The Faith of Christ

    

 

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

–Galatians 2:20 (NKJV)

 

 

The last part of this verse says, “I live by the faith OF the Son of God”—not that I live by faith IN the Son of God. We certainly place our faith IN the finished work of Christ. But in this verse, it is obvious that Paul said he was living by the faith OF Jesus Christ. Paul said this same thing twice just a few verses earlier in Galatians.

 

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Galatians 2:16, KJV).

 

In Galatians 2:16, the faith OF Christ is referred to two times. Our faith IN Christ is referred to only once. Yes, we place our faith IN Christ and trust Him for our salvation. However, it is not our faith IN Christ that justifies us but the faith OF Christ that makes us right with God. Human faith strives to justify itself by believing it must do the right thing when Christ’s faith has already accomplished the right thing. Our human faith puts the emphasis on our efforts instead of us trusting in the glorious miracle of the new life Jesus has purchased for us.

 

We were so spiritually depleted that we could not even believe in salvation with our own faith. We had to have Christ’s supernatural faith that came to us as a gift through hearing God’s Word (Ephesians 2:8, Romans 10:17). Human faith believes only in what is experienced and felt. God’s kind of faith goes beyond what we can see, taste, hear, smell, and feel. His kind of faith calls things that are not seen or felt as though they are (Romans 4:17). We just trust and believe what His faith has already acquired for us. 

 

When Paul said, “I live by the faith of the Son of God,” he was declaring that he was exercising the faith OF Christ. Paul knew that nothing within himself justified him to receive so great a gift. But he knew that Christ had purchased it for him and as a born-again believer it was his. 

 

“For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Romans 12:3, KJV).

 

There are not different measures of faith. Every believer has been given THE measure of faith. This says that there is one measure of faith. Since Paul said the faith he was living by was “THE faith of the Son of God,” then that must be the measure of faith given to every believer.

 

Many believers do not know that they have THE faith OF Christ. This truth cannot be understood with the natural mind (1 Corinthians 2:14). It can only be spiritually understood through the revelation power of the Holy Spirit (John 6:63). 

 

We never have a lack of faith because every believer has been given Christ’s measure of faith. We only lack knowledge of what is ours in Christ. When we know who we are in Christ, we believe what is ours by the faith of Christ. The old man that once lived is gone, and we live by the powerful faith of Jesus in His gift of new life.

 

Praise God that our new life in Christ is full of His faith and not our own! Isn’t it an amazing thing that God shared His life and faith without heaping religious burdens on us? There is absolute peace placing our trust in Jesus’ faith instead of in our own.

 

 

© 2021 Lynn Lacher

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