Appendix H
The Instrumentality of the Faith of Christ
“19 Now we know absolutely that whatsoever the Jewish Law says,
it says it to those who are furnished with the Jewish Law so that every
mouth may be silenced or put to silence, and that the whole world may become
convicted under a legal process, be under a verdict or judicial sentence,
and be liable to penalty before God, 20 on the account that by doing
the works of the Jewish Law all humanity will not be standing approved
or accepted in the judgment of God: for only an applicable knowledge of
sin comes through the Jewish Law.
“21 But now a righteousizing from God distinctly apart from
or without the intervention of the Jewish Law has been revealed with the
present result that it is now evident, having been formally and distinctly
declared by the agency of both the Old Testament Jewish Law and the Old Testament
Jewish Prophets 22 - even an investiture with the attribute of righteousness
from God which comes through the instrumentality of the faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all those faithing into him. For there is no difference
or distinction made among persons, 23 for all have sinned and are missing
the mark with the present result that they are falling short of the glory
intended by God. 24 They are now being freely and gratuitously cleared
or held as acquitted by God's gracious unmerited favor through the deliverance
procured by the ransom paid - the redemption that is by, in and through
Christ Jesus, 25 whom God himself has set forth or publicly proposed:
A) to be a propitiatory, a satisfaction or appeasing expiatory sacrifice
for the due penalty of sin, when through the exercising of faith in Christ's
cleansing shed blood we believe: B) to publicly manifest, clearly demonstrate,
prove and declare his justification in having passed over all of the previously
committed sins, trespasses, errors and offenses of the Old Testament faithing
ones, in God's past linear forbearance, relenting and restraint from collecting
on the debt owed by all of them because of their sin up until now: C) 26
to publicly manifest and declare at this present time his Righteousness,
Jesus Christ, to the extent that God is to be fair and just for righteousizing
the believer through the instrumentality of the faith of Jesus.
“27 Where is boasting then? It has been precluded, eliminated
or shut out. By what principle? The principle of works? No, but by the
principle of faith - a trusting confidence based upon understood credible
facts and evidences. 28 Therefore, we are concluding that an individual
is to be justified before God through faith, distinctly apart from doing
the works of the Jewish Law.” Romans 3:19-28
Jesus Christ is our keeping of the Jewish Law. Jesus Christ
is our sacrifice for sin. Jesus Christ is our righteousness, our high priest
and our mediator. When one carefully examines the scriptures, we find
that all human claim to any part in our election and salvation is precluded
- cut out - shut away. The above portion of scripture from Romans makes
these points very clear. A doctrine of the pre-existent Christ is implied
by this very passage of scripture.
In eternity past, before the foundation of the world, the Godhead
knew man would sin and fall soon after his creation. They agreed that
there had to be a fail-safe plan to counter the resultant effects of spiritual
and physical death. God the Father and God the Son made a covenant - a
covenant where if Jesus would make himself the sacrifice for sin in order
to redeem mankind from the effects of the fall, God the Father would raise
him from the dead, give him a Name which is above every name, and guarantee
that Jesus would inherit that portion of humanity that would faith into him.
This is why, according to verses 22a and 26b, our righteousizing from God
is through the instrumentality of the faith of Jesus. The descriptive objective
genitive here is key. It is the faith of Jesus Christ - not our faith
“in” Jesus Christ, as many translations today erroneously convey. In other
words, Jesus had faith that God would follow through with his end of the
plan, and lived his life doing his part according to confidence in the
Father fulfilling that plan. This is our example to follow when we faith
into Jesus.
He was tempted even as we are and yet he was without sin. He
endured the temptation of the devil - the same one that tempted the first
Adam - yet he by faith overcame him victorious as the second Adam. He remained
righteous. Being born of a virgin he did not inherit the genetically passed
sinful nature, so in this regard, it was a fresh start if you will. He lived
his life in faith and obedience, knowing full well his reward. He trusted
that God would follow through and reward him for his faith accordingly.
He in his humanity faltered a bit when in the garden of Gethsemane he asked
God to remove this cup from him, and the stress of the thought of bearing
humanity's sin caused him to sweat drops of blood, for he did not really
relish the idea of bearing the world’s sin, but his deity won out and went
to the suffering of the cross in full faith that God would raise him from
the dead and that he would realize his reward.
Therefore, where Adam failed, by faith Christ succeeded. Thus
the faith of Jesus Christ is instrumental in our salvation. Without the
instrumentality of the faith of Christ, there would be no realization
of the plan, nor righteousness apart from the Jewish Law. The righteousness
which is available to us apart from the keeping of the Jewish Law came
about by means of the faith and obedience of Jesus Christ, and is freely
available to all those faithing into him as a result.
