Supernatural Power of God Part Seven

How Do We Receive God’s Faith?

So Jesus answered and said to them, ”Have faith in God.” (Mark 11:22)

A more literal translation for this verse is, “Have God’s faith. [Gift of Faith] ”. In Greek, the verb is in the passive voice, which means that the action comes from outside. In other words, Jesus does not ask us to have faith in God, but rather God gives us a measure of faith that belongs to Him. In other words, our human nature is incapable of generating faith on its own. We must take hold of God’s faith. Let’s get started……

Supernatural Power of God Part Six

The supernatural dimension is an eternal realm—invisible, permanent, and unchanging. It is where all things exist and are complete, the perennial “now” that can be accessed only by faith. If we want to know and move in the supernatural, we need revelation and understanding of the three dimensions. This is a fundamental requirement for receiving supernatural power from a supernatural God. Let’s get started ……

Supernatural Power of God Part Five

The Two Great Works of the Cross

Legalism is the human effort to carry out the law in one’s strength. It is an attempt to become holy or righteous through rules, traditions, and laws. It adds other elements to the requisites established by God that lead to righteousness. God only asks that we believe, since we are justified by faith in Jesus and in His redeeming work at the cross.

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. (Galatians 3:13)

When a person trusts in his own strength to obtain salvation or to receive God’s blessings, he automatically falls under the curse of the Galatians. Let’s get started ……

Supernatural Power of God Part Four

Many in this present generation are taking the wrong paths to find supernatural power: card readers, magic, masonry, the occult, yoga, witchcraft, astrology, horoscopes, tarot cards, telepathy, levitation, mental control, and New Age practices. Some dable in acupuncture, astral projection, Santeria, or reincarnation. Others prefer to dabble in the false religious pursuits of Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Hare Krishna. Let’s get started ………

Still others seek the supernatural through drugs, fame, wealth, prestige, or social status. All of these sources of power are “wrong,” and those who practice them will eventually find their lives to be empty and desolate. Let’s get started …….

Supernatural Power of God Part Three

The Supernatural Power of God Part Three

The Purpose of God’s Supernatural Power

Everything created by God has a specific purpose. God never created anything at random, and has always intended on carrying out His plan. In this Session, we will discover the purpose of God’s supernatural power and how to receive and handle it properly.

Main Purpose

Jesus did not give us His power in vain. He had a clear, specific objective in mind that was directly related to the advancement of His kingdom on earth. Let’s get started ….

Supernatural Power of God Part Two

Today’s Generation

When this generation goes to church looking for God’s supernatural power, most do not find it because many churches preach a Jesus who is dead. To these people, the powerful, supernatural, real, living, raised-from-the-dead Jesus remains a complete stranger.

As a result, when people witness a miracle today, they are unable to believe it because they lack the revelation of the true Christ. Many young people have returned to the world in search of another source of power when they cannot find the supernatural God of the Bible. Let’s get started …..

Supernatural Power of God Part One

Man has tried to know his Creator through intellectual means, but this has proven impossible because God can be known only through revelation. In fact, He has always desired for us to know Him intimately and to experience His attributes, strengths, and virtues.

This is why He sent us His Holy Spirit. No person has the mental ability to describe the infinite or the eternal; however, I will try to present a basic and uncomplicated description that will help you to understand Him in human terms. Let’s get started ……….

Law and Grace

In our previous session we came to the following conclusion: According to the New Testament, salvation is received through faith alone – faith in Jesus’s finished work of atonement – without human works of any kind. But thereafter this faith always issues in appropriate works – actions which correspond with the faith that has been professed. A faith that does not produce these appropriate works is a mere empty profession – a dead faith – incapable of bringing a real experience of salvation.

This conclusion naturally leads us to a further question. What works should we look for in the life of every person who professes faith in Jesus for salvation? More specifically, what is the relationship between faith in Jesus and the requirements of the law of Moses?

The answer of the New Testament is clear and consistent: Once a person has trusted Jesus for salvation, his righteousness no longer depends on observing the law of Moses, either wholly or in part.

This is a subject on which there is a great deal of confused thinking and speaking among professing Christian’s. In order to clear up the confusion, we must first recognize certain basic facts about the law.

The Law of Moses: One Single, Complete System

The first great fact is that the law was given complete, once for all, through Moses.

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ(John 1:17).

