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Real faith is fighting faith. This faith fights not for perfection but for belief. We fight to believe that Jesus is more precious, satisfying, and thrilling than anything else his world has to offer. We fight every day of our lives. We fight from salvation, not for salvation. This is the faith that works through love (Gal 5:6). It is faith that works, not faith in works. It is faith in the gospel—the grand announcement that Jesus has defeated sin, death, and evil, and is making all things new—which includes us. Our faith is a faith that fights.

Repentance and Faith

In order to receive the redemptive benefits of the gospel, we must repent from trusting in false gods and exercise faith in the one true God. We must fight. Repentance and faith are the two sides to the coin of the gospel. They are not a one-time act to get us into heaven, but an entire way of life to maintain Christian joy. Repentance is not a work we tack onto our faith; it is an expression of faith.

Fighting with God's Promises

Repentance can be described as giving up our sinful behaviors and turning our affections away from false gods. God wants our hearts, not just our morality. Repentance is a stepping-stone to true joy. Faith, then, is trust in the one, good, true, dying, and rising-from-the-dead God. It is relying on the person of Jesus through the power of the Spirit by the promises of God. It is not blind faith but perceptive faith. Biblical faith sees the truth, goodness, and reliability of God's promises and chooses to trust them over the fleeting, false, and bad promises of the world.

The Christian life is a constant repenting from belief in false promises and an increasing belief in the true, good promises of God.

Repentance, then, is letting go of false gods and promises, both with our affections and actions. Faith is grabbing onto the one true God and his promises with our affections and actions. Faith is not merely belief in the facts of the gospel message; it is trusting and treasuring the gospel medium—Jesus Christ our Lord.

Repentance and faith form the bridge that leads us away from union with false gods and promises and into the promise of joyful union with the one true God. This is a gospel that motivates, that animates the life of a disciple of Jesus!

(Adapted from Fight Clubs, Chapter 3: Faith and Repentance)

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