Faith – The Root Principle

Why is faith the first attribute in Peter’s list in 2 Pet. 1:5-7? We know that faith is what God looks for in his children as he demonstrated in the life of Abraham. Faith is why God justifies us. 

But why is faith so important to God? What is it in faith that God counts it to us as righteousness?

To answer that question, consider the idea that not only is faith the root of what it means to be a child of God, but it is also the core of God’s character. When God revealed his glory to Moses on Mount Sinai, he explained his character using a list of characteristics. Notice in Exo. 34:6-7 that one of those characteristics, steadfast love, is repeated:

“…a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty…”

This repetition of the term “steadfast love” hints at the chiastic structure of the text. Here is the list of God’s characteristics again in the form of a chiasm:

• merciful and gracious, slow to anger 

  • abounding in steadfast love

    • faithfulness

  • keeping steadfast love for thousands

• forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty

In a chiasm the outer elements point towards the crucial part in the center. If I am correct in highlighting this chiasm then faithfulness is at the core of God’s character. On the outside of the chiasm (A-A`) we learn about how God treats people – with mercy, grace, patience, forgiveness, and justice. But what is that treatment based on? Does God just dish out mercy and justice randomly? That question is answered by God’s steadfast love (B-B`), the Hebrew word chesed which has the idea of the kind of love in the context of a covenant. In other words, this is how God treats people who are in a relationship with him. He has loyal love for them, which is another way of translating the word chesed. But how can we trust in this loyal love, expressed in mercy and justice? Because of God’s faithfulness (X). The root idea of this word is that of stability, and trustworthiness. It is also the word used to describe the faith of Abraham. Think of it as God’s rock solid dependency upon which he builds his family house.

Faithfulness is at the core of how God deals with those that he loves. Out of it flows his steadfast love manifest in his other characteristics. And if that is true of God then it should be true of us too as we seek to manifest God’s character. Faith is at the root and faith is what produces in people the kind of character God wants in his children.