On What it Means to Live a Life of Faith
“The expression of faith is an affirmation of truth, a definite judgement, a conviction, while faith itself is an event, something that happens rather than something that is stored away; it is a moment in which the soul of man communes with the glory of God.” (Heschel)
I was wrestling my way through Romans 1 the other day and got hung up on the notion that “the righteous shall live by faith.” (v 17) Righteousness [gr. - dikaiosune] means our right standing with God, or our justification. Faith [gr. - pistis] is our conviction or assurance that we have been saved by God. What interested me is the idea that our right standing with God is found through our ongoing conviction that we are saved through grace.
The gospel, that Paul writes about previously to this, reveals “the righteousness of God from faith for faith.” We understand the gospel. The good news that we have been saved through Christ alone. We accept this salvation in an act of faith. However, what stands out is that our continued righteousness is found through this same faith.
The faith that saves us also justifies us.
If we are to be righteous, to be in right standing with a holy God, we must live by faith. We must live, each day, in an awareness of our salvation. To live a life of faith is to live a life of daily humility and surrender. To offer ourselves before a God who saves us from ourselves. It’s not obedience that makes us holy, it’s faith. Our obedience is merely a reflection of our daily surrender.
This is why remembering is so necessary to a life of faith. It is through our memories that we are able to relive our need for salvation each day. We recall what it is to need to be rescued and through that we find humility. Then as we surrender ourselves to our rescuer we discover the joy of our salvation all over again. If we are to return to God we must remember what he’s done for us. Our memories serve as our witness and testimony to the gospel of grace in our lives. That we have been saved through the unrelenting love of a holy God who gave himself to make right standing between us and him, and that this is something we can live in perpetual and daily awareness of and participation in. Perhaps this is why our Lord tells us to “pick up our cross daily“; because a life of faith is a daily return to the salvation given freely through the death and resurrection of Jesus.
