What is faith?
Our tendency in talking about faith is to equate it with converting to Christ. We tend to say "I came to faith in Christ" or "I have put my faith in Christ." To be clear, I don't think that there is anything wrong with talking about our conversion experience like that, but that is not all that faith is. Faith is both an active and a growing confidence in who God is, all that he says, what he has done, all that he is doing and all that he promised to do. Hebrews 12:1-2 says "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for." God doesn't just want us to come to faith in him, he wants us to grow in our faith in Him.
It is also important to note that when scripture talks about faith, it doesn't primarily relate to it in quantity, but in quality. You can have a whole lot of faith, but what matter is the quality of the faith. This quality is always dependant on the object of our faith. What we put our faith in matters greatly, we either put our faith in sinking sand or a solid rock. For the Christian, everything is sinking sand compared to Christ. He is our solid rock and the object of our faith.
Yes, there are times that Jesus rebukes the disciples and tells them that they lacked faith in him ("Oh Ye of little faith"), but he also tells us that if we have faith like a mustard seed, a very tiny seed, we can move mountains. A little bit of faith in the God of the universe can cause mountains to go in the ocean because it is the object of faith, not the quantity that causes that to happen. Peter lacked faith, but it was his faith in Christ, not his quantity that caused him to walk on water. The same applies to us today. We might be going through some very trying times, our faith may be lacking, but if we keep our focus on Christ and make him our object we will be surprised by God's faithfulness and power. I am thankful that he is faithful when we are not and that his faithfulness isn't dependant on us.
This is why we need to be careful when linking faith with sickness and trying circumstances, lest we end up believing our quantity of faith determines our outcome. True biblical faith is trusting everything into the hands of the Sovereign God of the universe, regardless of the outcome because he is worthy to be praised and is capable of doing far more than we can ask or imagine. Daniel 3:17-18 says "our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”
Why does persevering in the faith matter?
It is because of the object of our faith, that persevering in the faith matters. I want to give three reasons why persevering matters. These reasons are backed by scripture so one may not think that I am making these up or speaking out of context. The first reason is that it serves as evidence of saving faith. Despite what some pastors preach, it is not specific gifts like speaking tongues, perfect health, wealth or comfort that shows we belong to God, but it is our perseverance. This doesn't mean that we won't struggle in our faith or that we will fail and give into sin and temptation, but what it does mean that when those moments happen we press on in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit who is at work in those who believe.
Paul wrote about this in his letters to the churches. He tells them about Christ's reconciling work in them and how they have been made alive in Christ, and he then challenges them to press on to the end because faithfulness and perseverance go together. Colossians 1:21-23 says "And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard." If that isn't convincing enough, even Jesus himself links saving faith with persevering. In the parable of the soil he makes the contrast between genuine faith to false faith: "As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty." (Matthew 13:20-23)
Secondly, perseverance matters because through it God uses it to build both our confidence in him and our dependency on him so that we would praise him and be set free from finding our joy in our circumstances. This echoes through the Psalms, the Prophets, and the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament, and it drips off the pages in the New Testament. The Psalmist in Psalm 73 writes, "Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (verses 25-26) Job responds to the sufferings and disaster that God allowed him to encounter by proclaiming "though he slay me, I will hope in him." (Job 13:15) Jesus himself tells us to put our hope in him despite what happens because he has overcome the world. Paul counted everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:8-10).
Peter writes to the persecuted Christians to encourage them to keep pressing on because their joy is being rooted in Christ: "In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls." (1 Peter 1:6-9).
Thirdly, perseverance matters because it helps us to obey God and remain faithful to him no matter what we are going through. Without perseverance we would shrink back from the faith the moment life got hard; we would be the rocky soil that the seed was cast on. God desires that none of us would perish. Jesus himself promised that he would not lose any of the sheep that his Father gave to him. That is why the Father and Son are both at work together through the Holy Spirit, producing perseverance in us so that we might prove faithful. As we grow in our perseverance, we become quick in responding to God with obedience and faithful to what he asks of us. It also prepares us for even more trying circumstances and seasons of life. Peter writes in 2 Peter:1-5-8, " For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
What does God use to produce perseverance in us?
We would think that if God wanted us to persevere in the faith, that he would just put it in us the moment we come to faith in Christ, but that is not how God works. Since he is a redemptive God, he does not waste anything in our lives and he is able to use the things of this world to sanctify us and produce in us qualities that reflect him. The thing that God often uses to produce these qualities in us, especially perseverance, is our circumstances and the sufferings of this world. Paul writes to Timothy that "everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer." (2 Timothy 3:12) The Apostles were adamant in wanting Christians to know that suffers were to be expected as a Christ follower because God had redemptive purposes for them. Paul writes "we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:3-5) Peter wanted Christians to "not be surprised by the fiery trials you are going through as if something strange was happening to you." ( 1 Peter 4:12). Jesus' half-brother, James, tells the Christians "to count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience." (James 1:2)
My desire is that all of us as Christ followers, no matter our background or denomination, would see that we are meant to persevere in the faith, and that faith is not rooted in our quantity, but the quality of our faith, Jesus Christ himself. He will help us persevere because it shows we belong to him. Since Jesus is good, loving, and redeeming he will use the difficulties of this life to root you in him and grow your perseverance. So Christian, look to him so that you may persevere and press on to the end.
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