CCC#8: Faith - Part 2 - the Goal of the Gospel
The Corrupt Christian Concepts Series
(All scripture quotes are from the BSB unless otherwise noted.)
My first non-introductory faith article dived into some specific scripture regarding the definition of faith. We learned that a mindset of seeing all of God's promises and gifts as truly good is essential for faith. Keeping the gospel as pure “good news” is necessary for living faith. We must keep rotten faithless beliefs from corrupting the gospel!
We must have confidence that God's promises are sure and good. And good really means objectively good - we don't need to relabel evil as good just because someone says it is coming from God. God does not break His promises. The gospel is never “bad news”. Christ did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to save it. The gospel promises are good for you; and true faith enables you to trust their goodness without any pretense.
The scriptural definition of faith is the concept where we have obtained an absolute certainly that this invisible God, whom we cannot see, is trustworthy and keeps His promise to give us good gifts as His children. True faith enables the reality of those gifts in and through us. Faith causes the promises to become real in our lives. It is the rubber on God's invisible road, so to speak. It is one of the currencies of God's kingdom.
It's Greek to Me!
Following this initial discussion from Hebrews 11, I realized that I never discussed the meaning of the Greek word translated ‘faith’. The actual word is ‘pístis’, but I'm also going to give the word study Copyright 2021 Discovery Bible definition of the root word peíthō:
3982 peíthō (the root of 4102 /pístis, "faith") – to persuade; (passive) be persuaded of what is trustworthy.
4102 pístis (from 3982/peithô, "persuade, be persuaded") – properly, persuasion (be persuaded, come to trust); faith.
It is ironic that I missed this, since this clearly lays out the silver thread of my previous articles! Notice the phrase “come to trust”. I have covered this ad nauseum in my previous articles, but, again, it is not enough to simply believe, you must “come to trust” God's promises. And, even as believers, that is a process. Thus, within the Greek definition, we see the process of faith.
I want to focus on “be persuaded of what is trustworthy”. Faith means we allow God (through many methods, but predominantly scripture) to pursuade or convince us that both He and His promises are trustworthy. Faith means we are convinced that God can be trusted. For faith to be real, this cannot just be a “talking point” or a pithy Sunday morning quote.
Again, I must emphasize that this is inextricably tied to God's nature of love. If you are convinced that God loves you with an ‘agape’ type love -unconditionally - then trusting Him and His promises will be second nature. Faith is not actually the struggle - it is our poor mindsets or belief systems that prevent faith from working. That is the real struggle - repenting - changing our mind - about these harmful beliefs.
“Coming to Trust” Applies Before Salvation Too
A brief thought about this process of faith. If the promise a human is coming to trust is that Christ came to save you - to give you life - then at what moment are you no longer “coming to trust”, but you fully trust? This is important.
There is much apostolic scripture, and even some language in Christ’s letters to the churches in Revelation, that is quite condemning and gives consequences that other parts of scripture reserve for the enemies of God. I touched on some of these passages in James and Hebrews in some of my previous faith articles. I also wrote an entire CCC article about how the apostles were often evangelistic, even when writing to an established church.
It baffles me how many people cannot perceive this simple fact - particularly since the gospel only reaches full clarity in the apostolic writings. Would many of us understand the gospel without Romans? They don't call certain evangelistic techniques “The Romans Road” for no reason. Yet, many still struggle to interpret much of the epistles as evangelistic when they clearly are.
Here, again, even within the Greek definition of faith, we see further evidence. There were many in the early church (just as today) who were still the the process of “coming to trust” Christ. They had heard the gospel; they knew about Christ; perhaps were even active in the church; but they still did not fully trust Christ for new life. Particularly in the Hebrew churches, trusting Christ vs Torah was an immense struggle.
Entering God's Rest
There are many analogies of the new birth and salvation experience in the new testament. In Hebrews, the analogy is “entering God's rest”. It directly calls out that we must “rest from our own works”, clearly referencing old covenant Torah based works. In Hebrews 3, leading up to the discussion of entering God's rest, the author says to not have a “wicked heart of unbelief” and to “not harden your heart” when you hear Christ's voice. He further says it is because of unbelief that you cannot enter the rest.
