Chapter 13: Jesus is the Author and Finisher of Our Faith

Jesus Christ is the shepherd of our faith. He is the source of and orchestrator of all faith. He is both the beginning and the end of all faith; the author and finisher of our faith (see Moroni 6:4).

Jesus makes faith possible through what he does before, during, and after our exercise of faith. The Lord provides the foundation upon which we build our faith, he has created and empowered everything necessary for us to exercise faith, and he continues to work after and according to our faith.

The Lord is the reason we have faith, he is the ultimate subject of all faith, and he is the source of all improvements in faith.

Faith begins with an idea—a desire or a reason. As Paul said, “faith comes by hearing.” (Romans 10:17) All faith begins with the idea that something more than what is present is possible. This idea is necessarily absent from the mind of the believer previous to the beginning of faith. It is from this seed of an idea that the individual begins to consider and desire an as-yet unattained outcome. This idea can come from anywhere, and yet it is all from God. God is “in all things, and is through all things,” (D&C 88:41) and “all things bear record of [him].” (Moses 6:63) Everything provides an invitation to exercise faith through stirring a desire to obtain an outcome beyond what you have experienced, providing reasons to believe such exists, and giving reasons to believe certain actions on your part will result in obtaining it.

What God does before faith

Every single action stands informed by the sum of exposures to all the signals an individual receives and perceives to that point. These signals consist of the experiences they have had with the world, the interactions they have had with other people, and their previous reactions to these stimuli.

Because everything we do is in response to some sort of enticement,¹ all faith begins with the actions of someone other than you. Faith is an endless chain of ideas rippling through all time and eternity. God is the source of all such ideas.

The amazing thing about faith is that no matter where you currently stand—no matter your past or your present situation—God has already done his part to initiate your next faith cycle. Whether in the experiences he has sent you, the people he has sent you, or the resources he has provided you, he has already made available to you the information you need to plant the seed of faith and water it through developing your desires, reasons, and actions until you obtain the outcome you seek or find something better to seek instead. He has done so in the way he has designed and created this earth, in the information he seeded by teaching Adam in the garden of Eden, and in the information he continues to send to the earth, whether through the insights and understanding he gives to people who seek it or through the ministry of angels.

Faith is a principle of action, and while it is all autonomous—we are free to choose—none of it is independent:

Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore, man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other. (2 Nephi 2:16)

Through who he was and is, and what he was and is, God provided the framework of faith. When it comes to faith, God has already acted. We exercise faith by responding to what he has already done, what he continues to do, and what he will yet do.

Before anyone exercised faith on this planet, God decreed all laws of cause and effect. Before you ever exercise the slightest faith, God has already appointed the law that guarantees the outcome, sent messengers to give you the idea of the path to the outcome, and created circumstances perfectly suited to you to ensure the greatest possible likelihood of your success. When you exercise faith, you are merely discovering and acting according to what he has already created.

Every aspect of the extensive creation, spanning all we know in both time and space, is the intentional work of Jesus Christ designed precisely and exclusively to provide us the perfect and necessary environment to exercise faith. Anyone who glances at the stars on a clear night, or contemplates the expanse of time, or the details of their life ought to be filled with indescribable awe and wonder at God’s immense and incalculable wisdom and kindness in what he has done to provide a way for us, through faith in him, to secure much greater joy than we could otherwise possess.

God transmits the ideas that form the seed of faith to us through his spirit via our minds, our hearts, and creation—including other people:

22 For behold, God knowing all things, being from everlasting to everlasting, behold, he sent angels to minister unto the children of men, to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ; and in Christ there should come every good thing.
23 And God also declared unto prophets, by his own mouth, that Christ should come.
24 And behold, there were divers ways that he did manifest things unto the children of men, which were good; and all things which are good cometh of Christ; otherwise men were fallen, and there could no good thing come unto them.
25 Wherefore, by the ministering of angels, and by every word which proceeded forth out of the mouth of God, men began to exercise faith in Christ; and thus by faith, they did lay hold upon every good thing; and thus it was until the coming of Christ. (Moroni 7)

It is through these “preachers”—whether they be men, angels, the spirit, or reality itself—that God speaks and injects into us the ideas from which stem every act of faith:

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)

Those who are receptive to faith become a conduit through which God catalyzes faith in others. The Lord uses these “chosen vessels of the Lord” to help “the residue of men...have faith in Christ.” (Moroni 7:3132) They become pipes in the network of light that flows from God to and through all things.

