In the New Testament the word “faith” is used with two
meanings: objective faith and subjective faith.
Faith is foundational to our Christian walk. It is composed of beliefs regarding the
Bible, God, Christ, the work of Christ, salvation and the church. In one sense “Our Faith refers to the things
in which we believe for our salvation, the object of our faith, our belief (Titus
1:4; 1
Tim. 6:12; 2
Tim. 4:7). This is objective
faith. Our faith is pointing to an
object that is greater than ourselves.
Faith is the content of the complete gospel. According to God’s New Testament love letter
Faith is a great and necessary virtue. The
question is: “How is it made complete?”
First faith must have the right Object. The objective meaning of the word faith is
real and cannot be denied. That is,
objective faith has for its object Jesus Christ, His word and His ways. Faith directed toward any other object is
not biblical faith at all.
There is also the second meaning, that is, the subjective
meaning of the word faith, which refers to our act of believing (Rom.
5:1; Eph.
2:8; Heb.
11:1). We have faith in the Lord Jesus, and this is the act of believing
leads us into action in our living.
Subjective faith refers to our faith in Action.
When faith is seen working it denotes the subjective nature
of our faith.
This faith arises in us when we come to the word and enjoy
it in spirit.
This faith arises within us when we see a need and in the
prompting of the Holy Spirit we seek to meet it, great or small.
This faith arises within us when we are stirred in our
spirit to fight evil, promote justice, and walk humbly with God.
Subjective faith moves in our spirit in order to bring forth
a spiritual union between us and the Triune God, and in this union we receive
the divine life eternal and new nature.
The church life is the ideal environment for us to let the
objective faith be fully fashioned into our subjective faith.
When this happens we have God’s life and nature in fullness
and embodied in the Bride of Christ.
Working and waiting on His return.
Real faith that is complete is not objective or subjective
only, rather it is both. Our faith is
not a matter of simply receiving or having the power to receive spiritual
riches. When Complete Faith is real
with us, we will be fond believing the right object, and than taking the right action
so that a world without hope finds real hope, and a world without light is
given true light. In short with faith
is made whole in us, the hands and feet of Jesus are working in this world to
it a better place.
