Faith. . . . Some have a problem grasping a meaningful definition of just what the word implies. Perhaps this is due in part to the fact that for many people faith denotes something that is intangible and thus difficult to fathom. It is the substance of something, and, at the same time, this something is a thing that is not visually seen. As we read in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Sometimes we, as members of the human family, find it difficult to take hold of something we cannot actually see or feel. By the way, faith itself is not a feeling—if it were, in our Christian experience we would be up emotionally one day and down the next. This would not work well in our life; we must be absolutely convinced of that on which our faith dwells.

The entire book of Hebrews in the New Testament alludes to many people who lived their life based on faith in One higher than they, yet One who indeed was invisible to them.

But in this article we are not dwelling so much on faith as we relate it to ourselves, but upon the experiences of Jesus while He was on the earth and His faith as the Son of man. But, you say, He was the Son of God, a part of the Godhead; why did He need faith? Let us look further.

While Jesus is God, He was also a man. In Matthew 22:41–46, Jesus posed to the unbelieving Pharisees a question which they could not answer. In fact, after that they were careful not to ask Him any more questions on the subject of who He was. To them He looked like a man just as any other man appeared. Yet, He was different.

In John 20:27–31 we find the account of when Jesus appeared to His disciples when the doubting one, Thomas, was with them. Thomas was finally convinced that this One who stood before him was the Lord, was God. Verse 29 holds a very pertinent fact that we all must ponder, “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

Many scriptural texts verify who Jesus was while upon earth with humanity. They also give a good definition of what faith really is. We, with our finite minds, do not always grasp these things but must accept them by faith if we are to believe the things pertaining to God.

The scriptures also tell of Christ’s birth as a man. In John 1:1 He is spoken of as the Word, the Word being with God and also being God. Then in verse 14 it is stated that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And as it is stated in John 3:16, God gave His Son so that sinful men and women might be redeemed. The first promise of this was stated in Genesis 3:15.

Christ was born with a human nature but was without sin. He would be tempted by the adversary just as we are, yet He would not yield to temptation and sin (Hebrews 4:15).

So we can look at Jesus as the Son of man also and can relate to His experiences while He was upon earth, since we now have the understanding that He was made flesh and blood, born of a woman and was tempted as we are. What about His faith?

Just as we are, Jesus was tempted at various times under various circumstances. Often He had to bow before His Father in supplication for those to whom He was offering salvation and for His own strengthening. He, who had all the power of heaven available to Him if He should choose to use it, felt as a man the need to go before His Father on bended knee. He also longed for those closest to Him on earth—His disciples—to wait and watch with Him during some of those agonizing times when He would be in fervent prayer all night. The work He had volunteered to do for the salvation of humanity—so helpless in their sins—was very real to Him. In His times of physical weakness, the enemy sought after Him with a vengeance beyond description, but His faith in the sustaining help of His Father brought Him the strength that He needed. So it can be with us also if we will exercise that same faith and lay hold on it.

The earth that Jesus created became His battleground as He came to minister to fallen humanity and do for them that which they could not do for themselves—the work of redemption and restoration. And now, Jesus is doing the final work in the sanctuary in heaven, acting the part of a Mediator between God and humanity, finishing the redemptive work He began while here on earth. As the petitions rise to Him from the repentant ones on earth, in faith pleading for forgiveness, Christ, in faith, raises His nail-pierced hands to the Father, pleading for forgiveness for them, the ones for whom He came to earth to offer salvation.

If we had been witnesses to the temptations Satan placed upon Jesus as He was led into the wilderness just after His baptism, we would have witnessed the terrible conflict the Prince of Light encountered at the hand of the prince of darkness and evil. This was a foe who was not willing to give up on his intentions to snatch as many people as he could from the One whose love had brought Him to earth to be sacrificed for their redemption. For a person to redeem something is to buy back that which had belonged to him to begin with. God had created humanity, and the race belonged to Him; now that the tempter had succeeded in bringing such disruption into the life of those created in God’s image, Jesus was the One who was to buy back the fallen ones.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they caused a great separation between themselves and God. This placed the same separation between the entire human race and their Creator. There had to be someone who could make manifest God’s deep love for those who had sinned. This had to be Someone who could arouse humanity’s interest and gain their trust. This had to be done in such a way that humanity would realize that submission to God’s will and authority is the only way to be free, truly free, from the bondage of sin into which they had fallen. It would take an act of divine love to bring the sinner back from the fallen condition.

This act of divine love was brought about through Jesus as is summarized in Luke 19:10, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” How could more love have been manifested than this? The Son of God was willing to take on humanity and become the Son of man, to endure the suffering and anguish which lay before Him so that those of the human race who were willing to accept His sacrifice could again be made whole. He became that ladder which connected humanity to heaven.

In John 1:14 we read that “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” The definition of incarnation is to be clothed with flesh, to take on a human body and the nature of humans; and this is just what Christ did. He knew that by becoming a man, He would suffer the same assaults from Satan that humanity had to endure. What great faith in the forgiving power of God and His willingness to forgive lost sinners! “Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17). How far He was willing to go so that the broken relationship between God and humanity could be restored!

From the time of Jesus’ birth as a human baby, the adversary was determined to carry out his plan of destruction toward Him. The evil Herod, the ruler at the time, under the guidance of Satan had all the children two years of age and under killed. (Matthew 2:16.) He was so determined to not have another be known as a King that he was willing to stop at nothing to destroy any potential of this happening. But an angel instructed Joseph and Mary to flee, to prevent this destruction.

Thus, from the beginning of His life clothed in humanity, Jesus was under the care of His heavenly Father. The Father communicated to Jesus’ human father-figure, Joseph, through the angels, the things that needed to be done for the Child’s protection. Thus He grew up knowing that He could place all trust in that Power which was above all.