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Mental
assent is not the meaning of “believe” here. We do believe the facts
of the Gospel provided as part of the process, but faith comes about as
a result of trusting in those credible facts and evidences presented by
the host of that Gospel. Christ faithed into God the Father, and we faith
into Christ. In other words, it is his accomplished work that we trust
in that seals the deal - not anything that we can do or contribute to it.
In Matthew chapter five, Jesus said that he did not come to
abrogate the Jewish Law and Prophets, but to fulfill them. He is the fulfillment
of the Jewish Law because he kept it perfectly. No one else has been able
to in all history. He had no sin nature, being virgin-born, that would
cause him to rebel against its spirit. That is the reason he said our
righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. They were
perfectionists. They left no law unturned. They had laws on top of laws
to ensure that all bases were covered, yet they were still sinners, for
all have sinned and come short of that intended by God. They ultimately killed
their Messiah. Jesus fulfilled the law not only in keeping its precepts,
but also by being its required sinless, spotless, defect-less sacrifice for
sins, which are a breach of the Law’s precepts. Now many erroneously teach
that there in that place, in Matthew chapter 5:19, Jesus says we are to keep
the commandments. Not so! He is referring to the following commandments he
was about to give, as indicated where he says, “You have heard it said, but
I say unto you…” The commandments of Jesus are to supersede the Old Testament
Law. “Love God, love one another.” “Believe on the One whom He has sent.”
In doing the commandments of Matthew chapters 5,6 and 7, you will also
be exceeding the scribes and Pharisees because they are higher principles
than what they were following.
Romans 8:3 says that the Jewish Law was rendered impotent because
of the sinful nature inherent in every human being. It says, “Because
the Jewish Law was rendered powerless via the flesh or carnal nature, God
sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and respecting sin,
gave judgment against and condemned the sinful nature in the flesh, so
that the integrity of the Jewish Law might be fulfilled in us who are presently
and habitually walking not according to the dominant dictates of the flesh
or carnal nature, but according to the indications and leadings of the
Holy Spirit.”
The apostle Paul says in all of Galatians that we are not justified
in keeping the precepts of the Jewish Law, but by faith in Jesus, the
Son of God. In the Acts of the apostles it says in 13:38-39 that forgiveness
of sins is proclaimed through Jesus, and that all are justified through
him from all offenses, from which none could be justified by the Law of
Moses. Jesus is our keeping of the Jewish Law. Faith in him sets us free
from its bondage. The Jews made over six thousand laws out of the Law of
Moses so that it all would be kept completely, but Jesus made of it only two:
Love God and Love your neighbor as you would yourself. Since we are now under
obligation to the law of the Spirit, which has displaced the law of the letter,
we fulfill those two laws when we daily choose to be under the Spirit’s influence.
Jesus is our sacrifice for sin covering all points wherein we fail in our
humanity.
When the rich young ruler came and fell before Jesus and asked
what he should do to add eternal life to all that he already had, Jesus
said to keep the ten commandments. Now that does not mean we must keep
the ten commandments today for salvation. Jesus was still under the dispensation
of the Jewish Law at that time, and all those he dealt with were under
it too. Not until after the crucifixion was the law of grace introduced
and the Jewish Law nullified. Until that point in time all were still obligated
to Moses. Now, the Jewish Law only serves one purpose: to reveal what sin
is to sinners. Paul said that he would not have known what coveting was
unless the Law had said, “Thou shalt not covet.” Now, Jesus Christ is our
fulfillment of the demands of the Jewish law. Through faithing into him,
we are made righteous. Since he fulfilled the Law for us, he is our righteousness.
We have none of our own. Our “righteousness” to God is as a filthy menstrual
cloth to Him. Only the righteousness of Jesus is acceptable to God, and by
faithing into Jesus, his righteousness becomes our righteousness. It is
imputed to the credit side of our ledger by God when we exercise our faithing
into Jesus. By keeping of the Law shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
Now we all know that the Jews have not been able to sacrifice
their animals for their own sins since the temple was razed to the ground
by Titus the Roman in 70 A.D.. It is not by coincidence that Jesus replaced
all of those animal sacrifices with his own sacrifice of himself at that
same time followed by forty years of testing for the Jews before judgment
fell upon them and they were subsequently scattered to the Nations in judgment.
This means that all practicing Jews since that time are without sacrifice
for sin, and therefore, since the Law they hold to is broken, they all have
been sent to hell as a result. They have been out of favor with God until
the fullness of the Nations has come in to God's fold according to Romans
chapters 9 thru 11. Their exclusion has meant our inclusion. God sent
his Son to them first with miracles which were the credentials - calling
card if you will - lending veracity to his claims that he was their Messiah.
They rejected and crucified him instead. They were instrumental in making
him God's sacrifice for our sins, but their lack of faith also precluded them
from its benefit. Jesus is our sacrifice for sin. The remedy and ransom paid
to buy us back from the slave market of sin wherein we were held in bondage.
