Life by Faith

“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

I was in my car, flipping through the worn pages of my little Bible and praying about what God wanted me to write when this verse stood out. It’s a familiar verse—so familiar, in fact, that I am quite certain I have written a post very like this one before.

I thought about it for a while, with no compelling thoughts with which to begin. But the idea of life by faith gripped me, and even as I continued to flip the pages and scan for ideas, I kept coming back to this verse. Is this it, Lord? I prayed. Then, I took a breath and took my own step of faith and typed the title.

Living life by faith seems like such a basic concept, and yet it is one I still struggle to live out day by day.

It’s one thing to talk about living by faith, or to take some grand step of faith-filled obedience, but it’s quite another to live by faith when you’ve overslept your alarm, spilled your coffee, and the minutes are ticking by as you sit, unmoving, in a traffic jam.

It’s one thing to know that God is sovereign and in control of your life, but it is another to choose to trust that His sovereignty allowed that health diagnosis, loss, or crisis into your life, and that He allowed it for your good.

But as Christians, our underlying thought in all of life, from the big events down to the most mundane of daily details, should be, what does the Bible say about this?

I had a young lady come up to me at a recent book event, asking about my stance on a certain passage of Scripture. From the questions she was asking, I could tell there was a specific point she was wanting to get to, but didn’t want to come right out and say it. Eventually, she mentioned the specific passage she had in mind, and voiced an opinion that it shouldn’t be applied literally, because she felt it was too harsh a standard to expect anyone to live up to.

My heart ached for her, because I recognized in her a deception I, too, had once fallen prey to. You see, we often look at the pages of Scripture as a list of rules, or a standard to meet.

To be quite honest, there are rules God wants us following, and He Himself is the standard—the perfect standard—against which we are measured. But if our focus is on the rules themselves, the perfection we can never attain, we place upon ourselves a crushing burden; we live by works.

And yet, that is not what the Christian is called to.

Galatians 3:24 tells us,

“Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

And just as we are justified by faith, our sins forgiven through the finished work of Christ, so, too, we live by faith. As our verse says,

“the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

In one sense, we do live “in the flesh,” that is, with our earthly, sin-bent nature, but we live by faith, with God’s own strength offered to us to empower us to obey Him.

I always find Colossians 1:10-11 encouraging:

“That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness”

We are called to walk “worthy of the Lord,” both in actions and in growing understanding and knowledge, but God gives strengthens us “according to His glorious power.”

Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t strengthen you according to your own power, but His?

Living by faith takes God at His Word, choosing to obey even if we don’t feel strong enough or wise enough to do His will. It looks at God’s commands and standard of righteousness, not as some harsh, unattainable thing, but as a bright, hopeful vision of what we can become through Christ. For as Jesus Himself said,

“without Me, ye can do nothing.” John 15:5

Dear Reader, when you find something in the pages of Scripture that feels impossible or too hard, remember that it is God Himself who wants to help you do and be all that He has asked of you. Lean on Him in trusting dependance and let Him make those hard things into a source of joyful triumph!

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” 

Galatians 5:22-25