Jesus Christ was the perfect preacher, and, in condescending to come to earth as a man, he provided in his life and death the strongest possible contribution to our faith:

8 But because of the faith of men he has shown himself unto the world, and glorified the name of the Father, and prepared a way that thereby others might be partakers of the heavenly gift, that they might hope for those things which they have not seen.
9 Wherefore, ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift, if ye will but have faith. 
10 Behold it was by faith that they of old were called after the holy order of God.
11 Wherefore, by faith was the law of Moses given. But in the gift of his Son hath God prepared a more excellent way; and it is by faith that it hath been fulfilled. (Ether 12)

The Lord’s teachings and actions provide an example to us both of the pinnacle of what we can become in this life and why we ought to gladly pay any price to do so.

God’s voice is the voice of improvement. However it arrives to our perception—whether in our minds, in our hearts, in the words of another, or in the manifestation of something in the world—his voice calls us to consider the idea of outcomes better than what we previously believed possible for ourselves, others, and the world.

The recipient of an invitation toward improvement may or may not notice it, and may or may not notice that it comes from God. Every exercise of faith is inseparably coupled to Jesus Christ, whether the participant realizes it or not. He is the source of everything that makes faith possible and the source of everything that can make it better.

Faith creates light in the darkness. Just as God’s spoken word catalyzed the creative potential of the dark void to bring forth this living world, his word spoken into us generates new creative potential in our spirit. As we follow this voice, we will design and follow the actions that lead to obtaining the outcome we imagined.

What God does during faith

Every outcome has a path that leads to it, as ordained by God before the world was. Every outcome is like a lock, and there exist a certain set of conditions which comprise the key:

20 There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—
21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated. (D&C 130)

God knows the path to what you seek:

O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it. (2 Nephi 9:20)

He provides instructions for how to act:

...I give unto you directions how you may act before me, that it may turn to you for your salvation. (D&C 82:9)

He does everything in his power to invite and entice you toward the path that leads to what you desire.

As our desires grow towards outcomes of higher value, the cost of walking the paths to these outcomes increases.

The greatest outcome—obtaining and being filled with the love of God—costs everything. As we ascend in the object of our desire, we will need stronger tools to cope with the darkness that comes attached to greater light.

Hope in God can help us in hard times. In the hardest times, hope in God is the only thing sufficient to endure. It is through reliance upon the character of Jesus Christ that we find the motivation to endure the most bleak and hopeless situations:

24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. (Romans 8)

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God. (Ether 12:4)

Promises from God are another tool that helps us endure more difficult paths. When we faithfully carry out the Lord’s instructions, we obtain promises from him:

9 ...I give unto you directions how you may act before me, that it may turn to you for your salvation.
10 I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise. (D&C 82)

In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise. (Ephesians 1:13)

It is through our faithful action that we guarantee the fulfillment of the promises we obtain:

And who overcome by faith, and are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true. (D&C 76:53)

He strengthens us with the promise that all things we endure in obedience to him will be for our good:

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

At all times and in all places, no matter how hopeless things may seem, God is at the helm. He is not aloof. He is not merely allowing things to happen. He perfectly knows the outcome of every situation. His law perfectly controls all things while providing free choice of all men. His perceived absence is not his actual absence, and like all other things, it is perfectly calculated to advance our benefit:

1 I Am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and <u>every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.</u>
3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of <u>itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.</u>
5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye <u>can do nothing. (John 15)</u>

When you trust in God, you can lean heavily on the promises you have obtained. These consist of both general laws and promises, as well as things he has taught to you personally.

God’s promises to Abraham inspired his faithful actions over a lifetime. For example, he complied with God’s commandment to sacrifice Isaac because he believed God’s promise that through Isaac God would raise many nations:

16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:
20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. (Romans 4)

It is hard to imagine a more impossible situation than believing that your young son would have uncountable posterity as you raise a knife to kill him. Yet, Abraham believed. Abraham knew what it means to walk by faith, not sight.