Notice that phrase “the law was given through Moses.” Not “some laws,” or “part of the law,” but the law – the whole law, complete and entire in one system – was given at one period in history and through the human instrumentality of one man only, and that man was Moses. Everywhere in Scripture, unless some special qualifying phrase is added to modify or change the meaning, the phrase “the law” denotes the complete system of law given by God through Moses. Confirmation of this is found in Romans.

For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam (5:13-14).

Notice the two phrases indicating a definite period of time: “until the law,” and “from Adam to Moses.” When God created Adam and placed him in the garden, He gave him not a complete system of law but a single negative commandment.

You shall not eat . . . the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden (Gen. 3:1-3).

When Adam transgressed this commandment, sin entered into the human race and came upon Adam and all his descendants from that time onward. The evidence that sin came upon all men from the time of Adam onward is the fact that all men became liable to death, which is the outcome of sin.

However, from the time that Adam transgressed against that first, single God-given commandment until the time of Moses, there was no God-given, God-enforced system of law revealed and applied to the human race. This explains how the two phrases “until the law” and “from Adam to Moses” denote the same period of human history – the period from Adam’s transgression of the single commandment in the garden down to the time when the complete system of divine law was given by God through Moses.

During this period the human race was without any system of God-given, God-enforced law. This is in full accord with the statement already quoted from John 1:17.

The law was given through Moses.

This law, so given, was a single, complete system of commandments, statutes, ordinances and judgements. All these are contained, in their entirety, within the compass of four books of the Bible – Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Before the time of Moses there was no divine system of law given to the human race. Furthermore, after the close of this period, nothing further was ever added to this system of law. That the law was thus given once for all, complete, is made plain by the words of Moses.

Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgements which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you. You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take anything from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you (Deut. 4:1-2).

These words show that the system of law given by God to Israel through Moses was complete and final. Thereafter nothing more was ever to be added to it and nothing was ever to be taken away from it.

This leads us naturally to the next great fact which must be clearly established in relation to the keeping of the law: Every person who comes under the law is thereby obliged to observe the whole system of law in its entirety at all times. There is no question of observing certain parts of the law and omitting certain other parts. Nor is there any question of keeping the law at certain times and failing to keep it at other times. Any person who comes under the law is necessarily obliged to keep the whole law at all times.

For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law (James 2:10-11).

This is both clear and logical. A person cannot say, “I consider certain points of the law to be important, so I will observe these; but I consider certain other points of the law to be unimportant, so I will not observe those.” Any person under the law must observe all of its requirements at all times. If he breaks only one point, he has broken the whole law.

The law is a single, complete system which cannot be divided up into some points which are applied and others which are not applied. As a means of righteousness, the whole law must be accepted and applied, complete and entire, as a single system, or else it is of no benefit or validity whatever.

For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them” (Gal. 3:10).

Notice that phrase “continue in all things.” This indicates that a person who is under the law must observe the whole law at all times. A person who at any time breaks any point of the law has transgressed the whole law, and has thus come under the divine curse pronounced upon all transgressors of the law.

Following on from this, we come to the third important point which must be recognized in connection with the law, and this is a matter of actual historical fact: The system of law given by Moses was ordained by God solely for one small section of the human race, and that was the people of Israel after their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt.

Nowhere in the Bible is there any suggestion that God ever intended that the Gentiles, either nationally or individually, should observe the law of Moses, either wholly or in part. The only exception to this is found in the case of a few individual Gentiles who voluntarily decided to associate themselves with Israel and thereby to place themselves under all the legal and religious obligations which God had imposed upon Israel. Such Gentile converts to Judaism are in the New Testament called “proselytes.”

Apart from these, the obligations of the law have never been imposed by God upon any Gentile.

Thus we may briefly sum up the three important facts necessary to recognize before we study the relationship of the Christian’s believer to the law.

1. The law was given once for all, as a single, complete system, through Moses; thereafter, nothing could ever be added to it or taken from it.
2. The law must always be observed in its entirety as a single, complete system; to break any one point of the law is to break the whole law.
As a matter of human history, this system of law was never ordained by God for Gentiles, but only for Israel.

Professing Christian’s Are Not Under the Law

Having established these three facts as a basis, let us examine in detail what the New Testament teaches about the relation between the Christian’s believer and the law. This question is referred to in many different passages of the New Testament, and in every passage the same clear, definite truth is taught. The righteousness of the Christian’s believer does not depend upon observing any part of the law.

