Grace operates through Faith – Faith Defined

“For by grace you have been saved through faith…”
(Ephesians 2:8a ESV)

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
(Romans 5:1-2 ESV)

“For we walk by faith, not by sight:”
(2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV)

There is much to say about grace operating or working through faith. Indeed, this book is aimed at giving you the basic scriptural understanding of how to walk by faith so that grace might operate in your daily lives that you might be “more than conquerors through him that loved us.” (Rom 8:37b)

Often when believers think of Faith, they think of Hebrews Chapter 11.  I recommend that you read the whole chapter but for now I will just quote verses 1 and 6.

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. ”
(Heb 11:1,6 UKJV)

Here we see that Godly faith not only believes that God exists, but that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. If I believe that God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him, then I will diligently seek Him!

Are you diligently seeking him today?

If the weather man tells me that a large hurricane is heading towards my home town and I believe he is correct, I will board up my windows, pack up my family and get out of town. That is faith: Believing the weather man enough to pay attention to his warning. If I do not have faith in what he says, then I will not take action based upon that information.

“Well,” you might say, “the weather man told you it was coming, so of course you would leave.” Yes, but it is still by faith. I have not seen the storm yet. I only know what he has told me. If I think he is a liar, or that he never gets the weather right, then I will not go to the trouble to uproot my whole family to respond to his warning.

Let’s take this analogy a bit further. Perhaps my neighbor has no TV or radio. So I inform him of what the weather man has said regarding the coming storm. My neighbor, seeing no clouds in the sky thinks to himself, “If Marc packs up his family and leaves, I will know he really believes this guy and I will do the same. But if he stays home and does nothing different, then I know he is just playing a bad joke on me.”

Similar to the analogy above, there is a disconnect for many professing Christians between what they say they believe regarding God and the Bible and how they conduct their lives outside of their weekly visits to a house of worship. James addressed this disconnection between professed belief and faith that results in action as follows:

“So 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 apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe–and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”
(James 2:17-20, 26 ESV)

Here James compares a dead faith with a living faith. He shows that it is possible to believe something intellectually, but if that belief does not result in a change of action (such as packing up my family and getting out of town) then my faith or my belief is dead. It is through God’s work in and through our lives that our faith becomes visible to the world.

A living faith in God allows grace to have its saving and sanctifying work in our lives. That is, not only will we be saved from our sins, but grace will change every part of our lives from our thoughts to our feelings to our actions. People we are close to will KNOW we are different by our changed lives, habits, manner of speech, patience, kindness, compassion, giving etc. They will recognize our faith by the works that they see God doing in our lives.

A dead faith in Christ accomplishes nothing at all but to make us hypocrites and phonies. This does not glorify God and it does us no good whatsoever. However, what we must understand is that it is not our works but His works in us that are evidence of a living faith in Him.

True faith does not cause us to do good works. It allows the Spirit of God to do His good works in us and through us. Remember Jesus said, “For without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5b) and Paul wrote, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13)

John Gill, in his Exposition of the Entire Bible, wrote:

“…for without me ye can do nothing; nothing that is spiritually good; no, not anything at all, be it little or great, easy or difficult to be performed; cannot think a good thought, speak a good word, or do a good action; can neither begin one, nor, when it is begun, perfect it. Nothing is to be done “without Christ”; without his Spirit, grace, strength, and presence; or as “separate from” him.”

Without Christ we can do no good thing. However, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Who strengthens us?

Christ.

In John 1:12 we saw that it was to those that believed and received (Christ) that were given POWER to become the sons of God. True Faith is belief that always results in action which in turn allows Grace to work in us.

I want to look at an instance in the life of Jesus that brings clarity to the understanding of faith.

“When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.”

And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.”

But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.

For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith.”
(Matthew 8:5-10 ESV)

Jesus marveled at this soldier’s faith. Somehow, this commander of 100 men understood. He understood the essence of faith so much so, that Jesus said, “…with no one in Israel have I found such faith.”

What was it that the centurion understood?

He understood authority and how it worked and he understood that Jesus was also a “man under authority.”

Regarding authority, this centurion answered to a commander of 600 men who answered to a commander of 6,000 and so on right to Caesar. Because he was obedient to the chain of command, he could command his soldiers and servants and they would obey him. If he disobeyed his superior, then he would be stripped of rank and thrown in jail and would no longer have the authority to tell anybody to do anything.

He also understood that Jesus was “under authority”. What authority was Jesus under?

“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.” (John 5:19 ESV)

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”
(John 5:30 ESV)

Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” (John 14:10 ESV)

So we see that the centurion understood that Jesus was in perfect submission to the Father. That He did nothing unless the Father directed him. Jesus operated in perfect grace because He had perfect faith.

What do I mean by perfect grace and perfect faith?

John 1:1-3 tells us that Jesus made all things. He is God. So it was in His power to do whatever He wanted, whenever He wanted. However, Jesus was not only God the Son, but He also came as the “Son of Man”. Paul sheds some light on this for us in the book of Philippians:

“Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
(Philippians 2:5-8 ESV)

Although Jesus is the second person of the Godhead, who came as a man, He never used His power as God, instead He spent His time during His earthly ministry walking and working in the power of the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit of Grace. This is why Jesus said,

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”
(John 16:7 ESV)

As long as Jesus remained on Earth, He walked as no man has ever walked before or since, in the very fullness of the Holy Spirit.

“Christ Jesus the Lord…For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. “   (Colossians 2:6a partial, 9  MKJV)

Jesus always followed the direction of the Father by the power of the Spirit. John 1:14 tells us that He was “full of grace and truth.” He was obedient to the Father in all things.

That is perfect Faith.

Because of this perfect Faith, he was full of the power of God given to Him by the Spirit of God. That is, He operated; lived in; worked by, and spoke in perfect Grace. Because Jesus was completely under the Father’s authority, He had authority to command demons, sickness, the wind and the waves and they would obey Him.

For a better understanding of how this would apply to our lives let’s look at Romans chapter 6. We will spend much time here in a later chapter, but for now I just want to look at a few versus to better understand Faith.

“Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to him whom you obey; whether it is of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness. But thanks be to our God that you were the slaves of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.”
(Romans 6:16-17 MKJV)

“You have obeyed from the heart.”

And right there is the key to understanding Grace and Faith.

To obey from our hearts means to desire from our innermost being to follow and live according to God’s Word even when we do not see how we can do so. When we do this, stepping out in obedience, then God’s Grace enables us to continue obeying as we continue to choose to obey.

Hebrews 10:28 tells us the only way we can serve God acceptably is by Grace, which is the power of God, given to us by the Spirit of God to do the will of God. For Grace to operate (work in our lives), we must have Faith. That is, we must obey from our hearts.

So then, we can define Faith as follows:

Faith is: believing God enough to obey Him from our hearts.

To recap, Grace works through Faith. That is, when I believe God enough to obey Him from my heart, then the power of God, given to me by the Spirit of God, supernaturally enables me to do the will of God.

We will be spending much time on the practical application of this very real principle in the future as it relates to:

• Our growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (relationship)
• Dwelling in unity with the brethren (love)
• Getting victory over sin in our lives (holiness)
• Being prepared for the call of God upon our lives (sanctification)
• Walking in the work God has prepared for us (ministry)
• and much more…

In the next chapter we shall see how to obtain and grow in Faith.

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
(Hebrews 4:16 KJV)

“And what shall I more say? for the time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens. ”
(Hebrews 11:32-34 ASV)

“Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:”
(Hebrews 12:28 KJV)

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