Objective Faith and Subjective Faith: we Believe in Christ and we’re Joined as One

When we speak of faith we need to realize that in the New Testament faith is both objective and subjective; the objective faith refers to the subject of our believing, while the subjective faith has to do with our action of believing. Amen!

This week we come to the topic of, Keeping the Faith.

We are on the general topic of Fighting the Good Fight, Finishing the Course, Keeping the Faith, and Loving the Lord’s Appearance in order to receive the Reward of Christ as a Crown of Righteousness.

We want to be those who are preparing ourselves for the Lord’s coming, making ourselves ready for His return.

If we prepare ourselves in these four matters, we will gain Christ to receive the reward of Christ as the crown of righteousness.

The promise of the Lord’s coming is the greatest record in the Bible; in both the Old and the New Testament the Lord’s first and second comings are mentioned.

Our Christian life and service, and our church life need to be with the view of the Lord’s coming; we need to set our eyes on the Lord’s coming.

When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, a very young church which he raised up and now wanted to shepherd, he mentioned the Lord’s coming many times.

Every chapter in first Thessalonians ends with the Lord’s coming.

Even the new believers need to be infused with the desire for the Lord’s coming so that we all may have a particular kind of living in the light of the Lord’s return and prepare ourselves for His coming.

Every week, as we have the Lord’s Table, we remember the Lord, and we eat the bread and drink the cup to declare the Lord’s death until He comes.

Week by week we remember the Lord whom we love, and we believe He will return to establish His kingdom on the earth.

We need to live and work and do many things, but the hope within us is that the Lord will return, and we live a life of awaiting the Lord’s coming.

Many people study and speak about the Lord’s coming, and one in particular stands out.

Sister M. E. Barber was a person who really waited for the Lord’s coming; her whole life was spent waiting and preparing to meet the Lord.

One day, at the end of the year, even on the last day of the year, she prayed to the Lord that He would not wait one more year but come now.

We need to have such an expectant heart for the Lord’s coming.

We need to away His coming and prepare ourselves for His return, living a particular kind of life that hastens His return and prepares us to meet Him at His secret return.

We need to have a spirit to know the Lord’s coming and live a life that awaits His coming.

We Believe in the Objective Faith and are Saved; we Believe in Christ’s Person and Work

If we study the New Testament prayerfully we will see that faith has at least two main aspects: faith is objective and subjective.

There’s the objective aspect of the faith – the objective faith, and the subjective aspect – the subjective faith.

The objective faith refers to the subject of our believing, that is, to the things that we believe into (Eph. 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:7).

The objective faith includes the contents of God’s New Testament economy, the things that are in the New Testament into which we belive and are saved.

In Eph. 4:13 it says that we all need to arrive at the oneness of the faith; this faith is not the believing action of faith but rather, the objective faith.

The objective faith is what we believe into, the entire contents of God’s New Testament economy concerning Christ and the church.

In Jude 3 we are told that we need to earnestly contend for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints.

This is not the subjective faith, our action of believing, but the faith delivered to us by God in Christ and through the apostles in the New Testament, the contents of God’s New Testament economy, into which we believe.

2 Tim. 4:7 is Paul’s testimony at the end of his life, and he said that he has kept the faith; he kept the objective faith, and he is ready to receive the reward.

The items of the faith are only the items that relate to our salvation, that is, the items that relate to Christ’s person and work.

When the gospel is preached to us, we simply believe into the Lord Jesus.

The items of the faith include Christ being the Son of God, His being born of a human virgin, His dying a redemptive death for us, His rising on the third day, His ascension, and His descending as the Spirit.

If we believe in this, we are saved. The contents of the faith does not include things such as baptism by immersion, post-tribulation rapture, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, or any such things; the objective faith includes mainly the items related to Christ’s person and work.

If we read the Gospels we see this wonderful person, Jesus Christ, who was God incarnated to be a man.

He was born in a human virgin, He lived a perfect human life on earth, and He died on the cross to redeem us.

Then, after three days in the tomb, He resurrected and became a life-giving Spirit, and He came to indwell all those who believe into Him to be their life and everything.

