A Word in Season: Precious Faith (2 Peter 1:1)

A Christian's faith is a precious thing indeed. In 2 Peter and chapter 1, the apostle opens his second letter by saying that he is a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, writing, To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

So have you, Christian, considered the preciousness of your faith? You have considered, I hope, that it is precious because of how it is granted to you. It comes by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It is from him, it is his purchase, and it obtains all its value, all its worth, all its efficacy from the fact that it has a Christ to lay hold upon. And it is that Christ who, in his death and resurrection, has himself secured this gift of faith to us.

And that's another reason why it's precious, because of its very nature, that it is a gift of God to us. It is not something worked up by us in us, but something worked in us by God's Holy Spirit, something that is granted in order that we may come to God through Christ Jesus.

It's precious because of what it sees. Faith looks up, faith looks beyond the things which the eye of flesh alone can see. Faith sees God smiling in Christ Jesus. Faith lays hold upon Christ in all his saving excellence.

Faith sees the glory which is to come, even in the midst of this world's sufferings and sorrows. Consider the preciousness of faith in terms of what it gets. Faith lays hold upon Christ and in getting Christ gets God himself.

It means that we now are his and he is ours. We are in Christ by the Holy Spirit. The entire Godhead is embraced in the act of faith. There is no here separation between them. We distinguish, yes, but the work of faith is to lay hold upon all that God is and all that God does, to call God our Abba, Father, to come to the Son and to trust in him as the one who has procured all that is needful for life, and to trust in the Holy Spirit and to know him at work in our hearts, and to embrace his promises and his operations.

Obtaining God, obtaining Christ, obtaining the Spirit, faith brings with it justification, adoption, and all those great and precious promises. By faith we have peace with God. By faith we are called sons of God.

By faith we lay hold upon all the promises of God which are, yes, and are men in Christ Jesus. And faith is also precious because of those with whom it is shared. Peter talks about obtaining like precious faith with us.

The faith that justifies, the faith that lays hold upon Jesus Christ is the same faith in every true child of God. There is not an apostolic faith that is somehow purer or greater or stronger. Your faith is perhaps weaker than others, perhaps stronger than others, but the faith that Peter talks about is a faith that lays hold upon Christ Jesus, and it is that which makes it precious.

And whether you are Peter the apostle or a Paul or a John, or whether you are a humble foot soldier as you may feel yourself to be in the armies of the Lamb, your faith is precious if it is the faith of a true child of God, laying hold upon Christ and in him obtaining all these good things.

And with such faith you can stand shoulder to shoulder with a Peter, shoulder to shoulder with any other true believer, gazing together adoringly at God in Christ by the Spirit, and rejoicing that you have received, you have obtained, to you it has been given to have the same precious faith with every believer by the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

And if you have not yet that faith, with all its precious blessings, then cry to the God of heaven, the God of all grace, that he would grant it to you, and cast yourself upon him, that you too may enjoy the mercies that faith obtains.