Living by faith

Post are best read in order from the oldest to the newest. These are not a Bible study and the reader is challenged to consider Scripture to see if what is presented corresponds to reality as observed in Scripture and life.

Living by Faith:  “The just shall live by faith.” Before we can understand living by faith, we must understand the nature of faith.

There are two aspects of faith. The first is intellectual assent. The second is committing my life, to that which I have assented.  (Hebrews 11:1 is a description, not a definition of faith) Christian faith is believing what God has said and then conforming my actions to those beliefs.  Dead faith is when these two aspects are separated.  Faith is useless when I believe one thing but I am unwilling to live in conformity with that belief. (James 2)

The nature of living faith will never change but the specific object of this faith will change with the context.

            What is the faith that will bring eternal salvation? First I must know and assent to certain truths.  I must believe that God says I am a sinner. I must believe that Jesus Christ died to forgive my sins. I must believe there is nothing I can do to save myself other than asking for God’s forgiveness based on Jesus' death.  But believing these things to be true does not in and of itself bring salvation.  It is necessary to then act upon this belief by asking and accepting God’s forgiveness and to stop acting like I think I did or can do anything to save myself. I must also turn from whatever else I was previously trusting in to make me acceptable, to thanking God for His pardon. 

            Having faith in the basic gospel of eternal salvation does not mean that I am living by faith. It means that I was made alive by faith and therefore I am still alive by faith, but I am not necessarily living (walking) by faith.  Every time I am confronted with a promise or command of God, I am confronted with a chance to exercise faith or not.  For instance:  God promises He is able to supply all my needs according to His riches in glory.  I believe this. God commands that I should give. Each month when I look at my bills and I look at my money and find that the bills are greater than my money, I must see if my actions will conform to my belief.  If I give, I act in faith.  If I do not give, I do not act in faith.  Even more, even if I have enough money but I am just too busy or preoccupied to give, my actions do not conform to my belief.  Without faith it is impossible to please God.  That part of my life dealing with stewardship does not please God.

            So a person may be a man of faith in some areas of his life but not in others.  The goal is to become a man of faith in all areas.  Living by faith means increasing knowledge of what God desires from me and then changing my thoughts, actions and goals to conform to those desires. 

            What if someone is unaware of God’s promise about meeting needs or the command to give (or any promise)?  It is always good to act according to God’s character.  So, to give to help another is good even if done just to make yourself feel good.  However, it does not please God in the sense that it will lead to reward (rewards are another subject to be addressed later) if it is not based upon at least a general awareness and desire to follow God’s character or command or promise.  If dead faith is intellectual assent unaccompanied by appropriate action, I suggest that correct action unaccompanied by intellectual assent is faith that is not yet conceived (i.e. unborn). I would also suggest that correct action unaccompanied by intellectual assent is far preferable to correct belief unaccompanied by corresponding action. That which is unborn has great potential but that which is dead, stinks.

            Faith is bold--not blind.  Acting on what God has clearly said and/or in conformity with His character no matter the obstacles is bold.  Acting on premonition or unfounded belief is not faith, it is foolishness.  Acting on good intentions or altruistic desires apart from God's promises and expecting God to grant success is often presumptious.

Prayer related to God's sovereignty

Prayer—The idea of God’s sovereignty raises several questions concerning the nature of prayer.   God has delegated jurisdiction over most things to man.  This does not limit his right to intervene but He has chosen to refrain from intervening unless invited.  When we prayer it is an invitation to God to be involved in the situation.  The more fervent and persistent our prayer, the greater the power and the more pervasive His intervention. 

            The need for prayer demonstrates one of the differences between good and evil, between God and Satan.  God goes where He is invited.  Satan goes where ever he has the power to go. God enters into those areas of my life into which He is invited.  (Parts of my life)  Even though God brings pressure from the outside, He does not force salvation on any individual.  Satan and demons will enter where ever they see the door left open.

Our prayers are not to tell God what to do but to invite him to override our rights of dominion and authority and to set aside the natural outcome.  We do not determine by our prayers to what end he will work.  When He intervenes it will always be to bring about the final outcome that is most in conformity with His character.

