(Romans 1:16-17)

"I am not ashamed of the gospel...For in it is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith; as it is written, "The one who is righteous by faith will live."

If we live by faith, then faith has an animating power. It bears its own principle like a soul. Natural life is not generated from inanimate matter, nor does supernatural faith arise from any power in creation. Faith is transcendent, like the living spirit God breathed into Adam's clay.

Faith is a divine, self-attesting reality. It stands as its own premise and serves as its own end. Paul does not say "from evidence to faith," nor does he say "from faith to higher knowledge." No, the righteousness of God, he says, is revealed "from faith to faith." This means that faith itself proposes the grounds of its own assent. And faith also ratifies what is premised on belief. If this is a circle, it is not vicious. It is the eternal shape of the heavens.

To know God by this miracle of transcendent life implies a radical elevation. It means our mortal clay has been attuned to the incorporeal Word. It means we comprehend God's private language, the language the Trinity speaks. By faith we enter God's circumincession as eavesdroppers. "My sheep hear my voice," says the Lord (Jn 10:27). To hear the Lord's immutable voice speaking in the Word made flesh is eternal life. Such faith lifts our minds to abide in that place where God's Truth radiates in unchanging splendor.