Let us look at a number of passages in the New Testament which make this plain.

First of all, Romans 6:14 is addressed to Christian believers:

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

This verse reveals two important truths. First, Christian’s believers are not under law but under grace. These are two alternatives which mutually exclude each other: A person who is under grace is not under the law. No person can be under both the law and grace at the same time.

Second, the very reason why sin shall not have dominion over Christian’s believers is because they are not under the law. So long as a person is under the law he is also under the dominion of sin. To escape from the dominion of sin a person must come out from under the law.

The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law (1 Cor. 15:56).

The law actually strengthens the dominion of sin over those who are under the law. The harder they strive to keep the law, the more conscious they become of the power of sin within themselves, exercising dominion over them, even against their own will, and frustrating every attempt to live by the law. The only escape from this dominion of sin is to come out from under the law and to come under grace.

For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sin which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter (Rom. 7:5-6).

Here Paul says that those who are under the law are subject to the passions of sin in their fleshly nature, which cause them to bring forth fruit to death; but that, as Christian’s believers, “we have been delivered from the law . . .” that we should serve God, not according to the letter of the law, but in the newness of spiritual life which we receive through faith in Jesus.

Again, in Romans 10:4 Paul says:

For Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

As soon as a person puts his faith in Jesus for salvation, that is the end of the law for that person as a means of achieving righteousness. Here Paul is very precise in what he says. He does not say that there is an end of the law as a part of God’s Word. On the contrary, God’s Word “endures forever.” There is an end of the law for the believer as a means of achieving righteousness.

The believer’s righteousness is no longer derived from the keeping of the law, either wholly or in part, but solely from faith in Jesus.

Paul states that the law as a means of righteousness came to an end with the atoning death of Jesus upon the cross.

And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross (Col. 2:13-14).

Here Paul says that through the death of Jesus, God “wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us” and took “it out of the way . . .” Paul does not speak about the wiping out of sins but about the wiping out of requirements. This word could better be translated “ordinances.”

These ordinances are the ordinances of the law which stood between God and those who had transgressed them, and therefore they had to be taken out of the way before God could bestow mercy and forgiveness upon them. The word ordinances here denotes the whole system of law which God had ordained through Moses, including that particular section of the law which we usually call the Ten Commandments.

That this “wiping out” includes the Ten Commandments is confirmed by Paul later in the same chapter.

Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths (Col. 2:16).

The word therefore at the opening of this verse indicates a direct connection with what had been stated two verses earlier; that is, the wiping out of the ordinances of the law through the death of Jesus.

Again, the mention of “the sabbaths” at the end of the verse indicates that the religious observance of the Sabbath day was included among those ordinances which had been wiped out. Yet the commandment to observe the Sabbath day is the fourth of the Ten Commandments. This indicates that the Ten Commandments are included among the totality of the ordinances of the law that have been wiped out and taken out of the way through the death of Jesus.

This confirms what we have established: the law, including the Ten Commandments, is a single, complete system. As a means of achieving righteousness, it was introduced as a single, complete system by Moses; and, as a single, complete system, it was done away with by Jesus.

For He Himself [Jesus] is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of division between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace (Eph. 2:14-15).

Paul here tells us that Jesus, through His atoning death on the cross, has abolished (that is, made of no effect) “the law of commandments”; He has thereby taken away the great dividing line of the law of Moses which separated Jews from Gentiles, making it possible for Jews and Gentiles alike, through faith in Jesus, to be reconciled both with God and with each other.

The phrase “the law of commandments” indicates as plainly as possible that the entire law of Moses, including the Ten Commandments, was made of no further effect as a means of righteousness by the death of Jesus upon the cross.

In 1 Timothy 1:8-10 Paul again discusses the relationship of the Christian’s believer to the law and reaches the same conclusion.

But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.

Here Paul defines two classes of persons: On the one hand, there is a righteous man; on the other hand, there are those guilty of the various sins enumerated in Paul’s list. A person guilty of these sins is not a true, believing Christian’s; such a person has not been saved from sin by faith in Jesus.

A person who trusts Jesus for salvation is no longer guilty of such sins; he has been justified, he has been made righteous – not with his own righteousness, but with the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Jesus to all and on all who believe.

Paul affirms that the law is not made for a righteous man such as this; he is no longer under the dominion of the law.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God (Rom. 8:14).

