This is the fourth blog in the 2 Peter 1 series. Diligence is in place. Now Peter takes us to the foundation of the whole chain.
2 Peter 1:5, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue.”
Faith is the floor that holds everything else up. You cannot stack virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, or charity on top of nothing. They all need a base, and that base is faith.
What Faith Is
Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines faith as belief, and in theology it is the assent of the mind or understanding to the truth of what God has revealed.
Faith is taking God at His word. It is believing what He said is true and acting on it. The opposite of faith is unbelief, which is a man hearing God speak and refusing to take Him at His word.
The Picture of Faith in the Bible
The picture of faith in the Bible is Abraham. He is called the father of the faithful. He left his country at God’s word, believed God for a son in old age, and put that son on an altar without staggering. God told him to go, and he went. God told him to believe, and he believed. God told him to give his son back, and he obeyed.
The Man on the Branch
There was a man who slipped off the side of a cliff and on the way down he caught hold of a small branch sticking out of the rock. There he was, dangling over a long fall, hanging on with both hands as hard as he could. A man up at the top called down to him, “Let go.” The man on the branch yelled back, “If I let go, I will fall and die.” The man at the top said, “No. There is a ledge just below you. You cannot see it from where you are. Trust me. Let go.”
Faith is letting go of every other rope and trusting the One who can actually save you. A man cannot save himself by holding tighter to his own works, his own goodness, or his own ability. He has to let go and fall on Christ, and the moment he does, he finds out Christ was holding him the whole time.
Real trust in Christ is when a man rests the whole weight of his soul on Him. Looking at his sin, his past, his future, death, and judgment, he casts himself entirely on Jesus to save him and to keep him saved forever.
That is the kind of faith Peter is talking about in 2 Peter 1:1 when he says we have obtained “like precious faith.”
What Faith Is, in God’s Own Words
Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:2, “For by it the elders obtained a good report.”
This is the Bible’s own definition of faith. Faith gives substance to what you hope for and proof of what you cannot see. Faith treats what God promised as real and as good as done before any of it has shown up in your hands. Verse 2 says the saints of the past obtained a good report by it.
Where Faith Comes From
Faith comes from the Word of God. A man cannot build his own faith out of nothing. He receives and feeds on the Word, and that is how faith grows strong.
Romans 10:17, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
Faith does not come from positive thinking, or from emotion, or from a sunset, or from a song. It comes from hearing the Word of God. If you want more faith, you do not chase a feeling. You feed on the Bible. The man who is in his Bible every day is the man who has faith for what life throws at him.
Psalm 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”
What Faith Does at Salvation
Faith is what brings the lost man into the family of God in the first place. Without it, no man is justified. With it, every man becomes a child of God.
Romans 5:1
“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Galatians 3:26
“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”
Faith in Christ opens the doo, brings peace with God, and makes a sinner a son.
How the Just Live by Faith
Faith is not just at the front door of becoming a Christian. It is needed for our daily walk. Once you come in by faith, you also live by faith every day after that.
Romans 1:17, “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”
Romans 14:23, “And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”
Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. That covers a lot of ground. Anything you do without faith, even something that looks lawful on the outside, becomes sin to you.
Faith Grows Through Testing
The Bible expects your faith to grow, and God uses trials to test it and make it stronger. Faith does not have to be huge at the start. It has to be alive and placed in Christ, and it grows from there.
Luke 17:5, “And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.”
Luke 17:6, “And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.”
The apostles knew their faith was not where it needed to be, and they asked Jesus to increase it. The Lord answered with the mustard seed picture. A small seed of real faith placed in Christ does more than a mountain of self-confidence ever will.
Paul thanked God for the Thessalonians because their faith grew exceedingly. Faith that growing is the goal.
