When speaking about His return, Jesus Christ asked the pointed question, “… when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). He was not referring to just about any faith in just about anything–He was speaking of true and unwavering godly faith.
We should take His question very personally. Will He find that kind of faith in you and me? Faith which moves mountains? Faith without limitations and boundaries? Faith which is free from doubt and fear? Faith that knows with full conviction that God will do what He has promised? That nothing is impossible for God? That everything works out for good if we love God and do what pleases Him?
We cannot make up that kind of faith. Rather, God must grant it to us. It is not our faith–it is Christ’s faith living in us.
Paul knew this. He said in Galatians 2:20 (Authorized Version): “… Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God…” Paul understood that he LIVED by and through the faith OF Jesus Christ. And it is that faith that must dwell in all of us, and that Christ will be looking for when He returns. He said to the church in Pergamos, in Revelation 2:13: “And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny MY faith…”
Christ’s faith in us is living and obedient faith (James 2:20; Romans 1:5; 16:26). When we ask God the Father for it, He is willing to give us more and more of His Holy Spirit–and with it the faith OF Christ–His spirit of faith (Luke 11:13; Romans 12:3; 2 Corinthians 4:13; 2 Peter 1:1; 1 Corinthians 12:7, 9). We must live by and through it, not focusing on what we can already see, but on the things which we cannot see yet. Christ’s faith in us must endure–as Christ is not only the ORIGINATOR, but also the FINISHER of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
IF we allow Christ’s faith to endure in us, then Christ will find it in us when He returns. For it to endure, we must have received it earlier. Do we have it now? Paul challenges you and me to “examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
When Christ is in us, then we can “draw near [to God the Father] with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22). Every time we are in need! Every time we look for help, and strength, and encouragement! And we have the faith–we are convinced–that we will receive from God what we ask of Him, “because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22).
Do you believe that? Do you have that kind of faith, which is necessary to please God (Hebrews 11:6)?
You can! You should! You MUST!
Christ expects no less of you and me. But will He really find it in us when He returns?