God’s true, believing sons are those who are led by God’s Spirit – that is what marks them out as sons of God. Concerning such people, Paul says:

But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law (Gal. 5:18).

Thus, the very thing which marks out the true, believing sons of God – being led by God’s Spirit – also means that such people are not under the law.

We may put it briefly thus: If you are a true child of God by faith in Jesus, the evidence is that you are led by the Spirit of God. But if you are led by the Spirit of God, then you are not under the law. Therefore, you cannot be a child of God and under the law at the same time.

God’s children are not under the law. We may illustrate this contrast between the law and the Spirit by the example of trying to find the way to a certain place by two different means: one means is to use a map; the other means is to follow a personal guide. The law corresponds to the map; the Holy Spirit corresponds to the guide.

Under the law a person is given a completely accurate and detailed map, and he is told that if he follows every detail of the map faultlessly, it will direct him on the way from earth to heaven. However, no human being has ever succeeded in following the map faultlessly. That is, no human being has ever made the journey from earth to heaven by the faultless observance of the law.

Under grace a person commits himself to Jesus as Saviour, and thereafter Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to that person to be his personal guide. The Holy Spirit, having come from heaven, already knows the way there and has no need of the map. The believer in Jesus who is led by the Holy Spirit needs only to follow this personal guide to reach heaven. He need not depend on the map, which is the law. Such a believer may be absolutely confident of one thing: The Holy Spirit will never lead him to do anything contrary to His own holy nature.

Therefore, the New Testament teaches that those who are under grace are led by God’s Spirit and do not depend upon the law.

We conclude, therefore, that God has never actually expected men to achieve true righteousness by the observance of the law, either wholly or in part.

This conclusion raises a very interesting question: If God never expected men to achieve righteousness by the observance of the law, why was the law ever given to men?

We shall deal with this question in the next session.

Faith and Works

The relation between faith and works is an important subject which is referred to in many different passages of the New Testament. Yet it is one about which remarkably little teaching is given in most Christian’s circles today. As a result, a good many professing Christian’s are left in confusion or partial bondage, halfway between law and grace. Not a few professing Christian’s also, through ignorance on this point, are led astray into false teachings which lay unscriptural emphasis on the observance of some particular day or the eating of certain special foods or other similar matters of the law.

What do we mean by “faith” or by “works”? By “faith” we mean “that which we believe,” and by “works” we mean “that which we do.”

Thus we can express the relationship between faith and works as taught in the New Testament by the following simple contrast: Faith is not based on works, but works are the outcome of faith. Or, in still simpler words: What we believe is not based on what we do, but what we do is the outcome of what we believe.

Salvation by Faith Alone

Let us begin by considering the first part of this statement: Faith is not based on works. In other words, what we believe is not based on what we do. The whole of the New Testament bears consistent testimony to this vital truth. This fact is supported by the account of the final moments of the sufferings of Jesus upon the cross.

So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit (John 19:30).

The Greek word translated “it is finished” is the most emphatic word that could possibly be used. It is the perfect tense of a verb which itself means to do a thing perfectly. We might perhaps bring this out by translating: “It is perfectly perfect,” or “It is completely complete.” There remains nothing more whatever to do.

All that ever needed to be done to pay the penalty of men’s sins and to purchase salvation for all men has already been accomplished by the sufferings and death of Jesus upon the cross. To suggest that any man might ever need to do anything more than Jesus has already done would be to reject the testimony of God’s Word and to discredit the efficacy of Jesus’s atonement.

In the light of this, any attempt by any man to earn salvation by his own good works is in effect an insult both to God the Father and to God the Son. It carries the implication that the work of atonement and salvation, planned by the Father and carried out by the Son, is in some sense inadequate or incomplete. This is contrary to the unanimous testimony of the entire New Testament.

Paul continually and emphatically teaches this. For example, in Romans 4:4-5 he says:

Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

Notice the phrase “to him who does not work but believes.” In order to obtain salvation by faith, the first thing any man must do is to stop “working” – to stop trying to earn salvation. Salvation comes through faith alone, through doing nothing but believing. So long as a man tries to do anything whatever to earn salvation, he cannot experience the salvation of God which is received by faith alone.

This was the great mistake which Israel made, as Paul – himself an Israelite – explains.

But Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works (Rom. 9:31-32, NIV).

Again Paul says concerning Israel:

For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God (Rom. 10:3).

