Faith is a way of life and not merely a means to attain the forgiveness of our sins, by the free grace of God (though faith includes that reality), and not merely trust in the Work and the Person of Jesus Christ (though faith includes that reality also). The apostle Paul writes to believers, "for we walk by faith," live our lives by / through the lens of our faith in Christ, "and not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7 NASB), indicating, with the apostle Peter, that, though you have not seen Jesus, you "love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining [presently] as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1:8-9 NASB).
So, then, when Paul writes that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to those who believe (cf. 1 Cor. 1:21), for "in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed--a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith'" (Rom. 1:16-17 NIV), he reveals a two-fold truth: 1) those whom God judiciously declares righteous possess, even now, eternal life through faith in Christ; and 2) those whom God declares righteous live their lives in the here and now by / through the lens of their faith in Christ. How so?
CHRIST IS KING OF YOUR LIFE
Paul teaches us this biblical truth: "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set [fix] your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set [fix] your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:1-4 NIV). Paul presents a three-fold truth here: 1) Jesus is your life--meaning that the life you and I live right now is centered around Him (Col. 3:4)--"Jesus is the centripetal goal to which all searches for truth must look and Jesus is the centrifugal force from which all goodness flows;"1 2) Jesus is the Source of your eternal life that you are experiencing even now (Heb. 12:2); and 3) Jesus lives His life through you in the here and now. How do we know the latter is true?
Paul writes: "For through the Law I died to the Law so that I might live for God [or "For it was through letting the [Law] speak for itself that I died to its traditional legalistic misinterpretation" (CJB); or "It was the Law itself that killed me, and freed me from its power, so I could live for God" (CEV); or "It was the Law itself that caused me to end my life under the Law--I died to the Law so that I could live for God" (ERV); or "So far as the Law is concerned, however, I am dead--killed by the Law itself—in order that I might live for God" (GNT); or "For when I tried to keep the Law, it condemned me. So I died to the Law--I stopped trying to [perfectly and sinlessly] meet all its requirements [something I could never accomplish: cf. James 2:10]--so that I might live for God" (NLT)]. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives [His life] in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:19-20 NIV).
Faith is the way of life for the believer just as obedience to the Lord is the way of life for the believer. We can even describe the way in which we are called to live our lives as the obedience of faith. "But thanks be to God that, though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed; and, having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness" (Rom. 6:17-18 NASB). To the same congregation Paul explains that God called him to be an apostle in order to "bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ" (Rom. 1:5-6 NASB). The life of faith, then, is a life of obedience to Christ as Christ lives His life in and through us. Is this true even though we fail? Yes, this is true, even though we fail.
CHRIST IS KING OF YOUR ETERNITY
Did panic set in when you read those words: the obedience of faith? Allow Scripture, allow God Himself, to bring calm and comfort to your anxious soul. Are you and I called to live sinless lives? Yes (1 John 2:1, 2). Does God know that we will fail to live sinless lives? Most definitely! "This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 1:9-10 NIV; cf. John 1:29). He knew you would sin. He knows you will still sin (James 3:2). "If we [born-again believers] confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9 ESV). Regardless, He Himself has promised to sanctify you [make you holy], to form you and to conform you (Rom. 12:1, 2), little by little over your entire lifetime (2 Cor. 3:18), to the image and likeness of His Son Jesus Christ the King (Rom. 8:29, 30)--and He will do it! "May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it" (1 Thess. 5:23-24 NIV).
