THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH

The communion with God that we considered last week is something we experience by faith. By believing what God has revealed about himself – especially in Christ – and acting upon it, we participate in a personal, practical, spiritual fellowship with him.

Faith in this sense is not a matter of forcing ourselves to believe something that we know is not really true. Rather, it is embracing and actualizing for ourselves something we cannot see (Heb. 11:1). Jesus told us, for example, that he would always be with us (Matt. 28:20). That’s something we cannot see, but which faith nevertheless embraces as true and acts upon.

That’s the way Christ becomes real and present to us in our daily lives (Ephesians 3:17). Arthur Pink puts it well when he writes, “Experimental union is based upon faith’s realization of Christ’s relation to us and our relation to Him, enabling the soul to say, ‘my beloved is mine and I am His’ (Song of Sol. 2:16). It is faith, and nothing but faith, which makes God in Christ real, yea, present, to the soul… ‘I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’ (Gal. 2:20) contains the sum total of all spiritual life and spirituality” (Spiritual Union and Communion, p. 103 – highlighting added).

Such faith is itself a gift of God. It is he who gives us the assured insight into his word that compels us to believe and trust it. And it is he who creates within us the desire to act upon it (Phil. 2:12,13).

Nevertheless, it is our responsibility to exercise that faith. God doesn’t do that for us. It is up to us to read and remember what God has said, done and promised through Christ, and to call these things to mind as needs and blessings arise through the day. And it is our responsibility to act upon what these things tell us to be true about God. In our weakness, we are to run to him for strength; in our ignorance we are to look to him for wisdom; in our shame and guilt we are to go to him for cleansing; in our joy we are to lift up our hearts to him in praise – always with the transparent trust of a child, looking to find in him what we don’t have in ourselves and give to him the honour that he so richly deserves.

Above all things, intimate fellowship with God in Christ rests on knowing and delighting in him. Arthur Pink helpfully points out that there are always three requirements for us to have an intimate relationship with another person: “First,” he writes, “that person must be real and present to us: fellowship is not possible with one we know not, or who is far removed from us. Second, we must have free access to that person, with confidence and boldness toward him: fellowship is not possible where formalities bar our approach and where fear or awe dominates the soul. Third, there must be mutual affection and esteem. Fellowship is not possible where love exists not or where it has cooled off” (Ibid., p. 100)

Applying that to our communion with God he continues, “If the soul is to enjoy real experimental union and communion with Christ, He must be a living reality to the heart; faith must bring Him near and give freedom of approach to Him: and the affections must be kept warm and active toward Him; otherwise our religion will quickly degenerate into a mechanical routine, devoid of reality and joy” (Ibid., p. 100)

Here, then, is the foundation for a life of close communion with God. Faith must bring Christ in all his beauty and glory – in all his sufficiency for our every need – close to the eyes of our hearts. As it does so, we will find ourselves reaching out to him and discovering a fellowship with him beyond anything we supposed possible.