Lord<\/a>, and God. Jesus is with me and he is for me. Christian faith is confidence in Jesus Christ. That\u2019s why we want him to be at the center of everything we do in worship. That\u2019s why he\u2019s at the center of the Bible.<\/p>\n\n\n\nChristian Faith is Apostolic <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We often speak about personal faith. That\u2019s good, because you have to believe for yourself; nobody else can believe for you. But Christian faith is more than personal; it is apostolic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be a Christian means that you share the same faith as the apostles. We often ask people, \u201cDo you have a personal faith?\u201d It might be better to ask, \u201cDo you have an apostolic faith? Do you share the faith of the Apostles? Do you believe what they believed?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What matters is not that you have \u201ca faith\u201d (as if you had to make up your own), but that you hold to \u201cthe faith\u201d (the apostolic faith), the faith that was \u201conce for all entrusted to the saints\u201d (Jude v.3). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The apostolic faith is the only one worth having! For the promises of the gospel belong to the people who share the same faith as the Apostles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christian Faith is God\u2019s Gift and His command <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026to those\u2026 who have received a faith as precious as ours. (2 Peter 1:1). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You received this faith. You did not generate it. The apostle Paul said the same thing in different words in Ephesians 2:8. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Faith is also a command that we obey: Jesus said, \u201cHave faith in God\u201d (Mark 11:22). That\u2019s a command! \u201cBelieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved\u201d (Acts 16:31). That\u2019s a command; God calls us to do this. Faith is God\u2019s gift and his command. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Have you ever thought about how strange it is when a preacher says to an unbeliever: \u201cPut your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ\u201d? How can an unbeliever put his or her faith in Jesus? If you are an unbeliever, then by definition you do not believe. And if you do not believe, then you don\u2019t have any faith to put in Jesus!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So how can anyone ever be saved? The disciples asked that question once, and Jesus said \u201cWith man it is impossible but \u2026 all things are possible with God\u201d (Mark 10:27). God is able to create faith where it does not exist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is a strange tension that faith is both a gift and a command. When Augustine understood this he said to God, \u201cCommand what you will, only give what you command!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you are not yet a Christian, this is a great place to begin. You can come to God today as Augustine did. You can say: \u201cYou command me to have faith, and I don\u2019t have it. So give me what I do not possess. Make me what I am not.\u201d Jesus said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christian Faith Comes through Jesus\u2019 Own Glory and Goodness <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (v.3) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What would make an unbelieving person want to follow Jesus today? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first reason is his goodness\u2014the sheer excellence of his life, the abundance of his grace and kindness. The second reason is his glory\u2014the total impact of all that he is. That\u2019s how Jesus draws people\u2014he calls us through his own glory and goodness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Think about how this relates to evangelism. If we want to see people follow Christ, we should make much of his glory and his goodness. Make him the focus of your Sunday school class, or small group. Keep him central when you share the gospel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember that the gospel is not about you and your faith. It is about Jesus and his glory. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. (2 Peter 1:3)\u00a0 What is Christian Faith? What do they practice? Peter is making an extraordinary claim in the verse above: In Jesus Christ you will find everything that you need for life! Whom is he writing to? Who receives this great blessing? In 2 Peter, Peter says right at the beginning that he is writing to those people who have \u201ca faith as precious as ours\u201d (v.1). This immediately raises… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/christiansinnepal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/christiansinnepal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/christiansinnepal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christiansinnepal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christiansinnepal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/christiansinnepal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242,"href":"http:\/\/christiansinnepal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christiansinnepal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/christiansinnepal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christiansinnepal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/christiansinnepal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}