In my last article, we talked about the importance of faith and repentance as lifelong practices if we would live healthy, vibrant Christian lives. The Puritan Thomas Watson put it this way: “Faith and repentance are the two wings by which the Christian flies to heaven.”
There is a misconception that many people have in our day that faith and repentance are one-time acts at the beginning of the Christian life, and these really have no vital place in our day-to-day living. That is one of the most soul-damaging beliefs a Christian can hold for reasons I will mention.
I want us in this article to consider why daily faith is so important to healthy Christian living. I am not thinking about faith in general, the kind of faith that we are to have in God for our daily needs, but a specific focus of our faith, which the author of Hebrews calls “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). What does he mean?
Fixing our eyes on Jesus fundamentally means remembering what Christ has done for you, that if you are truly resting in Christ He has fully and forever paid the penalty for all your sins. And now you and I are to live in the light of that great reality every day of our lives.
But as Christians we are constantly forgetting that. What I don’t forget is my sin. To use Martin Luther’s language, sin makes us curved in on ourselves, and we can’t do that and grow spiritually. When I am introspectively curved in on myself, I will only know despair, discouragement, bondage, guilt and lack of peace. Why? Because my heart is full of sin.
We try to live the Christian life in our own strength, but that is a sure recipe for failure. As redeemed sinners, we need to ponder every day how much Christ loves us, because that is our motivation and encouragement for living the Christian life. You and I never mature beyond the cross. It is the beginning, middle and end of the Christian life because it provides God’s strength to live that life.
The gospel isn’t as deeply ingrained in the Christian heart as it needs to be. Every day the Christian must grow in his or her confidence that through our union with Christ we are loved, accepted and forgiven. And that can’t change because as we sometimes sing, “Jesus paid it all.” As the 19th century Scottish pastor Robert Murray M’Cheyne put it, “For every look you take at your sin, take ten looks at Christ.” Only that will keep me from despair and help me to press on. Only that will encourage me to desire to live for the Lord.
Many of us have been taught that the gospel is only for non-Christians. That is not true! Christians need the gospel every bit as much as non-Christians. Jesus said to His disciples, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
One of the reasons we struggle so is because, as the Puritans used to say, “We live below the level of our privileges.” We are rich in Christ. Faith means keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus because He is the source of my encouragement. God wants us to grow beyond a mere shallow understanding of gospel grace because He knows that is the one thing that will keep us motivated to live in a world where our three great enemies are the world, the flesh (our sin) and the devil.
What motivates and encourages you to live the Christian life? It must be Christ and His sure love. The apostle Paul prays that we would grasp “how long and wide and high and deep the love of Christ” is for us (Ephesians 3:18-19). Paul knew that this truth needs to be deeply rooted in our hearts. Our lives are to be shaped by the power of the gospel.
When we understand this, and live in the light of it, it makes all the difference in the world. We are all sinners and will be until we die, but we have gospel resources for living God-honoring lives. If you are Christ’s, you have spiritual riches beyond the wealthiest person in this world. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). Don’t live like a spiritual pauper.
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