When we think about faith, our minds often drift to our own ability to believe—our capacity to trust God, to hold firm when circumstances challenge us, or to maintain confidence in prayer. But what if we’ve been looking at faith from the wrong angle? What if the most important aspect of faith isn’t the strength of our believing, but rather the absolute reliability of the One in whom we believe?
The Foundation: God’s Unchanging Faithfulness
Scripture repeatedly declares a profound truth: God is fundamentally, unchangingly faithful. Deuteronomy 7:9 calls Him “the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.” The Psalmist declares that God’s faithfulness reaches unto the clouds (Psalm 36:5) and that His faithfulness extends to all generations (Psalm 89:1).
This isn’t merely poetic language or religious sentiment. This is the bedrock reality upon which everything else rests. Unlike human beings who make promises with good intentions but sometimes fail to follow through, God never forgets, never changes His mind capriciously, and never lacks the power to accomplish what He has declared.
Think about your daily life for a moment. You sit in chairs without inspecting them first. You drive cars, trusting that the brakes will work. You operate on a baseline level of faith constantly—faith that things will function as they’re designed to function. But even these mundane acts of trust can fail us. Chairs break. Brakes malfunction. People disappoint.
God never does.
The Faith OF Christ, Not Just Faith IN Christ
Here’s where things get truly remarkable. When Scripture speaks of “the faith of Jesus Christ” in passages like Galatians 2:16, it’s revealing something deeper than our decision to believe in Him. It’s pointing to Christ’s own faithfulness—His absolute fidelity to the eternal purpose of the Godhead.
Consider the night before the crucifixion. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus fell on His face and prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39). In that moment of profound human emotion and spiritual weight, Christ was demonstrating perfect faithfulness to the eternal purpose determined before the world began.
He wasn’t an emotionless automaton going through predetermined motions. He experienced genuine sorrow, even unto death. He contemplated the physical agony ahead and, more significantly, the spiritual reality of bearing the sin of the world and being forsaken by the Father. Yet in that crucible moment, He chose complete fidelity to the plan.
This is the faith OF Christ—His unwavering commitment to accomplish what the Godhead had purposed from eternity past.
Our Justification Rests on His Faithfulness
This understanding transforms how we view our salvation. Galatians 2:16 tells us we are “justified by the faith of Jesus Christ.” Our justification doesn’t ultimately rest on the quality or consistency of our own faith—which, if we’re honest, waxes and wanes with circumstances. Instead, it rests on Christ’s perfect faithfulness.
When we place our faith in Christ, we’re not simply mustering up enough belief to earn salvation. We’re resting in the security of what He has already faithfully accomplished. The Oxford English Dictionary defines one aspect of faith as “in reliance on the security of” another. That’s precisely what’s happening—our faith is only as secure as the One in whom we’ve placed it, and He is absolutely, unshakably faithful.
First Corinthians 1:9 states plainly: “God is faithful, by whom ye are called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” The promise of the Spirit, the gift of eternal life, the hope of glory—all of these rest not on our ability to maintain perfect faith, but on God’s perfect faithfulness to His promises.
Walking by Faith, Not by Sight
This brings us to the practical application: “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Our flesh operates on what it can see, feel, and experience. Circumstances shout loudly about our unworthiness, our failures, our inadequacies. The visible world constantly tempts us to evaluate our standing with God based on how things appear.
But faith operates differently. Faith listens to what God has declared in His Word rather than what circumstances seem to indicate. Faith says we are beloved children of God, justified and complete in Christ, regardless of how we feel or what we see happening around us.
God’s faithfulness guarantees that “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13). In every trial, every test, every difficult moment, God’s faithfulness provides a way forward.
Faith as the Fruit of the Spirit
When we consider faith as a fruit of the Spirit, we’re not talking about our ability to work up more belief. We’re talking about the Spirit producing in us a reflection of God’s own faithfulness—a growing capacity to rely on and trust in the sufficiency of Christ and His Word rather than our own strength, ability, or resources.
This is the contrast with the works of the flesh. The flesh wants to accomplish things through human effort, human wisdom, human strength. Faith as a fruit of the Spirit means increasingly learning to trust in Christ’s sufficiency for every need.
Ephesians 3:11-12 reminds us that according to the eternal purpose God purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, “in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.” Our confidence before God isn’t based on our performance—it’s based entirely on Christ’s faithful completion of the redemptive work.
Living in the Victory
The beauty of understanding faith this way is realizing we have a 100% total victory plan in Christ. Our part isn’t to manufacture enough faith or maintain perfect consistency. Our part is to yield to the Spirit, to make moment-by-moment choices to walk after the Spirit rather than the flesh, and to trust in Christ’s faithfulness rather than our own.
The world, our circumstances, and the adversary will constantly try to get us evaluating our lives based on what we can see. But we know God loves us not because circumstances are good, but because His Son died for us and His Word declares it to be so.
This is the walk of faith—trusting in the One who is eternally, unchangeably, perfectly faithful.
Pastor Bryan Ross
Grace Life Bible Church
Grand Rapids, MI
Friday, October 31, 2025
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