2002-12-24
Good Morning Dear Ones,
I’m led to continue writing about the list of seven ones that appear in EPH 4: 4-6, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as there is one hope to which God has called you. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; there is one God and Father of all mankind, Who is Lord of all, works through all, and is in all.” When we look carefully at each of these ones, we will see in the citations mentioned God’s will for how we can be worthy of all the blessings He showers upon us. One of those blessings is the power to fend of any fiery arrow Satan sends our way in the course of spiritual warfare. We’ve already looked at: 1) one body [the Body of Christ, the church]; 2) one Spirit [the Holy Spirit]; 3) one hope to which God has called you [the Gospel of Jesus Christ]; 4) one Lord [Jesus Christ]. Today we examine: 5) one faith.
There is something very elemental about faith. HE 11: 1 defines it operationally as, “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see.” Another wonderful definition is that faith is acting on the basis of a promise, not a reality. But, it’s not only that we should have faith that is important. It is in what we have faith that matters. My wonderful Bible teacher, Les Feldick, really nails it down when he teachers FAITH + NOTHING = SALVATION. That is to say, nothing other than repenting and having faith in Jesus Christ will open the door to eternal life. No deed or “mitzveh,” as we Jewish people say, will make the difference. The apostle John clarifies this issue by writing Christ’s own words in JN 14: 6. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except by Me.” By no means is this an invitation for us to think that doing good deeds doesn’t matter. Instead, it is the realization that with true faith in Christ, one’s head attitude about this sinks deep into his heart and is translated to the desire to do good deeds. Things don’t stop with only the desire. That desire gets translated into apostolic action. Our faith is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our understanding is from JN 3: 16, “For God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that all who believe in Him may not die but have eternal life.” We see Jesus Christ as the One Who by His death on the cross, opened the narrow gate that leads to the hard road to eternal life [MT 7: 13-14]. The decision as to whether we take the steps to walk through that gate and along that hard path are ours alone. Even God won’t make that decision for us.
As long as I brought up the subject of good deeds and their place in this construct, which is such a matter of conjecture amongst different denominations in Christianity, it is only fitting that this should be clarified by citation of Scripture. EPH 2: 8-10, “For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift so that no one can boast about it. God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has already prepared for us to do.” The question of why a faithful person wants to do good deeds may be arising in one’s mind. From the very first time that God called a person to faith (Abraham in GN 15: 6), He has imputed His righteousness to the faithful person’s account. In other words, people who repent and accept the call to faith are justified by God. RO 4: 3, “The Scriptures [GN 15: 6; GA 3: 6] say, ‘Abraham believed God and because of his faith, God accepted him as righteous.’” HE 11: 8, “It was faith that made Abraham obey when God called him to go out to a country which God had promised to give him. He left his own country without knowing where he was going.” There is nothing in these citations about faith and the good deeds which are a natural outgrowth of it that disputes the comments made by Habakkuk in HB 2: 4, “Those who are evil will not survive, but those who are righteous will live because they are faithful to God.” The same can be said about Paul’s comments in 2 COR 5 :10 when he speaks about the varying rewards believers who physically die in faith will receive in heaven. “For all of us must appear before Christ, to be judged by Him. Each one will receive what he deserves, according to everything he has done, good or bad in his bodily life.” Those deeds didn’t save him, but determined the nature of his reward. Only faith in Jesus Christ can save a person.
I would be remiss at this juncture if I didn’t say something about what my faith means to me or encourage you to examine that question in your lives. My faith is my life! Of course I mean that in the spiritual sense, because I know that without it, I would suffer eternal torment in the lake of fire and sulfur. But, I mean this in another sense too. Before I came to faith, I had no real direction in my life, no real ability to discern who was a good friend for me and who wasn’t, and no real happiness. In the case of any Messianic Jew, having faith is an extra privilege given out of God’s grace. Paul speaks of servants of the Covenant of Grace as being set apart in this special way in 2 COR 3: 13-14, “We are not like Moses, who had to put a veil over his face so that the people of Israel wold not see the brightness fade and disappear. Their minds, indeed, we closed; and to this very day their minds are covered with the same veil as they read the books of the old covenant. The veil is removed only when a person is joined to Christ.” We Messianic Jews have that veil lifted, just as believing Christians do. Because of EX 19: 5-6 and IS 49: 6, we have a crucial responsibility to spread our faith that balances that privilege. It is my hope to live up to that responsibility in accordance with RO 12: 1-2. Let me urge each person who reads this message to ask himself: What does faith in our Lord and Savior, our Messiah and Redeemer mean to me?
PRAYER: O Lord, most of us have to good sense to want happiness in our lives, but not as many as should know how to bring this about. And yet, Jesus Christ, the One Who is solely responsible for us having the chance for it has told us directly how to find it. He does so in the Sermon on the Mount [MT 5: 3-12]. It is Christ, Who through His Atonement, opened that narrow gate for us. It is Christ, Who through His teaching, correcting, encouragement, and guidance, helps us to walk the hard path that is a life of holiness and righteousness. He consoles us when we suffer pain, sorrow, and loss. He rejoices with us when we win a victory over Satan in our lives. It is our faith in Him that helps us to realize that He is our main Advocate and Intercessor with the Father in the heavenly Holy of Holies (along with the Holy Spirit) [HE 8: 1-2, HE 9: 12; RO 8: 26-27]. Our faith is gift that we received from You, Dearest Abba, and it is precious to us. Without it, all the teaching of Christ and the Holy Spirit is meaningless and useless to us [1 COR 2: 14]. Your righteousness and love for us knows no bounds once we have given our hearts to You. We see this in the patience You show as we struggle against our natural, Satan-led selves to improve on our conformity to the standards Christ modeled for us. That struggle, discussed in RO 7: 14-24 and GA 5: 17-18, is one that can and does have a godly outcome by the truth of RO 7: 24b-25, “ Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death? Thanks be to God, Who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ! This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God’s law only with my mind, while my human nature serves only the law of sin.” In humility, we confess our sins and offer You our heartfelt adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, trust, obedience, glory, honor, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at the next one in the series: 6) one baptism. Today, we can confidently bask in the warm glow of our Abba’s love for us, as long as we endure in our faith. Because we know that He is always righteous, we can have confidence in following any command He gives us, knowing that it is always with our best long-term spiritual interests in mind. We can be confident in facing His Son at the Day of the Judgment of the just, because we have placed our trust and obedience in Him. And lastly, we can boast about things He is and does for us, because we are telling the truth. That is something Paul was proud to do and why he was happy to characterize himself as a “bondservant for Christ set apart for the Gospel” in RO 1: 1. The kind of confidence I speak of here is the kind that comes from real God-given inner peace and happiness. It’s what I wish for each one of us to have. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn