THE LAW OF FAITH

THE LAW OF FAITH “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” (Rom. 3:27-28 KJV)

Let us illustrate salvation by the “law of faith” with the example of king David. The law of Moses provided a remedy for many sins. Here are a few examples:

• “Whoever steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep.” (Ex. 22:1)
• “Anyone who steals must certainly make restitution, but if they have nothing, they must be sold to pay for their theft.” (Ex. 22:3)
• “If a fire breaks out and spreads into thorn bushes so that it burns shocks of grain or standing grain or the whole field, the one who started the fire must make restitution. (Ex. 22:6)
• “In all cases of illegal possession of an ox, a donkey, a sheep, a garment, or any other lost property about which somebody says, ‘This is mine,’ both parties are to bring their cases before the judges. The one whom the judges declare guilty must pay back double to the other.” (Ex. 22:9)
• “If anyone borrows an animal from their neighbor and it is injured or dies while the owner is not present, they must make restitution.” (Ex. 22:14)
• “If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged to be married and sleeps with her, he must pay the bride-price, and she shall be his wife.” (Ex. 22:16)
• Etc.

David, however, was guilty of the sins of adultery and murder! David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband murdered in order to cover up his crime (see 2 Sam. 11 – 12)

There was, however, no remedy in the law of Moses for adultery but death! “If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife – with the wife of his neighbor – both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.” (Lev. 20:10)

There was no remedy in the law of Moses for murder but death! “Anyone who kills a person is to be put to death . . .” (Nu. 35:30)

The law of Moses condemned David to death, but the law of faith offered him a chance to live. We need to seek to understand this amazing law! Faith is not something we earn, it is a gift from God. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23) Jesus said: “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (Jn. 6:29)

David’s correctly turned to God in his desperation for as Jesus explained, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” (Lk. 18:27)

THE FEAR OF DEATH PROVIDES MOTIVATION

The fact that David was facing a death penalty provided him with a strong incentive to take the risk of believing instead of working! Even Satan knows that “A man will give all that he has for his

own life.” (Job 2:4) Jacob, for example, feared that his brother Esau was going to kill him and fled to Haran (Gen. 27:41-45). He stayed there for 20 years (Gen. 31:38). When he finally returned to the Promised Land he received word that Esau was coming to meet him with 400 men (Gen. 32:6).

Jacob’s desperation set the stage for an all night struggled with God that left him crippled for the rest of his life (Gen. 32:22-32). It also brought Jacob so close to God than he was given the new name of “Israel” which means “One who struggles with God.”

It is impossible for us to know exactly what David was thinking when the prophet Nathan confronted him but it is obvious that he too was struggling with God. Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, was no longer a pagan. He believed in the one true God and was a loyal subject of king David. In fact, he was one of David’s mighty men (2 Sam. 3:39). David had no right to kill him! King Ahab died for killing a peasant named Naboth and stealing his vineyard (1 Kings 21:1-24). David too deserved to die because he had killed Uriah and stolen his wife. It appears that David’s brush with death caused him to seek God like a deer pants for streams of water (Ps. 42:1). The 51st Psalm is just one indication of the seriousness of his struggle with God:

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.” (Ps. 51:1-19)

As we have said, God had every right to put David to death, but did not do so! David’s desperation drove him to blieve that even when he walked through the valley of the shadow of death he would fear no evil (Ps. 23:4).

Those who believe in Jesus have no reason to fear death! This is one reason Jesus bedame a man so that he could deliver us from the fear of death! “So that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is the devil – and free those who all of their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Heb. 2:14-15)

THE PURPOSE OF THE LAW

God is all knowing and does not make mistakes! He knows exactly what He is doing and why He is doing it! He gave us the law for a purpose! The law did for David what it can do for everybody. It made him desperate! It forced him to choose faith as an alternative to death. Moses gave the Israelites this same choice before they entered into the Promised Land: “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live . . .” (Deut. 30:19) Please consider:

• The law gives a death sentence to all mankind for “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!” (Rom. 3:23)
• “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” (Rom. 2:19-20)
• “The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 5:20- 21)
• “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law.” (Gal. 3:10)
• “Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.” (Gal. 3:23-25)
• God not only gave us a death sentence through the law of Moses, but also an opportunity to have eternal life through the law of faith!

WHAT IS FAITH?

The book of Hebrews states: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command so that what is seen was mot made out of what is visible” (Heb. 11:1-3) Faith can enable us to have complete confidence in God even though we cannot see him. God is invisible but this does not keep us from believing in him. We cannot see the wind either, but we can see what the wind does (Jn. 3:8). Certainly we can also see what God does!

