2 Peter 1:2-5 “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.  ³ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. ⁵ For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue”

What do we mean when we say we have faith?  Hebrews 11:1 gives us a definition – “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  The rest of Hebrews 11 is examples of persons of faith doing the works of God from an overflow of their faith in God.  The book of James is largely written to show how true faith overflows into actions.  Put another way – over the long term, if you look at the manner of life of a person you can tell what they believe – where they place their hopes and assurance of joy.

As Christians, we do not simply have faith in Jesus.  That is to say, our faith is more that Jesus is the Son of God, died for sins, buried, and rose from the dead.  It is not less than that, but if it is not more than that, then we are no different from satan or his demons.  James 2:19 illustrates this  – “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”  So our faith is more than just intellectual knowledge of who God is, or even what He has done.  What separates us from the demons in our faith, is the affectional nature of our faith, and our submission to God as our Savior King.  1 Corinthians 12:3 – “Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.” Romans 10:9 – ‘if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

What does your heart say about Jesus?  What do you know about His goodness, His kindness, His forgiveness, His patience, His hatred of sin, His love, His righteousness, and all of His perfections?  What does your heart say about the gospel?  Do you believe that the gospel is simply a get out of jail free card for sin?  Or do you see the beauty of God through Jesus, rescuing us from the trappings of sin, to have joy in God – bearing His image as we were created to do, in His righteousness?  2 Corinthians 5:21 – “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  

Brothers and sisters, our virtue, the moral excellence that our lives demonstrate will tell us what our heart has faith in.  We do not have a sin problem, we have a faith problem.  Sin is simply unbelief in Jesus and the gospel.  Psalm 16:11  – “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”  This is the Word of God – we were made by our Creator to walk in righteousness as His sons and daughters, in His presence, with a fullness of joy.  The question today is do we believe Him?  How does our life’s actions align with our belief that Jesus is King, supreme, all loving, all sufficient for infinite joy, and our helper as we walk through life.  Virtue is the overflow of a heart that believes God and is believing in His promises to us through Jesus.  This is where we enter in.  Next time we’ll push forward to the pursuit from virtue to greater knowledge.

Grace and Peace,

Adam