Did you notice the words "be kept blameless"? The object, which here is the believer, is passive, as he or she is being watched over / kept / guarded / observed--the Greek word being a "watching over something attentively, maintaining it in its original state, or observing it with the intent to preserve in a certain position"--and this is the work of God. The passage informs us that the believer is being "kept blameless" for the second advent or return of Christ Jesus our King and this is because God, in and through our union with Christ Jesus through faith, has reckoned us as being blameless and without fault (Eph. 1:4; 5:25, 26, 27; Phil. 2:15 Col. 1:22; 1 Thess. 2:9, 10) even though we are not, in reality, blameless and without fault. God put our sin on Christ and Christ, then, became an object of sin by bearing our sin (2 Cor. 5:21). God, as a result, then put Christ's righteousness on us. Your God is the One "who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy" (Jude 1:24; cf. 1 Cor. 1:8). Yet Peter can also write: "Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him [by His work] without spot or blemish, and at peace" (2 Pet. 3:14 ESV; cf. Phil. 2:14-16; Heb. 12:14).
CHRIST IS KING REGARDLESS
Will these truths produce believers who carelessly cast aside holiness and live their lives dominated by sin? That is not even possible. Why?
The people who cannot stand this fact--that a person can still be rendered judiciously blameless and righteous in Christ by a declaration of God (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28; 2 Cor. 5:21; Eph. 1:4, 5) even when he fails to actually be blameless and righteous in reality--include Roman Catholic theologians, various "Holiness" and "Pietistic" sects in evangelical Christianity, as well as devils. Regarding the latter, devils love to point to the failures of believers in order to further blind the minds and hearts of the unbelieving world (2 Cor. 4:3, 4) and to mock God in the process (cf. Gen. 3:1, 3, 4; Job 1:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). But devils also love to tempt believers into sin (1 Cor. 7:5; Eph. 6:12; 1 Thess. 3:5) and then to torment them for sinning (Rev. 12:10). I believe that demons are clinically, chronically, and cognitively insane.
CHRIST IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS
Dr. Ian Markham writes that the goal of our devotional lives in Christ should be to create spiritual habits "so that we no longer run the risks of sin," shaming ourselves, and bringing shame on Christ our King; for we "want to become vehicles that radiate the love of God." Even more so, in our daily lives in Christ, we "don't simply want to be able to turn down opportunities for sin; we want to become people who don't want to sin."2 But this is a slow process, and may take the rest of your life, so calm yourself. God is not worried, biting His divine fingernails, uncertain as to whether He can preserve you in this life for Himself in eternity: "He chose us in Him [Christ Jesus] before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:4-6).
Moreover, God has "saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity" (2 Tim. 1:9). "But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:4-7). "The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation" (2 Pet. 2:9). You did not save yourself. God saved you. He knows how to keep you. Take your spiritual gaze off of yourself and your many, many, many failures and turn that gaze (Col. 3:1) upon Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1). "It is because of Him," God the Father, "that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, [our] holiness, and [our] redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30 NIV).
All of life for the believer is one of faith. Faith, the gift of God, begins the life of the believer and consummates the life of the believer. You live your life within an inevitable bubble of faith (cf. Rom. 14:23). "For in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed--a righteousness that is by faith from first to last" (Rom. 1:17 NIV). At this very moment you, believer, are in the faith, and saved by the grace of God through a gifted faith in Christ, and in your dying breath will still be breathing the eternal life of faith. You cannot escape from this faith because it is now in your spiritual blood. "When you believed," when you first came to faith in Jesus Christ, "you were marked in Him [Christ] with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the [or for the Day of] redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of His glory" (Eph. 1:13-14 NIV). You live and breathe faith and grace. You are forever baptized into faith and grace--not of your own doing (Titus 3:5) but of Him who from eternity loves you (Jer. 31:3). This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes (Ps. 118:23).
__________
1 Samuel Wells, What Episcopalians Believe: An Introduction (New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2011), 1. What I wish, with all my heart, is that all Episcopalians "believed" all this indeed!
2 Ian S. Markham, Liturgical Life Principles: How Episcopal Worship Can Lead to Healthy and Authentic Living (New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2009), 20-21. In spite of Dr. Markham's heretical pluralism, and possible universalism, he raises excellent points in this book for the born-again believer in his sanctification.