Faithing into him makes his sacrifice for sin our own. Christ has fulfilled
every stipulation and requirement of the Jewish Law regarding sacrifice
for sins and righteousness, and therefore is the only remedy remaining
for mankind to claim. Jesus is our sacrifice for our sin. Jesus is our
keeping of the Law. Jesus is our righteousness before God. Jesus is our
all in all.
Some Closing Thoughts on Faith
First, its maintenance: faith is not - believing - e.g.
merely mental assent to facts, though mental assent to the facts of the Gospel
is the start-up to faithing. The devils believe, yet they cannot be saved
because they have seen God's glory and rebelled anyway. We have not seen God,
so we see God by faith. Someone tells you the facts of the Gospel, and you
comprehend and understand those facts, and then you begin to faithe upon those
facts. Then you live your entire life faithing upon those credible facts
and evidences to the end. Faithing is linear in the present tense, and therefore
must be continuous, volitionally nurtured and maintained. When one ceases
to faithe because of negative volition against God, then he ceases to believe,
and then forfeits the promises given for that faith, John 3:18; 15:6. Why
does the devil attack Christians if they are supposedly "eternally secure"?
Because they are not, and are only tentatively saved in this life so long
as they continue to faithe, http://orin.net/apostasy.html
. We are kept by the power of God through faith. Therefore if we continue
to faithe, God continues to keep us. If we stop faithing, we fall away or
apostatize, and God stops keeping. God does not force a person to believe
against their will. No one can snatch them from his hand, but they can choose
to jump out of his hand. Why would the atheists force a believer to burn
a pinch of incense to Caesar? Because that would be a repudiation - a violation
and denial of one's faith - and the devil gains that soul for hell. Therefore,
the believer must be vigilant and guard against the wiles of the devil. He
doesn't waste his time on the lost because they are already in his camp.
He just keeps snatching the word of God from them. But he wants to bring
down as many believers with him as he can because he has a malignant agenda
against the purposes of God and his people. God honors our free will choices.
Choose to remain faithful to God, continually trusting into the Lord Jesus
Christ as your means of salvation unto the end.
Now what faith is, is simple:
You turn on a light switch because you have faith that
the lights will go on. You may not fully understand electricity, but that
does not stop you from using it.
You drive your car through an intersection when the light
turns green because you have faith that the cars on the opposite street will
stop - though - if an accident occurs, that kind of faith would then become
somewhat qualified.
You step on the gas because you faithe that the car will
go. You sit in a chair with confidence because you faithe that the chair will
hold your weight without collapsing.
Everything you do in life is by faith. Faith is action
based upon belief sustained by confidence. So Christianity is the same way.
Jesus had faith that the Father would empower him to do miracles, enable him
to suffer and die in our place on the cross, and that God would raise him
on the third day; so he lived his entire life faithing - actions based upon
belief sustained by confidence - and then he suffered his death in faith,
and was raised from the dead by faith. We are to faithe the same way Jesus
faithed as our example.
We believe, trust, faithe, into Jesus as our adjustment
to the justice of God. We then live our entire life by faith, acting by faith,
trusting by faith, believing by faith, doing by faith by his example. We believe,
trust, faithe that God will follow through on his promises to give us eternal
life and raise us from the dead, and this is our confident expectation. By
faith we also can expect rewards for our service to Christ.
God also had faith that his Son would follow through
in fulfillment of the plan they agreed upon in eternity past to effect our
redemption, reconciliation and eternal life with him. Love and trust are
at a premium with God. To him it is well worth the loss of all the unbelieving
ones. He wants people who will love and trust him unconditionally, and gave
up his Son for us so that we could have a vital relationship with him. Your
dog loves and trusts you unconditionally. That is the kind of love and trust
we are to have towards God. We love God because he first loved us, and demonstrated
it by giving us his only begotten Son for us. We trust God because he is trustworthy.
Faith is assurance of the reality of what is confidently expected, and the
conviction in evidential proof of that which is not seen, e.g. we see empirical
proof of God in the general revelation of creation. We are saved by faith
and not by sight, e.g. we believe and accept the truth of the Gospel which
is the specific revelation of God. We believe credible facts and evidences,
though they be not seen by us, but were witnessed by others before us, and
we accept their empirical examination and testimony as eyewitnesses, 1st
John 1:1-3.
We learn and grow in the Faith by faith in confident
expectation of future glorification together with Christ. By the indwelling
Holy Spirit which God promised to us when we believe, God works in us to
be and do and become what we are to be as we continue to faithe unto spiritual
maturity right up until we go to heaven. Regular church attendance and Bible
study are a vitally important part of maintaining faith through nurture of
the soul and accountability to other believers.