So what is this faith that Paul speaks about? We must imitate the faith of Abraham who left his homeland for a strange country at the insistence of God. He trusted God 100 percent even when God told him that his wife would be with child well past her childbearing years. He listened to God when God told him to sacrifice his son. The faith of Abraham was passed down to succeeding generations. God spoke to His prophets and standard bearers such as Moses, David, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. But doubt and resistance intervened and the progeny of Abraham’s faith became stale. God’s plan was to keep Abraham’s faith alive. So Christ appeared to reveal and expound upon Abraham’s faith. Christ did everything his father commanded even dying on the cross. The faith of Christ and Abraham is the faith of which Paul speaks. And what does this faith bring? It brings righteousness. But it requires much work to achieve its reward. Abraham’s faith brought into existence a predestined race, the Hebrews. Christ’s faith brought resurrection and salvation to the gentiles. Both Jesus and Abraham were fully aware that God was able to perform what He had promised. But God had to send proof of His existence to us through Jesus because we lost the faith of Abraham. God now asks us to believe in Christ as Abraham believed in and obeyed God. Such a decree is an daunting yet achievable mandate. This mandate is a prerequisite for righteousness.
Faith is only the beginning of your journey however. Abraham and Christ followed God’s direction throughout their whole lives until their deaths. The passage became a journey of the inner workings of their hearts. The Holy Spirit was poured into their hearts to foster this hope, a hope to obtain the promised fulfillment of God’s yearnings for them. God wishes us all to have this same faith and hope to complete our crossing. God requires us first to transform our lives though. Christ performed miracles in order to persuade people to believe so that they may experience the benefit of righteousness. We have moved beyond miracles. Miracles are no longer sufficient to produce our faith in Christ and God. He demands that we achieve success through a reasoned faith and determined hope fortified by love. We need to transform our hearts and minds and become Christ like through the power of the Holy Spirit. God and Christ left the Spirit behind to perform this transformation in us. We must allow it to invade our soul and we must act according to its will. The law was only a template God created for the weak in mind and soul. We have moved beyond the law. We have entered into a new progression of conversion. We are living in the kingdom of God on earth now. But many have lost or never gained the power of faith, hope and charity that righteousness requires. We must become Christ like with the help of the Spirit. We are living in a period of revelation. God will reveal His will for your life through the Spirit. But you must seek to find. We are existing in a new chapter of human history. We have all of the tools: God, Christ and the Holy Spirit. Yet we still fail to claim our reward. We fall short. Why? We are granted the willpower with the aid and lovingkindness of God yet we do not seek the revealed will of God. We are influenced by the vile of society instead of the wisdom of God. Why? We still desire to satiate our human desires for money, sex, position, prestige and earthly authority. These things are worthless in the grand scheme of God in our quest for righteousness. Our pure souls are manufactured by God. Yet we walla in despair and depravity and return to dust at our physical death when we do not transform ourselves to claim our Godlike character. We must become an image of the human being God desires us to become. Let go of your human desires and follow God’s will. When your will becomes God’s will and God's will becomes your will, you have achieved righteousness. Faith alone is not sufficient. Faith, hope and charity transforms you into the righteousness of Abraham and Christ. This righteousness will propel us into the next stage of the Kingdom dwellers, a period of revelation in which God's will is fully exposed. Are you convinced?