Romans
4:20-24 [Abraham]
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
had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as
righteousness.”
The
words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us,
to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised
Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and
was raised to life for our justification.
We
talk a lot about the meaning of the words believe and faith. It seems that most
people think the words faith and belief are the same thing. They are not.
Belief, as it is used today, is not synonymous with faith.
Years
ago a man was preparing to cross the Niagara Falls on a tight rope. Turning to
the crowd he asked them, “Who believes that I will make it across the falls
safely?” One man said that he was confident that the stunt man would succeed.
Then came the challenge of faith. The stuntman said to the man, “Then come sit
on my shoulders while I do it.”
There
are many things which we believe but in which we do not have faith. Many people
who believe that a jet will fly do not have the faith to get on board. Faith is
not just the intellectual agreement on a fact but is the action of relying on
the truth of that fact. They act upon that fact with faith, in a tangible way.
That is, we may believe that Jesus was who He claimed to be, the Son of God.
But we may not do what He commanded us to do. We are only justified by God,
accepted by Him as genuine, when we are willing to put that faith in Christ
into action by relying on Him.
A
person who believes the truth of the Gospel, that we are justified or accepted
by God only through faith in Jesus, yet relies on his good works or moral
actions to earn eternal life, does not have faith but merely an intellectual
ascent to a fact. Saving faith is a faith that trusts in Jesus. It believes and
acts upon that belief by trusting Jesus at His word.
