THE subject of faith under grace is one aspect that at surface level appears so clear and obvious.
At a closer look, it has widely been misrepresented. As a new creation, believers must always ensure they are not carried along by the winds of religious error and heresy.
On some pulpits and regrettably many, faith has been erroneously taught, thereby disenfranchising believers from the finished/accomplished work of Christ.
The Gospel of Christ provides salvation based on the finished work of Christ by whose faith we were redeemed.
The faith in Jesus Christ reconciled us to God and His righteousness brings us faultless to God.
Faith is a wide biblical theme and for us to get to its root, let us examine the obedience of Jesus Christ.
Jesus came under the law or during the subsistence of the Old Testament to meet its demands and fulfil all its requirements.
The Old Testament is a covenant of demands. This covenant only became the old because a new and better (final) one, for that matter, had come. The old is the one by which God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt.
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Hebrews 8:9 explains: “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.”
In this dispensation of new birth or creation, do not be tied to a covenant already done away with.
The Old Testament consisted of demands carrying blessings for obedience. Trespass brought punishment.
At inception, the Israelites promised obedience, which they failed to uphold.
Exodus 24:3 and 7 record: “[3] And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the Lord hath said will we do. [7] And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient.”
With one voice, the people promised obedience, but dramatically transgressed, as they say, even before the ink of the agreement had dried up.
God would later remark of the disobedience of the people. In Jeremiah 7:23-24 the bible says: “[23] But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. [24] But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.”
It, therefore, became necessary for Jesus to come to earth to meet the demands of the Old Testament and fulfil all its requirements.
Hebrews 10:7 and 9 make it so clear: “[7] Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. [9] Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.”
The only one capable of fulfilling the law was Jesus. So, He came and did exactly that and in so doing, He took away the (Old Testament) and ushered in the New Testament.
It is, therefore, the obedience of Jesus that qualified us. Sin came through one man, Adam. One Man, Jesus Christ, brought us to obedience.
Romans 5:19 puts it: “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
This is the finished work of Christ, the grace of God. The Old Testament consists of doing, and the New Testament is what is already done.
The Old Testament is knowing and doing, the New Testament is knowing and believing.
On this basis, we will be able to understand more clearly the faith in Jesus Christ.
We do not re-invent the wheel, and we do not suffer double jeopardy. We partake of the grace of God freely and unapologetically. We are saved by one man’s obedience, the man Christ Jesus.
Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Grace and peace be multiplied to you through knowledge.
- All Bible quotations are from the King James Version unless otherwise stated.
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