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From Faith to Faith

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” Romans 1:17

You can't read the Bible like a regular book. There's just too much greatness that doesn't get caught with a casual skim. Every once in a while you read through a passage that makes you hit the brakes, makes you go back and ask, "What does this mean?"

Romans 1:17 is such a passage. When I come across these passages, the revisit is always worth it. When I look around for context, when I drill down to see what the language really means, there's always some extra-special meaning waiting there to be discovered.

The phrase here that made me do a double-take is "from faith to faith." Such an odd combination. What could Paul be talking about here?

I found no short supply of analysis of this verse when I searched. There exists some disagreement on how the verse should be translated, thus there's also not a consensus on what it means. What did jump off the page to me was this from Matthew Henry's commentary:

Faith is all in all, both in the beginning and progress of Christian life. It is not from faith to works, as if faith put us into a justified state, and then works kept us in it; but it is all along from faith to faith; it is faith pressing forward, and gaining the victory over unbelief.

 

This makes so much sense to me. We don't receive any kind of explosive, one-time revelation of God's righteousness. It's a life-long process, building strength over time. 

I accepted Christ at a young age, but my knowledge of God's righteousness was extremely limited. I knew enough to make a confession of faith, but the reality was that was just my jumping off point. 

Almost 40 years later the faith I have now is many generations removed from what I had as a boy. It's been shaped by doubt, by tragedies, by struggles and by overcoming; it's been shaped by experiences with others, through reading and listening, and most of all, through further revelation found in God's Word.

I don't know how I'd label this current version of my faith. It's a far cry from the "beta" version I emerged from the waters of baptism with. It's probably something like v. 36.2. 

I do know that it's stronger every day, not always in a sense of belief but always in a sense of presence and providence. And I also know it's still growing in changing.

Like Paul said in I Corinthians 13, "Now we see through a glass darkly." The evolution of my faith in this life is like trying to find the end of pi. It simply can't be done.

But unlike the futile search for the end of a mathematical constant, my search for a deeper level of faith is always fruitful. It always changes my life for the better.

I'm thankful that God keeps revealing Himself to us, letting us grow in Him at our own speed. I'm thankful for His patience with me when I get stuck.

And I'm thankful that some day it will all be fulfilled and we will reach the completion of our journey from faith to faith.

OUTSIDERS

            Last Sunday marked the end of the “Outsiders” sermon series based on the first letter of Peter to the churches of North East Asia Minor.  These new Christians, already suffering from social ostracism and economic hardship because of their belief in Christ, were also witnessing the beginning of government-sponsored persecution and martyrdom instigated at the orders of the sociopathic emperor Nero.  Peter’s letter encouraging these believers to stand firm in their faith in spite of their present trials and suffering has continued to resonate with the church throughout history.  Can we apply Peter’s letter to our lives today?  After all we are not under the same oppression as the early church and our situation in life in America is not the same as for example an underground church in Syria or China.

 Peter begins his letter by addressing his readers as “resident aliens”, strangers in the world, to remind them and us that our new life in Christ marks us as being temporary residents in this fallen world.  If we are “resident aliens” how shall we then live?  When my grandparents landed at Ellis Island at the turn of the 20^th century, they stood out from society at large.  Their dress was different; they spoke in a thick dialect; their cultural norms were different.  In other words, they were easily recognized as outsiders.  What marks us out as Christians in our society today?  Peter provides us with compelling guidance.  We are called to lead holy lives in reverent awe of God.  We are to be a people who have been given moral and spiritual boundaries based on the truth of God’s word.  We are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ with a pure heart.  It is also God’s will that we should do good works so that they may be seen by the world and be able to give an answer for our faith to those who ask.  Peter reminds us that this faith which sustains in this world and helps us to live according to God’s will is the “living hope” we have in an eternal inheritance in God’s kingdom assured by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and sealed by the Holy Spirit in our lives.   

Peter also encourages us that as a chosen people belonging to God we are to “declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light”.  In other words, we are sent by God as resident aliens to proclaim His grace, mercy and love to this world.  As we transition to our next sermon series that takes up the theme of “Sent”, let Peter’s words guide us and challenge us to live our lives as residents of God’s kingdom bringing the light of Christ to this dark world.