This is the faith process beginning to work. Later in Hebrew 4, after telling them about the new covenant “rest of God” offered by the gospel, the author further admonishes them to “make every effort to enter that rest”. Again, believing that leads to trust is the process of faith. “Coming to trust” is a process, even before salvation. Many unbelievers, both in and out of a physical ‘church’ location, are at some step in this process.
Once you have come to trust the promise of new life and salvation, then the Christian life begins. And it is a life of discovering and “coming to trust” all the other promises that comes along with that main promise of life. What does it mean to “be alive”? And what else can we expect to happen based on being alive?
Faith is a Gift - Like all God's Gifts
Romans 12:3 - “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you.”
Paul indicates that one motivation for any believer to use their gifted humility is because their “measure of faith” is also gifted (given). Now, if you read commentaries on faith, you will find this concept is over emphasized in some ways.
This is because they are coming at it from the perspective of a certain ‘-ism’, and thus it clouds the matter. They are trying to take us completely out of having any role in the process of faith. While faith is a clearly a gift of God, we must still choose to believe in order to receive any of God's gifts - faith included. God has chosen to give us a role in this - both before and after we become His child. Just because living faith is a gift does not make it a “work” to accept the gift.
However, obviously, the verse I just quoted indicates each believer is given a measure of faith by God. No question.
This is a big reason that comparing ourselves to others and trying to measure our or other's faith is a fruitless endeavor! If someone's measure of faith is greater or less than our own, that is between them and God. Really, none of our business, unless we see them getting caught up in harmful sin. Even then, we approach them in love, humility, and gentleness. We certainly don't need to be the faith police, as so many set themselves up to be. Just a quick look on the internet and you will find many of these types.
A Gift Doesn't Preclude Activity
So, one might say, if our faith is gifted by God, then what are we to do? Can we just sit back and wait for God's faith to work? Were you to listen too closely to many commentaries, this would be a logical conclusion (though not one they come to, of course). Cognitive dissonance in theological studies is an all too frequent occurrence. It is odd to me that those who over emphasize God's sovereignty in salvation are often the ones who then over emphasize our sovereignty when it comes to growth! Ironic. But that is a topic for another time.
If you are gifted a fishing pole, in order to use it, you must go fishing! If you are gifted cooking equipment and food, then you must cook to use the gifts. If you are gifted clothing, you must put them on if you are using the gift. It would be a foolish person who owns a gifted coat and yet goes out into the winter without it and gets frostbitten. Paul uses this very analogy of clothing in several places. Because you are already wearing Christ, then “put on love”, etc. In others words, use the gifts you have been given!
If you are gifted a measure of faith, then there will be actions that flow from the gift. Those actions are not legalism - because they are coming from faith, they please God. But the distinction is the source of the actions, not the actions themselves. The coat we try to knit out of crappy fleshly material will never keep us warm like the coat we have been gifted from God. Yet, putting on the faith-based coat is not “works righteousness”. It is utilizing the gifts of the gospel by faith.
It Is Still Our Choice
What is my point? Often, what scripture doesn't say about a topic is as relevant as what it does say. And, what this verse doesn't say is that every believer uses the entire measure of faith they have been gifted. Again, this all goes back to God's nature of love preventing Him from forcing us, and the definition of a gift being that it is never forced upon anyone. You do not have to use the full measure of the gift of faith you have been given. And, I dare say, none of us do. That is why we are also gifted forgiveness!
I do agree with the commentaries I read that faith is not the same as belief, as I have gone over ad- nauseum in my previous articles. However, knowing, understanding, believing, and trusting in God's goodness are prerequisites for us to have a mindset that allows our gifted faith to work in and through us. And again, that is our primary ‘work’ as believers. It is the only work that matters. The attitudes and actions that flow from this come from a place of rest, and thus are not really works at all.
We Have been Gifted Faith - Now We Need to Let it Work
Our main work is to grow in our ability to let Christ work. Again, that takes faith. Letting faith work in us is letting Christ work. This is the foundation for any actions flowing from the gift. And this comes by hearing and believing gospel truth. Such as the following verses:
Romans 8:14 - “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” (NIV)
Galatians 5:18 - “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
I put these two verses together because one leads to the other. As a believer, you must know that you are always led by the Spirit (another great promise to trust). You do not need to do anything to cause the Spirit to lead. He is always leading you. Romans 8:14 says this plainly. It is not a question of whether it is true; it is a question of whether you trust it.
