The Operation of Faith

Because of religious apostasy. See Luke 18:8

What happened to Jesus' disciples when Jesus died and buried? Jesus told them that He will rise from the dead 3 days later. What happened to them when Jesus was buried? Sad? Did they not watch when the rock rolls away from the tomb and Jesus walked out of the tomb? Where were they? They were not there to watch until Jesus walked out of the tomb. I learned that they were "rationalistic" disciples because they demanded the evidence. Jesus went to see them in a house then what happened? Jesus bawled them out because of their unbelief. They saw Him in that house then the evidence occured. It is called, "human reasoning." That is why Jesus found no one who has faith.

What main problem do we have is modern fundamentalism because we allow human reasoning to create unbelief and hardness of heart toward Bible promises. Most Bible colleges/seminaries they teach human reasoning, not the Bible. They denied Psalms 12:6-7 referral to the preservation of the Holy Scriptures. For example, you have the Bible with some notes and look at Genesis 1 and read the note saying about the Gap theory. Look at Mark 16 and read the footnote saying about textual problems. Do we need these notes and footnotes due to that they indoctrinated our mind? Will Jesus find anyone who has faith?

On the contrary, Moses had faith to admit he is a Jew. Noah had faith to build the ark because he never saw the rain.

Faith is the evidence, not of what we see, but of things impossible to discover with human senses.

 

What about you? Any idea about that?

 

It doesn't matter how it is brought about. What matters is that we are His disciples. Jesuis said to those He called, "Come follow Me."

 

There is a scriptural limitation on prayer - it must always be in the will of God.

 

Good strong points here James - and it agrees with my contention elsewhere that faith is logical, rational, and reasonable.

 

Because, the above, if we follow Scripture's rule for Bible study (a line here, a line there, a precept here, a precept there, comparing spiritual with spiritual) properly should be understood as:

For by grace (of God) are ye saved through faith (of Jesus Christ), and that not of yourselves (not of our efforts, not because of us), it is the gift of God.

The humanists on this board can howl and yell 'heresy', 'heretic', or 'blasphemy' all they want until they drop dead, but the fact is that our faith in Christ did not save us.

There was no 'faith requirement' for salvation, He saved His people while they were yet sinners . The faith they have later after hearing the gospel of their finished salvation is justified faith.

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20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
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The Savior was simply saying that no man, but Him, has that faith. He was not telling us to look for that kind of faith in us, none of us have that kind of faith. Now, the Norman Vincent Peales of this board can try and spiritualize this verse, but I challenge them to tell a very sick man to have faith and he will be healed.
And I challenge the Calvinists on this board to say that this tells the natural man to simply have faith and he will be saved, and then preach their Doctrine of Total Depravity to their congregation.
None of us has the same kind of faith that can move mountains as Christ has, that is why He is the One who has the faith that pleases God.
I speak in regards to eternal salvation.

 

In the previous verse, the disciples had just finished asking the Lord to increase their faith. Christ's response was that even a small amount of faith is capable of miraculous things. He says this by equating the results faith the size of a mustard seed moving mountains and causing trees to uproot themselves and replant themselves in the sea, (where nothing can grow).

We should not assume that Christ was literally indicating mountains should be moved, or that trees would be plucked up by the roots because neither would serve any purpose. Although both scenarios are certainly possible with God, I cannot imagine what could be accomplished by such a display of faith or that any good thing would come out of it to the honor and glory of God.

It does not require great faith to realize miraculous results and that was the lesson Christ was teaching.

 

Taking a line from here and there along with precepts from here and there, you can make the Bible say anything you desire. Paul's instruction to Timothy was to "rightfully divide the truth!"

I have never before heard any doctrinal Baptist say that Christ's faith saved us. Hebrews 11 talks about a living faith IN Christ.

Heb 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

2Ti 1:13 Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

Now, I am not a humanist, nor am I going to call you a heretic or a blasphemer. Neither am I going to "drop dead." Actually, you are exactly right! Our faith did not save us. We were saved by grace. However grace is given when we trust in the only begotten Son of God. That is what "through faith" means anyway you cut it and you cannot get around the operation of faith in salvation. That faith is the "substance of things hoped for" spoken of in Heb. 11:1 and the belief referred to in Mark 16:16.

