The Faith of the Savior

     Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as members of many other religions, recognize that we can rely on succor in our time of need from the Savior Jesus Christ.  We know and trust that He understands the many things we have to go through in the course of our lives.  He has this knowledge because He also had to go through all things just as we do.
     We have to suffer through the difficulties of life, such as pain, financial stress, emotional beatings, and loneliness.   The Savior also had to suffer through these difficulties.  We are able to bear up these burdens and live good lives because of our faith.  The Savior also was able to make it through His life because of His faith.
      You may wonder how it could possibly be that the Son of God had to use faith in His life.  Surely He knew all things, so He wouldn't have to live by faith.  This really isn't so.  We are born into the world with a vail over our eyes that prevents us from remembering our heavenly home and the things that took place there.  Then we must learn of the things of God through faith.  The Savior was also born into this world with that vail.  We can turn to Luke 2:40 to find evidence of this.  This scripture reads:  "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him."
     The word waxed indicates growth.  So when it reads He waxed strong in spirit, it is proclaiming that Jesus grew strong in spirit.  He didn't start out that way.  He had to learn and grow just as we do.  So, the only way He could come to a knowledge of God was through the exercising of faith.
     There are other times in the life of the Savior that He demonstrated faith as well.  Luke chapter four teaches of the temptations Jesus suffered in the wilderness.  He was tempted with by His physical needs, power, and vanity.  These weren't the only temptations or trials He suffered in life, either.  From His birth all the way to death, Jesus endured trials and temptations of every kind.  As we search through the accounts of His life, as well as the many scriptures prophesying and testifying of Him, we can find the various temptations He had to endure.
     When many of His disciples turned and left Him, Jesus felt despair and asked remaining disciples if they, too, would leave Him.  The remaining disciples testified they knew who Christ was, and Christ's faith carried Him forward.  Knowing the pain He would have to endure, Jesus was tempted not to perform the Atonement.  He even asked God, though briefly, to remove the burden.  Then He went forward in faith, and gave His blood as the sacrifice for our sins.  Jesus suffered persecution many times, even just before death.  He exercised faith and went to meet His destiny.
     Jesus also exercised faith to perform miracles.  How could the Savior raise the dead, heal the sick, walk on water, and perform the multitude of miracles He did unless He first had faith that He could do it?  Let us turn to the account of His raising Lazarus, as found in John chapter 11, for evidence.  When Jesus heard that His dear friend was sick, He delayed going to him.  Then when He went, Lazarus had died.  Jesus pronounced Lazarus would rise again.  Then He went to the tomb and instructed the people to remove the stone.  They did so.  Jesus then, after going forward in faith, thanked God the Father for having heard Him.  In other words, He exercised faith to go forward to raise Lazarus.  Then, upon arriving to do so, He knew Heavenly Father had answered His faith.  Lazarus was raised from the dead because Jesus had faith.
     The scriptures that testify of the faith exercised by the Savior Jesus Christ are too plentiful to recount all of them.  He was born into the world without knowledge of who He was.  But Mary and Joseph taught Him, and He had faith it was true.  That faith grew in Him, carrying Him forth to perform the many miracles that blessed the lives of those who were blessed to meet Him.  It carried Him through the persecution and difficulties He would face.  It carried Him through the atoning sacrifice He had to bare in the Garden of Gethsemane, through the mockery and persecution of His imprisonment, and through the burden of being crucified upon the Hill Calvary. 
     It was the faith of Jesus Christ that allowed Him to lay down His life, for only by His choice to die could the Savior die.  It was the faith of Jesus Christ that allowed Him to reclaim His physical body, rising to a resurrected being filled with glory. 
     It is through the faith of Jesus Christ that we have claim to His atoning sacrifice.  It is through His faith that we will rise from the dead.  And it is through His faith that we can obtain mercy at the day of judgment, allowing us to enter into the courts of God.
     Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living Father, demonstrated to us the power of faith.  He performed the greatest miracles the world has ever, or will ever, know through the exercise of His faith.  And because of these miracles, we have hope.  This hope should lead us to exercise our faith, for that is what we are required to do.  And should we meet trials, should we face persecution, should we have difficult times in store, we can turn to the example of Jesus Christ to find reason for exercising our faith just a little more.