True faith is proven by faithfulness.

 

As people grounded in the Holy Scriptures, we are familiar with the phrase that we are saved by “grace through faith alone”. But we must ask, through which faith will we be saved?

 

The faith that responds to the redemption in Christ cannot be explained other than in the light of true faithfulness.

The narrative of our faith is the story of Jesus, the faithful Messiah. Nowhere in the New Testament do we read about a faith through which we become children of God without a personal relationship with Jesus. And Jesus is so much more than the One we believe in. Jesus is the only valid term and condition of owning Christian faith. It is only because Christ has “done it all”, that the sinner’s faith is possible and can be a saving response to God’s offer of salvation by grace.

 

Being followers of Christ through faith implies following him faithfully and reflecting his very faithfulness till the end and to the cross. True faith involves “looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

 

Salvation involves a relationship with Christ Jesus, and in him alone, inclusion into the people of God. Our relationship with Jesus involves being filled with the Holy Spirit who shows us who Jesus is, and shows us his faithfulness, his power and his saving grace.

The same Spirit that nurtures the response in faith to the Good News of Jesus Christ, and to the promise of being redeemed, continues to urge us to live a life of joyful praise and obedience to God (Romans 1:5, 16:26), and loving service to our neighbour (Galatians 5:6, 13-14; 6:1-2).

When Christian faith matures, the story of faith is completed when we see God’s faithfulness to his people reflected in the faithfulness of the people of God.

 

The question is what kind of faith does God require?

The answer since the days of the Reformation has been to point out that true faith is attested to, is proven to exist, by faithfulness.

God is not interested in only intellectual consent to the facts of the story of Jesus. It always is and only can be a heartfelt trust in God and his promises of redemption, salvation, life and even eternal life as found in the Gospel.

 

This means that having the “only faith that saves” always results in being practically faithful in serving Christ with his people, in his Church, at the times of worship, at his Table and in his service, all the time, till the end.