(Romans 8) And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the to the will of God. He works all things together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose.   We have already suggested that good is identical with God’s character. In this passage when we do not know how to pray, the Holy Spirit looks at our heart. He sees if we indeed love God.  He sees if we indeed desire to glorify God.   If that is our hearts desire, the Spirit takes our prayers and intercedes with God to bring about what we would pray if we knew the mind and character of God fully.  He takes our words and makes our requests to conform with what God knows to be best to bring about that which is good. 

I may pray truthfully without hesitation or worry of being “wrong” if in my heart it is my desire to reproduce God’s character in me and the world around.  No matter what I say, the Spirit will look and see my heart’s true desire.  He will take my heart’s true desire to the Father and intercede not from my foolish understanding but from my heart’s desire.  My part is to love God and follow my calling to be conformed to image (character) of His Son.  My prayers are not to tell God what to do, they are the invitation to God to intervene.  God answers that prayer making even the natural bad things that happen to be used for good.  That good is that I will indeed be made to conform more closely to the image of Christ. 

(Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9 is an invitation for God to act, not instructions on what he wanted God to do.  The whole prayer is based upon God’ character being revealed.  Confession, petition based on promises or who God is)

            (James 1 We are to rejoice in adversity because it will bring us closer into conformity with the character of God.  When we are besieged and uncertain, we are to prayer for wisdom.  Wisdom is seeing things from God’s perspective.  God promises that He will give that perspective if and only if we have faith.  Faith means knowing what God desires and acting in harmony with that knowledge.  So if we have the desire of our heart to be conformed to His character, He will show us how this adversity is being used to bring that about.  If however, we are double-minded, we desire something other than being conformed to His character such as physical pleasure, long-life, etc.

            So the question of why good God allows bad things to happen will never be accepted by those who do not have as their desire to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.  Even if they understand the intellectual explanation, they will not accept the Character of God as being more important than physical well being. To these He promises no wisdom because we would never accept His wisdom so why bother giving it.

One Pursuit

ONE PURSUIT:  If the purpose of man is to bring glory to God by acknowledging and reproducing His character, it becomes incumbent upon us to pursue the knowledge of God’s character.  If we are to judge our actions by what God would do or according to what action most reflects His character, we must know His character, His ways, His thoughts.   If we are to follow the commandment to love him fully, we must know him.

            It seems clear that the one pursuit that every Christian should pursue is coming to a personal knowledge of God.  All else is rubbish.  (Phil 3:8) One does not know another person’s character by looking at a snap shot or even a description of his activities. Knowing God does not come by looking at one event or a list of some of things he has done. It is not enough to know all the rules or principles of scripture, even though these are certainly a strong beginning.  We will be a failure in knowing God if we only know what he does or did. 

            We are told to pursue holiness, we are to pursue evangelism, we are to pursue social justice.  Each of these is admirable and reflect the character of God.  However, if any of these things become the focus of our energy, we substitute a part of God’s character for the whole.  It is possible to pursue one of these in a way that does not honor the whole character of God.  It becomes a temptation to substitute the activity for the foundational relationship.  This most often happens in conservative circles when we are told to keep the main thing the main thing—usually referring to evangelism.  Evangelism is a derivative of glorifying God—acknowledging and reproducing his character.  Evangelism is to be a result of my knowing and loving Jesus. Evangelism can quickly become an activity substitute for personal knowledge and relationship. 

       Moses is a great example. Moses was not looking for a road map to follow in order to please God. He was not looking for things to do. He wanted to have an ungoing discussion with God so that he might know Him and His ways.  It was in knowing Him that Moses wanted to find grace. It was in knowing God that he expected to know how to conduct himself.  (Ex 33:12,13) The one thing we are to be pursuing above all others then is to know God/Jesus to the fullest extent possible.
      So, how does one come to know God? A future blog.

One Commandment

ONE COMMANDMENT:  Commandments are like moral absolutes.  I suggest that logically there should be one dominating commandment that follows directly from the one moral absolute.  It seems that the Scripture teaches this also. While there are many things we are commanded to do, in reality there is one commandment with a host of footnotes.  The one commandment from which all others derive is that we are to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, bodies and souls.  The second command is an extension of the first.  I show love to God by loving other people, whom He created. All other commandments hang on the great commandment like Christmas ornaments on a Christmas tree.  All other commands are instructions on how to love God and other people.  (Mat 22:37-40)

            Before we start throwing out other instructions/commandments as optional or subject to our understanding, we need to remember that all these instructions were given by the God who knows all things, understands all things, created all things and loves all things.  I know how to love God because He told me how.  If I throw out the “footnotes” I show that I think I know better than God how one loves God and loves other people whom He designed.  This is what 1 John 2:4-10 says.  I clearly do not know or love God if I think I know better than He how one loves God and other people.

