“Who has performed and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, am the first; and with the last, I am He.” Isaiah 41:4
Faith begins by the revelation of God to the heart, according to the truth, and by the Spirit. But how can this be if man is born dead in sins, blinded by the god of this world, and held in bondage to unbelief? There is but one answer, and it is in Christ, the beginning of all things good and holy, the only Sovereign God who has overcome Satan’s efforts and limited power to hold fast his slaves in darkness and nature’s night. Were it not for One who was superior than Satan in every way, this being declared and proven by Christ at the right hand of the Father, being seated “far above” all principality and power, there would be no hope. Man would be eternally lost in his ignorance of the truth and the power to believe it. However, the greatest reality in the universe is not just the power of God to create, and redeem, but the very presence of the Almighty God who has revealed Himself through that creation, and redemption in Christ. It is in the revelation of who He is that faith is born, a faith that is founded uniquely, and wholly, in the Lord Jesus Christ as the sole Redeemer of men, the Savior of the world.
But how “big” is God, and how willing and able is He to meet the small, helpless individual sinner today? Beyond comprehension with regard to His greatness, which is unsearchable, beyond what man could ever ask or think, He filles eternity with Himself, declaring Himself to be wholly good in all that He is and does. This God who will not withhold any good thing, and who will give His Spirit to the one who will ask Him, waits for the response of the heart to the revelation. How do we know that God is working in the heart and mind, to meet the deep, and eternal needs of the soul and spirit? It is by the desire, or conviction, that the Spirit of God gives. That “desire” may be the simple inquiry of the mind as to who Christ is, or who God is? It is as that desire and yearning of the heart, in which the thought of eternity is placed, that thirsting of the soul, that longing for so much more than this world has to offer, that the soul is drawn to God, to Christ. But when does the desire become faith, a faith that lays hold of God, to know the reality of this Eternal, good, and holy God?
It was Charles Wesley who wrote in one of his great hymns, the following: “O Love divine, what hast Thou done? Th’incarnate God hath died for me! The Father’s co-eternal Son, Bore all my sins upon the tree! The Son of God for me hath died: My Lord, My Love, is crucified.” What is it that Wesley is seeking to tell us? It is that God has revealed Himself to men, and this through His eternal Son. It is in the revelation of the truth of who this Son is, and what He has done, that the basis for faith is laid. Faith becomes personal, and individually life-changing, as the understanding is received that Christ has come to earth to die for man’s sins, to reconcile man to God. But, when does the “great transaction” occur between God and man, the lost sinner being born of the Spirit, becoming a new creation in Christ?
Wesley continues to write: “Behold Him, all ye that pass by, The bleeding Prince of life and peace! Come, sinners, see your Saviour die, and say, ‘Was ever grief like HIs? Come feel with me His blood applied: My Lord, my Love, is crucified.” There comes a day and a moment when the truth of Christ becomes flesh and blood to one’s own soul. By power Divine faith is received to live.
Dear Father, Be glorified in us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.