116 Faith, Grace and Works
Since faith is essential in our relationship with Jesus Christ, it is important to understand what faith is and what it is not. Also, we need to understand the connection of faith to Grace and Works.
Faith in the original Greek is “Pistis,” and a Bible Dictionary defines faith as; persuasion, credence, moral conviction, assurance, belief or, fidelity. Show More
Faith is Spiritual
As stated in Hebrews 11:1, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” So, faith for a Christian is believing in the spiritual or unseen. You put your faith in Jesus and your hope in His promises. Again, it is not faith in faith or even faith in the promises found in the Bible, but faith in the One who made the promises in the Bible.
So, faith is not wishing, hoping, or wanting something to be. Instead, it is the confidence and assurance that because of the love of God, He will not leave you or abandon you to your circumstances. The Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Do you believe that… that nothing can separate you from God’s Love?
It is your faith in the Lord that causes you to behave or act in a manner that shows you have already received that for which you are believing. Now that was a mouthful! Let me put it this way; the world says, “Show me and then I will believe!” God says, “Believe in Me and then I will show you!” Genuine faith believes in the promise even before the promise is fulfilled!
Faith
For some Christians, faith is seen as something to employ in order to get God’s attention. We may have a need, desire, or some impending health crisis. Don’t get me wrong; when we have needs, we should bring them to the Lord. We are encouraged in the Word to bring our issues to the Lord. But faith is not something we turn to only when we are in trouble. Faith is the continual manifestation of our righteousness before God. In other words, I am trying to live in a way that is pleasing to God.
It is because of my fellowship or intimacy with God that I am confident, sure that He hears me and will answer me in my time of need. He is my help as I walk by faith in Jesus. “Paul says in Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure”.
As in the Garden of Eden, before the Fall, God wants to walk with you and fellowship with you. As you see your relationship with Him in this manner… you will find that your faith will grow, and all of the promises that faith brings will be yours.
Romans 4
I can think of no better book of the Bible than Romans 4, that speaks to the three concerns that we have today. Those three concerns are grace, Law, and faith. The Apostle Paul uses examples that the Jews of the time would be very familiar with, Abraham and King David. Abraham because he truly is the father of Israel in the sense that God had promised Abraham that out of his loins would come a great nation, and of course we know that is Israel, but also that a multitude of people would come from his loins. Clearly, the Jews of the day we’re very familiar with the promise of God to give this Israel a land of their own and prosperity. King David, of course, is the one whom God used to bring the struggling nation of Israel to power and prominence.
Listen to what the Apostle Paul writes about Abraham beginning in chapter 4; Paul wrote that Abraham discovered the things of the flesh or what later became known as the works of the Law really meant nothing to God. Verse three says, “for what does the scripture say Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness”, now that’s a powerful statement in itself. What Paul was saying was that it was faith that brought righteousness to Abraham. Remember Abraham believed God, and that’s what faith is. Faith is simply believing in God and then doing according to what you believe. He goes on to say in verse 4, “now to him who works the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.” In essence, Paul is saying that if you’re trying to work for your Salvation, then it can’t be by grace. Grace is a gift of God and is not earned or deserved.
He then goes on beginning in verse 5 to recount the words of King David in Romans 4:5, “But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.” Notice that David was not believing in a system, ritual, or organization… he believed in Him!
David was a man who believed God and God’s righteousness was imputed to him, verse six says, “just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works,” and the keys here are “that David believed in God” and “apart from works.”
There were many in that day that believed that because of circumcision and the covenant of the Law, they automatically were heirs to the promises of Abraham. Let me put it another way they believed that all they had to do was follow the rules and regulations of the Law, and the fact that they were Jews meant that they had earned the right to the promises of God. However, beginning in verse 9, Paul makes the case that Abraham was declared righteous because of faitheven before circumcision was instituted. This fact alone meant God was not only the God of the Jews but also non-Jews if they just simply believed in the Lord and acted accordingly.
To be a doer of the Word is what God is looking for. Doing the Word is the evidence that you truly believe in Him. Many are content to just understand the Word, and they believe in an intellectual sense, but their lives do not reflect what they believe. Intellectual belief alone is not sufficient to have the righteousness of God imputed to you! What the Lord seeks is a relationship, not just following rules and regulations. A true relationship will produce a desire to please the One who has rescued and delivered us, our Lord Jesus Christ!
The rest of Romans 4 is an illustration of the faith that Abraham had in his Lord. In verse 16 Paul writes, “therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise might be sure to all the seed not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are the faith of Abraham who was the father of us all.” I hope you can see that Paul was saying that the promise was not simply for the Jews but for anyone who would believe in the Lord and trust him.
Verse 19 begins a very powerful section of this chapter, and it begins with, “and not being weak in faith he did not consider his own body already dead since he was about 100 years old and the deadness of Sarah’s womb”. Remember, the promise was that they would have a son, and they waited patiently for the fulfillment of that promise. Here they were beyond the age of childbearing, and they still believed. Verse 20 says, “Speaking of Abraham he did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief but was strengthened in faith giving glory to God 21 and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform 22 and therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness”. Can you see it? It’s by faith that we come to God. It’s by faith that we appropriate or receive the promises of God; it’s faith in the One who made the promises found in the Bible. The Lord is the one from whom all blessings flow.
In verse 23, Paul writes, “now it was not written for his sake (meaning Abraham) that it was imputed to him but for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification”. Hallelujah, he took away our sins, his righteousness was imputed upon us, and in God’s eyes, we are justified!
Grace and Faith
In my opinion, the following verses speak so clearly to the importance of grace and faith. Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Remember, grace is receiving something that you don’t earn or deserve; it is a gift. Salvation is offered as a gift from God, and we receive that gift by putting our faith in Jesus Christ and him alone. Notice, that the gift is not based on works, which simply means it has nothing to do with your own efforts to make yourself worthy or to make yourself good enough. After all, how good is good enough? Grace doesn’t end with the gift of salvation, what grace does it creates a desire to please the One who has extended grace to us. As the scripture clearly says, “we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Simply put, God has a plan for your life, and as you walk out his plan, then you will see the blessings of God poured out on your life.
Remember you can’t please God without faith, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)
As you go through life bring to remembrance, or remind yourself that, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Or as another translation puts it, Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen.” (TPT)