A life of faith is critical to the human spirit because it re-establishes the questions of absolute concern. Who are and what is ultimately important to us? The word of the Lord asserts that, “The just shall live by his faith” which would allow us to understand that apart from a life of faith, the valuation of what is important to us may be severely compromised.This becomes increasingly detrimental because if our faith is misplaced, it will lead us into living lifestyles of misplaced faith which ultimately results in us living outside of the will of the Lord. This is what makes the word of the Lord true when King Jesus states, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart (life of faith) be also”. Our faith must be placed in Christ alone; for it is Christ only, who issues the apodictic command to love the Lord our God with all of our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. This apodictic substratum (base of command) creates the model of lifestyle from which the human heart must live and thrive or risk plunging into a deathly spiral. This is what brings the word of the Lord to past when it sets forth, “The wages of sin is death” and “when sin is finished it brings forth death”. The principle of death here issues forth as a separation from the original design. The human heart was not originally designed to live outside of a loving relationship with the Lord. When it does, based upon human freedom and choice, (what the term “humanism” implies) a principle of death issues forth bringing the human heart into a place of (what continental theology would call) “Estrangement”. Upon entering this place, the human heart suffers the deathly experiences of “loneliness” and “separation” which drastically impairs its resolve to choose life. A life of faith in Christ is the absolute initiative in the human heart exiting and remaining free of the deathly place of estrangement. Isaiah 61:1-4 is the crystallization of this revelation and must be embraced by every “Born Again” believer if we are to carry out the “Great Commission” of our King and gather in the harvest! (Another Oil Point from Theology Nation)
– Bishop Dr. Guy A. Cox