May 2, 2022 | By Jay Ashbaucher
As informed Christians know, Jesus has been deemed to be fully God and fully man. He is part of the trinitarian God who is known as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. His equality with God is from all eternity and he was instrumental in the creation of all things. However, something interesting is said about God the Son. “Although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, being made in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6-7). Being fully human, he laid aside his role as God, and was dependent on God, the same as all of us. In other words, because he limited himself to being human, he did not use his powers as God, but chose to rely on God, whom he called Father, for all that he needed and did. Like us, throughout his life, he exercised faith in God to be his helper. Following are some of the ways he showed us his faith.
Most humans throughout the earth, no matter what their spiritual interests or religions, realize that they run into situations that are beyond their ability to handle. They believe there is someone wiser and more powerful than they who they can call on to help them. People all over the world engage in something we call prayer. By faith, people believe their God or gods can help them. Jesus showed us his faith by regularly meeting with his Father God in prayer. He often went aside from his busy life to pray. The disciples noticed this and must have connected his good works and miracles with his praying. They asked if he would teach them to pray, so he gave them a prayer to teach them how. Jesus had great faith in the necessity and value of prayer. So can we.
Jesus also had faith in the Bible of his time. He believed it was truly God’s word and that it could be trusted. He was well acquainted with the Scriptures. He read from them in the synagogues. He learned from the prophets the things God said about who he was as the Son of God and the son of man. He knew he was the promised Messiah. He obeyed the Scriptures. He obeyed God’s will. When Satan tempted him to fall away from God, Jesus quoted the Scriptures to tell the devil that he would stick with God and worship God only, for that is what the Bible told him to do (Matthew 4:4). Before Jesus left earth to return to the Father, he showed his apostles all the things the Bible said about who he was so they could use the Scriptures to show others (Luke 24:44-47). Jesus had faith that the Scriptures were God’s word and he lived by those teachings. So can we.
Jesus had faith that God was always present with him, not only empowering him to do his Father’s will, but most importantly, being present to comfort him in his sufferings and to keep His promises, especially to raise him from the dead, never to die again. We know that Jesus had faith in the Father’s presence because of what is reported in David’s Psalm, that Jesus saw the Lord always at his right hand, being present with him, so that he would not be shaken in his times of temptations and sufferings. Jesus was filled with gladness and strength when he knew that His Father was present with him. (Acts 2:24-28). Knowing what his death would accomplish gave him a joy that enabled him to endure the cross. (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus had faith that God is always with him and that God rewards those who seek Him. So can we.
Jesus had faith in his followers. Those who walked with him from day to day were entrusted with his message and mission. Although they were imperfect, Jesus believed he could trust them to accurately pass on his message to others and to continue his mission of compassion and doing good. Doing good to others, as Jesus did throughout His ministry, was also important for His followers to do. I recently read of a world-renowned atheist who trusted his life into Jesus’ hands at the age of eighty-five. One of the things that convinced him to believe in Jesus instead of some other God was the examples he noticed of Christians showing genuine compassion to others in need. Jesus taught his disciples the importance of loving one another and others. None of us is perfect as Jesus was. He always obeyed God the Father. Satan tries to get all of us to doubt our faith or to let our fears overcome obeying God’s will. When Peter the disciple denied Jesus, he later told Jesus that he still loved Him and Jesus believed that Peter really did love Him. Because we are imperfect humans, if our love fails and we do wrong, faith in God’s forgiveness restores us so that we can keep going in the right direction. Where love truly exists, faithfulness follows. Jesus had faith that, in Him, His followers would build loving relationships and work together to do His will. So we, too, can have faith in one another and stimulate one another to love and do good deeds.
Jesus became the author and perfecter of faith, not only ours, but his as well (Hebrews 12:2). Author means originator, founder, leader, source of our faith and salvation. Perfecter means to bring fulfillment or completion to our faith. The word faith has two meanings. Objectively, it means the content of what we believe. For example, the Bible says, “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 1:3). Jesus is the author or source of the faith we believe in. He, his work, and his words form the content of what we believe. Jesus is not only the author of what we believe, but He is also the perfecter of the faith he offers us. When we have faith in who He is and in what he says, He fulfills and completes our faith. Jesus completed His own faith in God’s salvation by suffering on a cross, and by believing the promises of God that He would be raised from the dead and obtain heavenly glory. God promises the same for you and me, “that He who began a good work in you will perfect it” (Philippians 1:6). Through his own obedience to God’s will, Jesus, as the perfecter of faith, brings it to completion. As Jesus exercised faith in God and in God’s salvation (Heb. 5:7-9), so can we.
