Virtue

"...make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue..." 2 Peter 1:5

"The greatest difficulty in conversion is to win the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion, is to keep the heart with God." -John Flavel

The term "virtue" (arete') was important to the ancient Greeks. It meant goodness, prowess, dignity, beauty, and the fulfillment of one's purpose or function. In the New Testament it means moral power (see Philippians 4:8), and can apply to God Himself in reference to His perfection and excellence. But where we are concerned, it is best translated "the power of God in us that produces moral change." What Peter is saying here is that real faith will bring change in us, and that change is itself a proof that faith is present.

Consider these Scriptures: "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith." (2 Corinthians 13:5). "And you, who were once alienated and hostile in mind...he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast...." (Colossians 1:21-23). "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:17). So change, or "virtue," is a result of faith, and proves its power. Moral change is the greatest evidence of true faith and the new birth.

But of course there are dangerous pitfalls in that statement. Moral change does not mean instant perfection. In fact, the person who sees failure and sin in his life, and grieves over them, is probably more full of true faith than someone who believes he has achieved some awesome level of spirituality. The testimony of the church fathers was that the older they grew, the more imperfect they felt. Moral change is also slow. God works change in us over time through His Word and through circumstances, especially difficult ones. Calvin stated that the proof of a man's conversion was that he persevered in the faith until the end of his life.

If, however, we find that our Christian life is not producing fruit, the answer is not to try harder, but to go back to our foundation and make sure we understood the gospel--to review the facts of who Jesus was and what He did. Reviewing the gospel automatically builds faith.

Another problem we face is unreal expectations. Many converts come to Christ after being promised a bed of roses and a mansion in heaven. When the Holy Spirit begins to shape and mold us (usually with some pain), we are shocked by the seriousness with which God moves to change us. Part of hearing and receiving the gospel is being real about the costs. Reviewing the gospel means reassessing our utopian expectations. After all, God is molding us into the image of Jesus. He has His work cut out for him.

A "convert" who refuses to review the gospel and persists in living a "moral" life will move in one of several directions. He may become a legalist--he will live his life by a set of rules (which he also applies to everyone else), and will be self-righteous, cranky, and judgmental. Or he will suffer from faith in his conversion rather than faith in Christ--his faith is in his one time walk down the aisle, and he believes his decision saved him, in spite of how he lives. Both cases can be cured by a return to the basics of the gospel.

Next time: Knowledge.

Faith (2)

(From devotionals at work)

"For without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." -Hebrews 11:6

Q: "How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ? A: "...by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling." -Westminster Shorter Catechism

In the last devotional we looked at the process that leads us to faith: calling, regeneration, and repentance. In this one we will briefly look at faith itself. Remember that faith is the first virtue that the Apostle Peter lists in 2 Peter 1:5. Faith has three sequential parts:

The first is Knowledge. The means that faith rests in certain doctrinal propositions that we believe to be true. On one hand, this does not mean that the believer has to have an intricate knowledge of theology. But it does require an understanding of sin, of Christ's Person as God and man, as God's perfect sacrifice for sin, and His requirements of us as Lord of creation. Faith is not merely a good feeling around the campfire or a spooky belief in some kind of cosmic goodness. It is rooted in a historic reality with real facts. Simply put, faith begins with hearing the Word of God.

But knowledge alone is not saving faith. It must lead to, secondly, Approval. That means that the facts of the gospel move from the brain to the will, and a man says "I really believe that for myself." This is the point when faith becomes a commitment, not just a knowledge of doctrine. It is the realization that what I recognize as general doctrine applies to me specifically.

Knowledge and Approval, though, remain mental concepts that fall short of a committed reliance on a Person. Faith is not full until it becomes Trust. In fact, I sometimes think that is a better translation than "faith." It is one thing to think you can drive me home on a snowy highway; it is another thing to get in the car with you! We are all familiar with the phrase in John 3:16: "...that whosoever believes in Him will have eternal life...." The word translated "in" actually means "into." It means more than believing that Jesus is the Son of God who saves; it means that I personally trust Him to cover all my sin, to order everything in my life according to His plan, to place me when and where He wills, to be the light that makes sense of what appears to me to be darkness, and to carry me through death and into the next life in spite of my own helplessness. That kind of faith is entirely and intensely personal.

One last word about faith: evangelicals tend to see faith as the beginning of the Christian life, to be followed by a "deeper life." Actually, the deeper life is nothing more than pressing further and further into faith, or more precisely, into trusting Jesus to complete all His work in us.