So, then, when Paul writes that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to those who believe (cf. 1 Cor. 1:21), for "in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed--a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: 'The righteous will live by faith'" (Rom. 1:16-17 NIV), he reveals a two-fold truth: 1) those whom God judiciously declares righteous possess, even now, eternal life through faith in Christ; and 2) those whom God declares righteous live their lives in the here and now by / through the lens of their faith in Christ. How so?
CHRIST IS KING OF YOUR LIFE
Paul teaches us this biblical truth: "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set [fix] your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set [fix] your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:1-4 NIV). Paul presents a three-fold truth here: 1) Jesus is your life--meaning that the life you and I live right now is centered around Him (Col. 3:4)--"Jesus is the centripetal goal to which all searches for truth must look and Jesus is the centrifugal force from which all goodness flows;"1 2) Jesus is the Source of your eternal life that you are experiencing even now (Heb. 12:2); and 3) Jesus lives His life through you in the here and now. How do we know the latter is true?
Paul writes: "For through the Law I died to the Law so that I might live for God [or "For it was through letting the [Law] speak for itself that I died to its traditional legalistic misinterpretation" (CJB); or "It was the Law itself that killed me, and freed me from its power, so I could live for God" (CEV); or "It was the Law itself that caused me to end my life under the Law--I died to the Law so that I could live for God" (ERV); or "So far as the Law is concerned, however, I am dead--killed by the Law itself—in order that I might live for God" (GNT); or "For when I tried to keep the Law, it condemned me. So I died to the Law--I stopped trying to [perfectly and sinlessly] meet all its requirements [something I could never accomplish: cf. James 2:10]--so that I might live for God" (NLT)]. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives [His life] in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:19-20 NIV).
Faith is the way of life for the believer just as obedience to the Lord is the way of life for the believer. We can even describe the way in which we are called to live our lives as the obedience of faith. "But thanks be to God that, though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed; and, having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness" (Rom. 6:17-18 NASB). To the same congregation Paul explains that God called him to be an apostle in order to "bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ" (Rom. 1:5-6 NASB). The life of faith, then, is a life of obedience to Christ as Christ lives His life in and through us. Is this true even though we fail? Yes, this is true, even though we fail.
CHRIST IS KING OF YOUR ETERNITY
Did panic set in when you read those words: the obedience of faith? Allow Scripture, allow God Himself, to bring calm and comfort to your anxious soul. Are you and I called to live sinless lives? Yes (1 John 2:1, 2). Does God know that we will fail to live sinless lives? Most definitely! "This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 1:9-10 NIV; cf. John 1:29). He knew you would sin. He knows you will still sin (James 3:2). "If we [born-again believers] confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9 ESV). Regardless, He Himself has promised to sanctify you [make you holy], to form you and to conform you (Rom. 12:1, 2), little by little over your entire lifetime (2 Cor. 3:18), to the image and likeness of His Son Jesus Christ the King (Rom. 8:29, 30)--and He will do it! "May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it" (1 Thess. 5:23-24 NIV).
Did you notice the words "be kept blameless"? The object, which here is the believer, is passive, as he or she is being watched over / kept / guarded / observed--the Greek word being a "watching over something attentively, maintaining it in its original state, or observing it with the intent to preserve in a certain position"--and this is the work of God. The passage informs us that the believer is being "kept blameless" for the second advent or return of Christ Jesus our King and this is because God, in and through our union with Christ Jesus through faith, has reckoned us as being blameless and without fault (Eph. 1:4; 5:25, 26, 27; Phil. 2:15 Col. 1:22; 1 Thess. 2:9, 10) even though we are not, in reality, blameless and without fault. God put our sin on Christ and Christ, then, became an object of sin by bearing our sin (2 Cor. 5:21). God, as a result, then put Christ's righteousness on us. Your God is the One "who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless with great joy" (Jude 1:24; cf. 1 Cor. 1:8). Yet Peter can also write: "Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him [by His work] without spot or blemish, and at peace" (2 Pet. 3:14 ESV; cf. Phil. 2:14-16; Heb. 12:14).
