is nothing in me that receives credit for it.

Then Jesus gave me a wonderful and unexpected gift. During a memorable time of prayer, He led me to understand that even though my love for Him was from Him alone, He nonetheless relinquished it to me to possess and to cherish as though it was my very own love for Him. He gave me complete control and joy in its ownership. It is now my love for Him.

Faith is extremely important in our Christian lives. If your life by faith is not what it should be, begin the process of pursuing it with all your heart. Before pursuing faith, however, if you do not already passionately love Jesus, start there. Plead with Jesus to give you a deep love for Him. Pursue loving Him with all of your energy. Then you will discover why you want to live by faith.

Because I passionately love Jesus, it is unthinkable that I would not want to trust Him, despite all of my own imperfection. There will be no greater impetus in your life for wanting to live by faith than the simple fact that you love Jesus.

When God created the human race, He gave us the highest level of moral responsibility. He gave us the ability—along with all of its inherent responsibility and consequences—to choose. You and I are free moral agents.^[2]

However, free moral agency is not limited to an initial salvation experience. God also allows me to choose whether or not I wish to live by faith. I may choose to pursue faith aggressively, thus pleasing God. On the other hand, I am also free to sidestep the issue as though I believed faith was for some special class of Christians of which I am not a part. Accordingly, I can choose to sit in my church pew for the rest of my life as an "average" Christian, incurring God's displeasure for my lack of obedience.

Aside from the blessings that will come from living by faith, there will also be a reward in Heaven for obedience in choosing to pursue faith. In Heaven, I want to receive Jesus' acknowledgment that I chose to trust Him.

Now do you see why I make such an emphasis on pursuing faith by asking God for something that we cannot produce in ourselves? No one individual has a greater capacity for faith than another. In fact, none of us have any natural capacity for faith. If some did, then their choice to live by faith would be based on personal ability. However, we all start at the same point; none of us have the ability to trust God. There is no special group that has a greater advantage in the faith life. All of us have equal opportunity to choose to live by faith. We will be judged or rewarded on the basis of our choice.

Who is God to you? Is He remote-a mere Sunday School God who is distant and outside of your constant awareness? Why would you want to live by faith in total dependence on One who has little involvement in your daily life?

Faith is often viewed as an end in itself, as though God wants us to do spiritual calisthenics called "living by faith" so that we will build up a mysterious faith strength.

That is not true. God wants us to live by faith so that we will increasingly learn to trust Him as a Person. Faith is not an end in itself. The purpose of faith is to bring us into a deeper dependence on Him.

This understanding opens the door to an intriguing truth. Why does living by faith so often take us through such emotionally and physically difficult times? The answer is simple. Because it is the perils of life that cause the greatest growth and deepest bonding.

We see this every day in secular organizations and events. Alternative youth programs for teens in trouble with the law have often used wilderness camping to modify their anti-social behavior. These camps are rigorous, but often report satisfactory results as teenagers are pushed to their limits. Similarly, the media frequently reports tragedies in which total strangers are united in a common struggle for survival. It is not the easy, normal times that create the deepest sense of positive change. It is the most difficult.

This is also true in our Christian experience. Our faith will grow strongest in difficult times. This is not a faith that is just a "thing" or a "capacity," but a faith that trusts a real Person. In God's loving sovereignty, He wants us to know Him better. The most effective way to learn the depth of His care is often through the greatest adversity.

This is an appropriate place to add a brief comment. As we grow in our Christian life, we do not become more familiar with God. Rather, we will have a deepening sense of His holiness and our abject inability to stand in His presence apart from the righteousness of Christ. Over-familiarity with God is a mark of immaturity; it is not an indication of spiritual growth.

There are two Christian assumptions that I feel are wrong. The first is that we live by faith in this life, but that in Heaven we will live by sight. We infer this from 2 Corinthians 5:6-7:

Most certainly we live by faith now. We can also be certain that we will someday see our present trials from an eternal perspective of sight. Frequently we are given similar insight into our life of faith here when the Lord gives us more complete understanding after a difficult trial is over. Nonetheless, even though we can now see some past events with a limited degree of sight, new events will still be lived by faith.

Hebrews 11:6 tells us that "without faith it is impossible to please God." We already know that this is more than a New Testament principle because the witnesses referred to by the writer of Hebrews were Old Testament saints. Therefore, we can safely say that all who have lived since Adam sinned have been required to please God by means of faith. Can we apply this verse to Adam's sinless state before the Fall? The basis of man's first sin was disobedience in the area of faith. Adam did not exercise sufficient faith in God to obey His directive. Adam wanted to take the initiative himself. Certainly, therefore, the principle of Hebrews 11:6 applies to mankind before man's sin. It was impossible for Adam and Eve to please God without faith.

