1 Timothy 6:21 which some have professed and thus gone astray from THE FAITH. Grace be with you
2 Timothy 1:13 retain the standard of sound words but you have heard from me in THE FAITH and love which are in Christ Jesus
At least 21 times, the phrase “the faith” is used by the writers in the New Testament, and for 20 of those times, it is Paul who wrote it. Above, I just listed a couple of them as examples, but you can find them all through Paul’s writings and one time in the book of Jude. When Paul defines the Christian life, he doesn’t use terms like “Christians,” instead, his favorite phrase to describe someone who is a follower of Christ is that they are “in Christ,” or he will refer to them as people who are in “the faith.” In Arabia, when God revealed the gospel to Paul, he said that God was pleased “to reveal (unveil) His son in me.” Therefore, Paul’s understanding and preaching of the gospel was a person’s vital union with Christ. This is so foundational that if followers of Jesus don’t get this, then they really don’t comprehend the gospel or what to expect from the good news that they have plunged themselves into. I believe that the phrase “the faith” in defining Christianity is intimately connected to the idea of the unveiling of Christ in us. Paul didn’t say that Christians are “in the works,” “in the doctrine,” “in the disciplines,” or even “in the truth.” Instead, he says that every Christian is IN THE FAITH. Because the gospel is the gospel of grace, the only response that grace requires is faith, but I believe that the term THE FAITH isn’t just to remind us that the Christian life is to be lived by faith. More than that, I believe THE faith that we are in is the very faith of Jesus Christ. Galatians 2:20 says that we live by the faith of the son of God, and throughout the New Testament, living by His faith is reiterated. An example would be Galatians 2:16. If it is translated literally, it should be written like this; “nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law; since by the works of the law no flesh will be justified.”
Let me give you two more examples. Galatians 3:22, “But the Scripture has shut up all men under sin, but the promise of the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.” Ephesians 3:12, “… in whom we have boldness and confident access through His faith.” My boldness and confidence in accessing the presence of the Father is because I am in Christ and I can rest in the confidence and boldness of Jesus to approach the Father. Jesus is always confident and bold in His accessing the Father’s presence, and I know that no matter what I’ve done, I can approach the Father because I’m in Christ, and Jesus has faith for it.
That’s a big deal because how many times does the enemy tell you that you are welcome into the place of intimacy because you have blown it and don’t deserve it? Condemnation is probably the greatest weapon the enemy uses to create a false sense of separation between us and the Father. At your weakest and lowest moment, you can approach the Father because of your union with Christ and the bold and confident faith that Jesus has for intimacy with The heavenly Father.
Jesus is absolutely confident in what he accomplished at the cross, and He has total faith in the life that he’s prepared to live through us daily. It is in that sense that our faith is simply believing in what He believes. Faith always starts with what He believes. Our part is to simply trust in what He has faith in. I’m convinced this is why Christians are referred to as people who are “in the faith.” It is so encouraging to me to know that when I face temptation or situations in life, I can simply abide in Him, and if He has faith in what He at the Cross accomplished concerning the power of sin in my life or what He is capable of doing in the situation that is before me, that I can rest in that. That is what it means to enter into His rest. The Christian life is a glorious abiding in THE FAITH of Jesus.