Now, once you have that firmly in your mind, the next question is - are you following? Or as scripture puts it, are you “walking in step with the Spirit”? And if not, what is preventing it? There is a good chance that believing you must jump through some hoop in order to walk in step with the Spirit could be the very thing that is preventing it! Not seeing faith as a gift is one of the main obstacles to our growth.
We do not need to do anything for the gift of faith we already possess to work in and through us; but, we may need to do something to remove the mindsets that are preventing faith from working through us. I'm not sure how well this idea has come out of my writing. But, I'm learning through this process too!
I don't want you to miss this concept. You are a slave of righteousness. Period. The Spirit is always leading you. Period. It is natural for a believer to walk in step with the Spirit as He leads. As Christ promises, it is “easy and light”. Walking in step with the Spirit is the default mode of a believer! We don't have to strive to make this happen in some way.
This is one of the foundational promises of the gospel. One of the new parts of being a new creation and the new covenant is Christ has done the hard part. His work aligns and converges our spirit with His. He not only leads us, but He causes us to walk in alignment with Him by default. It is all His work! We simply believe this promise along with all of the others and relax in the goodness of God.
However, understanding faith as a gift, and knowing that “coming to trust” is a process, is helpful in the work of removing obstacles to faith. I mean, that is why I am writing this! We learn about faith, not so that we enable faith by our learning, but we learn about mindsets that are thwarting our using the gift of faith appropriately.
Don't Quench the Spirit
Where this gets hard is when we make it hard. Either because of current lies we are believing, or past lies that have become entrenched in our mindsets. Many of these lies involve thinking we must do something to ‘enhance’ the Godly gifts we have been given. The hard work is not trying to get faith to work through us; it is trying to remove the mindsets that are preventing faith from working through us!
When Paul speaks of “quenching the spirit” or “let this mind, etc. be in you”, this is what he means. There is nothing we must ‘do’ to cause the Spirit to work in us other than receive Christ and become new creations. However, we can block His work by poor mindsets and beliefs. We need to ‘let’ or allow faith to do its work. This will happen naturally as we get rid of harmful beliefs and relax in Christ - trust His promises. When we trust we are already ‘in’ the rest of God then we will act from rest.
Don't Have a ‘BUT…’ Gospel
We often see this in new believers. There is a radical shift in attitude after they first come to Christ. There is inexplicable joy and peace. There is a realization of God's love that is supernatural. And then they go to, (or back to) church. And they begin to hear the BUT… messages: Yes, now you are saved; BUT… Or, yes God loves you unconditionally; BUT here’s a condition… Or, yes, the gospel is good news; BUT only if you do your part…
These messages begin to reverse the initial child-like gospel mindset of pure trust. They insert doubt into the good news and begin to make it about the believer and their performance, rather than Christ. They emphasize a laundry list of requirements and not God's love. And that initial burst of genuine faith begins to be blocked. The natural faith fruit starts to be replaced by the fake fruit of self-improvement by good activity and the cycle of doubt begins.
If we are honest, in this process the gospel is replaced by the same mindset as the world. The list of activities appear “holy” because we get them from scripture. But the mindset is the same: do these certain activities and thus improve your life. Church becomes a self-help seminar; justified since the list of self-help activities is based in scripture. Thus, it is the same fleshly, worldly mindset - with a gospel or Christ veneer over it.
This is often double-jeopardy for those who grew up with these mixed messages! The ‘BUT…’ message is something they have heard from their childhood. Thankfully, the Lord can break through even in these cases (I am “Exhibit A”). Yet, it can take a long time, and there is often a lot of unnecessary destruction during the process.
Not Only the Church…
This demonstrates that these are not always new messages. Often they are very old - we have heard them from childhood. And I'm not purely picking on the church, though one would hope you could relax there, and sadly often you cannot.
As I alluded to, obviously the world, and society representing it, have messages that directly contradict the gospel. And the enemy will bring these to our minds and tempt us away from the pure gift mindset that infuses the gospel message. The self-improvement message is like Hydra in the Marvel universe - it has tentacles everywhere.
