FAITH IN GOD (2)

“In whom we have BOLDNESS and ACCESS with CONFIDENCE through FAITH in HIM” – Ephesians 3:12

For the Believer, Access, Boldness, and unalloyed Confidence in Christ constitute FAITH IN GOD: “In whom we have BOLDNESS and ACCESS with CONFIDENCE through FAITH in HIM” (Eph.3:12). Until we know and believe in Jesus, God would be a mere abstraction. We cannot have true and living Faith in God outside of our Faith in Christ Jesus! The moment our Lord Jesus Christ comes into the picture, the A-B-C of Faith become established: Access, Boldness, and Confidence through Faith! The New Living Translation says: “Because of Christ and our FAITH in HIM, we can now come BOLDLY and CONFIDENTLY into God’s presence.” New International Version says: “IN HIM and THROUGH HIM we may approach God with FREEDOM and CONFIDENCE.”

Christ is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (Jh.14:6). Faith in Him grants Access into the holy of holies, to the Throne of Grace. This audacity of Faith is captured in Hebrews 4:13-15, “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus Christ the Son of God, let us HOLD FAST our CONFESSION. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come BOLDLY to the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain MERCY and find Grace to help in time of need.” Faith is the Access into the Palace of Grace!

Union with Christ gives us Right of Access. Through His mediation, His people have audience with the Father, and acceptance with Him, both of person and service: “To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us ACCEPTED in the BELOVED” (Eph.1:6). This Access is with Boldness; which denotes God-granted liberty of coming and liberty in the Spirit; a holy courage and dauntlessness of soul. Standing in Faith, we are free from servile fear and spirit of bondage, as we focus our Faith on the Person, Blood, and Righteousness of Christ. This Access also comes with confidence in God’s everlasting Love; of relation to Him as our covenant God and Father; of His faithfulness, power, and willingness to fulfil promises; and of His hearing and answering prayer.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Centre and Fulcrum of our Faith. In a self-centred world that prizes self-confidence and self-esteem, God’s Wisdom teaches us to not make a priority of focusing on ourselves, our own needs, and our sense of self-worth. Rather, we are called to manifest Confidence in Christ. That’s the capstone of our access and boldness. When self-assured people pray to God, people who believe their relationship with God is based on their own merit, they will find prayer an empty ritual. Prayers offered in our own strength rise no higher than the ceiling over our heads. The key to a rewarding relationship with God and effective prayer, is to turn away from a trust in our own selves or in fellow mortals, to a total reliance on our Saviour and Lord.

Jesus is the Mediator of our Redemption and of all other dimensions of our relationship to God. Our confidence is based on what Christ has accomplished! Despite the assaults of sin and doubt, through Christ alone, we have Access to the Father. The wonder of it all is that the more we learn about the vast enormity of the universe, the more astonished we should be that the God of creation – the God Who is and was and is to come, the Almighty – knows and loves us uniquely and individually. Because of Christ’s Work of Salvation and the Holt Spirit’s Presence within us, we can approach the Creator of the Universe with Boldness and Confidence.