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FAITH AND PERSEVERANCE

Christian Life, ,

FAITH AND PERSEVERANCE

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. Hebrews 11:6

If humility is the basis of our approach to God, without faith and perseverance, prayer will achieve nothing. Unlike the pagans, who “pray” to get what they want, God’s children draw near to Him because they are family, and family members are held together by the bonds of love and trust. Children look to their Father because they trust Him. They know Him and they are confident that He will always do what is best for them. They don’t give up because they know that He will keep His promises to them.

Faith is a non-negotiable attitude in our interaction with this God through prayer. Our entire lives as disciples of Jesus are based on confidence in a God we cannot see with our human eyes or hear with our human ears, but we are convinced is real. Jesus stated very simply:

Have faith in God. (Mark 11:22)

Who is this God in whom we are to have faith? If we were to follow the Pharisees’ interpretation of God, we would not have much to go on. We would have to entrust ourselves to a God who is always on the lookout for violations of His commandments. We would be cowering under the weight of our guilt. We would be working very hard to earn His favour by nit-picking over every little rule and regulation. Despite all that, we would still be more focused on our efforts to satisfy Him than on His mercy and grace towards us. We would have more faith in ourselves than in Him. But….

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. (Heb.11: 6)

The bottom line is “Who is the God in whom we must have faith?” If our confidence is not rooted in the one true God whom Jesus came to reveal, we have nothing because no other god exists. The Pharisees’ god and every other god are inventions of human imagination. We can see and know who the real God is when we gaze at Jesus because He is the perfect replica and representation of the Father.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth . . . No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known. (John 1: 14; 8)

Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’ Don’t you believe that I am?

I have revealed you to those you gave me out of the world. (John 17: 6a)

The Scriptures give us overwhelming evidence, both from the mouth of Jesus and from His witnesses, that He is a true and accurate representative of the Father.

Paul wrote:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (Col. 1:15),

and the writer to the Hebrews echoed:

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being . . . (Heb. 1: 3a)

This is the God in whom we must have faith, not some being of our own creation. Jesus modelled faith in God. He did not question the Father’s intentions or His instructions because He knew Him. He had a strong and unbreakable link with the Father because He had faith in who He is, and how reliable He is.

As Jesus’s disciples, we are to follow our rabbi, entrusting ourselves to the Father as unquestioningly as He did, relying on Him not just to do what we ask, but relying on Him, full stop, no matter what, because He is God, and we are not.

Another parable illustrates the attitude of perseverance.

Then Jesus told His disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and never give up. (Luke 18: 1)

What do you suppose He meant by “always pray” and “never give up”? Is God so reluctant to answer us that it takes a lot of praying to persuade Him to intervene for us? This story is about a worldly judge who gave in to a widow’s persistence because she would not give up. The story is not about how like the unjust judge God is. It’s about how unlike him He is. The judge finally gave in to the woman and did what she requested because she pestered him day and night and refused to take “no” for an answer. God intervenes speedily because we are His children. The answer to our question is found in Jesus’s final statement:

However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? (Luke 18: 8b)

If the judge finally gave in to get rid of the nagging widow because she persevered, surely God will be far more gracious to us than that because He is our Father, and we trust Him!

Why does God want us to pray and to persevere in prayer? Faith! To build our faith! But why is our faith so important to God? Faith is the invisible link between us and God. It’s about relationship. Our faith in God is more precious to Him than gold. 

These have come (‘all kinds of trials’) so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1: 7)

Trust is the basis of any relationship that works. When trust breaks down, the relationship ceases to have any meaning. God is invisible but real. However, for us humans, trust in God is built up over a long period of time and through many trials when we have no other option but to trust Him. Don’t you think that God would orchestrate or allow those trials to develop our faith if it is so precious to Him?

Abraham is an example of one who learned to trust God over many years as God tested him and taught him how to persevere. He waited for twenty-five years for God to give him the son He had promised. Many of us would have given in and given up, but not Abraham. His desire for a son was so strong and his confidence in God’s promise so secure that he refused to give up on God.

By faith Abraham, even though he was past age – and Sarah herself was barren – was enabled to become a father because he considered Him faithful who had made the promise. (Heb. 11: 11)

Perseverance is not stubbornness or presumption. It is committed and persistent trust based on the faithfulness of God. God’s promises are a declaration of intent, but they come into effect in His time and in His way. We have a part to play in the fulfilment of those promises – faith and patience.

We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. (Heb. 6: 12)

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE

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IT IS IMPOSSIBLE

The law is only a shadow of the good things to come – not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they have stopped being offered? For the worshippers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (Heb. 10: 1-4).

We often think that, because God is God, there is nothing impossible with Him. In one sense, it is true, but in another sense, it is not true because God will never contradict His own being. There are many things that are impossible for man to do which God can do, but there are many things that man can do, simply because man in sinful, which God cannot do. Hallelujah!

What can God not do?

1. God cannot lie. He is the embodiment of all truth. What He says, He will carry out, be it for our blessing or for judgment. God’s judgment, even though it is delayed because of His mercy, is just as sure as His promises.