I know what is loving because He told me what is loving.  It is not what I feel is loving but what He knows to be loving.   For example, I may think that I am being loving by condoning/accepting extra-marital sex.  In reality this is not a loving pursuit.  It encourages others to violate the Character of God and his designs and because of that it has tragic consequences.

Sin is not about violating a command. Sin is about falling short of God’s glory—not having His character.  It is about heart attitudes.  God is far more interested in why we do what we do than what we do. Was the first sin eating the apple or the heart attitude that preceded the eating of the apple?  Actions are always a result of heart attitudes—character. (Mark 7:14ff –It is not what enters a man but what comes out from within that defiles him. This included eating the apple).

We are told that God looks upon the heart—what were we thinking when we did what we did.  He looks on our hearts with perfect understanding and knowledge.  If we loved God with all our hearts, minds, body and soul, we would do what he would do.  The only limiting factor to perfect activity would be our lack of knowledge of His character.  In the end the one commandment is to follow the one moral absolute. We are to love the character of God to such an extent that we live it out in our relationships and actions. 

One Purpose

ONE PURPOSE:  The one moral absolute then leads to man’s purpose.  All moral creatures have the same purpose—to glorify God.  That is a much misused and little understood phrase.  God’s glory is His character.  (Thus when Moses saw God’s glory, he was led to speak of God’s character.)  All that He does simply reflects His character.  We glorify God by acknowledging and/or reproducing His character.
The sermon on the mount reflects this.  It has been suggested that the sermon on the mount was meant to answer the question, “How righteous must one be to be acceptable to God?”  The answer did not begin with a commandment or set of rules.  It began by saying that God is more interested in what you are than what you do. In other words, the sermon on the mount started with the beatitudes (character qualities) before it talked about any activity.
   My destiny is that I will have the character of Christ (Romans 8).  I am presently being conformed to that image. My goal is to be as close as possible to that end when I die,  so that when I die the pain of being changed will be the less.  (Like Eustace in the Dawn Treader having his dragon skin removed)  As I cooperate, obey, desire, and achieve this end, the pain and chastisement I must face is less even here. 
If all men had God’s character they would not all have the same personality. Personality is as different from character as style is from workmanship.
   Acknowledging God’s character takes many forms including:  true praise, believing correctly, prayer, accepting that God is holy, just, merciful, gracious, etc.  Acknowledging the truth of God’s character is foundational to salvation. When I understand and acknowledge his holiness, I understand I am a sinner. When I understand his justice I know I must die.  When I understand His grace, I know I may live. Etc.  In fact every facet of God’s character comes into play in salvation and hence the importance and fulfilling purpose of evangelism and our own acceptance of salvation.
   Reproducing God’s character can be in myself or others.  When I accept salvation I not only acknowledge His character but I begin the accelerated process of having it reproduced it in me both by God and my obedience.  The same is true of others when I lead them to salvation.  Or when I help even non-believers do something or be something consistent with God’s character. 

One Moral Absolute

   As there is one overriding fact,(That there is a sovereign God)  there can be only one moral absolute.  It would make sense that the one moral absolute could be directly derived from the one over riding fact.
When we make a list of moral absolutes we run into numerous problems.  It seems that even in Scripture moral absolutes sometimes come into conflict.  One must be subordinated to the other.  This gives rise to a number of questions.  How can a truth be considered absolute and still occasionally not be applicable?  Does not the irresolvable conflict invalidate the absolute nature of the subordinated imperative?  To suggest that God will always make it possible to act in accord with all absolutes seems contrary to the teaching of Scripture and experience. (Rahab choosing between the spy's life and lying and being held up as on of great faith, Obey every ordinance of government when some ordances contradict)
  Some argue that this conundrum leads to having no moral absolutes.  However, the logic that there is at least one moral absolute is inescapable.  Even if one suggests that there are no moral absolutes he is actually positing that there is no other moral absolute than the one which states there are none.  This is in the end is a statement that cannot be affirmed without negating itself-a clear indication of  being false.
  So if the position that there are no moral absolutes is not true, and if there can only be one,  then there must be a moral absolute that is so encompassing that it covers all morality and yet cannot be internally contradicted.  In the end there can only be one moral absolute to which all other ethics and moral truth become derivatives and subordinate.  That moral absolute is the glory of God.  God’s glory is different than man’s glory.  Man’s glory is derived from what he does.  God’s glory is what He is—His character. 