CHRIST IS KING REGARDLESS
Will these truths produce believers who carelessly cast aside holiness and live their lives dominated by sin? That is not even possible. Why?
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that [the] grace [of God] may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk [live our lives] in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin (Rom. 6:1-7 NASB).The person whom God has regenerated cannot live his life in sin because He has been born again. That may appear like circular reasoning upon first glance but not upon further inspection--because the cause produces the appropriate effect. The regenerate believer cannot live his life dominated by sin because he has been regenerated: he now possesses a newness of life (new way to live) that hates sin, even when he sins, and he seeks to live his life apart from any context related to sin. Prior to the effect of regeneration a person loved his sin and hated God. After the effect of regeneration a person loves his God and hates his sin--even when he fails to love his God properly and even though he sins.
The people who cannot stand this fact--that a person can still be rendered judiciously blameless and righteous in Christ by a declaration of God (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28; 2 Cor. 5:21; Eph. 1:4, 5) even when he fails to actually be blameless and righteous in reality--include Roman Catholic theologians, various "Holiness" and "Pietistic" sects in evangelical Christianity, as well as devils. Regarding the latter, devils love to point to the failures of believers in order to further blind the minds and hearts of the unbelieving world (2 Cor. 4:3, 4) and to mock God in the process (cf. Gen. 3:1, 3, 4; Job 1:6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). But devils also love to tempt believers into sin (1 Cor. 7:5; Eph. 6:12; 1 Thess. 3:5) and then to torment them for sinning (Rev. 12:10). I believe that demons are clinically, chronically, and cognitively insane.
CHRIST IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS
Dr. Ian Markham writes that the goal of our devotional lives in Christ should be to create spiritual habits "so that we no longer run the risks of sin," shaming ourselves, and bringing shame on Christ our King; for we "want to become vehicles that radiate the love of God." Even more so, in our daily lives in Christ, we "don't simply want to be able to turn down opportunities for sin; we want to become people who don't want to sin."2 But this is a slow process, and may take the rest of your life, so calm yourself. God is not worried, biting His divine fingernails, uncertain as to whether He can preserve you in this life for Himself in eternity: "He chose us in Him [Christ Jesus] before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:4-6).
Moreover, God has "saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity" (2 Tim. 1:9). "But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:4-7). "The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation" (2 Pet. 2:9). You did not save yourself. God saved you. He knows how to keep you. Take your spiritual gaze off of yourself and your many, many, many failures and turn that gaze (Col. 3:1) upon Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1). "It is because of Him," God the Father, "that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, [our] holiness, and [our] redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30 NIV).
All of life for the believer is one of faith. Faith, the gift of God, begins the life of the believer and consummates the life of the believer. You live your life within an inevitable bubble of faith (cf. Rom. 14:23). "For in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed--a righteousness that is by faith from first to last" (Rom. 1:17 NIV). At this very moment you, believer, are in the faith, and saved by the grace of God through a gifted faith in Christ, and in your dying breath will still be breathing the eternal life of faith. You cannot escape from this faith because it is now in your spiritual blood. "When you believed," when you first came to faith in Jesus Christ, "you were marked in Him [Christ] with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the [or for the Day of] redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of His glory" (Eph. 1:13-14 NIV). You live and breathe faith and grace. You are forever baptized into faith and grace--not of your own doing (Titus 3:5) but of Him who from eternity loves you (Jer. 31:3). This is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes (Ps. 118:23).
__________
1 Samuel Wells, What Episcopalians Believe: An Introduction (New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2011), 1. What I wish, with all my heart, is that all Episcopalians "believed" all this indeed!
2 Ian S. Markham, Liturgical Life Principles: How Episcopal Worship Can Lead to Healthy and Authentic Living (New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2009), 20-21. In spite of Dr. Markham's heretical pluralism, and possible universalism, he raises excellent points in this book for the born-again believer in his sanctification.
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