This message is the enemy of faith - whether it comes from the world or the church. And we must fight it constantly.
Led by the Spirit - Not Law
I won't linger here, as I have covered this ad nauseum in many of the other articles on faith. Since legalism is the antithesis of faith, this is to be expected. As I stated however, these two verses go together. One states that all believers are led by the Spirit. The other states that all who are led by the Spirit are not under the Law. Thus, a simple conclusion: believers are not under the Law. Paul states this even more clearly here:
Romans 10:4 - “For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”
Why would Paul associate these two concepts? Why is it important to know that you are always led by the Spirit, and thus are not under the Law? What is it about putting ourselves under law that quenches the Spirit?
Have To vs Want To
This is best described as a “have to” vs a “want to” mentality. These are diametrically opposed. A “have to” mentality quenches the Spirit; a “want to” mentality is faith. And it cannot be faked - you cannot ever “fake it ‘til you make it”. You cannot pretend to “want what God wants” for show or out of fear. The gospel is better than this! You will never have to fake true faith.
The Law, by definition, indicates “have to”. The Law forces compliance. There are blessings for compliance and penalties for non-compliance. Paul alternately calls this bondage and a curse. This is why it is “not of faith”.
And yes, this includes the “10 Commandments”. All 613 laws are part of the “Book of the Law”. Paul never divides the Law of Moses. It is all or nothing. Again, it is not that the activity listed in the law is bad; it is the attitude of requirement that makes it a curse. We can never do what is required!
The way of faith is the “want to” way. Not because we work to change our “want to” (self-help); but because Christ has already changed our wants and desires. This is another promise! I will cover this in a bit. But faith will recognize that you now ‘want’ to act righteous! You don't have to of course. The gospel has you covered with promises of mercy and forgiveness. But, this gifted change of desire is the full gospel message. We now desire righteousness because we have been infused by it.
You Don't Want Sin
The flesh will try to confuse us. We will often think or feel that we want sin. This is a soulish mind thing; it needs renewing. As Andrew Farley often says - we still have “stinking thinking”. But, when our senses tell us something opposed to the promises of God, what do we believe? Well, faith trusts the promises over our senses. We walk by faith and not sight. Thus, no matter what you feel as a temptation - since you are a new creation - you don't want to sin. A slave of righteousness does not truly want sin. Don't fall for the mind games of the enemy.
Knowing Christ’s Love = Faith
Christ warns the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:4, they “lost their first love”. He recognizes that though they continued to perform good actions, their faith motivation was slipping. They were beginning to substitute their original living works for dead works. Their love motivation was slowly being replaced by something else.
This is why, earlier in history, Paul wrote the following to the Ephesians (ironic? I think not):
Ephesians 3:6 - “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 3:12 - “In Him and through faith in Him we may enter God’s presence with boldness and confidence.”
Ephesians 3:17-19 - “17-so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18-will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth 19-of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Faith fills this chapter and culminates in Paul's desire that they comprehend and know the love of Christ. While this prayer starts out evangelistic in nature, (so that Christ may dwell in your hearts), Paul's truth for believers is that the purpose of this indwelling is to root us in His love and give us power that enables the beginning of a deep comprehension of this gifted love.
Notice in verse 6, Paul roots the gospel in the fact that we are now “partakers in the promise”. Much like how the fruit of the Spirit is listed as singular, yet has many components; the gospel promise is singular, yet is composed of many promises. This singular emphasis is focused on Jesus Christ. He is the gift package that embodies all of the promises. It is His indwelling that enables the power to know His love and reflect His love.
You can study scripture and these promises 12 hours a day, but the simple fact remains that “knowing Christ” sums it all up. Yet, as Paul admonishes later in Ephesians 4: “How have you learned Christ?” It is the ways we have learned Christ incorrectly that present the greatest obstacles to faith. And most often we have substituted religion and religious traditions for the genuine gospel of the good news that everything is a gift.