All genuine Christians believe into this, for this is what saves us and makes us believers in Christ. Amen!

The items of the objective faith are only those items that are related to our salvation—in other words, only those items that relate to Christ’s person and work (John 3:16; 1:18; 1 John 4:9).

There are many other teachings in the Bible, but they are not necessarily related to our salvation; however, the things related to Christ’s person and work are related to our salvation.

The content of the faith includes Christ, the Son of God, and His incarnation. He was born of a virgin to be a genuine man in His human living, and He died on the cross as our substitute.

He shed His blood and accomplished redemption to wash away our sins.

On the third day, Christ resurrected bodily and ascended to the heavens.

Today He is sitting on the right hand of God. And one day He will return to receive all His believers to Himself. This is our faith.

This faith is nothing other than the all-inclusive, extensive Christ.

We believe in Christ and we want to come to the full knowledge and understanding of Christ.

We want to arrive to the full knowledge of Christ as our faith so that we may experience Him more.

Lord Jesus, we believe into You! You are the Son of God who has become the Son of Man. Thank You for being incarnated to be born of a human virgin and be a genuine man. You are God and You are man – You are the God-man! We believe that You lived a perfect human life on earth and died a redemptive death on the cross. Thank You, Lord, You died on our behalf on the cross. You are our Substitute; You died for us, in our place, to redeem us. We believe in Your redemptive and substitutionary death. Amen, Lord, we believe that, after three days in Hades, You resurrected and became a life-giving Spirit! We believe that You ascended to the heavens and then descended to come into us to dwell in us! Hallelujah, we believe in the contents of God’s New Testament economy and we are saved! We strongly believe in the person and work of Christ, and all the items that related to this are part of our objective faith. Amen, Lord, we want to hold to faith and a good conscience, contend for the faith, and arrive at the oneness of the faith!

The Subjective Faith has to do with our Action of Believing: by Faith, we’re joined to God in Spirit!

On one hand, we have objective faith, the contents of God’s New Testament economy concerning the person and work of Christ, into which we believe and are saved.

On the other hand, there is the subjective faith, the action of believing.

John 3:15-16 speaks of believing into Christ and being saved; this is the action of believing into the Lord and being saved.

According to this meaning, to have faith in the Lord is to believe in Him. All genuine believers in Christ are one in having faith related to Christ.

When we receive the objective faith that is the contents of God’s economy, the subjective faith will rise up and be produced from within us.

Actually, the subjective faith is a reaction to the objective faith.

The subjective faith is not once and for all; it needs to be continually experienced by us from the day we begin to believe into the Lord.

When we see the Lord Jesus, His person and His work, we react by believing into Him; this action of believing is our subjective faith.

This reaction to seeing the Lord Jesus needs to be cultivated and fostered, and we need to be under the hearing of objective faith so that our subjective faith may grow and we would live by faith, not by appearance.

Christ is in us as the hope of glory (Col. 1:27); when we hear this, we believe in the Lord and hope that one day He will come and rise up from within us to glorify us.

Many people who do not believe in God feel that we believe in fables, in stories, which they cannot understand.

They look at us, the believers in Christ, and wonder why do we pay such a high price in time and money to be with the saints, visit one another, go to conferences and gatherings.

Christians do not live by what they see or what appears before us; we live by faith.

Faith is the major structure of our Christian life, our holy life.

However, we need to hold to faith and a good conscience (1 Tim. 1:19) concerning which some, having thrust these away, have become shipwrecked concerning faith. Oh, Lord!

This faith to which we hold is our believing act, our subjective faith.

We need to come to the word of God again and again and be infused with God through the Word and by the Spirit.

When we turn our hearts to the Lord and exercise our spirit to pray over His word, faith will rise up in us.

This subjective faith moving within us brings us into an organic union with the Triune God.

Faith is not just agreeing with and believing a certain set of doctrines in God’s word; faith is an organic union with the Triune God.

In this union, we receive the divine life and nature, and we become the many sons of God and the many members of the Body of Christ, the new man, to be His corporate expression today and for eternity.