Another tool to assist us through hard trials is trust in God’s justice. Faith is not used to bypass the laws of justice, but rather to make a way for people to benefit from justice and entice people to come up to it. Obtaining the greatest outcomes requires leveraging the law of justice. Some outcomes require the Lord to subject you to unmerited suffering, figuratively hiding his presence from you, for a time, to give you the blessing of exercising faith and choosing to act even against great opposition:

Then will Jehovah delay his coming, that he may favor you; out of mercy toward you he will remain aloof. For Jehovah is the God of justice; blessed are all who wait for him. (Isaiah 30:18, Gileadi Translation)

Even during the most intense trial of faith, when we may be tempted to feel completely alone, we are assured by God’s word that he is still completely in control of our situation. Even when you feel a complete absence of his presence, you can rely on your idea of his character, the evidences of his past involvement with you and with the world, and the rational reasons you have for believing he is worthy of your trust. Even when his presence is not obvious to us, he is so thoroughly involved that it is by him that we are kept alive from one moment to another:

...[God] is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another... (Mosiah 2:21)

The flesh tempts us to judge after our sight, which is to say according to our present and past experiences and the culture and customs we have received. Faith inspires us to believe according to the ideas God has given us of the future, and according to our past observation of the fulfillment of his promises:

And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me. (Alma 36:27)

Faith provides an alternative to relying on how we feel in the midst of a fallen world. It provides us a path to act contrary to human bias, deprived culture, limited predisposition, blind prejudice, and present pleasure. In so doing, faith expands our potential for action. Faith motivates us towards choices that improve us.

What God does after faith

God does not ask for our faith for his own benefit. Everything he asks of us is for our own benefit.² Our faith is not for his sake, it is for our own.

Faith is the gateway through which God works with man. God works “unto the children of men according to their faith.” (Ether 12:29)

Faith is the means that God uses to bring to pass his will. While God has done tremendous things prior to our faith, and while he supports us with a mighty hand during our faith, it is in what happens after our faith that his will is fulfilled:

3 ...by faith all things are fulfilled—
6 ...faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.
7 For it was by faith that Christ showed himself unto our fathers, after he had risen from the dead; and he showed not himself unto them until after they had faith in him; wherefore, it must needs be that some had faith in him, for he showed himself not unto the world. (Ether 12)

God has all power to bring about all outcomes, but he can’t do so in all ways. His power comes as a result of his acquisition of and alignment with all truth. Part of that truth is the law of justice, which binds outcomes to what is deserved.

To merely give away all he has would violate the principle of justice. In lieu of this, he sends all he can as soon as he can and pays every price that can be paid by him. He also sends uncountable servants to do everything they can.

Having done what must be done prior to faith, God awaits what each individual will do before he can do what he can only do after they have faith. He only “workest after men have faith.” (Ether 12:30)

When an individual exercises faith, they enable God—through justice—to bring about outcomes in their behalf that exceed the price they have paid for them. It is in this way that, through faith in Christ, we become and receive more than we ever could of our own accord. It is God who has gifted us with the agency of choosing whether to exercise faith in him, it is God who created this world where things operate with enough delayed or obscured justice to allow us the exercise of faith, and it is God who gives us the reason to exercise faith. Truly, no matter who we become and what we obtain, it is all through and of him.

As you open the door to the blessings God has paid the price for through your faith, he will shower you with things you never could have had without his sacrifice, goodness, mercy, and might.

Faith is iterative

Every iteration through a faith cycle will bring an individual closer to God than they were before. Every faith cycle enables a greater faith cycle.

It is a misconception to think that people who are mighty in faith arrived at that point all at once. It is a misconception to think that people with mighty faith were born in some way that makes it easier for them:

Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. (James 5:17)

They all began no different than you. “In the first place they were on the same standing with their brethren.” (Alma 13:5)

The only difference between them and you is “their exceeding faith and good works.” (Alma 13:10) These people are only different than you in what they came to think about God. They believed that God was great enough to make them like him, if they obeyed him. Do you?

Every servant of God begins their faith journey in humble, almost imperceptible circumstances. It is through successive faith cycles that they come up to the mighty faith they are renown for. You can be just like them as soon as you submit to the same frequency and intensity of faith cycles that they have.