Why did Israel fail to obtain the salvation God had prepared for them? Paul gives two reasons, which go very closely together:

- “they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works,”
- they sought to “establish their own righteousness.”

In other words, they tried to earn salvation by something which they themselves did in their own righteousness. As a result, those who did this never entered into God’s salvation.

The same mistake which was made by Israel in Paul’s day is being made today by millions of professing professing Christian’s around the world.

There are countless sincere, well-meaning people in Christian’s churches everywhere who feel that they must do something to help earn their salvation. They devote themselves to such things as prayer, penance, fasting, charity, self-denial, the careful observance of church ordinances, but all in vain! They never obtain true peace of heart and assurance of salvation because – like Israel of old – they seek it not by faith but by works.

Such people go about to establish their own righteousness, and in this way they fail to submit to the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus alone.

Paul emphasizes the same truth when he tells Christian’s believers:

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Eph. 2:8-9).

Notice the tense that Paul uses: “You have been [already] saved.” This proves that it is possible to be saved in this present life and to know it. Salvation is not something for which we have to wait until the next life. We can be saved here and now.

How can this present assurance of salvation be received? It is the gift of God’s grace – that is, God’s free, unmerited favor toward the sinful and undeserving. This gift is received through faith – “not of works, lest anyone should boast.” If a man could do anything whatever to earn his own salvation, then he could boast of what he himself had done. He would not owe his salvation entirely to God, but would owe it, in part at least, to his own good works, his own efforts. But when a man receives salvation as a free gift of God, simply through faith, he has nothing whatever to boast of.

Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law (Rom. 3:27-28).

In Romans 6:23 Paul again presents the total contrast between that which we earn by our works and that which we receive solely by faith, for he says:

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Jesus our Lord.

There is a deliberate contrast between the two words wages and gift. The word wages denotes what we have earned by what we have done. On the other hand, the word translated “gift” – in Greek charisma – is directly related to the Greek word for “grace,” charis. Hence, the word denotes explicitly a free, unmerited gift of God’s grace or favor.

Thus, each of us is confronted with a choice. On the one hand, we may choose to take our wages; that is, the due reward for our works. But because our own works are sinful and unpleasing to God, the wages due to us for them is death – not merely physical death but also eternal banishment from the presence of God.

On the other hand, we may choose to receive by faith God’s free gift. This gift is eternal life, and it is in Jesus Jesus. When we receive Jesus Jesus as our personal Savior, in Him we receive the gift of eternal life.

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He [God] saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5).

Nothing could be plainer than this: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy He saved us . . .” If we desire salvation, it cannot be upon the basis of any works of righteousness which we have done, but solely upon the basis of God’s mercy. Our own works must first be excluded, in order that we may receive God’s mercy in salvation.

In the second part of this same verse Paul tells us four positive facts about the way God’s salvation works in our lives: 1) it is a washing – that is, we are cleansed from all our sin; 2) it is a regeneration – that is, we are born again, we become children of God; 3) it is a renewing – that is, we are made new creatures in Jesus; 4) it is of the Holy Spirit – that is, it is a work of God’s own Spirit within our hearts and lives.

None of this can be the result of our own works, but all of it is received solely through faith in Jesus.

Living Faith vs. Dead Faith

If salvation is not by works but is solely by faith, we may naturally ask, What part, then, do works play in the life of the Christian’s believer? The clearest answer to this in the New Testament is given by James.

What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also (2:14-26).

In this passage James gives several examples to illustrate the connection between faith and works. He speaks of a Christian’s who sends away a fellow believer, hungry and naked, with empty words of comfort but without food or clothing. He speaks of the demons who believe in the existence of the one true God but find no comfort, only fear, in their belief. He speaks of Abraham who offered his son, Isaac, in sacrifice to God. And he speaks of the harlot Rahab in Jericho who received and protected Joshua’s messengers.

However, it is in the last verse, verse 26, that James sums up his teaching about the connection between faith and works by the example of the relationship between the body and the spirit. He says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

This reference to the spirit, in connection with faith, provides the key to understanding how faith operates in the life of the believer.

While learning about “The Nature of Faith” we referred to the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:13.

But since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak.

Here Paul states that true, scriptural faith is something spiritual – it is the spirit of faith. Through this we are able to understand James’s example of the body and the spirit.

In the natural order, so long as a man is alive, his spirit dwells within his body. Every action of the man’s body is an expression of his spirit within him. Thus, the actual existence and character of the spirit within the man, though invisible, are clearly revealed through the behavior and the actions of the man’s body.

