“Proof of Faith”

Faith, to be considered to be genuine, must naturally bear the fruit of good works. No true child of God remains in darkness.

True faith brings forth fruit of the Spirit.

We’ve already established in previous episodes that it is by faith, not works, that we would be right with God. However, genuine faith in God is neither stagnant nor dead. It’s alive, active, and vibrant. It moves, grows, and bears fruit. Its natural result is significant positive changes in our mindset and behavior or a total 180° turn. Those changes won’t help but show; they’ll be visible, apparent, and noticeable.

When we put our faith in Jesus, God sanctified us and changed us from our old selves which are not acceptable to Him to a new creation conformed in His image and is to keep conforming in His image with each passing day. Our new selves now desire to follow God’s will, know Him more, and learn of His ways.

Since it is God who changed us, we will truly be changed. Its proof will be manifested in our lives and in our persons: in the way we think, talk, and move. This new attitude can’t be feigned or studied; it will just flow naturally. The absence of this proof means that regeneration never occurred.

For this reason, it is necessary to clarify what faith really is what it’s probably not:

There is a difference between putting our faith in God and mere agreeing with the information presented to us about God as if we’re believing them. Faith is our personal encounter with God, in contrast to mere giving a mental assent to the facts about God. There’s nothing wrong with the latter. It can be the starting point. But as such, it’s still on a shaky ground and is subject to change any minute. We may be convinced for a while of the truth of what we’ve heard and then shake it off once we’re again confronted by the vicissitudes of life. Unless something snaps, then we haven’t put our faith in God yet. In episode 1, we mentioned something about true faith in God versus a nominal belief in God.

We need words to understand something. Words are simple yet crucial. The Apostle John describes Jesus as the Word, meaning Jesus is Yahweh in tangible form, the visible Person, though whom, we can truly know the invisible God. God’s earlier revelations through direct speaking, symbolic appearances, objects, and practices culminate in the person of Jesus, God’s ultimate revelation of Himself.

Faith in its fullest meaning is the experience of our soul with the one true God. Its source is God’s personal revelation to each and every one of us through His mighty word, the Bible. Sometimes, it can be through the circumstances in our life or other unique ways, but it is primarily through the Bible.

I hope we already made the distinction clear. Let’s now proceed to explaining a few selected verses.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23a).

How are we faring so far with the above-mentioned qualities expected in a person who say they believe in Jesus? Of course, we’re still humans; we’re not perfect. As new believers, we may be still in the process of learning to be good at the application of those virtues. But it is an altogether-different thing to say that we believe in Jesus and yet be totally given to the opposites of those enumerated in the verse above.

I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me (Galatians 2:20).

Another idea we can get from Jesus’ crucifixion is so that we can also crucify our sin nature.

To err is human, and we didn’t cease to be human when we put our faith in Jesus although God has changed us and made us a new creation. However, realizing the extent of Jesus’ love for us, we also need to make some sacrifices for our newfound relationship with God by, first of all, not letting our sin nature take control of us. We have all the freedom to do good works and be the best person that we can be for others, but we don’t push through with things we know are sin and of evil, wicked nature. Self-control is one of the fruits of the Spirit.

When we were yet unbelievers, sin nature wasn’t even an issue; we just did everything that we please. But now as believers, it is. We’re already conscious of it and are now in an everyday struggle to keep it down and not let it overpower us.

Here is the patience of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus (Revelation) 14:12.

Saints, or believers, are those who equally keep the commandments of God and faith in Jesus. Faith and good works here go hand in hand; they’re inseparables. As ones who have put our faith in Jesus, we delight in learning and obeying both the Old Testament and New Testament commandments. e are one with the psalmist in saying, I DELIGHT to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart (Psalm 40:8).

But the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned faith (I Timothy 1:5).

We already mentioned earlier that faith can’t be feigned. Pretensions of faith will eventually be seen through. We’ve also mentioned earlier that God has sanctified us when we put our faith in Jesus so that we have become new persons with pure hearts and good consciences. Therefore, no amount of malice should be found in our thought systems. We shouldn’t entertain it, more so, allow it to settle, brew, reside, take up space in our minds. If Satan seems to be persistently sneaking it into our heads, we should rebuke it and cast it out by the power of the name of Jesus.

As believers, we don’t operate with malice aforethought. That is simply too extreme for us, and that belongs to the darkness. Jesus wants us to be childlike who excel at good things and are innocent of evil. We just do the things that would be pleasing to our Father and a blessing and a good testimony for others. We’re always trying to excel at the application of the fruit of the Spirit and other good things in life to be the glory of our Father, and we’re not interested in anything about evil things. We’re not touching anything of that nature, much less explore it. Jesus wants us to be wise, not wily, as serpents and harmless as doves.

If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but don’t have love, I am nothing (I Corinthians 13:2).

What’s the use our faith even if it can move mountains if we don’t know how to care for others? If it doesn’t bear the fruit of love, our so-called faith is meaningless. And it is as if we’re non-existent if our lives don’t make a difference for the better that will be beneficial to others. It’s all too easy to claim and profess. But the truth of what we claim or profess will be checked against the attitudes we manifest and the effect we produce.

Test your own selves whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know as to your own selves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified (II Corinthians 13:5).

As we have discussed in previous episodes, faith is, first of all, a process that happens within ourselves and between us and God. We have to be very clear about our individual standing with God first, and we must make sure that we are indeed bearing the fruit of the Spirit as proof of our faith in Jesus.

We can’t count on being in the company of believers to feel sure that we’re going to be raptured with them. Our faith in Jesus should be very clear in ourselves first so that even if other believers are nowhere to be found within our vicinity and we are left alone, we can still function as a believer and not backslide.

Of course, faith in Jesus is not an individualistic kind of faith but a corporate one. Fellowship is very important. But our membership, attendance, and participation in an assembly of believers will only be meaningful if our faith in God is well-founded within ourselves first so that every word that we will say and every little thing that we will do in the gatherings will be Spirit-led and spiritually uplifting. As we said in our previous episodes, all our good works will mean nothing to God if, first of all, we haven’t truly put our faith in Him.

So I hope I didn’t confuse you and made a muddled mixture of the concepts of faith and good works. Faith is still the thing that makes us right with God. But if it is indeed true, then it is expected to bear the fruits of good works and the fruit of the Spirit. Because true saving faith can’t be a mere stump of a tree. It is expected to have a continuous outgrowth of stems, leaves, and fruits.a continuous outgrowth of stems, leaves, and fruits.

Study the Bible with me: Faith series, episode 5

by: Marven T. Baldo