Chapter # 11 Paragraph # 4 Study # 6
March 3, 2019
Humble, Texas
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Thesis: There is supposed to be a "tension" within us regarding the degree to which we embrace the fundamental issues of both "Faith" and "Fear".
Introduction: In our studies of the Scriptures in general and in our interaction with Paul's words in Romans 11, we have seen that Paul presses two, seemingly contradictive, concepts upon us. On the one hand, he presses us to "believe" in our security in Jesus Christ before God our Father. The capstone of this pressure is Romans 8:34-39. The "point" of this pressure is to bring us into "rest" regarding our eternal destiny and to get us to fixate upon the peace we have with God and to rejoice in hope of the glory to which God is going to bring us (Romans 5:1-2; Hebrews 2:10). But, on the other hand, he also presses us to be "warned" that this sense of security is not applicable to us if we do not "continue to believe" in God's methodology for bringing us into Jesus Christ; a methodology of "Grace" that results in "the humility of faith". The "point" of this pressure is to turn us away from the potent temptation to succumb to what John calls "the pride of life" (Authorized Version translation of 1 John. 2:16). The overall reality, then, is that "faith in Grace" leads us to "rest" and that any departure from such "faith in Grace" destroys our experience of that "rest".
Now, in particular, Paul confronts the reality that "faith" that is not properly rooted in "Grace" invariably fails to produce the required "humility" that is at the very roots of any relationship, and specifically, a relationship with God. For Paul, a lack of "humility" is always evidenced by "boasting" and "boasting" is the direct result of a "legal" mindset. Thus, the presence of "boasting" is a direct contradiction of "faith in Grace". According to Romans 3:27, "the law of faith in Grace" destroys "boasting" so that if "boasting" is present, "faith in Grace" is not.
The conclusions we draw are, then, that, whether we are actually "secure" in Jesus Christ because we are the "called of God, foreknown and elect", we will not experience any real sense of that security at any point where "faith" falters (this is simply the reality that "faith" precedes "experience" -- even if we were shown the list of the elect and our names were revealed to be there, without "faith" we would dismiss the "list"), nor, if we are actually not "secure" in Jesus Christ because our "faith" is most fundamentally "legal", every sense of "security" that we were able to "drum up by comparing ourselves with 'broken branches'", would ultimately be a lie and a very real basis for legitimate "fear".
It is for these reasons that Paul continues to "press" any, and all, whose "faith-conclusions" are rooted in Law, to realize the danger that exists for them, and it is this "pressure" to which we return our thoughts this evening.
- I. The "Persistence" Involved.
- A. On the one hand, the "boastful/highminded" are revealed as "persistent".
- 1. They do not accept the rebuke of 11:18 (they are presently boasting against the broken branches).
- 2. They are in danger of also rejecting Paul's contradiction of their "I stand by my faith" thesis in 11:19-20 (they are presently "thinking too highly of themselves").
- B. And, on the other hand, Paul is revealed as "persistent".
- 1. He straightforwardly confronts their evil "boasting" as a present reality.
- 2. Then he immediately confronts their evil "retrenchment" of "highmindedness".
- II. The Bottom-Line Issue Involved.
- A. From one perspective, it is a "fearless self-confidence" that is not dissuaded by the presence of "boasting and highmindedness".
- B. From another perspective, it is a "persistent lack of the humility of faith" that is also not dissuaded by the presence of "boasting and highmindedness".
- C. From a third perspective, the issue involved is the fact that a "faith", that does not rest in Grace, and is revealed to be flawed by the presence of absolute contradictions, will not keep the person in question from being "broken off as a branch in the tree of the People of God".
- III. Paul's Actual Wording.
- A. "Allow yourself to be made afraid" (present tense, passive voice, imperative mood).
- B. Accept the fact that God did not spare the natural branches that were the production of His commitments to Abram/Abraham when they persisted in their "unbelief", and He will not spare any "unnatural" branch that has been grafted in, if that unnatural branch is, fundamentally, "self-confident" rather than "Grace-confident".
- C. Realize that "faith", as presented in the Bible, has multiple "faces".
- 1. This "faces" issue is that of a "kind" of faith.
- 2. That there are different "kinds" of faith is at least indicated by the context of Hebrews 10:23 and 38-39.
- a. There is the "delusional self-confidence" that parades itself as a "faith in God" "kind" (Matthew 10:1 compared with Matthew 17:20) that is typically only stripped of its power of "delusion" by the presence of "boastfulness" and "highmindedness", or its abject failure to result in what was promised. [This is, at root, not "faith" in God and His promises, but "faith" in deceptive lies that have arisen from within the "self-deceived" or from without by false teachers.]
- b. There is the "so little faith" that it ceases to exist when confronted by "impossibilities" or other significant "difficulties" (Matthew 14:23-31 compared with Luke 8:13).
- c. There is the "fearful", "as a grain of mustard seed", "kind" (Matthew 17:20) that is sufficiently "believing" to prompt its possessor(s) to act on its premise(s) but doesn't have the ability to put one emotionally at ease (Luke 8:42-48).
- d. There is the "great faith" "kind" that is "emotionally settled without fear" that prompts its possessor(s) to act according to its premise(s) (Luke 7:1-10).
- e. Thus, there is a gamut of "faith" that runs from "delusional" to "great" with many "stopping places" along the way.
- D. Accept that the "biblical" reality of "faith that leads to the saving of the soul" is an enduring "faith" that does not "fail" at "crunch time".