‘Comprehend’ Is Not Strong Enough
The word ‘katalambánō’ in Ephesians 3:18, translated ‘comprehend’, is far stronger than the English word implies. Here is what the word study Copyright 2021 Discovery Bible has to say about this word:
“2638 katalambánō (from 2596 /katá, "down, according to," which intensifies 2983 /lambánō, "aggressively take") – properly, take hold of exactly, with decisive initiative (eager self-interest); to grasp something in a forceful (firm) manner; (figuratively) to apprehend (comprehend), "making it one's own."“
Notice the phrase “eager self-interest”. That is curious. Paul is saying that we grab hold of Christ’s love that indwells us eagerly for our own self-interest! Once again, we utilize faith because it is good for us (and hence: others)! Sin destroys; faith through love builds us up. If God is for us, who can be against us. The gift of Christ is truly good. And we must recognize its goodness for us first before we can use it for the good of others.
The more you trust in Christ's love for you; the more you will be able to love others. The more you hedge on Christ’s love for you; the more you will hedge on your love for others. The more conditions you place on Christ’s love for yourself; the more conditions you will have for others. Scripture portrays this as a inverse relationship: “we love because Christ first loved us.”
Know Is Also not Strong Enough
In Ephesians 3:19, the word ‘know’ is the same word used in the new testament to indicate sexual intimacy. It is also used to describe how you would ‘know’ a tree by its fruit. It is an identity or “state of being” word. You identify (know) an apple tree because it produces apples. There is a certain intimate identity that comes from a sexual interaction. This is why sexual promiscuity is never an element of true love (but that is another topic).
In the end, what Paul is praying for, is that believers become intimately aquainted with Christ’s central identity: agape-love. Yes, just as a lover becomes intimately aquainted with the body and responses of their partner, so we should enjoy Christ. This is only an analogy of course, but scripture certainly connects these concepts. Not only in the new testament: read the Song of Solomon. And make sure and interpret the Hebrew accurately - it is quite graphic. God is not hedging when describing His love for us. There is an intimacy there that a religious mindset seeks to distract us from.
In Ephesians 3, we see the connection of faith in the promise and chasing after and taking firm hold of an intimate knowing of Christ’s love for us. And this is how we allow the power of Christ within to fill us with “all the fullness of God” (verse 19). It is this filling that empowers our walk. Faith in the love of Christ provides this filling. And we need this filling to live well - it is a result of faith.
Let God's Love Fill You
We have our “measure of faith”; it has already been gifted. Because of the promise, we have everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). Now we must continue to run after and intimately grasp the love of Christ so that we do not quench the Spirit and block that measure of faith from working. Seek Christ and nothing else. Or as Paul puts later in Ephesians:
Ephesians 5:18 - “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”
As Paul wrote earlier, being filled by God through the Spirit is this grasping of the love of Christ. Will you need to find peace through drunkenness if you intimately know the love of Christ? Of course not. And thus we see faith. Let's remind ourselves of what matters:
Galations 5:6b - “All that matters is faith, expressed through love.”
Faith is foundational to enjoy this deep comprehension of Christ’s gifted love filling our hearts so that we may express it outwardly.
What is the “Gospel Goal”?
In my last article, we learned that one goal of faith was to “preserve the soul”. I recognize all these concepts are tied together; but, what is the goal of the gospel message overall?
1 Timothy 1:5 - “The goal of our instruction is the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith.”
Notice that the gifted love comes from other gifts. The error would be to look at this verse as something we try to engender rather than simply accept as a gift. The gift of love is composed of these other gifts: a pure heart, a clear conscience, and of course, living (sincere) faith. I believe a discussion of these topics is vital and I will end this article with this discussion.
The wrong way to look at this verse is to think that you must work to have a pure heart, a clear conscience, and a sincere faith. Paul is saying that the reason he teaches the pure new covenant gospel of grace is to enable love in those who believe. And he points to these three gifts - promised by the gospel; gifted by Christ - as the motivation for our love.
If you wonder whether these are truly gifts, consider the following verses. We will start with a “pure heart”. Religion will always try and make a pure heart something we do progressively by making our own heart pure using “self-help” steps. However, the gospel proclaims that only God can make our heart pure and Christ gifts this to us at our new birth. We too often use the world's definition of the ‘heart’; not God's.
The Gift of a Pure Heart
Romans 5:5 - “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.”
