The Foundation of our Faith

Anything that is built must have a firm foundation or else it will fall. After the Apostle Peter confessed that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of the living God, Jesus replied to him by saying, "on this rock I will build my church (Matthew 16:18a)." Jesus Christ is the rock that the Church of God is built upon. It is because of this firm foundation that "the gates of Hades will not overcome it (Matthew 16;18b)." Here we are nearly two thousand years after Jesus said these words and His church is still going strong. If a Christian can trust that the Church will continue to stand and grow because it has Jesus Christ as its foundation, we should also be confident that this same Jesus will help us to stand and grow as individual Christians because He is our life and our foundation. After all, the scripture tells us that Jesus is "the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2)." With that in mind take a look at 2 Peter 1:5-9. It reads, "For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins." It is easy to read this passage and focus on Peter saying, "make every effort" and then go out in the energy of our own flesh and try to "add" to our faith all the things which follow these words; goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. However, the key to adding all these things to our faith is found in verse 9 where it reminds us not to forget that we have been "cleansed" from our past sins. Forgiveness is the foundation we build off of to see these things in our life.

A friend of mine once said, "If we won't believe the things God has already revealed to us, why should we expect Him to reveal more to us?" In short, what he meant was that so many things we learn in life depend on us already understanding and believing in other things. For example, you can't learn Geometry if you don't know basic math. Growing in our faith as Christians depends on us first understanding, knowing and believing in the forgiveness we already have through faith in Jesus Christ. If you believe that God still holds your sins against you, to any degree, how can you approach Him in confidence to get to know Him? Consequently, if you can't approach Him and don't really know Him, what is He going to teach you? Peter said a person has "forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins." This is true. Actually, we have been cleansed of all sins; past, present and future. When you owe somebody something you can't afford to pay, how much of a relationship do you have with that person, if any? Too many Christians feel they still owe God that debt of sin that Jesus paid in full on the cross. Despite knowing this they will still live their lives trying pay God with a currency He doesn't accept nor require. The "currency" we try to pay with is our confession booths, short accounts, altar calls, repetitive prayers, you name it. Thus, we have a shaky foundation that little to nothing can be built on. We all know that God is the source of all goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. These are nothing more and nothing less than fruits of the Spirit, not fruits of our flesh. When you don't believe God has forgiven you, you will simply stay immature in your faith. No matter how long you've been a Christian and no matter how much scripture you know and no matter what God has brought you through, you will still be a baby in Christ. You will, as Paul, said, "still need milk not solid food."  Everything starts with forgiveness. You have it. There is no more to get. Christ purchased eternal redemption for you. Your job is to believe it, rest in it, approach your God with confidence and let Him build on that solid foundation He put in place; producing His fruit in and through you.