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.
![For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life. John 3:16 No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared [Him.] John 1:18 In this the love of God was manifested among us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him. 1 John 4:9](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/For-God-so-loved-the-world-that-He-gave-His-only-begotten-Son-that-everyone-who-believes-into-Him-683x1024.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life. John 3:16 No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared [Him.] John 1:18 In this the love of God was manifested among us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him. 1 John 4:9")
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).
![Holding faith and a good conscience, [concerning] which some, thrusting [these] away, have become shipwrecked regarding the faith. 1 Tim. 1:19 Because of this I also exercise myself to always have a conscience without offense toward God and men. Acts 24:16](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Holding-faith-and-a-good-conscience-concerning-which-some-thrusting-these-away-have-become-shipwrecked-regarding-the-faith-683x1024.jpg?resize=400%2C600&ssl=1 "Holding faith and a good conscience, [concerning] which some, thrusting [these] away, have become shipwrecked regarding the faith. 1 Tim. 1:19 Because of this I also exercise myself to always have a conscience without offense toward God and men. 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!
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)
About aGodMan
Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1964, vol. 1, pp. 589-590
In the New Testament, faith is both objective and subjective.
The objective faith refers to the subject of our believing, that is, to the things in which believe – the contents of God’s New Testament economy.
Subjective faith has to do with our action of believing, having faith in the Lord.
We need both.
And we need to hold to faith with a good conscience so that we are not shipwrecked concerning faith.
Amen!
There are two kinds of faith, the subjective faith and the objective faith and 2 Tim 4:7 refers to the objective faith.
We must be clear with what is our faith!
Thank the Lord for the process he went through.
We also need to have the subjective faith to fight the good warfare, not trying to keep the law.
WEEK 3 – OUTLINE Keeping the Faith
Praise the Lord! 😃🙌🙋🏼
https://youtu.be/XSZeq45s2Pg?si=GGrIUDEaA6iEGzmZ
There is the subjective meaning of faith, the action of believing, and the objective meaning of faith, thing object or things which we believe.
I enjoyed reading today of the subjective act of holding faith. As we are infused by the word we create a union with God.
Also the importance of a good conscience to safeguard us against the different teachings.
We need to be those who keep the faith in the aspects of what we believe and our act of believing.
The objective aspect concerns the matters related to our salvation the person and work of Christ – the things we believe in order for us to be saved, the contents of which are God’s New Testament economy.
The subjective aspect relates to the organic union we enter into by believing.
As we come to Christ through the word we are infused with faith.
However, our faith needs to be safeguarded by a good conscience, one void of offense.
We need to be clear about the things concerning Jesus’s person & work.
If we are not clear, we risk becoming lost in the wilderness of our Satan-inspired reasonings & emotions.
Holding onto the contents of the complete gospel of God’s New Testament economy and having a good conscience — not having adulterated God’s New Testament economy— is a safeguard of Christian faith & life.
Do we really believe that Christ is the life-giving Spirit, and that He lives in our spirit whilst also being our Hight Priest and advocate in heaven?
If we fail to struggle to hold onto these matters, we will inevitably become shipwrecked on life’s stormy sea.
May the Lord operate in us the willingness to war the good warfare by standing firm in the faith that has been delivered to us via the apostles of Christ.
[Excerpt from HWMR-Week 3 Day 1]
07/01/24 Keeping the Faith (Week 3, Day 1)
Faith is not a matter of trying to believe something that we are not able to believe. Whenever we preach the gospel, we do not force anyone to believe. Instead, we present the Triune God as the One most dear, precious, and valuable. When others hear our presentation of such an attractive One, they will appreciate what we are saying and receive our word. The word they accept will then become their faith. This is what it means to believe.
In the New Testament, faith has two aspects:
1.) the objective aspect ~ the subject of our believing, or the things in which we believe (Eph 4:13; 2Tim 4:7c)
The objective aspect, which is related only to our salvation, includes Christ’s Person and His work of Redemption, which involves:
a.) His being the Son of God, having only divinity in Himself
b.) His incarnation to bring divinity into humanity, the divine nature into the human nature
c.) His vicarious death to redeem us from sins
d.) His resurrection to bring humanity into divinity, the human nature into the divine nature
e.) His ascension to execute and administer for the carrying out of God’s New Testament economy
f.) His descending as the Life-giving Spirit to Dispense Himself as life and everything to His believers
In the objective aspect, everything involves Christ’s Person and the work of redemption that He accomplished by Himself. We did nothing to accomplish His work of redemption; He did everything by Himself.
