It’s the Same Faith

“That’s the thing about pride,” my husband began saying in what seemed to be an unrelated response to my sudden outpouring of discouragement. “It’s very sneaky. Always tempting you to think you’re a bigger part of the story than you really are.”

“Pride? This isn’t pride…” I said slowly while fading out, realizing that what he was saying had some merit. Was pride deceiving me? I had come to him after work, discouraged and feeling sorry for myself. Things were not where I wanted them to be with the campus and work God had begun here in Arizona. That afternoon, I was convinced I was the problem–“If I only prayed more, if I fasted more, if I were more persuasive, if I hustled more and worked harder for the Lord, things would feel more successful. I would be more successful…” This was how my cyclical narrative often went. But that day in our kitchen, Patrick shone the light of truth on a dark spot in my heart. It was pride. Pride wanted to take the credit or the blame for my earthly assessment of things. Pride wanted to put my efforts high on the pedestal. As if the plans and purposes of God rose and fell on my pious dedication… pride is sneaky.

Patrick’s words echoed Paul’s words to the Galatians…

Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. 2 Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. 3 How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? 4 Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?

5 I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.

Galatians 3:1-5

In other words, “Does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because of all your hard work? Do you really think this depends on you earning or does it depend on grace?” You see, Paul was stumped by the behavior of the Galatians–they were believing the lie that they needed to add anything to their faith. People had come in who were trying to convince them that in order to be true Christians, they needed to be circumcised. He asks them, “After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?” (v.3). In other words, “Let’s remember how you got here… and it wasn’t by anything great you did.” Paul’s argument wasn’t simply about how they had begun—it was about how they were now trying to live.

How We Begin is How We Go On

That quick kitchen chat ended as abruptly as it began, as the needs of dinner and putting kids to bed swept away our attention. But it prompted me to begin thinking about the source of success in all that we do in Christ. In Galatians, Paul repeatedly reminds the people that the way we enter life with Christ is the same way we continue walking with Him:

• “You received the Spirit because you believed…” (Galatians 3:2)
• “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” (Galatians 3:11)
• “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous…” (Galatians 3:6)

Success in Christ is not the same as success for Christ. Paul was trying to help the Galatians (and God was trying to help me) see that the grace that saves us through faith is the same grace that carries us through in this life. We do not get saved, become children in God’s family, and then go achieve and earn childhood status for Him. In a healthy parent-child relationship, that would sound absurd. Faith receives what God has given by His abundant grace, unto salvation. Then faith keeps receiving what God has given, season by season, assignment by assignment, until Jesus calls us home.

This stands in stark contrast to the endless striving of self-justification. Our flesh wants to earn. Pride wants to achieve. And if we’re honest, we all want to be the hero of our own story.

Abraham illustrates this perfectly. Paul reminds the Galatians that Abraham, “believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” You don’t read about Abraham going around making people bless him and his kids. No, he just trusted what God said, acted accordingly and God fulfilled it. Did it require obedience? Yes. But Abraham didn’t make anything happen (although remember when he tried to… that didn’t go so well). He responded to God by faith. Every instruction Abraham obeyed, every assignment he embraced, flowed from the same source: faith in God’s promise.

Receiving, Not Achieving

The hardest truths are often the simplest. When someone offers you a gift, you don’t earn it—you simply receive it. Yet somehow, after receiving it, we often feel compelled to start paying it back. The Christian life can become like that. We receive salvation by faith, but somewhere along the way we begin living as though God’s continued blessing depends on our performance. Paul couldn’t understand how the Galatians had drifted so quickly from the simplicity of the gospel.

This is echoed in Paul’s own declaration:

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.”

Galatians 2:20-21 NLT

The Fight of Faith

The real fight isn’t trying harder—it’s trusting deeper. Every day we’re faced with the same question: Will I trust God, or will I trust myself?

That was my problem that day in the kitchen. Somewhere along the way, I had drifted from the simplicity of the gospel. I was no longer resting in what Christ had accomplished; I was trying to supplement it with my own effort, believing that if I prayed more, worked harder, or performed better, then maybe God could finally do what I longed for Him to do.

Paul’s words to the Galatians expose the same temptation in all of us.

The faith that saved you is the same faith that will sustain you. The faith that brought you into relationship with Jesus is the same faith that will shape your marriage, guide your parenting, strengthen you in suffering, and give you courage to obey when the path ahead is unknown. You don’t graduate from faith. You never move on to self-reliance.

Yes, obedience matters. Good works matter. But they are the fruit of faith, never its replacement. They grow naturally from a life that remains rooted in Christ. The moment we begin trusting our performance more than His promises, we’ve wandered from the very gospel that gave us life.

God loves us too much to let us build a life that depends on ourselves. His desire is to display His strength through ordinary people who simply trust Him. That way, when lives are changed, mountains are moved, and impossible things happen, the glory belongs where it always has–on Him..

May that be true of us—not because we worked harder than everyone else, but because we kept taking Jesus at His word.

It’s the same faith. From beginning to end.