for i am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the jew first and also to the greek. for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” [romans 1:16-17]
the gospel produces faith–which leads to more faith! when we live from the overflow, when we live in the power of the Holy Spirit, unashamed, we demonstrate the righteousness that only comes from God through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection.
faith is both a gift and an act that we participate in–more on this later–but what is the source of faith and what continues to power faith?
paul references the prophet habakkuk:
“behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. [habbakuk 2:4]
the prophet contrasts the man who does things by his own power–he is ‘puffed up’ he is not walking by faith, he is not acting righteously. however, the man of God lives dependent, patient, with open hands and a soft heart towards the Lord’s commandments.
the gospel is revealed to us so that we believe, we have faith–then we we walk in that faith, as a verb, faithing each day in the power of God, faithing is simply walking in the Spirit:
for God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. [romans 8:3-4]
if God does and has done it all, what is our part?
abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness. [genesis 15:6]
to believe! (for more about abraham’s act of faith, read romans 4, galatians 3:6-9 and hebrews 11) all of these affirm that it is faith alone by which we are counted righteous–but even in our belief, even in our faith, we cannot take credit–it is the Lord who is the source of our faith, who sets his love upon us to cause us to believe and have faith–it is why we cry out to him in desperate need:
“i believe; help my unbelief!” [mark 9:24b]
in his presence, let that be your prayer today–if you have faith in him, only he can give you more faith. if you are feeling faithless, he is faithful–he is a good Father who gives good gifts–let us pray “i have faith; help me to faith!” let us walk by faith, help us to walk in the righteousness of our risen Savior, Jesus.
~ce