Faith That Preserves Us

By David Baker

There is little doubt that improved quality of life, a prolonged period of peace, and the advancement of medical science, have helped to preserve human life.  A hundred years ago, many people did not reach the age of fifty.  Now, we can comfortably expect to live to about eighty years of age.  This has been a fantastic development.  However, there is certainly a limit placed on our lives.  How is life preserved beyond the grave? We are not talking about our mortal bodies and the breath in our lungs.  How is the substance of who we are, spirit and soul, preserved into eternity? What is the quality of faith needed?  

In the middle of His teaching about end times, Jesus made an interesting comment about the preservation of life.  ‘Whoever seeks to keep his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life shall preserve it.’ Luke 17:33.  Without an understanding of the way God lives, this is a contradiction.  We fear the prospect of loss, so we instinctively do everything in our power to preserve our lives.  Knowing the potential to be abused by others, we continually take life into our own hands.  Yet, despite our best efforts, we cannot preserve our own lives.  We must be preserved by another.  We enter this process by committing our lives into the hands of God our Father.  Living and dying according to this truth, Jesus cried out from the cross, ‘Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit’.  Luke 23:46.  In response, the Father did not allow Him ‘to undergo decay’.  Ps 16:10.  His life was guarded and preserved. 

This is the pathway before us and the quality of faith necessary for salvation.  Faith is not conviction about the great things we believe are possible in our lives.  Faith is built on trust.  It is the action of entrusting our lives to God to be preserved by Him.  This was the way Jesus lived His life.  ‘He kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.’ 1 Peter 2:25.  For this reason, Jesus spoke of receiving the kingdom of God like a child.  If nothing else, small children are willing to trust.  They are yet to believe they can preserve their own lives.  No doubt, as Jesus spoke these words, many of the children would have been running into His arms while adults looked on with suspicion and unbelief.  We know He quickly rebuked His disciples for trying to prevent the children from reaching Him. 

In the faith of a child, and in the footsteps of Christ, we entrust our lives to the Father to be preserved by Him.  This means we relinquish control of our lives.  At this point, we do become vulnerable and we may suffer unjustly.  However, the substance of who we are cannot be touched.  It is jealously guarded by God.  Upon Christ’s return we will be raised to live with Him for eternity in the new heavens and new earth.  In this faith, the apostle Paul said, ‘I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day’.  2 Tim 1:12.