God’s plan in establishing faith as the only way to God shows the unparalleled wisdom and sheer brilliance of God. Why choose faith? Quite simply it was so that his message of mercy, love and grace would be available to all of mankind who choose to come to him to receive his blessings.
By making faith the only way to God, God becomes accessible to all mankind. No man needs to be or do anything special, nor do they need another person to intercede on their behalf to come to know God. Every person has the ability to believe or to choose not to believe for him or her self, and each person will stand alone before God to give account on the Day of Judgment.
Consider for a moment other possible ways that God could have defined as the way to him. What if he chose great knowledge, or wisdom, or wealth, or physical ability, or beauty, or good health or any of a myriad of other possibilities? Had he done so, then access to God’s blessings would be limited to a small and exclusive club, because not all are or can become wise, knowledgeable, wealthy, beautiful and so on. Thus anyone who did not measure up would miss out.
But God chose faith as the only way to God because anyone can believe, and through faith the truth of the gospel is available to everyone prepared to seek him out and believe. You cannot buy your way to Christ, you cannot come to him by just doing good works, you cannot get there by becoming highly knowledgeable, although as a person progresses in Christ they will learn much. It is only by faith that we can come to Christ and through faith we are all equal.
There have been a great many things written and spoken about faith over the years. And although it is generally spoken of in the domain of religious pursuits, faith is a common occurrence in everyday life.
Simply put, faith is about believing in something. For example, right now if you are seated at a computer reading this article you have a belief that the chair you are seated on will hold you up and not collapse. If it does collapse, then your faith was in vain, but if it holds you up your faith is fulfilled in action.
Quite often the Christian faith is not seen in such simple terms but is presented as something mysterious or unknowable. While there is a mystery to the Christian faith, it is certainly not unknowable.
The mystery of Christian faith is in its simplicity and its power: so simple that many cannot accept it as being the power of salvation. In its simplicity it can even seem like foolishness, as the Apostle Paul showed saying, “…it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” (1 Corinthians 1:21) And in relation to the power of faith he also said, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:18) Faith is believing, nothing more and nothing less.
There is an example of the simplicity and power of faith, that many might consider improbable and foolish. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, fiery serpents came amongst them biting and killing many. (Numbers 21:4-9) What was the solution to this problem? Pest extermination? Move on to some place else? Develop serums or elixirs to heal those bitten? These would be the kind of things that people would consider the most rational or logical thing to do.
But Gods solution was for the people to put their faith in him. The Lord told Moses to make a bronze replica of these serpents and to put it up on a high pole, so that when anyone was bitten all they had to do was to look at the serpent on the pole and they would not die. Those who followed Gods instructions did not suffer death. If anyone did not believe and chose not to look at the replica serpent thinking it was foolishness, they would perish.
This example is a faith teaching because to receive the healing that would save their lives, the people had to have faith that this improbable, irrational action would release them from the known outcome of the snakebite, which was death. They had to believe God first, and then take action on that belief to receive life.
So we see that faith is a belief in something specific. If we go back to the chair example, your faith is based on a specific belief that the chair will hold your weight. Likewise we saw that the children of Israel were told specifically to look at the bronze serpent to be saved from death. We see other examples too, such as Abraham who was told specifically to believe that he would become the father of many nations. Abraham believed God and his faith was reckoned to him as righteousness. (Romans 4:3) God pronounced Abraham righteous because he had believed what God said.
In each case there was something specific to believe. Likewise, Christians must also believe something specific to receive righteousness by faith. If we had nothing to believe then that would be blind faith, and the Christian faith is far from blind.
What we believe is that Jesus is the Son of God, that he came to the earth to live, that he died to take away our sins and that he was resurrected so that we may enter into life. Like the Israelites who looked at the bronze serpent on the pole to avoid death, we too look to the risen Jesus to receive life, and through him a life into eternity for this is the hope of Christianity.
And we do not lose heart for, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) And knowing this as we move forward, we are like Abraham who grew strong in his faith, fully convinced that the Lord would do as he had promised. (Romans 4:20-21) We likewise understand that there is a time coming when all these things will be revealed, but until then we will continue to walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7) as there is no other way to approach God.
I hope that you found something here to help you or add to your own knowledge. If you have any questions, then please feel free to contact me.
