Faith is a verb

Faith is a verb
 
In the first several chapters of Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, the one truth that keeps surfacing is that a good standing before God is not the result of a life well lived, but a person’s willingness to confess that he had nothing to do with it except to believe it. So let’s examine this central truth as seen in verse 13. Abraham becomes the prime example of how a person becomes righteous in the eyes of God. The text says it was not “through the law . . . but through the righteousness that comes by faith.” As we have said before, righteousness is not a philosophical concept – something rather unrelated to life as we experience it – but a relationship to God based on our accepting it by faith. It is not a reward for what we have done, but a gift based on our believing it. One cannot earn God’s favor, only receive it. Theologians call it “Justification by Faith,” God’s children say, “Thank you, Father.”
         This brings up the meaning of “faith” as Paul uses the term. Some think of faith as a somewhat passive attitude about something you hope is true. But like so many Christian virtues, faith is not something you have but something you do. When we say, “He is kind” what we mean to communicate is that he does kind things. Kindness is a way of describing a person whose life is characterized by doing kind things. In the same way, when we say a person is righteous we mean that they are known for all the right things they have done. They do not deviate from doing what is right rather than wrong, whenever there is a choice. Now the astounding thing is that the believer is seen by God as always doing the right thing because God sees us in our relationship to Christ who lived a perfect life and died on our behalf. We are righteous in him on the basis of our faith in him. But isn’t that a cheap way of being considered a sort of saint? The answer is No, because that is the way God sees us, not others. Christ is our “federal head” (as theologians put it) therefore God sees us as he “sees” his perfect Son. How others see us is quite a different story.
         Our goal in life is to become in fact as we are in Him. The process (called sanctification) is life-long and only approaches the goal but begins to show it. Paul’s purpose in insisting on faith as the only way to be accepted by God was a corrective to his Jewish counterparts who viewed it as something they earned. The same error is seen today in people’s attempt to earn their salvation. That energy could have been spent more wisely on doing all those “good things” as an act of appreciation for what God has already done. The sequence is important. We believe, God declares us righteous, then we do the right thing in every moral situation and in the process move toward becoming what we are. The last step in the process is glorification when at the end of time we are caught up to be with Him and forever set free from sin.