"Why Faith?"
Part 5 - "The Pleasure Of the Personal"
The God of Scripture eternally dwells as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Bible plainly refers to each Person of the Divine godhead in terms of Divinity, while unapologetically maintaining its affirmation, "There is one God" (I Timothy 2:5). This reveals our Lord's existence in terms of relationship, a fact confirmed during His earthly lifetime when the Lord Jesus Christ referred to communion with the Father in the most personal terms:
"The Father loveth the Son… I love the Father… I know Him, for I am from Him and He sent Me" (John 3:35; 14:31; 7:29).
The Bible speaks less about the Holy Spirit's communion with the Father and the Son. It does plainly identify Him as God, however, and we can know that the Spirit lives in the glory of Divine relationship and fellowship no less than the other Persons of the Trinity. Such truth relates to us because God originally created the human race in His image, thus constituting relationship as central to our own life and existence (Genesis 1:27). Sin gravely damaged this likeness to our Creator, but salvation in the Lord Jesus births a "new man created in righteousness and true holiness" (Ephesians 4:24). This makes possible genuine communion with God - "our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ" - which leads to the theme of these messages: Why faith? (I John 1:3).
As created, conscious beings dependent on the living God, faith serves as a matter of our very life and survival. However, faith also links us to our Lord in terms of loving, relational reality. Through Christ, God birthed us as His sons and daughters, thus beckoning us to know Him more and more. Our Heavenly Father calls us to believe He is present and available to us at all times, and that as we approach Him by faith, we genuinely relate to Him despite our present limitations of seeing "through a glass, darkly" (I Corinthians 13:12). "The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God" affirmed Paul (Romans 8:16). A vital aspect of such knowledge is faith, that is, the devoted trust whereby we know Him, and perhaps just as importantly, we know that we know Him. "The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God" (Romans 8:29).
Why faith? Because God is personal, and trust relates us to Him in this primary characteristic of His eternal reality. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3). When we trust God, we relate to Him in response to His relating to us. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17). Thus, we view faith not only in terms of salvation and survival, but as the blessed means whereby we walk in the fellowship of the Father and Son, as revealed in us by the Holy Spirit. This is God's good pleasure, the pleasure of the personal revealed in us by faith.
"Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit… And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him"
(I John 4:13; 16)
Weekly Memory Verse
"In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world."
(John 16:33)
5650
No comments:
Post a Comment