When the spirit finally leaves the man’s body, the body ceases from all its actions and becomes lifeless. The lifeless inactivity of the body indicates that the spirit no longer dwells within.

So it is with the spirit of faith within the true Christian’s. This spirit of faith is alive and active. It brings down the very life of God Himself, in Jesus, to dwell within the believer’s heart.

This life of God within the believer takes control of his whole nature – his desires, his thoughts, his words, his actions. The believer begins to think, speak and act in an entirely new way – a way that is totally different from what he would have done previously. He says and does things which he neither could nor would have done before the life of God came in, through faith, to take control of him. His new way of living – his new “works,” as James calls it – is the evidence and the expression of the faith within his heart.

But if the outward actions are not manifested in the man’s life – his works do not correspond to the faith he professes – this proves there is no real living faith within him. Without this living faith, expressed in corresponding actions, his profession of Christianity is no better than a dead body after the spirit has left it.

We may briefly consider, in order, each of the four examples which James gives and see how each illustrates this principle.

First, James speaks of the Christian’s who sees a fellow Christian’s naked and hungry and says to him, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but nevertheless does not offer him either food or clothing.

Obviously, this man’s words were not sincere. If he had really desired to see the other person warmed and fed, he would have given him food and clothing. The fact that he did not do it indicates that he did not really care. His words were an empty profession without any inward reality. So it is when a Christian’s professes faith but does not act according to that faith. Such faith is insincere, worthless, dead.

Second, James speaks of the demons, who believe in the one true God but tremble. These demons have no doubt whatever about the existence of God, but they know also that they are the unrepentant enemies of God, under His sentence of wrath and judgement. Therefore, their faith brings them no comfort, but only fear.

This shows that true, scriptural faith is always expressed in submission and obedience to God. Faith that continues stubborn and disobedient is dead faith that cannot save one from God’s wrath and judgement.

Third, James gives us the same example of faith as that given by Paul in Romans 4 – the example of Abraham. Abraham believed God, and it was “accounted . . . to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).

Living faith in God’s Word came into Abraham’s heart. Thereafter, this faith was expressed outwardly in a continual walk of submission and obedience to God. Each act of obedience that Abraham performed developed and strengthened his faith and prepared him for the next act.

The final test of Abraham’s faith came in Genesis 22, when God asked him to offer up his son, Isaac, in sacrifice (see also Heb. 11).

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac . . . accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead (Heb. 11:17-19).

By this time, through continual exercise in obedience, Abraham’s faith had been developed and strengthened even to the place where he really believed that God could raise up and restore his son to him from the dead. This faith in Abraham’s heart found its outward expression in his perfect willingness to offer up Isaac, and it was only the direct intervention of God that kept him from actually slaying his son.

Concerning this, James says:

Faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect (James 2:22).

We may therefore sum up Abraham’s experience as follows: His walk with God began with faith in his heart in God’s Word. This faith expressed itself outwardly in a life of submission and obedience. Each act of obedience strengthened and developed his faith and made him ready for the next test. Finally, this interworking of faith and works in his life brought him to the climax of his faith – to the point where he was willing even to offer up Isaac.

The fourth example James gives of the relation between faith and works is that of Rahab. The story of Rahab is related in chapters 2 and 6 of the book of Joshua.

Rahab was a sinful Canaanite woman living in the city of Jericho, which was under the sentence of God’s wrath and judgement. Having heard of the miraculous way in which God had led Israel out of Egypt, Rahab had come to believe that the God of Israel was the true God and that He would give Canaan and its inhabitants into the hand of His people Israel. However, Rahab also believed that the God of Israel was merciful enough and powerful enough to save her and her family. This was the faith Rahab had in her heart. This faith found expression in two things that she did.

First, when Joshua sent two men ahead of his army into Jericho, Rahab received these two men into her home, hid them and enabled them to escape again. In doing this, Rahab risked her own life.

Later, in order to claim God’s protection upon her home and family, she hung a line of scarlet from her window to distinguish her house from all the others. This was the same window through which Rahab had previously helped the two men to escape.

As a result of these two acts of Rahab, her house and family were saved from the destruction that later came upon all the rest of Jericho. Had Rahab merely believed secretly in her heart in the God of Israel but been unwilling to perform these two decisive acts, her faith would have been a dead faith. It would have had no power to save her from the judgement that came upon Jericho.