Faith (1)

(From devotionals at work)

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." -Hebrews 11:1

"Q: Why do you say that by faith alone you are right with God? A: It is not because of any value my faith has that God is pleased with me. Only Christ's satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness make me right with God. And I receive this righteousness and make it mine in no other way than by faith alone." -Heidelberg Catechism

In 2 Peter 1:5, the apostle begins his list of Christian virtues with "faith." Faith is foundational to Christianity, and yet is difficult to define. Any definition that is less than relational falls short. For instance, Christians sometimes say that "Christ is the answer," a term that implies that there is a question of some sort, and our minds need to be satisfied. Or we say, "Christ will meet your needs," implying that we lack something in our lives that He can supply. But the Bible does not speak of Christ as either answer or need meeter. It speaks of Him as Savior, a term that tells me right away that I am in deep trouble--that my worst enemy is not the devil, or cosmic evil, or the world around me, but myself. I do not need intellectual satisfaction or a lack made up primarily; I need to be rescued.

Faith, therefore, is much more akin to our English word "trust." It means that I rely both on the finished work of Christ to save me, and on His capacity to manage my life to change me. It is not rooted in an idea, or a set of moral values, but in a Person. Faith throws itself totally on the work and good intentions of another.

There is debate among Christians as to whether faith is something resident in us that responds to God, or is itself a gift of God. I hold the latter view because I don't believe we have anything within us to offer God before He works His own change in us. If that is true, conversion follows this sequence:

1) An outward calling. This is a summons from God that brings a response, usually through the preaching of the Word or some form of individual evangelism or, in some cases, personal reading. A good example of outward calling is Lydia. Acts 16:14 says, "The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul."

2) Regeneration. We know this term better as the "new birth." Regeneration is a secret work of the Holy Spirit in the heart that makes a dead man or woman alive. It allows the believer to repent and believe. Often believers are not aware of the time of regeneration; its existence is proven by subsequent awareness. Others remember the time of regeneration as a dramatic and obvious change. Either way, it is the point in the stages of conversion when a human soul crosses from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.

3) Repentance. There is confusion about this word today because it is often confused with its manifestations: sorrow, weeping, relief, etc. The word in Greek means simply, "to change your mind," in the sense of admitting that what God says about sin applies to us, and we quit making excuses. It is essentially negative. It is the result of seeing the horror of rebellion against God, and His judgment against it. Frankly, it is the weak point in a lot of evangelical preaching today. It is easier to preach Christ as our buddy, our healer, our therapist, or even as the poor weak Christ who needs to get into our hearts to get warm, instead of our only hope against the inevitable judgment of God.

4) Faith. Faith is the positive turning to Christ following repentance. Next time we will look at faith in more detail.

Quality Supplements

(From devotionals at work)

"...make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brother affection, and brotherly affection with love." -2 Peter 1: 5-7

In the previous devotionals, we've been looking at concepts that go under the heading "imputation," meaning the work that God has done for us in Christ outside our own inner spiritual experience. Peter begins his second letter with terms that come under that heading: "divine power," "knowledge," and "promises." But in the middle of verse 4, the Apostle states that the result of God's objective work on our behalf is that we "may become partakes of the divine nature." At this point Peter has moved from God's work "outside" us to his work "inside" us.

Peter lists eight virtues, or values, or character traits that grow out of the work of the Spirit in us, and which require our self-discipline and cooperation. They are ultimately proofs of our calling and election of God (see vs. 10). Without them we do not move into a deeper knowledge of Christ, and remain ineffective in His Kingdom (vs. 8). We'll be looking at these individually over the next few weeks.

It's important to analyze how we think about these virtues before we look at them, however. These are not monolithic blocks of Christian experience--we cannot break up our lives into a decade of faith, two years of steadfastness, and three months of brotherly love. We do not graduate from one and move into another without ever looking back. Instead of thinking in "blocks," I think a gardening analogy is better. These virtues are like plants that need to be watered and tended if they are to grow. Sometimes one will need more attention than another, depending on circumstances in our lives. At times our faith needs nurturing, or our steadfastness (patience) is wilting. It is best to check on them one at a time on a periodic basis.

Having said that, Peter does not put these virtues in an arbitrary order. One follows another in a logical sequence. The logic depends to some extent on how the main verb is translated. Some use "supplement" (ESV), others use "add" or "support," but however it is taken, Peter teaches a relationship among all of these, and no one can stand alone. Faith, for instance, has no power unless it produces virtue, and virtue will wilt if it does not grow out of the soil of faith. Likewise, virtue has no vision or sense of direction without knowledge, and knowledge without virtue falls into arrogance.

Next time: Faith. . .