Philippians 4:7 - “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Ezekiel 11:19 - “And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh,”
Ezekiel 36:26 - “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
Matthew 5:8 - “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
Let's start at the end and work our way up. As a believer, a child of God, will you see God? Is that not promised? Isn't the basic promise of salvation - that ironically pretty much everyone agrees on - is that you will go to heaven? Then Christ says you have a pure heart. You must have one in order to see God. And do you make your own heart pure or is it a gift? Seeing God (going to heaven) means you have a pure heart. Again, only the pure in heart will “see God”. This word ‘see’ is not figurative.
The two passages from Ezekiel are new covenant gospel prophecies. They are portraying what happens at the new birth when believers become new creations - they get a new spirit and heart. The imagery here is that the hard heart of stone we have comes alive again. This is the new birth. A new creation in Christ has a new pure heart.
Then we get to the epistolic descriptions of this event. Paul says that God's love poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit is what makes them new. And the gift of the fruit of the Spirit guards our hearts and minds. Unlike the old testament, we no longer have to guard our hearts. Christ does that for us as a gift. We could never guard them properly anyway!
That is why the great hope, the gospel, does not disappoint! (Unless you are believing a fake, works based “gospel”.) This gift of a new, pure heart filled with the love of God is the basis of our faith. It is the new creation, the center of everything. It is our connection to Christ. There are other verses about our heart, but let's continue with the other promised gifts that lead to love…
The Gift of a Clean Conscience
Hebrews 9:9 - “It is an illustration for the present time, because the gifts and sacrifices being offered were unable to cleanse the conscience of the worshiper.”
Hebrews 10:2 - “If it could, would not the offerings have ceased? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt the guilt of their sins.”
Hebrews 10:22 - “let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
1 Peter 3:21 - “And this water symbolizes the baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,”
Scripture is clear - the law could never clear the conscience - but the new covenant gospel does - once for all, for all time. As Peter says, the baptism of the Spirit; salvation; new birth; becoming a new creation; this is the promise that your conscience has been cleansed. Read those verses carefully. Believers are the only ones who have a clean conscience as a gift. Yet another promise to have faith in!
Your New Heart enables a Clean Conscience
And we see that these promises are connected - it is the new clean heart that enables a perfectly clear conscience. This is all still a gift - not dependent on our works. As Peter says, it is because of the resurrection. We have been given “resurrection life”. We were spiritually dead; now we are alive. This life is apart from our actions. Just as God does not abort His children; you cannot commit suicide either. Once you are alive, it is eternal life. Period.
Romans 4:25 - “He was delivered over to death for our trespasses and was raised to life for our justification.”
Christ's resurrection is directly tied to our own. Because He lives - we live. This is the full gospel. Yes, we are forgiven and cleansed; but further, we are alive. The purpose of our forgiveness and cleansing was so that we could be made alive. That life is Christ’s love indwelling us and giving us His righteousness. If you think that believing and trusting our own new loving hearts will lead to lying, cheating, stealing, and adultery - then you don't understand the gospel. You are believing the lie that you must follow rules to be good. Yet, this is opposed to faith. You are already good as a gift; thus, you act by faith.
We are not coerced or cajoled to love. But the Spirit is always leading us to a recognition that love is the best way. As we learned above, it is in our own “self interest”. But, this is faith based, so it is not selfish. It is faith in God's promises. Again, the faith circle is complete. As the author of Hebrews so vividly portrayed: true faith is defined by understanding God's benevolence towards you. This is simply portrayed by the phrase: “God loves you”.
How religion and the flesh (I repeat myself) want to destroy the simplicity of this concept! How they strive to put conditions on it! How they want us to over think and re-define this love! How they want to use scripture itself to make us doubt. How they want to obscure the face of Abba for us. How much they desire to keep us in a mindset of slavery. How they want to keep the focus on ourselves and not Christ. How they want to measure and nitpick. How they want to convince us that we are still slaves - sinful in nature. Christ put it so well:
Luke 11:46 - ““Woe to you as well, experts in the law!” He replied. “You weigh men down with heavy burdens, but you yourselves will not lift a finger to lighten their load.”
The Gift of “Sincere Faith”
A pure understanding of God's love cuts through all of this garbage. Sincere faith is the third gift that leads to this goal of the gospel. And as we learned at the beginning of this article, this faith is also a gift. However, as I covered, there is still ‘growth’. As we learn to trust, we begin to use more and more of that measure of faith. As Paul often puts it when describing grace and faith, it ‘superabounds’.