Does the principle of Hebrews 11:6 apply anywhere else? What issue was involved in the downfall of Satan and the angels who followed him? It was disobedience based on a lack of reliance (faith) on the holiness and supremacy of God. We would probably feel little reluctance in applying this verse to Satan's fall. Satan wanted to become independent of God's control rather than relying by faith on what God knew to be best. God was not pleased when Satan acted outside of faith.

If the above applications of the principle of Hebrews 11:6 are appropriate, we then have a principle which extends far beyond the present age between Pentecost and the promised return of Christ. Why would we think that life in Heaven will not also require faith to please God?

Think of the incongruity of life in Heaven if we did not live by faith. It would imply that we had infinite knowledge and were no longer dependent on God. That will never be the case! Consequently, if we are dependent on God in Heaven—and I believe our dependency on His provision will be just as great there as it is here on earth—then we will also need faith in Heaven. Further, we will serve Him for all of eternity. Most certainly we would not contemplate a service that was devoid of faith!

Therefore, it seems entirely reasonable that we will live by faith in Heaven just as we must live by faith here on earth. Now, let's go to the second Christian assumption before we make an application.

This second Christian notion—though it is almost never verbalized—is that when we reach Heaven, God will give all of us a full measure of Christian graces. We feel that somehow—with possibly the exception of some of the great saints like the Apostle Paul—God will endow each of us with an equal allotment of faith, love, and the like. With that new allotment of Christian graces, we presume that we will all start over again in Heaven with an equal capacity to live for God.

At this point, I will not try to use Bible verses to buttress my personal opinion. I will simply state my thinking for your consideration.

I think that believers will carry their capacity for faith into eternity with them. (I think this will also be true of the capacity to love God.) Then, if I could speculate even further, I think there will be a multiplying factor applied to the faith I take to Heaven so that it will be increased by that factor's amount. Consequently, if I enter Heaven with great faith, it will be multiplied so that I can operate in Heaven with proportionally greater faith. If I enter Heaven with stunted faith, it will be increased only in due proportion so that I have faith commensurate to the limited tasks I would be capable of doing there.

Let me anticipate an objection. You will say that there will be no tears in Heaven. You are correct. Nonetheless, those with stunted faith will fully understand the reason why they will not have greater faith in Heaven. In fact, they will rejoice in the justice of God and will be satisfied that God dealt appropriately with them without violating His justice by playing favorites. So too, the ones whose faith will be multiplied will never become arrogant. Remember, even in Heaven they will still understand that it is not their faith, but is the faith Jesus granted to them.

However, just as we experience a gracious God who leads us past first mistakes in this life, so, too, we could speculate that in Heaven, God will patiently provide remedial growth in faith.

What I have just said is speculative. Nonetheless, I personally want to be fully prepared when I see Jesus. When I first see Him, I do not plan on embracing Him as though He were a peer. I expect to prostrate myself at His feet when I first see Him as Yahweh Incarnate. At the same time, I do not want to be ashamed of any lack in pursuing faith while I was living here.

Remember, just as my faith is complete today if I have asked Jesus for it, so too in Heaven, if I have been conscientious in pursuing faith here on earth, my faith will be entirely satisfactory to Him. I will experience no regret or shame in His presence for my lack of faith. If I have regularly pursued faith here, my faith in Heaven will be everything both Jesus and I will want it to be. My faith will please God!

I want to have faith today because I want to please Jesus. I also want to have great faith today so that Jesus can give me the most difficult assignments possible in Heaven.

We often assume that believers are given faith in order to accomplish great tasks for God. Certainly, God uses the faith of some in this way. In John 14:12-14 Jesus told His Disciples,

Jesus said, "I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father." A believer's faith that is expressed in a request consistent with God's purpose, allows Jesus to complete a task that glorifies the Father. Literally, Jesus is asking us to bring requests to Him so that He can glorify the Father through their completion.

From the perspective of the individual believer, however, there is a more basic reason for faith than the tasks that can be accomplished. We have already considered the passages in Hebrews 4 that talk about the believer's rest. "Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it." (verse 1), and Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

Learning to trust Jesus is the fundamental reason that the believer should desire faith. In this simple act of learning to rely more on God and less on oneself, the believer will most completely glorify God, and in turn, will be a channel through whom God can work.

Lord God, I want to learn to live by faith. I want to learn how to live by faith by watching You—not by accepting the standard of those around me. Jesus, most of all, I want to trust You because I love You.

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