Pattern of the Life of Faith

Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11: 6). To please God, each of us must live by faith in Christ. Abel, Enoch, Noah had faith in God and He testified of them that they pleased Him. In Abel, we learn the commencement of the life of faith; Enoch teaches us the characteristics of the continuity of the faith: Noah’s life and action instruct us on the conviction and courage of the life of faith. The Scripture challenges us to let “Christ dwell in our hearts by faith” (Ephesians 3: 17), to “live by faith” (Galatians 2: 20), to pray in faith (James 1: 6), to resist our adversary, the devil, by faith (1 Peter 5: 8, 9), to overcome the world by faith (1 John 5: 4), to “walk by faith” (2 Corinthians 5: 7).
To please God and to walk with Him, we are to “walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had, being yet uncircumcised” (Romans 4: 12). Abraham’s life of faith provides a pattern for our faith. His life was nothing else, but a continual practice of faith. The first evidence of faith in his life is his obedience to God, when He called him out of his country. From then on, his life furnishes fuller details concerning the life of faith.
Beloved, our Salvation comes as a gift of God’s grace, but it can only be appropriated by the human response of faith. Faith in Jesus Christ is the only condition God requires for salvation. Faith is not only a profession about Christ, but also an activity coming from the heart of the believer who seeks to follow Christ as Lord and Saviour (Matthew 4: 19; 16: 24; Luke 9: 23-25; John 10: 4, 27; 12: 26; Revelation 14: 4).
The New Testament conception of faith includes four main elements:
a.) Faith means firmly believing and trusting in the crucified and risen Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour. It involves believing from our hearts (Acts 8: 37; Romans 6: 17; Ephesians 6:6; Hebrews 10: 22), that is, yielding up our wills and committing our total selves to Jesus Christ as He is revealed in the New Testament.
b.)Faith involves repentance, ie. Turning from sin with true sorrow (Acts 17: 30; 2 Corinthians 7: 10) and turning to God through Christ. Saving faith is always a repentant faith (Acts 2: 37-38; Matthew 3: 2).
c.) Faith includes obedience to Jesus Christ and His Word as a way of life inspired by faith, by gratitude to God, and by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit (John 3: 3-6; 14: 15, 21-24; Hebrews 5: 8-9). It is an “obedience of faith” (Romans 16:26). Hence, faith and obedience belong inseparably together (Romans 1: 5; 16: 26).
Note that “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved… and prepared an ark”. There had never been rain, much less a flood, before God spoke to Noah. Rain and flood were “things not seen as yet”. The entire world, walking by sight, did not believe that there could be such things. It took the courage of faith in the midst of ridicule and opposition. Noah believed God’s   Word, feared the coming judgment and that faith led him to obedience. He believed God’s warning that He had determined to  send a flood and destroy the wicked world, so he “moved with fear and prepared an ark to the saving of his house”. He escaped the judgment of God because he believed in God. It is by faith that the sinner is saved and escapes judgment (Acts 16: 31; John 5: 24). It is by faith that Christ dwells in the heart (Ephesians 3: 17).
d.) Faith includes a heartfelt personal devotion and attachment to Jesus Christ that expresses itself in trust, love, gratitude, and loyalty toward Him. Faith in an ultimate sense cannot properly be distinguished from Love. It is personal activity of sacrifice and self-giving directed toward Christ. (Matthew 22: 37; John 21: 15-17; Galatians 2: 20; Ephesians 6:6; 1 Peter 1: 8)
Faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour is both the act of a single moment and a continuing attitude for life that must grow and be strengthened (John 1: 12). Because we have faith in a definite person who died for us (Romans 4: 25; 8: 32; I Thessalonica 5: 9-10), our faith should become greater (Romans 4: 20; 2 Thess. 1: 3; I Peter 1: 3-9). This faith in Christ brings us into a new relationship with God and exempts us from His wrath (Romans 1: 18; 8:1); by it we become dead to sin (Romans 6: 1-12).
Faith strengthens the heart and delivers us from the fear of man. Faith and fear are opposites, where one is dominant the other is dormant. The fear of man is a negative force, a tool of Satan, that weakens and paralyses man. Fear makes a man to tremble before a fellow man and to melt away when faced with duty or divinely appointed responsibility. Faith enables a man to shun the smiles or frowns of men. A man with God-given faith refuses to be discouraged by the greatest problems. Faith survives the fires of Satanic assault and flourishes under the dews of the Spirit.
This is faith, living faith, mighty faith, faith that overcome the devil and escapes evil. ‘O for a faith that will not shrink, Though pressed by many a foe, that will not tremble on the brink of any earthly woe! Lord, give us such a faith as this, and then, whatever may come, we’ll taste, even here, the hallowed bliss of an eternal home’
In conclusion, it is by faith that we live (Galatians 2: 20). It is by faith that we stand (Romans 11: 20; 2 Corinthians 1: 24). It is by faith we walk (2 Corinthians 5: 7). It is by faith we resist the devil successfully (1 Peter 5: 8, 9). It is by faith we are sanctified (Acts 26: 18). Saving faith without the commitment to sanctification is illegitimate and impossible. It is by faith we have access to God (Ephesians 3: 12; Hebrews 10: 22). It is by faith we quench all the fiery darts of the wicked (Ephesians 6: 16). It is by faith we overcome the world (1 John 5: 4). It is by faith the sick are healed and made whole (Acts 3: 16; James 5: 15, 16). It is by faith mountains are removed (Matthew 21: 21; Mark 11: 22, 23). It is by faith demons are cast out (Mark 16: 17; Matthew 17: 18- 20). It is by faith we receive the Holy Spirit and His fullness (Galatians 3: 2, 14).
Receive grace to live a faith-filled life that is anchored on the blessed hope of the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ (Titus 2: 13), when believers will be caught up from the earth to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonica 4: 13-18), and when we shall see Him as He is and become like Him (Philippians 3: 20-21; 1 John 3: 2-3).

Your brother, Vicar & Archdeacon
Igein Isemede