The Faith of Jesus
Before launching into a discussion about what is meant by the phrase “faith of Jesus” and how it applies to us, we should review some word definitions. It will become clear as to why we do this shortly.
In Romans 4:3 it says that Abraham believed God, and this faith which he acted upon by obedience, was “credited” to him as righteousness. Other translations use “accounted”, “regarded”, “imputed”, and “reckoned”. These all have the same meaning. The same Greek word is used in Galatians 3:6 when speaking of Abraham’s faith and the resulting righteousness. The idea is simple. Abraham’s righteousness was based on his faith in something God had promised to give him in the future, which actually is the heart and core of what is the Gospel of the Kingdom in the New Testament (Gal. 3:6-9). This faith motivated him to obey God’s command to leave his country of origin for an unknown country. That’s the immensely favorable way God assessed his faith. He had a righteousness of faith.
The first point to be noticed here is concerning the word “impute”. Religious circles have made out this word to be something other than the way it is used in the Bible. It has the exact same meaning as “credited”, “reckoned”, “regarded”, etc. Even in a thesaurus you will see that other synonyms for this word are “attribute”, “accredit”, “ascribe”, and “credit”. There is no mystery to this word. In context to Paul’s teaching in Romans 4 (and other places) “impute” simply means that God considered Abraham to be righteous because of his own faith, which by the way as we shall see, is completely opposite of a works orientation. Abraham’s own faith was definitely not part of a works justification approach to righteousness. Just like all the other translated English words used in Romans 4, impute does not infer that God somehow pretends to give Abraham a righteousness he himself did not have or deserve.
Now that we understand that “impute” has no special meaning beyond the Biblical one shared by other words like “credit” or “reckon”, we should feel free to use it along with these other words. So we now move to my next logical follow up question which is this; can the righteousness of faith of one person be credited, reckoned, or imputed to someone else? The answer to that question becomes all the more obvious when we ask; can one person’s lack of obedient, righteous faith be credited/reckoned/imputed to someone else? The logical, reasonable, and biblical answer, is “no”. God holds each person responsible for his or her own behavior, good or bad. God is adamant about this and even inspired an entire chapter to be written in this regard (Ezekiel 18). Any righteousness (which must be based on faith), or any unrighteousness (which is ultimately based on a lack of faith) is credited/reckoned/imputed to the one person exercising it.
These definitions and clarifications are important for the writing of this article on “the faith of Jesus”. Here’s why. As I alluded to above, many claim that when Romans 3:26 says that God justifies those “who are of the faith of Jesus” (NASB margin rendering), it means that Jesus’ own personal faith is imputed or credited to those who accept him as their Savior crucified on their behalf. However, we just discounted this entire concept of crediting one person’s obedient faith to another person, as an unbiblical one. And not only that, but there is a wealth of scripture supporting a different conclusion; which is that when our own faith is of the same kind of faith as that of Jesus, then God imputes/credits/reckons that faith as righteousness. It’s not Jesus’ own personal faith…it’s our personal faith in the same things for which Jesus had faith. When this kind of faith is present, the blood of Jesus is applied to us for the forgiveness of our sins. This we shall see in the scriptures presented below.
The scriptures that follow make it clear that Jesus’ faith saves because of what it led him to do on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, not because it is credited to us without the exercise of our own faith first. This is not to say that Christ doesn’t live in a Christian or that we aren’t a new creation in Christ. That is certainly the case, but that’s because the spirit of God and Christ comes to dwell in us. But first we must exercise our own faith that is like that of Jesus’, followed by repentance of sins, baptism and the receiving of that spirit. The scriptures are many which support this view, despite the tradition of mainstream evangelicalism to the contrary. The logical place to start is Romans 3:21-26, where we find one of the most important uses of the phrase, “the faith of Jesus”:
Romans 3:21-26
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who is of the faith of Jesus [NASB 1995 margin].
So, again, when Paul says here that we are to have the “faith of Jesus” (vs. 26), in what sense does he mean this? Does he mean that Jesus’ own personal faith is imputed/credited to us as our own personal faith? Can his faith be transmitted from his brain to ours like some kind of spiritual blood transfusion from one person to another? Or perhaps God sort of pretends that someone has Jesus’ own faith as long as other conditions are met. Some would say “yes”, the faith that saves or is righteous is not our own faith, but Christ’s. It is alleged that if we were to insist on our own faith for righteousness, this would be an attempt to be justified by our own works. However, this idea that our faith would be works justification is totally debunked by the following verse of the very next chapter.