Melchizedek provides an example of this iterative process. As a child, he completed sufficient faith cycles to work several considerable miracles. He then was approved by God, and only after all of this was ordained a high priest and enabled—through more faith—to perform even more miracles in the Lord’s name—from breaking mountains to dividing seas to quenching fire, etc.:

26 Now Melchizedek was a man of faith, who wrought righteousness; and when a child he feared God, and stopped the mouths of lions, and quenched the violence of fire.
27 And thus, having been approved of God, he was ordained an high priest after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch,
28 It being after the order of the Son of God; which order came, not by man, nor the will of man; neither by father nor mother; neither by beginning of days nor end of years; but of God;
29 And it was delivered unto men by the calling of his own voice, according to his own will, unto as many as believed on his name.
30 For God having sworn unto Enoch and unto his seed with an oath by himself; that every one being ordained after this order and calling should have power, by faith, to break mountains, to divide the seas, to dry up waters, to turn them out of their course;
31 To put at defiance the armies of nations, to divide the earth, to break every band, to stand in the presence of God; to do all things according to his will, according to his command, subdue principalities and powers; and this by the will of the Son of God which was from before the foundation of the world.
32 And men having this faith, coming up unto this order of God, were translated and taken up into heaven.
33 And now, Melchizedek was a priest of this order; therefore he obtained peace in Salem, and was called the Prince of peace. (Genesis 14, JST)

Enoch provides another example of this iterative process. Having left his home after living a modern lifetime worth of unremarkable faith to fulfill some nondescript yearning of his heart, Enoch:

2 ... cried unto the Lord, there came a voice out of heaven, saying—Turn ye, and get ye upon the mount Simeon.
3 And it came to pass that I turned and went up on the mount; and as I stood upon the mount, I beheld the heavens open, and I was clothed upon with glory;
4 And I saw the Lord; and he stood before my face, and he talked with me, even as a man talketh one with another, face to face; and he said unto me: Look, and I will show unto thee the world for the space of many generations.
5 And it came to pass that I beheld in the valley of Shum, and lo, a great people which dwelt in tents, which were the people of Shum.
6 And again the Lord said unto me: Look; and I looked towards the north, and I beheld the people of Canaan, which dwelt in tents.
7 And the Lord said unto me: Prophesy; and I prophesied, saying: Behold the people of Canaan, which are numerous, shall go forth in battle array against the people of Shum, and shall slay them that they shall utterly be destroyed; and the people of Canaan shall divide themselves in the land, and the land shall be barren and unfruitful, and none other people shall dwell there but the people of Canaan;
8 For behold, the Lord shall curse the land with much heat, and the barrenness thereof shall go forth forever; and there was a blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among all people.
9 And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: Look; and I looked, and I beheld the land of Sharon, and the land of Enoch, and the land of Omner, and the land of Heni, and the land of Shem, and the land of Haner, and the land of Hanannihah, and all the inhabitants thereof;
10 And the Lord said unto me: Go to this people, and say unto them—Repent, lest I come out and smite them with a curse, and they die.
11 And he gave unto me a commandment that I should baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, which is full of grace and truth, and of the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of the Father and the Son.
12 And it came to pass that Enoch continued to call upon all the people, save it were the people of Canaan, to repent;
13 And so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people of God, and their enemies came to battle against them; and he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled, even according to his command; and the rivers of water were turned out of their course; and the roar of the lions was heard out of the wilderness; and all nations feared greatly, so powerful was the word of Enoch, and so great was the power of the language which God had given him. (Moses 7)

Enoch left his home in faith. He was given powerful language, but not until after his faith, believing that there was something the Lord could use him for, for the benefit of the people who did not live with Adam.

It is important to realize that these accounts are radically condensed. Faith is a long journey.

Jesus is the end of faith. Through multiple faith cycles, you will be sanctified. Those who continuously submit to faith cycle after faith cycle will eventually find themselves like he is. They “see as they are seen, and know as they are known.” (D&C 76:94) You will draw closer to God while becoming more like him. You will realize that Jesus Christ is the outcome of faith: knowing him, being like him, having all faith converted to knowledge, and all belief converted into being.