Understanding Faith (2)

Call to Prayer

Title: Understanding Faith (2)

By: Simon Nuhu Maina

Date: 28.03.2025

¹⁷ For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17)

Last time, we laid a foundation about the faith. We recognized that Faith is not one-sided belief, but also obedience. In order to enter God´s Kingdom, the primary requirement is believing in Him and His word(John 3:16). We have enlisted quite a number of the Heroes of Faith in the Old Testament who responded to the call of God, although at different circumstances and generations yet they believed and were totally convicted (Hebrews 11:13-16). That conviction earned them God´s righteous approval to enter His kingdom. However, there is a need to also draw our attention to the other side of Faith which is also crucial to fulfilling the original intention of God´s calling to inherit the Kingdom.

Obedience is compliance with certain instructions, rules, regulations, or demands to uphold an order. Just like when someone relocates to a new place, they are expected to follow the existing rules by taking heed to them for peaceful and harmonised coexistence. In God´s Kingdom, there is order! God is the ultimate authority, His will is the ultimate obligation wherever there is existence; whether in Heaven or on earth. Believing brings us into the Kingdom, but obedience is what finally earns us the promise of His rest (Hebrews 4:1, 1 Peter 1:14). If only we dwell on believing, we should be aware that the devils, demons, and evil spirits also believe that there is one God and they tremble (James 2:19), the evil spirits in the man of Gadarenes believed Jesus is the Son of God (Mark 5:1-15). Believing alone without obedience makes us not much better than most religious people. The Scribes and Pharisees believed in God, even in the Torah which is the law and commandments, but they were not obeying what the law and the scriptures testified about Christ (John 5:39; Matthew 23:1-9).

There are examples of people in the Old Testament who believed in God but did not obey the instructions of God. King Saul was a believer, God appointed him as the first king of Israel (1 Samuel 9:1-27). But he later disobeyed the instruction of God to utterly destroy the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:1-35). King Solomon was also a believer, blessed with wisdom, and was given the throne of his father David. He eventually disobeyed God´s commandment regarding intermarriage with pagans and Gentile nations (Deuteronomy 7:1-6), and the women subsequently turned his heart away from God (1 King 11:1-13). More so, Prophet Jonah was initially sent to Nineveh to declare the judgment of God, however, he disobeyed at first and decided to flee to another city; eventually got punished (Jonah 1:1-17).

Beloved in the Lord, the examples mentioned above remind us that believing is not enough to please God. God expects us to bear fruit of obedience just like our Lord Jesus, even though He is the Son of God yet He learned obedience by His suffering (Hebrew 5:7-10), so that He will lay us foundation of obedience to the will of God. There are many instructions given to us in the Scriptures, are we obeying them? We are commanded to preach the Gospel (Matthew 28:18-20), love one another (John 13:34-35), live a holy life (1 Peter 1:15-16), follow peace with all men (Hebrews 12:14), respect human and spiritual authority (1 Peter 2:13-15, Romans 13:1-8), submitting to one another in humility (1 Peter 5:1-6), fleeing from idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:14), etc. Are we obeying God´s word or living in perpetual rebellion and disobedience because we believe in Jesus Christ? Let us examine ourselves and repent.

Prayer point:

May God help us to obey His word by being deliberate to accomplish His will.