Faith and Growth
I want to finish by looking at some verses where Paul addresses believers who he deems are utilizing their faith and growing. You will clearly see the connection to love in these passages.
2 Thessalonians 1:3 - “We are obligated to thank God for you all the time, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith is growing more and more, and your love for one another is increasing.”
Notice the connection of growing in the use of our gifted faith and an increasing love for one another. This connection is clear. Yet, this growth is fueled by our faith in our pure heart and clean conscience. If you believe you are impure in identity; that you must strive to become pure (an impossibility), then you will never feel as if your conscience is clean as you live in constant failure or denial. Yet, the gospel promises destroy this notion. But, let's continue…
Progress and Joy in the Faith
Philippians 1:9-11, 25-28 - “9 -And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, 10-so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; 11-having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
25-Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, 26-so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again. 27-Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; 28-in no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. (NASB 1995)
There is a lot to unpack here, but I will hit the highlights. First, I used the NASB 1995 translation because of one word in verse 10 - ‘until’. Many translations put in the phrase “for the day of Christ” implying that we are somehow obligated to have good behavior in order to basically prove ourselves to Christ or some stupid idea like that. However, “until the day of Christ” is a better translation.
Paul is not indicating that our behavior impacts the “day of Christ” in some way. Our purity that enables us to experience the day of Christ is a gift. In the “day of Christ”, our response will never be to point to our good behavior, but to Christ's work. Those who point to their own behavior will be told by Christ: “I never knew you”.
However, in no way am I, or the apostolic writers, ever suggesting that behavior does not matter! The source and motivation for the behavior matters more; but there is specific behavior that goes along with a sincere faith. The apostolic writers may have emphasized the root and source more, but they certainly did not ignore the product of righteous attitudes and actions.
What Paul is saying is simple: once the “day of Christ” comes, we will receive a new body that is no longer influenced by sin. The enemy forces will be fully defeated - there will be no more sin influence in our existence as believers. There will be no more shadow filtering out our new creation and pure heart. The struggle will be over. Our faith will be made sight. However, until then…well, let's go back to verse 9.
Love Abounds in Knowledge and Insight
Much like in Ephesians, Paul is saying that he prays their love will abound. However, he categorizes this abundance of love as flowing from “knowledge and discernment” or insight. This word for knowledge is not the Greek word that means a type of “book learning”. It most often describes the intimate connection to Christ we receive at our new birth. This is why this translation says “true knowledge”.
Again, same as Ephesians, Paul is showing the source of love as being our intimate connection to Christ. And yet there is a mental component here as described by the word translated discernment or insight. The root of that word shows that wisdom and logic are involved. We don't just love in a vacuum. This is not some ethereal notion. It works within the realities of our lives and relationships.
Love = Righteousness = Excellence = Life
In Philippians 1:10, Paul shows that the product of Christ's love flowing from us is that we are able to recognize the benefit of the more excellent things of the gospel; this results in a sincerity of living that does not harm ourselves or others. When you investigate these Greek words, they are not the same words used to describe our spiritual state in Christ. They are temporal words. Paul is showing the earthly results of our spiritual state.
Yet, as always, there is a choice, an act of our will involved in these results. These faith themes continue to intertwine and return to one another like an infinity symbol. As we have faith in our gifted love, we see the excellence and benefit of these new covenant gospel gifts from God. This flows back into helping us use our measure of faith even more! And then Paul flows into verse 11 where he portrays believers as being “filled with the fruit of righteousness” as a past event. These are all connected.
Again, I am reminded of Galatians 3:21 where clearly Paul sees life and righteousness as a synonoms.
Galatians 3:21-24 - “21-Is the law, then, opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come from the law. 22-But the Scripture pronounces all things confined by sin, so that by faith in Jesus Christ the promise might be given to those who believe.
23-Before this faith came, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. 24-So the law became our guardian to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25-Now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.”
I wanted to complete the context of verse 21 for your benefit, but I won't get into that fully now, though this is certainly a ‘faith’ passage. I will point out again that “the promise” is mentioned as specifically coming by “faith in Jesus Christ” through belief (our only work). Verse 24 then calls it “this faith”, distinguishing the faith in Christ that comes from belief from other types of faith. And again, “this faith” removes the ‘guardian’ of the law.
