“The just shall live by his faith” Habakkuk 2:4.
In October we celebrate the great work of the Reformation at Christ the King. Of particular importance to us Lutheran believers is the confession that sinners are brought into a right relationship with God the Father only by the sheer grace of God accessed through faith in the perfect life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior of the world. The writer of Habakkuk summarizes: “The just shall live by his faith.” Who is the person who is in a right relationship with God? The Prophets, Apostles and Evangelists unanimously testify that in God’s eyes, a just person is the individual who places his faith in the saving plan of God in Christ, depending only on Jesus’ righteousness, not on his or her own goodness or merit.
Saving faith, that is, the kind of faith which God says justifies us before Him, always has three components. It will do us well to reflect upon the existence of these three components in our faith lives this month. First of all, such faith KNOWS about Jesus with our mind. It knows that God exists, that Jesus the Son of God, came to earth at the proper time and was born of Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate, and that He suffered and was buried. Faith indeed has this cognitive side. These truths are learned, apprehended with our minds. However, such cranial knowledge on its own, never justifies us before God or saves us from our sins. James tells us that even the Devil and his evil angels KNOW these facts, and yet they tremble with fear (James 2:19)!
A second and most critical aspect of true, saving faith is that it always involves TRUSTING in the Good News of the Gospel with our whole heart: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved” (Acts 16:31). Beyond mere knowing with our minds, we must also believe with our hearts! Not just faith that God exists, but faith in a God Who exists; Who sent His One and Only Son to die to forgive our sins and Who rose to give us life and makes us one with the Father. THIS KIND OF FAITH, a faith in the heart, given by God the Spirit in baptism and through His Word, is what justifies that is, makes us right before God our Heavenly Father.
The third and final aspect of a true, saving faith that justifies us before God is that it always includes confessing the faith with our lips and life: “the word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is the word of faith which we preach) because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord an believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you WILL be saved (Romans 10: 8-9).”
In a month where we celebrate the grace of God which has come to us only by grace through faith in Jesus, we show a true, saving faith that justifies by intimately knowing of our Savior in our minds, by trusting that His perfect righteousness is ours by faith, and by telling the world about Him by word and deed. This is the treasure of faith we celebrate this month and always…and this is the Good News we are here to share with others!
Celebrating a saving faith in Christ of mind, heart and lips with you,
Pastor Randy