Faith, however, is not man’s first choice! The devil knows this and tempts us to disobey God based on what we see (Gen. 3:6). As we have already said: The law condemns us by proving that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23). When we finally realize the predicament we are in we become desperate! That’s why God designed the law to make us desperate so that we would turn to Christ and be justified by faith (Gal. 3:24). It is doomed and desperate people that accept the invitation of Christ and “are justified freely through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 3:24)

Faith, of course, rests upon evidence. If you have enough evidence you can be absolutely certain of something you have not seen. Take, for example, the story of David’s son Adonijah as recorded in 1 Kings chapter 1. After David died Adonijah decided to usurp his father’s throne. He conferred with key officials, had 50 men run before him, and invited certain family members and royal

officials to his coronation. Before he was coronated, however, David heard of his plans and called in Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada and ordered them to anoint Solomon to be king. Solomon was placed on David’s mule and escorted to Gihon. They sounded the trumpet and a great crowd of people shouted “Long live king Solomon!” Their rejoicing was so great that the ground shook.

Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest, came to Adonijah and reported that Solomon had just been anointed king. Adonijah did not “see” Solomon with the crown on his head, but he “believed” it just the same. Since he “heard” the sound of the trumpet and “felt” the ground shake the “testimony” of only one witness was sufficient to convince him beyond the shadow of a doubt that Solomon was king. As a result of what he believed he fled in fear of Solomon, took hold of the horns of the altar, and pleaded for mercy!

Of course we have much more evidence for the coronation of Christ than Adonijah had for the coronation of his brother Solomon!

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH CAME BEFORE THE LAW

Justification by faith is nothing new! Chronologically speaking God made a covenant of faith with Abraham 430 years before the giving of the law (Gal. 3:17). The story is recorded in Genesis 15:1-20. Here is a brief overview of what happened:

• After Abram paid tithes to Melchizedek the word of the Lord came to him in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, your very great reward.” (Gen. 15:1)
• Abram was discouraged because he had no son and feared that his servant would inherit his estate (Gen. 15:2-3).
• “Then the word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” (Gen. 15:4)
• Then the Lord took him outside of his tent and said: “Look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” (Gen. 15:5)
• Abram had seen those stars thousands of times! But on that night he saw them in a different light! On that night it dawned on him that the God who made those stars can do anything! So on that night “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness!” (Gen. 15:6)
• Today banks have the ability to make electronic deposits. This makes it possible for someone with no money to instantly become a millionaire! That is what happened with Abram with reference to his righteousness. One minute Abram had no righteousness, and the next minute he had the righteousness of God and faith was the electricity that made it possible!
• Then God reminded Abram that he was going to receive the “Promised Land” (Gen. 15:7).
• Abram wanted to know how he could know this and so God commanded him to bring some animals and birds for a sacrifice.
• Abram sacrificed the animals and cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other (Gen. 15:10).
• This was a customary way for two men to make a covenant. If either of them broke the covenant they were to be treated like the animals that were cut in half (Jer. 34:18).
• On that night, however, “Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.” (Gen. 15:12)
• “When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed through the pieces.” (Gen. 15:17)
• “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates—the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.” (Gen. 15:18-21)
• Since Abram was asleep, this was a one way covenant! God was going to give them the Promised Land regardless of what Abram did!
• We now know that everything God promised Abraham came true!
• He did have a son who inherited everything he owned (Gen. 25:5).
• He did have descendants like the stars of the heavens.
• His descendants were enslaved and mistreated for 400 years.
• His descendants did inherit the Promised Land!

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH IN AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE

“Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” (Rom. 10:5-11)

“From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” (Acts 17:26-27)

THE POWER OF FAITH

Faith can move mountains (Mk. 11:20-25). Here are some examples of what faith can do!

“And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life again.” (Heb. 11:32-35)

Please note that all of these miracles were temporal in nature. Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets all experienced miracles, but all of those miracles involved the earth and not eternity. All of these great heroes of the faith got old and died! Daniel was delivered

from a den of lions, but he died too! The same is true to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who were delivered from the fiery furnace. They also got old and died! The most important aspect of the law of faith involves eternity! The most important aspect of the law of faith involves what happens after we die. So the book of Hebrews continues:

“There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” (Heb. 11:35-40)

Some escaped the sword and some were killed by the sword. Some escaped from the lions, and some were eaten by the lions. But they were “all commended for their faith.” None of them, however, received on earth what God had promised! God has planned something better for us than we will ever experience on earth!

The most important aspect of the law of faith involves what happens after we die! The most important aspect of the law of faith involves eternity!

Please consider this story: “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” (Lk. 16:19-31)

Yes! Lazarus suffered while he was on the earth, but Paul wrote: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worthy comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Rom. 8:18) Lazarus suffered a few years on the earth but is now enjoying an eternal reward! The rich man, by contrast, received good things for a few years on earth but is spending eternity in torment! Which will you choose?

The difference between the rich man and Lazarus was in what they believed. Jesus warned: “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins.” (Jn. 8:24)

Sadly, the rich man “didn’t” believe in Jesus while he was on the earth. Abraham realized that his brethren were so blinded by Satan that they “wouldn’t” believe in Jesus. The rich man’s brothers were like the chief priests and the elders who refused to believe in the resurrection. Remember, just before Jesus came out of the tomb the guards saw an angel came down from heaven and roll away the stone. “They were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.” (Matt. 28:4) Then “some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.” (Matt. 28:11-15)

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to help you believe, so please do not reject Him: Jesus said: “but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things. But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” (John 16:5-11)

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.”