2.) the subjective aspect ~ our action of believing.
Whereas the objective faith involves Christ’s Person and His work of redemption, which He did outside of us, the subjective faith involves His work of dispensing that is inside of us in order for us to experience everything that He is, everything that He has, and everything that He has accomplished and to be accomplished. All these requires us to experience them subjectively and gradually to be enjoyed by us to becomes ours.
When we believed in the Lord Jesus, what we heard was not faith. Rather, what we heard was the message of the gospel, the preaching of God’s word. Apart from hearing the gospel, it would not have been possible for us to have faith. Faith comes from hearing the word of God. When somebody preached to us the gospel concerning Christ and His work of redemption, the gospel was the objective faith, which we need to believe.
When we accept the Word of God, the objective faith, this Word infuses something into us who heard of it. This element that is infused into us, in our human spirit, is the subjective faith. When we heard the preaching of the gospel, this subjective faith was infused into us.
Through such a subjective faith, we are able to believe in the objective faith. Having such a faith to believe into Christ’s Person and His work of redemption, we are regenerated, born of God, and a relationship of life begins between us and God. Furthermore, through this kind of faith we are put into Christ. Formerly, we were outside of Christ. But now, through our subjective faith, we are in Christ. This means that there is an organic union between us and Christ.
This is the beginning of the Christian life, and this life is a holy life that consummates in the church life. In this way, the Triune God is transmitted into our being so that we may have a new life, the divine life. With this new life, we have a relationship of life with God and an organic union with Christ. By means of this relationship and union, we begin our Christian life, a life of holiness, a holy life for the church life.
In 1 Timothy 1:19, Paul mentions about “holding faith.” The word faith in the expression “holding faith” refers to “our act of believing;” hence, it denotes subjective faith. As we have indicated, this faith rises up in us when we come to the Word and are infused with God through the Word and by the Spirit.
The subjective faith moves within us to bring about an organic union between us and the Triune God. In this union, we receive the divine life and nature to become God’s many sons and the many members of the Body of Christ, the new man, to be the corporate expression of the Triune God for eternity. We must war the good warfare by this kind of faith, not by trying to keep the law.
In 1 Timothy 1:19, Paul also mentions, along with the holding faith, our need to have a good conscience, a conscience without offense (Acts 24:16). A good conscience is a safeguard of Christian faith and life. We need both the faith and a good conscience in order to safeguard ourselves from the different teachings that would creep into the church.
Paul also mentions in 1 Timothy 1:19 “concerning some, thrusting the faith and a good conscience away, have become shipwrecked regarding the faith.” This indicates that a conscience with a leakage is like a leaking boat on the sea that is doomed to sink in the water.
Paul charged Timothy to hold faith and a good conscience. Otherwise, once he experienced a leakage in his conscience, faith would leak away, and he would be finished in spiritual matters. It is a very dangerous and serious thing to have a leakage in our conscience.
Amen brother, praise the Lord, we are those who hold on to faith and a good conscience so that we do not become shipwrecked.
To hold faith and a good conscience is a safetuard for our Christian life.
1 Tim. 3:9, foonote 1 on “mystery”, Recovery Version Bible
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Eph. 4:13 Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
1 Tim. 1:19 Holding faith and a good conscience, concerning which some, thrusting these away, have become shipwrecked regarding the faith.
I enjoyed this…the parsing of faith between the objective and the subjective. And all the comments, most helpful.
I find myself searching for a common denominator, something that would break down and simplify all our understandings and explanations to a few words.
So it seems to me we are saying that our objective faith is the object of our faith, Christ and His teachings and all that that brings. Our subjective faith then is our individual response, our living, through this objective faith, Christ. Our conscience then works within our subjective faith to convict us as we step away, to pull us back in.
Therefore, we see Christ (objective) and our heart responds (subjective) and we go on walking (subjective) in His light (objective).
It is interesting to me, sad actually, how many Christians today only have the objective faith and not the subjective, feverishly working in all manner of things according to their denomination or religious requirements, without hearing from the One whom they proclaim. Oh Lord.
How blessed we are saints! Pray for these others that the Lord may gain them. Whenever we have the opportunity we should share some of our riches with them. The Lord loves them and longs for them.
Be blessed, in His Love.