 

I do not think you are one of the humanists on this board, MTA. Neither is James Newman. I have posted Scripture proving that we are saved and justified by Christ's faith, both from the KJV and one of the MV's that at least translates literally, but, of course, these Scriptures will not at all be given notice by the rest.

For your benefit, here is one doctrinal Baptist who wrote these verses long before the Baptist Board came into existence and which many in the Baptist Board have read and did not comprehend. His name was Paul, once known as Saul:

In the Covenant of Grace between the Three who are One, man was never a participant. Man's role was passive. That of the recipient of the benefits of the Covenant.

The Godhead each had His own task. The Father put faith in His Son, that His Son is able to carry out His will and bidding. The Son put faith and trust in the Father, that the Father is able to carry out His promise to the Son, even to the uttermost.

Faith had a role to play in our salvation, but it was Christ's faith and obedience, not ours. The honor and glory belongs to Christ alone, that is why the hypocrites and humanists on this board cry out 'heresy' when Scriptural facts are presented to them, because it hurts the pride of man to know that he had nothing at all to do with his salvation.

It hurts the human pride to know that his 'sacrifices and obedience' in getting the Word out actually contribute nothing to the eternal salvation of God's elect because that salvation was secured by Christ and in Christ for all His elect, whether they get to them or not. God is never dependent on humans and human agencies for work that He has obligated Himself to perform.

 

Yet we can only 'rightly divide' the truth and feed it to God's people that way, by building precept upon precept.
Satan's ministers will copy the same principle of teaching in order to preach their gospel, but, that doesn't mean God's way is no longer right, and what was written may be ignored.
Also, by the same token, one can stay within the context of one chapter or line or verse and build an erroneous or totally false doctrine.

Here is Isaiah 28:10, 13 -

Like Paul said:

Prayer. A Clean Conscience before God and man, and diligent study, comparing spiritual with spiritual, rightly dividing the truth, by building precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, who needs 'theologians' with Dr. This or Dr. That who simply parrot what their teachers taught them, who parrot what their teachers taught them, along party lines ?

To James Newman's comment, may I add that not only do they judge someone hellbound because of their works, they presume that because one has never heard of the name of Jesus Christ, or one has never walked down the aisle to 'accept' Christ, one is plain and simple a child of hell.

How presumptuous can one get ?

 

Amen! The gospel is soo important and yet so many people do not understand it. I would like to rightly divide "our faith" and "the faith of Jesus."

Our Faith:
Jesus said in John "that whosever believeth...", "this is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent...", "if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed..."
Our faith shows God that we trust his testimony concerning us, being shown through our response. For example: "Noah, being warned of God of things... moved with fear...", "By faith Abel offered", "By faith Abraham, when he was called ... obeyed; and he went...".
This is our faith, our response to the testimony of God.

The Faith of Jesus
Galatians 3:22
But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Revelation 14:12
Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

OF, prep. ov. [Gr.]
1. From or out of; proceeding from, as the cause, source, means, author or agent bestowing.

Hence, the faith of Jesus is simply faith that draws power from Jesus. For example, in salvation in eternity we have been given the law. If we performed it all it still could not take away sin. Hence we are still lost. I need a savior. I realize that my best is worthless. I have nowhere else to turn. Jesus said "if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." I don't want to die. Jesus says "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live... Believest thou this?" Yea Lord.

I believe here is demonstrated both aspects of faith, ours and his. Our faith in Jesus is how salvation is apropriated. The faith of Jesus is how we get victory in our daily life over sin. Notice the passage in John 11:
23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.
24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
27 She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

Everyone that is alive (saved in eternity) and beleives in Jesus shall never die. How do we believe in Jesus after we are born again? By excersizing his faith. He said "I will never leave thee..." when you fight the "giants" of sin and sling the stone toward it's head, it is not you or in you to over come the "giant," but he that is in you. "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." We don't have it in ourselves to over come sin and temptation. We don't even have the faith to turn off the tv when we know that there will be some lewdness on it. BUT, if we excersize the faith of Jesus, all things are possible. We can turn down the invitation to the pour house, that will lead a man to the poor house. We can turn away from lust when it rears it's ugly head. We can't over come sin. Jesus in us can. It's by his faith. We need to walk in it.

For it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do...
For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

Our confidence in his confidence.

-DeaconLew