Gold Tried in the Fire - Robert J. Wieland

is, non-faith. In those dark days his hard heart
knew no contrite appreciation of what the cross
meant. But "the grace of our Lord was poured out
on me abundantly, along with the faith and love
[agape] that are in Christ Jesus." 1 Timothy 1:13,
14, NIV. In neither of these passages is pisteuo
used with any semblance of egocentric trust.
Luke 16:12: "If you have not been trustworthy
with someone else's property, who will give you
[pisteusei] of your own?" NIV. Here is an instance
where pisteuo has the meaning of trust, but its
usage is not related to righteousness by faith or the
content of the gospel. Jesus was here using the
word in its common everyday meaning, as
understood by the people of His day before the
tremendous disclosure of the cross event. Both
words, agape and faith, were immeasurably
enriched with meaning as a result of the
crucifixion, so much so that they virtually took on
new meaning. God's love revealed on Calvary
invested the word agape with a meaning far beyond
itself; and likewise its dependent word, faith,
acquired a meaning never before comprehended. It
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