The lesson for us as professing Christian’s is twofold. First, if we profess faith in Jesus, we must be willing to identify ourselves actively with Jesus’s cause and Jesus’s messengers, even though it may mean real personal sacrifice, perhaps the risking or laying down of our very lives. Second, we must be willing to make a definite, open confession of our faith, which marks us out from all the unbelievers around us. The scarlet line speaks particularly of openly confessing our faith in the blood of Jesus for the remission and cleansing of our sin.

For a final summary of the relation between faith and works we may turn once again to the writings of Paul.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:12-13).

Here the relationship is plain. First, God works in us both to will and to do. Then we work out, in our actions, what God has first worked in us.

The important thing to realize is that faith comes first, then works. We receive salvation from God by faith alone, without works. Once having received salvation in this way, we then work it out actively in our lives by our works – by the things we do. If we do not actively work out our salvation this way, after believing, this shows that the faith which we have professed is merely dead faith, and that we have no real experience of salvation.

We do not receive salvation by works. But our works are the test of whether our faith is real and the means by which our faith is developed. Only real, living faith can make a real, living Christian’s.

Faith For Salvation

So far we have considered faith in the widest and most general sense as related to all the statements and promises of God in the Bible. However, there is one part of the Bible’s message which is of the greatest importance because it decides the eternal destiny of every human soul. This part is called “the gospel,” and it reveals the way of salvation from sin and its consequences.

Very often people think of “the gospel” as something of a vague and emotional nature which is impossible to explain in a rational way. Even in the preaching of “the gospel” there is often so much emphasis on an emotional response that the impression is created that the whole of salvation consists of an emotional experience.

Yet this is incorrect and misleading. The actual gospel message, as stated in the Bible, consists of definite facts, and salvation consists of knowing, believing and acting on these facts.

The Four Basic Facts of the Gospel

What are these facts which constitute the gospel? For an answer to this question we may turn to two passages in the writings of Paul: Romans 4:24-25 and 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.

In Romans 4 Paul analyses the main features of the faith of Abraham and sets forth Abraham’s faith as an example to be followed by all Christian’s believers. He points out that according to the Old Testament Scriptures Abraham was not justified before God by his works, but that his faith was imputed to him for righteousness. Then in verses 23-25 Paul directly applies this example of Abraham to us as believers in Jesus, for he says:

Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offences, and was raised because of our justification.

The gospel, as here stated by Paul, contains three definite facts:

- Jesus was delivered to the punishment of death for our offences;
- God raised Jesus up again from the dead; 3) if we believe this record of the death and resurrection of Jesus on our behalf, we shall be justified or accepted as righteous before God.

In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 Paul reminds the professing Christian’s at Corinth of the gospel message which he had preached to them and through which they had been saved, and he again sets forth for them the basic facts of the message.

Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:1-4).

Again we see that the gospel consists of three definite facts:

1) Jesus died for our sins,

2) He was buried,

3) He rose again the third day.

Paul also emphasizes that the first and most authoritative of all testimonies to the truth of these facts is not the testimony of the men who were eyewitnesses of Jesus’s death and resurrection, but the testimony of the Old Testament Scriptures, which had prophetically foreshown these events hundreds of years before they actually took place. The testimony of contemporary eyewitnesses is only mentioned later as supporting that of the Old Testament Scriptures.

If we set side by side the teaching of these two passages from Paul’s epistles – Romans 4:24-25 and 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 – it is possible to determine the basic facts which constitute the gospel.

These facts all center exclusively in the Person of Jesus Himself – not in His earthly life and teaching, but in His death and resurrection.

Here are the four basic facts:

1) Jesus was delivered by God the Father to the punishment of death on account of our sins;

2) Jesus was buried;

3) God raised Him from the dead on the third day;

4) righteousness is received from God through believing these facts.

The Simple Act of Appropriation

Let me restate that there is a vital difference between faith in the mind, which is nothing more than the intellectual acceptance of the facts of the gospel, and faith in the heart, which always results in a positive response to the facts. The whole New Testament makes it plain that the experience of salvation comes to each soul only as a result of this personal response to the gospel.

Various different words are used in the New Testament to describe this personal response to the gospel. All the words thus used have one essential point in common: They all denote simple, familiar acts which anybody can understand and carry out.