“Many claim that it was impossible for Christ to be overcome by temptation. Then He could not have been placed in Adam’s position; He could not have gained the victory that Adam failed to gain. If we have in any sense a more trying conflict than had Christ, then He would not be able to succor us. But our Saviour took humanity, with all its liabilities. He took the nature of man, with the possibility of yielding to temptation. We have nothing to bear which He has not endured.”1

Our Saviour knows just how much divine power we need when we are tempted, for He received power from on high, by faith, as He went through similar experiences while He walked upon earth as a man.

Satan was subtle in the way he began his onslaught of temptations against Christ, following His baptism. He waited until He had become physically hungry, weak, and weary; when he thought the victory against Him would be easy. Jesus had fasted forty days and nights and was feeling the devastation that being without food would bring to the body. He was tempted then on the same thing that Adam and Eve were tempted on; that of food. But Jesus’ answer to the tempter did not refer to Himself but referred Satan to the Father and Jesus’ faith in His Father who could keep Him. “When the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:3, 4).

As other temptations were brought to Christ during this same time, the thing that kept Him and comforted Him was the declaration which had been spoken by His Father at His baptism, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17). These words strengthened His belief in the divine mission on which He embarked.

It is obvious that Christ came to earth because He considered lost humanity to be of great value. He went about doing good to those with whom He came in contact. Thus He would resemble, reflect, and reveal the perfect character of God. Often He had not a place to lay His head, so He spent the night under the stars. He became weary when the multitudes followed Him from place to place, but He never forgot the reason for His being here in our midst—to reach out to the human race and draw them unto Himself. “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12).

Christ knew the will of His Father, and He was willing to uphold those standards in all things and to teach humanity to do the same rather than deviate from them just to bring comfort to self. He referred back to the early Israelites as they were being led through the wilderness to the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 8:2, 3). Just as those early people had been faithfully led, so were their descendants to be led and nurtured. But Jesus found in these present people many of the stubborn traits of character that would keep many of them from accepting and learning from the One who had come from heaven to help them.

In Psalm 85:10 we read, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” In the loving-kindness of our Saviour, we see the harmony of God’s divine attributes in Christ’s working in our behalf for our salvation. God’s truth and justice cannot be compromised, but, through the work of Christ, God shows mercy upon the fallen race. Christ prayed often for His people that they might see beyond the darkness which surrounded their thoughts—darkness which many of them were not willing to have dispelled so that the light of truth could enter their spiritual experience.

“By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him” (Proverbs 16:6, 7). The attributes of God were manifest in Christ in His human form, so that through Him there could be peace in the heart and life for those who would but accept them.

Everywhere Jesus went, He brought physical healing to people. He raised back to life some who had died. In these things the Father in heaven was glorified and honored. Christ cast demons out of poor tortured people and set them free.

Again, in these things, we see how He depended upon His Father. “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. . . . I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:19, 30).

Christ lived and worked by faith in His Father. He declared, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10).

As the disciples went about doing good, doing the will of God, as they had been taught by Jesus to do, they encountered opposition from those who allowed the adversary to control them and their actions. Many times they could not bring about the healing which they needed to do mainly because they had not learned fully what it meant to place their whole trust in the One who could help them. They suffered many times from unbelief and put confidence in themselves rather than in the only One who could cause such miracles to happen, that His name might be glorified.

Faith is not a mere opinion. “Saving faith is a transaction, by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God. A living faith means an increase of vigor, a confiding trust, by which, through the grace of Christ, the soul becomes a conquering power.”2

Among those who were restored to life and to health were the poor and destitute as well as the wealthy and those in power. Those who came in behalf of others came in faith that this One could and would bring life and healing to the physical body as well as the spiritual condition.

The cross on which Jesus was to be crucified was too heavy for Him to bear to the mount of crucifixion. Once again, He had had nothing to eat or drink for several hours. From the time of the Passover meal, He had agonized in prayer before His Father that if it would be possible, that He would not have to drink of the bitter cup which lay before Him. His body and Spirit were so stressed during that time that He perspired great drops of blood. He knew that He had to bear this cup so that the purpose of His coming to earth could be fulfilled. But this did not ease the agony He had to suffer. Here was the One who was willing to die in the stead of sinful humankind, bearing the sins of all upon Himself.

The thing that so many remember in amazement are the words that Jesus uttered as He hung on the cross, the words asking the Father to forgive His enemies. There were some who would see their sins and come to repentance; but those who would not allow conversion to take place in their life rendered these words of Jesus an impossibility for them. This is just as it is with us today; we hold our destiny in our hands. We can, through faith, accept of His offer of eternal life—or we can choose to fall completely into the snares of Satan.

During this time when there was no comforting voice from heaven to soothe Jesus, there was one comfort to Him: One of the thieves who shared His crucifixion repented of his sins and asked Christ for forgiveness and for a place in heaven with Him. His request was granted by the Saviour of humanity. What a joyful reunion that will be!

“Amid the awful darkness, apparently forsaken of God, Christ had drained the last dregs in the cup of human woe. In those dreadful hours He had relied upon the evidence of His Father’s acceptance heretofore given Him. He was acquainted with the character of His Father; He understood His justice, His mercy, and His great love. By faith He rested in Him who it had ever been His joy to obey. And as in submission He committed Himself to God, the sense of the loss of His Father’s favor was withdrawn. By faith, Christ was victor.”3

The rest of the victory gained is that Jesus arose, triumphant over the grave, and He is now in heaven as our Intercessor. May we fully accept His sacrifice and make manifest the faith that was a part of His life as He lived as a man on earth. AMEN.