Romans 4:1-5
What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness…
Notice how justification by works is counter to Abraham’s faith. One does not equal the other…precisely the opposite is true…they are in juxtaposition. So when we look at this whole set of scriptures from Romans 3 and 4 we see how Christ’s sacrifice as the forgiveness of our sins comes to us through faith (verse 25 above). But that is in no way Christ’s faith…it is our faith…just like it was in Abraham’s situation. These verses clearly inform us that this faith should be akin to that of Abraham’s (4:1-5). He had a demonstrated faith in the promises of God, and therefore righteousness was credited to him. God certainly did not impute/credit His own faith or righteousness to Abraham. Abraham had to come up with his own faith, and exercise it before he was credited as righteous by God. So in the context of this entire section in Romans we similarly conclude that those “who are of the faith of Jesus” are those who follow the same pattern of Abraham…they have a faith that is their own and in like manner as Jesus. It is not Jesus’ own personal faith that is credited/imputed as righteousness to the believer. It is their own faith that is considered righteous when it matches his. There is no magical, mystical, or pretended transference of faith from Jesus to the believer.
Again in Galatians 3 it is confirmed that the gospel was preached beforehand to Abraham, and that he believed the message. This faith of his was reckoned (credited/imputed) to him as righteousness. Here are the relevant verses:
Galatians 3:2, 5-9
2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?... 5 So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 6 Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. 7 Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. 8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.
Notice, like Abraham, we are blessed by the “hearing with faith” in the Gospel message God has spoken. Our own faith in the Gospel we hear is our prerequisite for receiving the spirit of God, as it said above in verse 5. This is the kind of “believer” we are to be after hearing the message of Jesus. This is being “of the faith of Jesus”…a believer like Jesus.
Romans 10:17 corroborates this:
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Faith comes from our hearing and then our believing something Christ has spoken. It is Christ’s words and our faith in those words.
Jesus’ Parable of the Sower is instructive of this same truth:
Matthew 13:18, 23
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road… 23 And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”
This matches precisely with Mark 1:14-15, where Jesus said we are to believe his message about the Kingdom of God. He was sent specifically and primarily to preach this message (Luke 4:43). And even after Christ’s ascension we find the apostles and disciples continuing to preach the same message, the believing of which led many to be baptized.
Acts 8:12
But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.
Notice there is no mention in the above verse about Jesus’ own faith being credited or imputed to these new converts. These listeners believed the message, were baptized, and received the spirit of God by which Christ then began to dwell in them. Two verses out of the book of Ephesians verify this:
Ephesians 1:13
In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise…
Ephesians 3:17
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith…
Now there are a couple of verses which some have used to support the idea that it is not our faith, but Jesus’ faith that saves us. Again, it is claimed that to say otherwise is to promote a “works-based” salvation. But that is just not the case. One of these (I believe) misunderstood scriptures is in Ephesians, the other in Galatians. Let’s look at each one of them.
Ephesians 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
The mistake that some make is in isolating the word “faith” from the rest of the sentence; and thus misconstruing faith to be not our own faith, but as a gift coming from completely outside of us from God. However, there is no justification for doing this if we simply take the entire sentence as a whole. It is the entire package of standing in grace through faith that is the gift…the gift is the whole package. This package is detailed in Romans 4 below, where Paul explains that Abraham’s faith in God’s promise (which became the Gospel in the NT) was credited to him as righteousness, and that this is the same type of faith we are to have regarding God’s work through Christ. He then concludes in Romans 5 that we stand in grace through this faith. It is clearly our faith, not Jesus’ faith imputed/credited to us. This is so important that we should read the text in its entirety. Speaking of Abraham, we break into Paul’s words in chapter 4, verse 20, and ending in 5:2:
…with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. 22 Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness. 23 Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, 24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, 25 He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
Again, we are to be like Abraham…having a faith by which we stand in the grace of God. It is not the faith of Jesus, and certainly not the faith of Abraham, which is somehow passed along to us, either mystically or any other way.
The second misunderstood scripture in this regard is Galatians 2, verse 20:
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
The phrase “faith in the Son of God” has been alternatively translated as “faith of the Son of God”. Either translation is appropriate. Quite simply understood, when our faith is the same kind of faith as Jesus, then the spirit of Christ enters us and we are motivated to live by that faith which is more perfectly in Jesus. This passage is not a statement that the faith we possess has never been our own. It is acknowledgment that Christ’s more perfect faith is now living in us since his spirit resides in us.
Finally, in the well-known “faith chapter”, Hebrews 11, we’re encouraged that all people of God exercise a faith of their own by which they are given credit (“gain approval”), and receive a common reward:
Hebrews 11:39-40
And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.
In conclusion of this section, righteousness (not faith) is credited/reckoned/ imputed to us in the same way it was to Abraham…when we hear, and we believe, and we react to it. On the basis of that faith, if we repent and are baptized, God forgives us our sins through the blood of Jesus on the cross. God has determined that his death on the cross is the moment at which the old covenant which condemned us dies with him, and the new covenant relationship begins. This whole process of our hearing and our believing the Gospel, repenting, and receiving the holy spirit after baptism, is due to the grace of God toward us. It is to have our own faith matching his. That’s the beginning of what it means to be among those who are of the faith of Jesus. That’s why I have gone to such repetitious lengths to explain what “the faith of Jesus” means.
