Faith of a True Christian

So, today I am going to talk to you about a subject that we all know about, but not everyone may fully understand. Today we are going to talk about Faith. So, what is Faith? The definition of Faith that I want to focus on today is this: "confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another's ability.'" According to this definition, faith is something that we all have, the question is what do we invest our faith into?
       We can also infer from this definition that when we place our faith in a person, thing, or idea we place our entire faith. Everything within us that we have is placed in this person or idea. for example, if you are a parent and you child comes to you and asks you to invest in a business opportunity by investing large sums of money into the business, would you have the true faith in your child to invest all that you have to show your faith to that child. How many of us would say that we have full faith in our children, but not back it up with the public display of our faith? We wouldn't! If we truly have faith in the ability of our children, we would show it with our actions by giving the money required.
       What about or faith as a Christian? Does our faith in Christ show by us being confident in the power of Christ? Do we trust Christ to the extent that our lives show in our everyday lives? The scripture that we will focus on today is in Romans chapter 3: 22. "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe." let us dig into this verse. At first sight we can see that Righteousness of God comes from not only believing in Christ, but having faith in Him as God. What does that mean for Christians?
       Well, if we look at our definition of faith, we can see that it means more than just believing, but we are called to have our life transformed by putting our faith into Christ. See, we can not just believe in Jesus Christ as God, but we are called to put our confidence and trust into the fact that Jesus is God. We are not only called to put our faith in the life of Jesus, but his death and resurrection. Lets read Romans 3: 25, “God presented him(Jesus) as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”
       See, this verse shows that we are made righteous through the blood that Jesus shed in order to give us salvation. Why is this? Well, lets look at who Jesus was, go to Hebrews 1:3. We are going to read the first part of the verse, which says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s Glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.”
       This verse is telling us that Jesus was not just an ordinary man, but the exact representation of God’s glory in the form of a man. All of the strength and power that God in heaven has, Jesus was also given.
       Now that we have a better idea of who Jesus is and the power that He has, we would all agree that our Faith should placed in Jesus, not only because He is God in the flesh; but because He took the form of a man to die for our sin. His death, burial, and resurrections means so much to us as Christians because it means that we are given grace and we get to see heaven. We get to be with God for all eternity!
       If Christ did all of this for us, why do we continually refuse to put our faith into His life and death to the point of allowing the Word of God to drastically change our lives and the way we live? Yes, we believe in Christ, even as God, but we choose not to put our faith in His blood and his power. WHY?!
       How deep will our beliefs go if  we don’t put our faith fully in what we claim to believe? If that is the case, our beliefs mean NOTHING TO US! Every person in the Bible that lived in faith gave their lives to God to use according to God’s plans. Those who did not place their faith in the sovereign power of God were usually left powerless and devoured by the LORD.
       We can look at what the Apostle Paul says about Abraham’s faith. In Romans 4: 20 and 21 Paul says this, “Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God has power to do what he had promised ”
       See, Abraham knew what God had promised him and Abraham would not forget these promises and his faith showed that he believed God would fulfill His promises. Faith does not refuse to face reality but looks beyond all difficulties to God and his promises.
       Are we living in this type of faith? A faith that transforms the way that we live and act toward everyone we encounter in our lives. We are, as the church, living lives that glorify God? Or do we just have enough faith to look like a Christian to those around us?

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