Comtemplative meditation.....Distinguishing between saving faith and human faith

8603 The strength of faith is not in the ability of man. Man depending on man or mans relationship to man is not the primary focus in strengthening faith. It is just an Armenian concept that places man in the middle of change because faith is worked up in each individual and it is in community that this paradigm is strengthened . The nature of all men in their helplessness is in a dependent focus on advocacy. The paradigm of advocacy is what is at the heart of a strong faith. It is not the will of man that is at the heart of a faith that perseveres. It is in the grace of God and His relationship to us that will ultimately determine the kind of faith we have. Because of our sin and our blindness we are left to ourselves and our own faith to determine what kind of person Christ is and we are blind in that faith, a man centered faith in that understanding. Unless we understand that there is nothing in us to be able to comprehend this relationship of our faith and His life we will only be fooling ourselves as to just what work He has done on our behalf and what kind of advocate He is in Himself. So really we must decry all forms of man centered faith and embrace total grace and total inability in ourselves. Then we can begin to understand Christ as our advocate. In the Armenian concept there is a detesting of drawing away from the relationships between men because of this paradigm of human faith. But in Calvinism there are clear concepts of God that get below the surface of the human and are of a divine origin by that nature of the grace that is the spring board of what true faith involves. 

This is so important because in drawing away from the world we are in essence drawing toward the unseen. We are as it were making things unseen as if they were seen. The logic involves a positive focus and not a lonely focus. It is in the unseen advocacy that there belongs all freedom in reality in the physical realm. It really is in Christ our advocate that true humanity is defined and the nature of strength from that paradigm defines our faith. Unless we understand this advocacy we will not understand the reality of the unseen and we will not be defined by that world view but by a paradigm of human integration. If there is a reality that is defined in scripture that defines our life it is this life in Christ. But this "in Christ" concept is not a foreign concept of unseen realities. It involves what He is as our advocate and the nature of that reality by our view of Him by faith. From the beginning God has defined to man that relationship by taking on human qualities in the pre incarnate state in which Christ office of advocacy happen in the old testament appearances. It was in the coming Redeemer in a future view that was viewed by the OT saints in that present reality of anthropomorphism. 

In that defined relationship in the psalms there was a personification of the pre incarnate Christ as the advocate that was the real object of the hope that brought about that strong faith. Christ actually was viewed as a person not only in the future but as an advocate to the old testament saints in the personified manner. It was in these body parts that defined His advocacy in their circumstances that was not only the buttress of their prayers but was the object of their faith in that circumstance that gave them hope in the coming redeemer. It was the view of Him rescuing them in this personified way of human qualities , and in much mystery of being Him God was in the physical world of realism in the victory in that circumstance that was the strength of that faith. Their faith was in the visible relationship of the coming redeemer through faith in the providence of God and the actual coming of the redeemer in these physical ways. 

 Now we have an advocate in heaven who is not just a person in the far reaches of the universe . Our advocate actually comes as God through the Holy Spirit. He is present with the Spirit and He is intimately involved in every area of our lives. It there was one thing that defined being "in Christ" it would be our relationship to Him as our advocate. We by faith have a person living inside of us. Going before us, standing in for us in all of our circumstances , who cannot be seen but by faith is as real as any other advocate we have here on earth. Have you ever heard him say, \"I am your salvation\"? Have you ever looked back at different situations in your life and said to yourself there must have been a person advocate in my situation because there were circumstances that were beyond my control that were brought on by an invisible advocate on my behalf. Has that little voice said at these pondering I am your salvation?