When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. But now I will arraign you and set my accusations before you (Psa. 50: 21).

2. God cannot be unfaithful. He is utterly steadfast. He is as sure and immovable as a rock. He is trustworthy and dependable. Unlike humans who are fickle and changeable, God remains steadfastly the same. Unlike the gods who are capricious and unpredictable, God always acts within the framework of His own nature.

If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot disown Himself (2 Tim. 2: 13).

3. God cannot reject a repentant sinner. It is His nature to have mercy, and He longs for His wayward sons and daughters to return to Him. He takes no delight in the death of anyone. Jesus gave His life for the sin of the world, not just for the sin of the elect. He issues an open invitation to “whoever”. He assures us:

All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away (John 6: 37).

4. God cannot not love. God is love. The essence of His being is to love. He is true to Himself when He loves. God shows His love by acting. To His wayward people, through the prophet Jeremiah, He declared:

The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.’ (Jer. 31: 3).

5. God cannot grow weary. God does not need to rest. Though he rested on the seventh day after creation, it was not a rest of weariness but of completion. He rested when His work was done. Jesus rested for three days in the grave because He had completed the work of redemption.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom (Isa. 40: 28). 

6. God cannot sleep. He does not need sleep. God is always watching over His work and His word. He keeps watch over His people. Nothing can slip past His vigilance because He is steering His creation towards His desired end.

He will not let your foot slip – for He who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep (Psa. 121: 3-4).

7. God cannot be unjust. It is His nature to be perfectly just, always. Though people think they can get away with what they do because He seems not to notice or not to care, we can be assured that He will act to bring justice, even after the end of time. There are no favourites with God either.

And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? (Luke 18: 7).

8. God cannot change. Neither time nor age can change God. He is timeless and consistent.

Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8).

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1: 17).

Therefore, because of who God is, He cannot justify the sinner on the basis of animal blood. Just as it is impossible for God to act outside of who He is, so it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Sin can only be atoned for by the blood of the sinner – or by the blood of a sinless human whose blood is shed as a substitute for the sinner. Jesus was the perfect substitute for us.

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isa. 53: 5-6).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

ANCHORED IN HOPE

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ANCHORED IN HOPE

God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 6: 18-20).

When God makes a promise and seals it with an oath, we have the assurance that what He has promised is of great significance. His promises are all unbreakable, oath or no oath, because He is God and He cannot lie. However, the oath is for us, not for Him, to reassure us that He means every word He has spoken.

Our hope of receiving what He has promised is anchored to Jesus, who has taken His own sacrificial blood into the Most Holy Place in the heavenly realms as an atonement for our sin. His blood guarantees that God has forgiven and blotted out everything that was written against us. Our high priest is neither a weakling nor a sinner like the Levitical high priests and the blood He presents is not animal blood which cannot atone for sin, but His own blood which He gave for the world.

To go back to the old religious system, which was only a picture of what Messiah had come to do, was as unthinkable and impossible as adults returning to infancy. Why would his readers want to throw away an unshakeable hope that their salvation was secure, to go back to rules and rituals that did not bring them the peace of sins forgiven – forever?

What does an anchor do? It secures a vessel to something immovable so that it will not drift off course and be dashed to pieces on the rocks during a storm. These Hebrew Christians were in the midst of a violent storm – such hatred from the authorities that their lives were in constant danger.

Their circumstances offered them no security. Where did their security lie? It lay in God’s promises – nothing that humans could do to them could separate them from God’s love. Whether they lived or died, their eternal destiny was sure because they had a high priest who spoke for them. This high priest did not enter an earthly sanctuary which was only a model of the heavenly sanctuary. He entered heaven itself to present His own blood to the Father.

Those of us who have believed and received this promise are anchored in hope to the mercy of God in the Holy of Holies in heaven. Jesus is not a Levitical high priest who will die and be replaced by another mortal man. He is a high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

The writer had tried several times to introduce his readers to Jesus’s high priesthood in the order of Melchizedek but he was aware of their immaturity and inability to understand the “meat” of the word. This time, he plunged on because he wanted them to understand how Jesus fulfilled the entire system of Judaism, so that they were no longer bound by its rules and rituals. There was no more need for animal sacrifices and all the rigmarole that went with them. These were a reminder of the instructions and teachings – torah – of Yahweh which were intended to show them, in practical ways, how to fulfil the greatest commandment both to love God and to love their neighbour, and how to make atonement when they failed to love.

Unfortunately, what was intended to be a provision for sin had become an excuse to sin. Sacrifices and rituals became a way out for them so that they could go on sinning with impunity. Instead of teaching them the heinousness and infectiousness of sin, they became hardened to sin’s seriousness because their sacrifices were always a way out, so they thought.

When God laid all the judgment for sin on His own Son, and then raised His from the dead as proof that sin’s debt had finally been paid, He showed us just what sin does to human beings. He ordained Jesus to be the eternal and never-to-die-again high priest who is at the Father’s right hand making intercession for us, presenting His blood so that we might be forgiven and so that we might turn away from sin and live according to His word.

Can we have an anchor and a hope more secure than that? Absolutely not!

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.