The Nature of Faith Pt 2

Jesus walked on water, raised the dead, healed the sick, cast out demons, turned water into wine, and rose from the dead.

He said “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” (John 14:12)

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (faith has an object; in this case “hope”)

Jesus had an advantage with regard to faith: He was one with the Father and created the universe. So He knew entirely God’s power, God’s will, God’s complete knowledge, God’s goodness, etc., already. He didn’t have to guess, and He didn’t have to take the words of the prophets on faith; He had direct knowledge of God--deep, experiential knowledge. We, on the other hand, must take His word for it. So the challenge to the believer is to replace our worldview and our presumptions about reality, which are wrong and are limited and are impartial and imperfect, with His worldview and His knowledge.

Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith.
Hebrews 12:2
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

What is faith? How can we have it and exercise it?

Faith is amorphous; it has no substance; its object is God, Who is not a substance but a Spirit, Whom we cannot interact with without faith. Hebrews 11:6 “without faith it is impossible to please God.”
So it would seem to be a catch 22; you can’t have it unless you already have it. But we need it, and Jesus’s most common rebuke was for lack of faith. In Romans 1:20, Paul says “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” So we are expected to be able to infer God’s nature by virtue of His creation and by inductive reasoning. We know, by the nature of the creation, that God is marvelous and that His ways are higher than our ways, that He is infinitely intelligent and boundlessly powerful. And since we know that He knows all things, and that He gave us His Son, we also know that He is wonderfully patient with us and loving towards us.

Romans 10:6-11 But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down from above) or, “ ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

Now, if you look up the scripture that Paul is quoting here, in Deuteronomy chapter 30:11-16, you will find this:
“For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.”

See that this OT reference is about keeping the Law. But notice how Paul has pivoted the message into one about Christ. This is crucial. This is Paul’s message: Jesus Himself is the “new and living way!”

As the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 10:15-23…
“But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ (Jeremiah 31:33)
Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”

So notice that both Paul and Moses use the phrase “the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” And instead of reminding his readers to remember to keep the Law and statutes, Paul says “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Romans 10:4
“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

Believes what? That Jesus is Lord, meaning He is God--both Son of God and Son of Man, that He died for our sins and rose again. That’s it. Notice how the entire foundation of salvation hinges on the belief that Jesus is God. There can be no salvation without that. For Jesus not to be God, the one true God, He would have no power nor ability to cleanse us from sin or to reconcile us to God. Only God could have taken upon Himself the sins of the world.
1 John 2:2
And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
But cultists will say “He is the Son of God, not God.” But we can easily make sure of the very plain fact that there is only one God and that the Old Testament promised a Messiah Who would in fact BE God, and that God’s Son would be of the divine nature, which is unitary and complete and unique and quite set apart from anything that is created. There are no “gods.” There is one God. This is the faith that saves. Faith in Jesus implies, includes, and requires faith in His Godhood. There is no salvation in following a “good teacher” of any sort. Salvation comes by way of God’s actual and literal work, on the cross, through His own body, by His own blood, and the gift of His own Spirit, Who is in fact God Himself indwelling the human heart, mind, and body.

This is the faith that saves: that Jesus has cleansed us from sin and reconciled us to God through His own body and His own blood.

The enemy of our souls, the devil, is known as “the accuser of the brethren.” His tactic and strategy against the saints has never changed; he will accuse you of sin in order to cause you to question your standing before God and therefore your ability to be heard by God when you pray. Your answer to the consciousness of sin should always be the same:
1 John 1:8-10
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
1 John 2:1-2 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

If our sins are forgiven, we know God hears us. And if God hears us, then He will also answer us.
1 John 5:15
And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

Romans 8:27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Hebrews 2:4 God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will
John 14:13-14
“And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”
John 16:23-24
“And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
John 16:26-27
“In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.”

And so we are told that “the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” The simplicity of the Gospel is summed up in this statement. The word of faith. We believe in our hearts and we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord. That is the key to walking in Kingdom power and in the liberty of the sons of God.

John 6:28-29 Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”

Luke 17: 5-6 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

Jesus here is saying that it is not the amount of faith you have but the object of your faith. If you are confused about what it is you ought to believe, then your faith is of a poor quality. Having more of it will not produce anything whatsoever. If you have nothing to begin with, then having more of that will still be nothing. But if you believe in the truth of the Gospel, that God in Christ has delivered you from sin by His own actions and not your own and that you are forgiven because of God’s promise and God’s faithfulness, then your faith can move mountains. That is the faith that overcomes the world. It is not measured in amounts of faith but by the object of faith.

You will notice that Jesus immediately after saying the above about faith of a mustard seed went into a parable about servanthood. This tells you that faith is not about trying to produce fruit or work miracles but is about laying down your life in service and obedience. Just as James also preached that faith without works is dead, because faith without works is not really faith at all. Faith is proven by works. Faith begins with the heart, but it is activated by confessing with the mouth, “the word of faith.” Once activated, faith does not desperately cling and seek God’s approval; faith is not inwardly focused. True faith gives God away. True faith surrenders all rights and privileges of self and seeks to pour out to God and to man in service. True faith embraces duty and leaves the flesh, the self, the ego, the reputation all on the cross and considers everything as loss for Christ.

Hebrews 5:8
though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.

Phil 3:7-11
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Whenever we hesitate to share Christ with others out of preserving our reputation, our sense of self, our relationships, then we are in effect denying Christ. Part of taking up your cross is losing your self and your reputation, putting it all on the table for Jesus, not holding anything back for yourself. For a man to choose self over Christ in any way is to deny Christ before men.
Matthew 10:33
But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 10:38
And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

1 Cor 13:13
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

We see that these three things are markers, testimonies, attributes of the Christian life. The first two are things which pertain to our walk in this world and will cease once we arrive in heaven. Why would we need faith to know God once we see Him face to face? Why would we hope for something we already have? But love endures forever, and we will be saturated in the limitless, vast ocean of God’s love when we arrive in heaven.

How is your hope right now? How is your joy? Are you lacking?

Romans 5:5
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

What gives us hope and joy? It is the abandoning of ourselves to God, the placing of our selves on the cross, following Christ, dying to ourselves and letting Him live through us. That is the source of our joy because it is the means by which God’s life flows through us and replaces our miserable condition with His infinite love and power and joy. We have this hope confirmed in us because God has made His promise sure by giving us His Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee, a down-payment of all His promised things to come.

2 Corinthians 5:5
“Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.”

Our dying to self is our living to God. Giving ourselves over to Christ’s life is our source of life and joy. Jesus said we are blessed when men curse us and mistreat us on account of Him. Paul said in Colossians 1:24 “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church.” Why should we fear suffering? Suffering is part of the human condition; it is inescapable. Jesus said in John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Paul said in Romans 8:13 “for if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

Read 1 Peter 4

One thing the modern church seems to lack is that sense of boldness and triumphalism that the early Christians and the prophets of old had. We seem to forget that the God we serve is the almighty God, the creator of the universe, and that we are His beloved, anointed children, predestined to perform His mighty works.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

If we are walking in God’s will, then we can be totally assured of God’s provision, even if that means a miracle is required.

Numbers 11:23 And the Lord said to Moses, “Has the Lord’s arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not.”

II Kings 6:16
So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

I John 4:4
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.