For example, Paul explains that salvation comes through believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth the truth of the gospel (see Rom. 10:8-9). He concludes his explanation of the way of salvation by saying, “For ‘whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved’ ” (Rom. 10:13).

Here the simple act which brings with it the experience of salvation is that of calling upon the name of the Lord; that is, asking God out loud for salvation in the name of the Lord Jesus Jesus.

In Matthew 11:28 Jesus uses the simple word come to describe the response which He requires to the gospel invitation, for He says:

Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Jesus adds to this invitation a very gracious and assuring promise.

The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out (John 6:37).

Thus the invitation is supported by the promise, and the promise creates the required faith in those who desire to accept the invitation.

In speaking to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, Jesus uses the simple act of drinking, which was appropriate to that particular situation, to express the necessary response to the gospel. He says:

But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life (John 4:14).

Here the act of receiving salvation is compared to that of drinking water. In this instance the promise is given first – he will never thirst – then later in the New Testament the promise is supported by an invitation. Jesus says:

If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink (John 7:37).

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. And whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely (Rev. 22:17).

In John 1:11-13 the word used by the apostle John to denote this active response to the gospel is receive. In these three verses John writes, concerning Jesus:

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Here the key thought is that of personally receiving Jesus. The result of this response of faith is described by John as becoming a child of God, or “being born of God.” Jesus Himself refers to the same experience in John 3:3, where He calls it being born again. He makes it plain that without this definite, personal experience no person can ever hope to enter God’s kingdom, for He says:

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Once again this challenge to respond to the gospel by personally receiving Jesus is supported by a definite promise from Jesus Himself.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me (Rev. 3:20).

Here Jesus speaks directly to each individual soul who has heard the gospel and who desires to respond by opening the heart’s door and receiving Jesus within.

To each soul who will make this response, Jesus gives a clear, straightforward promise: “I will come in.”

We have seen that in each case where the gospel is presented, faith is required to make a simple, personal response. The word used to describe this response may vary, but the essential nature of the response is always the same. In the cases which we have considered, the following words are used to describe this response: to call; to come; to drink; to receive.

As we have pointed out, each of these denotes a simple, familiar act such as anybody can understand and carry out. There is one other vitally important feature which is common to all these acts: Each is an act that the person must do for himself; no one can perform any of these acts on behalf of another person.

Each person must call for himself; each person must come for himself; each person must drink for himself; each person must receive for himself. So it is with the response to the gospel. Each person must make his own response; no person can make the response required from another.

Each person will be either saved or lost solely by his own response.

It is the duty of every responsible Christian’s – whether minister or layman – to be thoroughly acquainted with these simple facts of the gospel and also with the various ways in which the New Testament presents the need for a personal response to the gospel from each soul.

Most members of within the churches had never once had the basic facts of the gospel presented to them and had never been faced with the need to make a personal response to those facts. They had exchanged paganism for a form of Christianity; they had memorized a catechism; they had been through a form of baptism; they had been accepted as church members; many of them had been educated in mission schools – yet of the essential facts of the gospel and the experience of salvation they had no knowledge nor understanding whatever.

The supreme purpose of every true Christian’s church, the chief duty of every Christian’s minister, the main responsibility of every Christian’s layman, is to present to all who may be reached, in the clearest and most forceful way, the basic facts of the gospel of Jesus and to urge all who hear to make the definite, personal response to these facts which God requires. To this, the supreme task, every other duty and activity of the church must be secondary and subsidiary.

Let me now state once again these basic facts of the gospel and the response which each person is required to make.

1. Jesus was delivered by God the Father to the punishment of death on account of our sins.
2. Jesus was buried.
3. God raised Him from the dead on the third day.
4. Righteousness is received from God through believing these facts.

In order to receive salvation, each individual soul must make a direct, personal response to Jesus. This response can be described in any of the following ways: calling upon the name of Jesus as Lord; coming to Jesus; receiving Jesus; drinking of the water of life which Jesus alone can give.

To every person who has read this far I would ask this question: Have you believed these facts? Have you made this definite, personal response?

If not, I urge you to do it now. Pray with me, Say these words:

Lord Jesus, I believe that You died for my sins; that You were buried; that You rose again the third day.

I now repent of my sins and come to You for mercy and forgiveness.

By faith in Your promise, I receive You personally as my Savior and confess You as my Lord.

Come into my heart, give me eternal life and make me a child of God.

Amen!