Holding Out on God
“Now, ‘the Just shall live by faith. But if he draws back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.’ But we are not of those withdrawing to destruction, but of those who believe to the preserving of the soul.” Hebrews 10:38, 39 (MKJV)
Faith is the foundation of having a true relationship with the Lord. With that being said, it is no wonder that the theme of so much of the Bible is faith. Every story of Biblical heroism is rooted in a central character’s deeply committed faith in God—or, at times, the lack thereof. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith, it is completely impossible for us to please God. It is impossible for our lives to be acceptable to God or to bear His divine seal of approval.
God is steadfastly faithful—that is who He is—but that, on some level, is not enough. We must also be faithful, and steadfastly so. Hebrews 10:38 says, “The Just shall live by faith.” What that is saying is that those who are righteous, or blameless, live their lives by faith, or by their fidelity to the call of God. Faith is an action. Grammatically it could be classified as a verb because, in the truest sense of the word, faith is always accompanied by some action. Hebrews 12 is filled by a constant repetition of the words, “By faith, so-and-so did such-and-such.” But faith can also be classified as a measurement. It is a measurement of how true we are to God. It is our fidelity to what He has called us to do.
Faith is an experience that must be perpetual. The Just live by it. If God’s followers pull back from the exercise of their faith, if they allow their adherence to the Divine standard to which they are called to slack off, if they attempt to hide who they really are, God has absolutely no pleasure in them. He does not delight in such ones. Let us determine to not be among that number. Let us not shrink backwards to our own destruction. Instead, let us be among that number who holds fast to their faith, not holding out on God. Let us believe what God says and act upon it, for, in doing so, we will be preserved to stand in the final day.