Imparted Life = Imparted Righteousness
My focus is that the “imparted life” we received at our new birth is the same as “imparted righteousness”. Much like Paul prayed in Ephesians that they would be filled up with Christ's love, here he is advocating a similar function for righteousness. Being “filled with the fruit of righteousness” is what enables our ability to walk in a sincere and blameless way.
However, just as we already have the gift of love, we also already have the gift of righteousness. We are now alive in Christ. However, our belief system determines how full we are of both love and the “fruit of righteousness”. And this is the role of faith. The work of belief enables the work of faith which enables our filling of love and “life righteousness”.
What is this fruit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control…you get the point. It is this fruit of righteousness that fills us and empowers our walk. And it all comes back to faith - are you convinced you are righteous by birth? Are you fully assured in your mind that the Spirit birthed you as a good new creation? Do you trust your gifted righteousness?
Again, the point Paul is making is that our faith in these promises is what enables a sincere and blameless walk. And as he references growth, it is this change of belief into a stronger and stronger conviction of the reality of these gospel promises. And yes, eventually this results in a sincere and blameless walk. Not for God's benefit - He knows how He birthed you. He doesn't need anything. But for the benefit of yourself and others - because He loves you and them.
Progress and Joy in Faith
Towards the end of Philippians 1, we find the famous phrase by Paul “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain”. The verses following that statement portray Paul's hypothetical conflict towards which plane of existence he truly wants. He concludes with verse 25, that despite his hypothetical conflict, he will remain on earth and continue supporting them as they make progress and grow in their joy in their faith.
He then re-emphasizes his earlier discussion by stating they should “conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ”. Again, as we just discussed, there are manners of conduct that flow from faith that are worthy ways for a child of the Kingdom of Heaven to act. No legitimate teacher would ever deny that this is true. But what precedes this statement is key: “progress and joy in faith”.
Progress
This word progress is fascinating and ties into some of my previous discussions in this very article. Let's see what Copyright 2021 Discovery Bible has to say about this word:
4297 prokopḗ (from 4253 /pró, "in front of" and 2875 /kóptō, "cut, chop down") – properly, advance (progress) – literally, "advancement by chopping down whatever impedes progress"; furtherance.
Again, Paul is reaffirming that progress in the joy of your faith is made by removing those obstacles or beliefs that are quenching the Spirit and not affirming the new covenant promises of God. Paul is excited to still be on earth (despite the constant threats of death surrounding him), so that he could participate in helping them remove these obstacles to faith.
As those obstacles are removed, this paves the way for conduct that is worthy of the gospel. And Paul portrays this as unity with the body of Christ. “Bear one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ.”. The law of Christ is not the law of Moses. It is the law of love. It is the obedience of faith. It is the end result of trusting the promises of God. And in Philippians 1:28, he ends by reminding them of the overall gift of their salvation, which the unbelievers who oppose them do not have. We have something better than those around us - we must keep this in our minds.
Conclusion
I could go on and on with examples of faith. Yet, I think we have come full circle yet again. The gift of salvation; becoming a new creation - a child of God - the gift of Christ; informs everything. We access this gift, both initially and in ongoing growth, by faith. As we “come to trust” these gifts, then we trust our clean conscience, pure heart, and sincere faith. This enables our gifted love to be reflected.
As this happens, we join with others who are growing in the same way in the unity of God's family. The goal of the gospel is love - and the gift of sincere faith empowers that love. I hope and pray this study will help you to repent - change your mind - about the ideas you may have towards Christ and the gospel that are interfering with your gifted faith. I pray that you more and more “come to trust” these amazing promises. Then you will be living a life of wholeness that far exceeds anything you could ever dream of.
Not a life free of bad circumstances - but one where those circumstances cease to define your identity. Where the fruit of the Spirit shines forth in every circumstance. This is the promise we have in Christ. Learn Him well. You have already put on Christ - now use that gift every minute of every day. Don't get hypothermia by trying to wear the inadequate clothing of self-help. Learn to wear outwardly the faith clothing you have been gifted inwardly - learn to act as the true self you have now been re-created to be.
Until next time - I love you all in Christ!