In the end there can only be one moral absolute to which all other ethics and moral truth become derivatives and subordinate.  That moral absolute is the glory of God.  God’s glory is different than man’s glory.  Man’s glory is derived from what he does.  God’s glory is what He is—His character.
    One may be tempted to ask, “Which character quality is the absolute?”  This is would be a great question except that God’s character is simple.  In a sense it is like the difference between fresh and homogenized  milk.  Fresh milk can be broken down in to cream, butter milk and (what ever else milk breaks down into). God is homogenized milk—the same throughout and not broken down into component parts. We talk about God’s love or God’s mercy or God’s justice as if they were separate qualities.  It is necessary to do this so that we can grasp and understand what facet of God’s overall character we are talking about.  In reality these qualities cannot be understood separately and indeed they are not separate.  God’s love can only be completely understood in the context of His holiness, grace, justice, etc.  To try to make any one character quality preeminent is like shining only red light on a painting of many colors and thinking that we can interpret the whole magnificence of the picture.  Only with the whole spectrum can we understand each part or what is to be illuminated.
    It was interesting in a recent theological debate to have reactionary books from two sides suggesting that the other side took away from the glory of God.  On the one hand it was said that not knowing all things exhaustively took away from the glory of God.  On the other hand it was suggested that a God who could not work within a flexible framework was not as glorious as one who could work with uncertainties.  Each came to what God must be, based upon what they thought was more glorious.  What ever God is, is glorious, not whatever is glorious is what God is.
    One of the reasons the Jews missed Christ as the Messiah is that when they looked at the two descriptions of the Messiah as conquering king and suffering servant they thought the conquering king was more glorious and therefore anything distracting from that was unacceptable.  Some today reject the earthly reign of Christ because they feel that the suffering servant is the glorious standard that would be detracted from by a conquering king.  In truth, without both aspects Jesus Christ would be reduced to something less than the full glory of God.  We often do this when we have preconceived ideas of what God should be or do based on personal preference or theology.  It is the emphasis of one character quality over others that leads to most heresy and misguided Christianity.
   Now we get to the bottom line question, “What is the moral action to be taken in any given situation?” The answer: "That action which reflects God’s character."  In other words, what would God do in this situation. It is not “What is the loving thing” or “What is the just thing.” These are only one facet of God’s character and out of balance with the whole.  So while speaking the truth is most often the right thing to do, it may not always be. The question is “Does truthfulness most demonstrate God’s character in this instance.”
            This one moral absolute then becomes the measure of all moral activity and the achievement of this becomes the greatest good for all moral creatures.

Angels and Men

    Angels and Men: God has chosen to delegate his power and rights. To the angels he has given much power but little authority. To man he has given much authority but little power. In fact, it is probable that most of the ability to exercise power that man had at creation was lost at the fall.
    Man as a whole has jurisdiction (dominion) over most things within the universe. What man lacks, and will always lack, is the ability or power. This is true both spiritually and physically. In fact, even acting within natural law man really has little power in the cosmic sense.
    It is when one acts outside his jurisdiction that one reaps the worst consequences. Satan desiring to be God. Man desiring to know what was only for God to know (Adam and Eve were tempted with academic freedom to know and experience what was not seemly for them)
    What Jesus as man brought to the equation was the reuniting of the combination of power and authority in one man. His was a delegated authority but it was unlimited delegated authority.
Man has no jurisdiction over the spirit of another. He may exercise jurisdiction over the body and soul of another, but never the spirit. We may pray for another but prayer is an invitation to God to exercise his authority and power in another’s life. I’ll more about prayer at a future time.
These are all just seminal thoughts whose implications will be addressed when I talk about prayer.