The Test of Faith

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father. John 8:31-38 NKJV

How significant it is for Christians to believe the word of God! And how easy it is not to believe it! Believing is not knowledge but obedience to the truth. For example, do we truly live on the promise of Jesus Christ that we are set free by the truth? If we truly believe the promise, we shall live just like men who are set free. In effect, we get to experience true freedom in the midst of daily lives under the full court pressure. That’s what it means to believe in the words of God. That’s the test of our faith whether we are strengthened by the words of truth at the time of being pressured.

What Jesus Christ gives us is perfect and complete freedom without any compromise. The freedom Jesus Christ gives is freedom from fear, despair, and guilt, because He presented Himself as the Lamb of God on the cross in Calvary. Jesus Christ the Lord paid the full price to liberate us who believe in Him from the hands of the devil. We were crucified with Christ Jesus and baptized with Him in order to be raised again from the dead with Him (Galatians 2:20). God made His begotten Son sin in our place (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus Christ is stronger than the devil, so that He can set free His captives from the bondage of sin and death (Mark 3:27, Luke 4:18). Since we were raised up together with Christ Jesus the Lord, we were made sit together in the heavenly places in Him (Ephesians 2:6).

There is no more condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ the Lord because God made us righteous for the blood of the Son (Romans 8:1, John 8:11). There is no more despair in any situations, because we are given the infallible hope that there are many rooms in the Father’s house (John 14:1). There is no more fear in our lives because the Lord Jesus Christ, the firstborn of the creation, is with us now and even till the end of age (Matthew 28:20).  What a good news it is! Jesus Christ is the good news of great joy in our midst now and forevermore.

No matter what the world may say, that’s what we are. We are liberated and set free to live for God and Jesus Christ. True freedom is not what we can do whatever we wanted to do but what we can be whatever we wanted to be. Is it not what we desperately wanted to be? If we truly believe the word of God, cheerfully obeying Him, then we may have the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:7).

Do you truly believe that God said is true and real in the scriptures? There are many Christians who believe God in their heads but not in their hearts. The people like the Pharisees who were extremely religious and pious stubbornly rejected to believe in the words of God and Jesus Christ the Lord. Christianity is not to know and keep all the regulations and doctrines but to know and believe in God the Father who sent the Son Jesus Christ in order to liberate us from the spell of darkness. Most of all, we believe and live everyday on the fact that we were set free since we received Jesus Christ as Lord. That’s the good news!