looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:02, NKJV).
Scripture is so rich, so full of encouragement, hope and conviction (not condemnation) for the believer in Jesus Christ. It is truly the light of truth shining in the darkness, a beacon that illuminates our path through this life into the next.
Its focus is primarily on three things: Israel as a witness to God's existence and intervention in human affairs; Christ as the longed-for fulfillment of the Father's promise of redemption and eternal life; and the church as the embodiment of faith and new life in Christ.
The citation above, as is all of Hebrews, is intended to expand on the superiority of Christ to everything that has gone before, or could be conceived of in the mind of man.
Faith itself is an invention and gift of God, through Christ, to circumvent our inherent inability to earn favor with a perfectly righteous and holy Being. It is by faith alone that we can please Him, and by faith alone that we are saved from the wrath of judgment to come. It is by faith alone that He empowers us through His Spirit to perform those good works that He prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
In addition then to being the object of our faith, this verse reveals Christ as both the instigator and guarantor of our faith. Like the Master Craftsman that He is, He has both wrought our faith by His creative power, and will do all that is necessary within us to ensure that our faith will be a masterpiece beyond compare, leading us into the blessedness of eternal life in intimate fellowship with Him and with the Father.
It is entirely conceivable that this would not have to be so. If, for instance, our representative forbear, Adam, had not rebelled, and had instead remained faithful to His Creator, then redemption would not have been necessary for the sorry race born of Adam.
Alternatively, if God had chosen not to display His long-suffering and forbearance, He could have condemned Adam instantly rather than mercifully cursing him and allowing his descendants to seek forgiveness through Messiah, the prophesied "seed of the woman" Eve promised in Genesis 3.
Or, rather than ordaining faith as the means to receive the gift of forgiveness, God could have made such entirely dependent on our perfect adherence to the Law, that, given the depth to which Adam's sin corrupted him, down to his very genetic structure, would have proven futile and impossible for both himself and all his descendants.
Redemption would then have been held out as an irretrievable carrot forever out of reach due to the unbreakable stick of eternal damnation.
But God did none of these things. Instead He decreed the penalty of sin - death - and sent His Son to pay it on our behalf through crucifixion, declaring faith to be the means by which we appropriate that substitutionary exchange to ourselves.
Then with immeasurable grace, He gifts us with the very faith required.
Do you see the beauty of that? Can you begin to fathom the love and mercy that entails?
Yet, without fanfare or flourish the writer of Hebrews sums it up so succinctly with the characteristic brevity and eloquence of the Holy Spirit, saying only in this regard that Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith.
If you are not astounded I am either unclear or you are not paying attention, for this foundation of our redemption is all of God, from beginning to end. From faith to faith, as the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans.
There is so much deception in the world, and in our own hearts, and thrown at us by the enemy of our souls, that it is very easy to lose sight of these magnificent truths in the Bible. That is precisely why this very thing is repeated often and in every conceivable way throughout all 66 books.
For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” (Romans 4:3, NKJV).
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Therefore remember… (Ephesians 2:8-11, NKJV).