We war the good warfare by this kind of faith, not by trying to keep the law or some doctrines in the Bible.

We need to hold to faith and a good conscience; a good conscience is one without offense (Acts 24:16).

Having a good conscience is a safeguard of Christian faith and life. These two go together: faith and a good conscience.

A good conscience accompanies faith for us to war the good warfare against the different teachings in a troubled local church.

However, if we thrust away faith and a good conscience, we may become shipwrecked regarding the faith. Oh, Lord Jesus!

May we hold to faith and a good conscience so that we may be safeguarded for our Christian faith and life.

Our Christian life and church life are like a ship sailing on a stormy sea; we are safeguarded in our journey by faith and a good conscience.

May we hold to the subjective faith and deal with our conscience to have a good conscience so that we may not be shipwrecked concerning the faith but rather, war the good warfare one with the Lord and in the Body.

The two aspects of the faith – the objective faith and the subjective faith – involve one another.

Our believing (our subjective faith) is out of the things we believe and in the things we believe (our objective faith).

In 1 Thessalonians 3:2 faith is not only subjective, referring to the saints believing, as in verses 5, 6, and 10, but also objective, referring to what we believe in, as in 1 Timothy 3:9; 4:1; and 2 Timothy 4:7.

Thank the Lord for the objective faith and the subjective faith!

Lord Jesus, thank You for unveiling us to see You in Your person and work; we simply believe into You. Amen, Lord, our reaction to seeing Your wonderful person and all-inclusive work is that we believe into You, having a subjective faith. We believe into You, Lord, and we love You. We are one with You. By faith, we are joined to You as one spirit. You are in us and we are in You, for we are joined in spirit as one! Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to hold to faith and a good conscience in our Christian life today. We hold to faith, to our subjective faith, and we deal with our conscience so that we may have a good conscience. We want to have a conscience without offense and hold to faith so that we may be safeguarded in our Christian life. Amen, Lord, keep us under the hearing of the faith day by day so that our subjective faith would increase and be perfected. Keep us holding to You as our faith and to a good conscience so that we may war the good warfare and remain on the pathway of faith in our Christian life and church life!

Read this article in the Romanian language – citiți acest articol în limba română la următorul link, Credința obiectivă și credința subiectivă: credem în Cristos și suntem uniți ca unul singur.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 Timothy, msgs. 1-2, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Fighting the Good Fight, Finishing the Course, Keeping the Faith, and Loving the Lord’s Appearing in Order to Receive the Reward of Christ as the Crown of Righteousness (2024 ICSC), week 3, Keeping the Faith.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Objective and Subjective Faith, a portion via, Life-Study of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – Three Foundational Truths and Why They Matter, via, Shepherding Words.
  – Two aspects of faith, a portion from, Life-Study of 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 14, by Witness Lee.
  – Msg. 3: LS of First Thessalonians, via, Living to Him.
  – To be in the Holy of Holies is to be in God, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – The True Nature of Our Relationship with the Lord Jesus, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – The subjective God – the Trinity in Christian experience, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – How Can Christ’s Crucified Life Become Our Pattern? More via, Holding to Truth in Love.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The myst’ry of the common faith, / A conscience pure requires; / A holy, separated life / For us the Lord desires. / This outline of the healthy words, / In faith and love we’ll hold; / All different teaching, fruitless talk, / Reject with spirit bold. (Hymns #1285 stanzas 3-4)
  – Christ the Son of God and His redemptive deed / Are the saving faith which is our only creed. / All the other doctrines do not faith comprise; / Christ, His work and person, only qualifies. / All the other teachings used improperly / Are the “winds of doctrine,” spoiling unity: / Blowing saints away from Christ who is the Head, / Building not the Body, tearing down instead. (Hymns #832 stanzas 1-2)
  – Given us, given us, God has given us
  Precious faith, power divine, greatest promises. / We believed, we received, now we have all three; / By these we may grow unto maturity. / Precious faith in each saint, precious equally, / Precious faith holding us, holding ceaselessly. / Disagree or agree, still it holds us fast, / Day by day, eternally this faith shall last. (Hymns #1211 stanzas 1-2)