|
CHAPTER
19
CHAPTER
NINETEEN
THE
AUTHOR AND PERFECTER OF OUR FAITH
Let
us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of
our faith-----.
(Hebrews
chapter 12, verse 2).
Author
can mean originator, one who begins something or brings
something into being. In today’s common usage it usually
refers to the writer of a book. In Jesus it certainly
has the first meaning. We have seen how, He, being the
Word of God, created all things that have been created.
In this sense, He is the Author of the human race. However,
the inspired writer of Hebrews speaks of Jesus as the
Author of our faith. Without Jesus there is no saving
faith in God. Remember, the Scriptures are the written
word of God, they are of Christ and they testify to
Christ. We must hear or read these words in order to
have faith in Jesus:
Consequently,
faith comes from hearing the message, and the message
is heard through the word of Christ.
(Romans
chapter 10, verse 17).
We
can say that Jesus is the Author of the Bible, in the
sense that He is its Originator and Inspirer---all Scripture,
Old and New Testament, is the word of Christ. A brother
or sister in Christ might say, ‘Surely, the Holy Spirit
is the inspiration behind Scripture?’ And I agree; but
Jesus said of the Holy Spirit:
“He
will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he
hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He
will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and
making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father
is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from
what is mine and make it known to you.”
(John
chapter 16, verses 13-15).
‘All
that belongs to the Father is mine.’ What words to come
from the mouth of a Man! And spoken in such loving calmness
and humble confidence. All that ever belonged to the
Father has ever belonged to the Son, and so it forever
will. The Father holds nothing back from the Son (except
by mutual consent, for approximately 33 years, during
the eternal Son’s incarnation, when certain divine attributes
such as omnipresence and omniscience were withheld).
And how wonderful this is to the believer---the Father
has given us to His Son:
“All
that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever
comes to me I will never drive away-------and I will
raise him up at the last day.”
(John
chapter 6, verses 37, 40).
How
precious do you think you are? How much are you loved?
Maybe you feel very far from being precious to anyone,
maybe you feel very unloved. Dear Christian, can you
imagine the ever-living Son despising, in any way, any
gift given to Him by the almighty Father? We do receive
gifts which we do not really want. We do receive gifts
which after a while we may no longer have, because they
might be used up or worn out, or we might simply want
to change things around. It is never so with God. The
Father’s gifts to the Son never wear out or become unwanted;
they are never got rid of to make room for something
more fashionable or useful. Nor does the Father give
out of a sense of tradition or because it seems the
right thing to do. The Father does not give grudgingly
or to impress. The Father gives from a heart that loves
totally and with a purity beyond our imagining; and
every single gift to His beloved Son is a peculiar treasure
of infinite worth. Worth more than the earth itself;
more than the stars and the planets. Dear Christian,
you are such a gift, and one day you will know it to
be true. Do you not realise that the Father’s gifts
to His Son are more precious to Jesus than life itself?
He proved it.
In
today’s world we often hear it said that a certain thing
is ‘to die for!’ We hear this said of the most mundane
things, and no-one actually means what they are saying.
But the gift of you and me and of every other man, woman
or child, past, present or future, who is given by the
Father to the Son is given on the express proviso that
‘this one is to die for!’ Not that Jesus has to die
over and over again, His one perfect sacrifice satisfied,
for eternity, the justice of God concerning those who
believe. But without that sacrifice no-one could ever
be saved---no-one could ever have been given by the
Father to the Son.
Before
the creation of the world, the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit knew that the greatest gift the Father
would give the Son could only be given on the provision
of the death of the Son. Imagine: The Father says, ‘My
beloved Son, I will give all these to you. If you want
them, you must personally pay the penalty for their
sin. None of them are able to do it for themselves.
Every last one of them is to die for.’ And, the Son
gladly accepts.
Only
God knows how many were given to the Son, but even if
it had only been one or two, you and me, we would still
have been to die for.
The
Father gives us to the Son; the Son redeems us by His
blood shed on the cross. But, we who come to Christ,
still need faith in Christ, and even faith does not
come from ourselves. We cannot produce it within ourselves.
The Bible tells us that even our faith is a gift from
God.
Coming
to faith in Christ is the first step on the road to
perfection, and the road to perfection is a journey
we cannot make on our own. It is only because our Lord
is true to His promises, that He will never leave us
or forsake us, and that no-one can snatch us from His
hand, that we have any hope of completing such a journey.
It is an impossible journey for sinful man. Almighty
God, alone, can make us perfect.
The
King James Version uses the word ‘finisher’ instead
of ‘perfecter’. Indeed, our faith begins and ends in
Jesus. Eventually we will meet Him, and then, for the
Christian, will come true perfection:
But
we know that when he appears, we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
(1
John chapter 3, verse 2).
Christ,
our Author and Perfecter, is fully active in creation,
in redemption, in bringing to faith, and in bringing
to perfection.
|
