The Measure of Faith by Joe La Bianca
Romans 12:3
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

Paul realizes that his teaching was given to him by grace. Grace is God’s unmerited love and acceptance through Jesus. Paul doesn’t approach us through legalism. Legalism is trying to earn heaven with human goodness. This cannot be done. Paul realizes that whatever he is, whatever he does, and whatever he teaches us, must be through the agency of grace. Grace is the only channel through which any godly thing is accomplished. Paul instructs us not by the forceful hand of legalism, but by the loving grace of God.
If we give God our lives, God will only be pleased by a cheerful giving, for God loves a cheerful giver. So if your walk with God is an unpleasant endeavor, you may as well quit. If your Christianity is a hard thing, check yourself to see if you are in the faith. Hard Christianity is really false legalism. The yoke of Christ is light and easy. Christianity is not a burdensome faith. Jesus attaches Himself to us with His yoke ( a neck frame coupling animals for pulling loads ) and guides us through life. And don’t forget that Jesus does the work, we are just along for the ride. Our faith holds us to Jesus.
What is it that Paul tells us by grace? Does he tell us to think highly of ourselves, the way someone trying to earn salvation would think? Does he tell us to think like a legalist, like the self-righteous church-goer who considers himself better than others? No! Instead, Paul tells us to think in just the opposite way!
Christians do not esteem themselves overmuch, as the Greek expresses. They are not arrogant or vain because Christians realize that all that they have has been given to them. It is necessary to think this way in order to remain thankful and humble.
Legalists are among the most thankless, prideful people in the world. They live in a fantasy. They think they’re righteous when they’re not.
The exercise of the believer’s mind ought always be one of soberness and gratefulness, never one of high-mindedness and pride. This is because God has given them the very faith that saves.
Some take this to mean that believers have no active role in salvation; and that God saves people apart from volunteered faith in the good news. But people must be willing to believe in Jesus. They must accept the gift of faith willingly.
God gives all people the measure of faith. People decide where to put that faith. This faith is bestowed, for we could not believe without God’s grace.
The Greek for “measure” is “metron”, and it is defined as a “meter”. So God has given us 39.37 inches of faith, which is equal to one meter. Only joking!
Yet all kidding aside, God has indeed given us all the limited portion of faith, according to the meaning of “metron.” We have one stride of faith, and if we take that stride we will have another to take, in this way we will finish the race. No one has unlimited faith, for all that is needed is a mustard seed amount. A small amount of simple faith in Jesus will accomplish great things. Our small faith gets us a great Savior.
When we are persuaded by the gospel, when we believe in the truthfulness of God concerning His only Son, we are putting that meter of faith in Jesus and are saved. This small amount of faith is a gift. The grace of God in Christ is a gift. Our salvation is a gift. We are just selfish receivers of God’s great generosity.
When Jesus rebuked the disciples by calling them “ye of little faith”, “little” in Greek meant “incredulous.” They were skeptical of Jesus and this is why Jesus was stern. Mustard seed faith is totally different. The word “little”, when referring to the smallest seed, which is the mustard seed, is “micros”, and it means small in size.
Since so much has been bestowed upon us, how could we think of ourselves more highly than we ought? Only a fool would take credit for a gift. Only ungratefulness would produce such a response.
Matthew 17:20 says, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, ‘Remove hence to yonder place’; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Why did Jesus say that such a small amount of faith is all that you need to do great things? Because you do not need a lot of faith to believe. God’s existence is evident through creation, prophesy, archaeological discoveries proving the truth of the bible, the gospel and it’s logic, the Holy Spirit’s enlightenment, and many other things I cannot name here.
Let me simplify. If you believe the gospel with tiny trust, nothing shall be impossible for you. Jesus didn’t mean a mere physical moving of mountains (for that would accomplish little and even do more harm than good), but the humanly impossible victories which can only be done on a spiritual level. And one day the spiritually invisible shall become the eternal, when we finally behold Him, the sacred Lamb of God, who makes all things possible, both now and forevermore!