Chapter # 10 Paragraph # 1 Study # 5
July 1, 2018
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: Righteousness based upon "believing".
Introduction: In our last study, we considered Paul's claim that Christ is the end of Law in respect to righteousness for all who believe. This is an outstanding claim because of its roots and impact. As to roots, it rests upon the absolute faithfulness of Jesus of Nazareth to the issue of Love, both for His Father and for humanity. There was not a single failure on His part to live according to the absolute standard of divine Justice for the entirety of His life in this world. There was not even the slightest shadow cast by a turn from even the smallest particular of Love's Justice by Him. He was and is absolute moral perfection in every way that such a thing might be legitimately measured. These are the roots of the righteousness that is given to all who believe.
As to impact, that absolute moral perfection is declared to be a grace-gift to anyone who "believes" God's promise of Eternal Life with absolutely no regard for how many times, or how great in magnitude, a man sins. This means that the impact is "Life" at its most basic levels for any and all who "believe".
This is, frankly, "unbelievable" because of both the claim that Jesus was/is absolute moral perfection and that such a perfection is "reckoned" by God to belong to sinners on the basis of "faith" apart from any and every "work of Law" (compelled behavior). And, as such, the requirement of "faith" is just as great an obstacle to humanity as any "legal" requirement. Thus, we must see, in the promises of God an answer to this massive difficulty.
- I. How Great Is This Difficulty?
- A. On one level, the difficulty is rooted in the human antipathy toward God.
- 1. Paul claims in his Gospel that all who are involved in Adam's sin are "at war with God" because of the inborn "faith" that He is an enemy to be resisted at all costs (Romans 8:7).
- 2. Jesus claimed in His promise of the coming of His Spirit that He would "convict" the world of the truths that are most necessary for biblical "faith" (John 16:8-11).
- a. That this work by the Spirit of God is necessary to the existence of a biblical "faith" shows that there is no "human" capacity to produce this kind of "faith".
- b. That Paul went so far as to declare that "faith" is a "fruit of the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22) and that his doctrine is that "faith" is a characteristic of man only because of the "power" of the Holy Spirit in producing "full assurance" (1 Thessalonians 1:5) also testifies to the level of difficulty that exists for antagonistic man to be brought to peace.
- B. On another level, the difficulty is rooted in the nature of the "faith" to which God responds with a declaration of righteousness.
- 1. In spite of a host of human efforts to water down the nature of this faith so that its nature is that of a single, momentary, acceptance of God's promise(s), the Scriptures are clear that the true nature of this "faith" is that it takes a place in the "believer's" way of thinking that is at a very fundamental level of all of his/her thought.
- 2. The Scriptures teach "a failure of faith" as a real possibility.
- a. For them to teach this, they must use the words "believe" and "faith" in a way that is contrary to all of their uses of those words when "justification" is in view.
- 1) My claim is that the faith that saves is a Spirit-given conviction that takes its place at the roots of the things human beings "believe".
- 2) If this is, in fact, the correct understanding of "faith", it is impossible for "faith" to "fail".
- b. And, actually, those Scriptures do use the words "believe" and "faith" in distinctly different ways.
- 1) On the one hand, there is a distinction in regard to the "content" of what is "believed".
- a) "Faith" in a lie is "faith", but it is not "justifying".
- b) "Faith" in a truth that has no direct connection to the specific content of the Gospel is also "faith", but it is not "justifying".
- c) Even "faith" in the Gospel is not initially "justifying" because of the gross lack of understanding of those whose "faith" in the words of the Gospel allows them to "believe" even though there has been no consideration at all of the particulars that are involved (the actual content of the Gospel is undeveloped in their thinking).
- 2) On another hand, there is a distinction in regard to "how" a thing "believed" came to take a place at the root of those things that are "believed".
- a) "Faith" that was placed at the root of the "faith system" to which a person adheres by means of powerful, persuasion is subject to the vacillations caused by other "powerful" persuasions at least during the period of time in which that "faith" is being moved into position as the "most believed" content of "faith".
- b) This means that no "believing" is initially of the character that it dominates all other thoughts and/or arguments.
- c) This also means that there is, at least for a while, a period wherein actions are taken by reason of the "believing" while, at the same time, "tests" of that "believing" might show up and challenge the content of the "faith".
- c. The declarations of those Scriptures regarding this issue of the nature of saving faith.
- 1) Even in Paul's most succinct definition of his Gospel found in the early portion of 1 Corinthians 15, he put forth the fact that there is a possibility of "being saved if..." and of "believing in vain".
- 2) In the letter to the Galatians Paul frankly declared that he was not "sure" that the Galatians possessed saving faith on one basis: they were on a track to "conviction" that what he had preached to them was a lie and, if they arrived at the destination of that "track", they would be subject to "anathema".
- 3) Jesus, Himself, told Peter in no uncertain terms that his "faith" was to be tested to such a severe degree that it was necessary for Jesus to ask the Father to disallow Peter's "faith" to "fail" (Luke 22:31-32) [there is no point to such a request if "faith" cannot fail].
- 4) In more than one place in Paul's writings, he attributes the "ability" of a "believer" to retain his/her faith to the prayers of both the Holy Spirit and the Heavenly High Priest.
- 5) And Luke deliberately departed from the "party line" [endure: Mark 4; dureth: Matthew 13] in his record of Jesus' interpretation of the parable of the soils by saying that those who were planted upon rocky soil "are believing for a while" and then "fall away" (Luke 8:13).
- C. The bottom line is this: God only declares those righteous who first "believe" that "salvation" is in Christ alone and then continue "believing" that.
- 1. That this "declaration of righteousness" actually occurs in a person's time-history means that the placement of saving faith at the root of all things believed is actually accomplished by the Spirit in the individual once his/her faith has been "tested" and "survived".
- 2. Thus, salvation is "by faith" but it is not "by a temporary faith" that can be jettisoned at some point of testing.