In the completing ministry of Paul we see many aspects and definitions of what the church is, and one of these is, the household of the faith. The church is the house of God and the house of faith.
First of all, without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to God, since if we come forward to Him we need to believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of all those who diligently seek Him (see Heb. 11:6).
What is faith? How come some people have faith while others don’t? Faith is not something we “muster up” by trying really really hard to believe in God, but it is simply a reaction to seeing Christ and being infused with Christ.
Abraham, the father of faith and of all those who believe, lived a life by faith by having God appearing to him all the time. As God appeared to him, he reacted by believing. Today we as believers in Christ are not merely Christians (a nickname given by the people in the world, associating us with Christ) but we are believers – we believe in Christ by being in an organic union with Him by faith.
In the church life today we are one in our faith in Christ, and we are organically joined to Christ through this linking faith, joining faith, in which we grow every day! May we really have an appreciation of the church as the household of faith, composed of all the genuine believers in Christ!
The Church is the Household of Faith
In Gal. 6:10 Paul encourages us to take the opportunity to do good toward all, especially toward those of the household of the faith. Since he mentions this right after speaking of “sowing unto the Spirit to reap eternal life”, this means that we as believers in Christ are part of the household of the faith and whatever we do affects the church either positively or negative.
If we sow unto the Spirit, if we live by the Spirit and walk by the Spirit, we will reap eternal life and we will build up the household of the faith. But if we sow unto the flesh, we can damage the church.
All the genuine believers in Christ are the members of the family, the household, of the faith, and the eternal Bethel as the desire of God’s heart is the house of faith (see Gen. 28:11-12, 16-19a; Gal. 6:10).
What does the expression “the household of faith” denote? Footnote 2 in Gal. 6:10 in the Recovery Version helps us to understand that,
The household of the faith refers to the children of promise (Gal. 4:28), all who are sons of God through faith in Christ (Gal. 3:26). All the believers in Christ together constitute a universal household, the great family of God. This is through faith in Christ, not through the works of law. This household, as the new man (Col. 3:10-11), is composed of all the members of Christ, with Christ as their constituent. Hence, we should do good, especially toward those of this household, regardless of their race and social rank (3:28).
We Believe by Having Christ Infused into us to Be Our Faith
Have you ever wondered, How come I believe in God, in Christ, and in the Bible? How come so many others don’t believe in God? To me, God is so real, Christ is so wonderful, and the Bible is His love letter filled with life, but why don’t others also see and believe this?
Faith has two aspects: one is the objective faith (the contents of the faith in which we believe and we are saved, see Acts 14:22; 1 Cor. 16:13; Jude 3, 20; Eph. 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:7), and the subjective faith, the act of believing (see Gal. 2:20; Rom. 1:17).
We need to realize that our faith, our believing ability, is NOT our own, coming from us, or conjured up by us – it is Christ entering into us to be our faith! It is “the faith of Jesus Christ” (see Rom. 3:22), not “my faith” or “my believing”. When Christ appears to us, when we see Him and know Him through the preaching of the gospel, we appreciate Him, we treasure Him, and He causes faith to be generated in us.
Christ infuses Himself into us to become our believing ability, and we simply believe into Him and love Him! The more Christ appears to us by our spending time with Him in His word, in the meetings with the saints, in vital group meetings, and in all kinds of situations as we contact Him, our faith grows in measure and we treasure Christ more! And on His side, God considers this as righteousness!
Abraham, our father in faith, had God appearing to him and he just believed – because God infused Himself as faith into Abraham to become his believing ability.
The Bible is not a set of doctrines, stories, and things, but there’s a living Person behind the words in the Bible, and if we open to Him, He infuses Himself into us and shines on us, and we will have a living faith, a linking faith, which organically joins us to Christ.
We now live a life by faith, the faith of Jesus Christ who loved us and gave Himself up for us (Gal. 2:20). Yes, we do believe all the words in the Bible and we read the Bible, but we also touch and are infused by the living Person revealed in the Bible!
The End of Man is the Beginning of God
In Heb. 4:16 we are told the basic principle of faith: if we come close to God we need to believe that He is (He is the I AM, He is, and we are NOT). To believe is that God is and we are not.
If we are still capable, strong, and able, we believe that “we are”, we can do it, and we can make it. But there will be situations and people coming in your life which will show you that, really, you cannot do it, but God can. The end of man is the beginning of God.
When we give up in trying to be a good husband or wife, trying our best to be a good student or employee, or even trying to be a good Christian – when we stop, give up, and let God come in, He can do it! The end of what we are is the beginning of what God is.
Faith is to believe that God is everything to us and we are nothing (see John 8:58; Eccl. 1:2).
Exercising our Spirit of Faith and Growing in Faith
Doubts are in our mind, but faith is in our spirit. As Christ infuses Himself into us to become our believing ability, we grow in faith.
First of all, our spirit of faith is the organ we must exercise to substantiate everything of the unseen God, since God is Spirit and we have a human spirit which corresponds to and is joined with God’s Spirit (John 4:24; Heb. 11:1, 27).
When we exercise our spirit of faith, we transfer all that God is objectively, all that the Bible tells us about Him, and all that He is – into us, to become our subjective experience and enjoyment (1 Pet. 1:8; 2:7; 2 Cor. 4:13).
God is real, true, and He is the only Real Thing in the universe, but if you don’t have faith, if you don’t exercise your spirit of faith, you can’t see Him. We need to exercise our spirit to substantiate God and transfer things from the unseen realm into our experience. As we exercise our spirit of faith and substantiate God, our faith grows!
The saving faith, the initial faith which saved us, is the same in quality, but the quantity of faith depends on how much we contact the living God so that we may have Him increased in us (see Rom. 12:3; Acts. 6:5; Col. 2:19).
In the church as the household of the faith we have different measures of faith depending on how much we contact God and allow Him to be infused in us to be our subjective faith. May we be those who grow in faith until we are full of faith!
Dear Lord Jesus, we love You! We have never seen You with our physical eyes or touched You with our hands, but we love You! Thank You for infusing us with Yourself to become the believing ability in us. Lord, keep us interacting with You, talking to You, and having Your appearing daily, so that our faith may grow. May we grow in faith daily, until we are full of faith, speaking the word of faith and infusing Christ into others to become their faith. Lord, we praise You for making us the household of faith by being the believing One in us!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration: Bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing and portions in, Crystallization-study of the Epistle to the Romans (msgs. 7, 11), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, “The Completing Ministry of Paul“, week 5 entitled, Five Aspects of the Church.
- Buy this HWMR book via LSM online here.
- Further reading on this topic:
# Life-study of Galatians, msg. 35.
# Gal. 6:10 and footnote on, Household of Faith.
# Rom. 3:22 and footnote on, Faith of Jesus Christ.
# Gal. 2:16 and footnote on, Faith in Jesus Christ. - Hymns on this topic:
# Believing You, / Because, Lord, You are my success! / When I fail, all I must do is just confess, / And go on enjoying You— / I love believing You!
# Our faith to God-ward must in these days spread abroad / To show we’ve turned from idols to the living God. / We’ll mix His Word with faith by answering “Amen!“ / And to Christ in the Word turn again and again.
# And having the same / Spirit of faith, / Be strong! Be not weak! / “We also believe, / Therefore we also must speak!” - Pictures credit: Gal. 6:10 here and instagram here (with thanks).
About aGodMan
