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Lord, We Believe, Help Our Unbelief in the Judgment Hour
William Diehl
We, who are convicted in our hearts of our sinful undone hell-deserving condition, are saved by God's unmerited grace through faith in the sinless life and atoning death of our Lord Jesus Christ. God forgives and justifies any repentant sinner who puts his faith in Christ's merits and he is accounted "righteous" in the merciful reckoning of God. We pass from death unto life at that moment and we remain God's child so long as we in repentant faith continue to trust in the doing and dying of Christ for our salvation and eternal life.
God gives the gift of His Holy Spirit to anyone who trusts in Christ and it is the indwelling Holy Spirit who begins to bring forth the fruit of love, kindness, patience, respect, and trust in the providence of God in their life which is daily surrendered to God's will. Thus the believer's continual prayer is,"Not my will, but Thine be done". It is this daily surrender of ones life and heart to the will of God that is what is meant by "help Thou mine unbelief". Thus the prayer of every believer is, "Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief". Meaning, we are justified by faith in Christ at the beginning of our walk with Christ; and we who believe will mature and continue in Christ by the ongoing and growing faith of a life-time. Every born again believer who is saved by faith in Christ's cross rejoices in that his life is hidden with God in Christ and has the "trembling" assurance of eternal life. Even though the believer can rejoice in Christ, he at the same time mourns in the fact that he falls far short of the mark of perfection that he sees in the life of Christ. This is why our confidence in God is always a "trembling" non-boasting humble confidence.
With this in mind, we can understand what our Lord meant when He said if one has the faith of a mustard seed, one can move mountains. Even though our faith may be very small when we first come to Christ to be saved, it is not the amount or quality our of faith that saves us. It is the object of our faith that is all important. We are not saved by perfect faith, we are saved by Christ's perfect sinless life and atoning death upon the cross of Calvary. Even the smallest of faith can rest in this completed perfect once-and-for-all finished work of Jesus. The object of our tiny immature faith is Christ's perfect righteousness, so that it is not the quality or amount of our act of faith that saves us. "Being justified by faith (in Christ's cross) we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Our hope and assurance is in a completed work and not in our own imperfect works of righteousness. Salvation begins in faith and our salvation will end in faith at the coming of our Lord in the clouds of heaven. We rest only in Christ's work for us on the cross for our salvation.
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus. Amen.
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