Being Of Faith

I feel to make the post today as something of a continuance of yesterday’s post, and to emphasize what it really means to be ‘of faith.’ Let’s start with a quote from the apostle Paul, the man God chose to be the chief minister to the Gentile believers. “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham”(Gal. 3:7). Seeing that the promise of the everlasting inheritance is unto Abraham and his true seed, or children; I would say it’s very important for us to understand what being ‘of faith’ truly means. It’s really very simplistic, and I’ll just say it this way to start off with: Anything we can do apart from the empowerment and leading of God’s Spirit is not of faith. Why? Because anything we can do [pertaining to the worship and service of God] apart from the Spirit of God, is something that we can do ourselves, or by the help of someone else who is human. That is why Jesus said that under the new covenant those that worship God “must worship him in spirit and in truth" (Jn. 4:24). The ‘in spirit’ part of that equation means that the only way God can truly be worshipped now is by spiritual means. So why was/is that factor so significant? Because carnal ceremonies had been instrumental in the worship and service of God since Cain and Abel. Why was that? Because man had been under sin since Adam sinned, and that barrier existed between the hearts of men and God since Adam sinned; and therefore men’s spirits were not free to worship God in true holiness [meaning without sin]. Jesus came to make the way for the spiritual worship of God to be implemented by means of man being freed from sin and literally reconciled and joined to God in spirit (I Cor. 6:17). So what does that mean? "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: … I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one" (Jn. 17:21,23).

Yes friend, we are literally joined together with the Father and the Son, by means of us literally being ‘in Christ.’ Okay, so how does that happen? Three scriptures alone give us the answer to that all important question (Rom. 6:3,4; Gal. 3:27; I Cor. 12:13). All three of these scriptures make it clear that it is baptism that puts us ‘into Christ.’ And lest there be any controversy over which baptism does the job, I Cor. 12:13 clarifies that it is the baptism of the Spirit. It is certain that only the Spirit baptism could give us "newness of life,” as described in Rom. 6:4. Equally as certain is the reality that only the baptism of God’s Spirit could cause us to literally “put on Christ,” as mentioned in Gal. 3:27; for we are told that “the Lord IS that Spirit” (II Cor. 3:17). The flip side of ‘in spirit,’ or by spiritual means, is by means of carnal ceremonies, as was the practice from the time that sin entered into the world. That brings us to another quote from Gal. 3, where we began: “And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them" (Gal. 3:12). The law was “not of faith” because it was full of carnal ceremonies that could be done by man on his own, or with assistance from another man. The law was full of symbolic worship, but the Spirit of God is the reality of what those symbolic ceremonies pointed to (Gal. 3:23-27; Col. 2:17; Heb. 10:1). We know that prophecies which have been fulfilled are no longer in effect. By the same token symbolic ceremonies that have been fulfilled are no longer in effect either. To continue in them is to go backward from the leading of God’s Spirit (Gal. 5:7,8,18). The only place that God’s Spirit leads to is more of God’s Spirit. We are made a ‘new creature’ by the baptism of the Spirit, and the only thing we can rightly add to a new creature is more of a new creature (II Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). Water baptism is of the law, though it was given in the end of the old covenant dispensation. Jesus made it clear that it was of the law, and also that it was something that he came to fulfill (Mat. 3:17; Mat. 5:17).

Water baptism is symbolic of the Spirit baptism, which is here, and in effect! Water baptism can be done by, and in fact has to be done by man. The Spirit baptism can only be received through faith by “the answer of a clear conscience toward God,” and was only made available “by the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (I Pet. 3:21). Therefore the Spirit baptism is ‘of faith,’ and of faith alone (Jn. 7:37-39; Gal. 3:14). No man can obtain it without coming clean in humility and faith toward Jesus, the only new testament baptizer (Mk. 1:6-8; Jn. 1:33). The flip side of worshipping God ‘in truth’ [in holiness] is to worship him in pretense, meaning to hold to sin; which God’s people have been notorious for since Cain (Gen. 4:7; Isa. 1:11-17; Mat. 15:8,9; I Cor. 5:6; Jas. 3:14). So the way has been made now for sin to be taken away, and for man to be truly joined to the Lord, and to worship God "in spirit [alone] and in truth [holiness].” That way is by the baptism of the holy Ghost, given by the hand of Jesus to those who obey him through repentance from sin and faith in him (Acts 5:32). And that baptism is the only baptism that is ‘of faith.’ So as believers in Christ we should follow the example of the apostle to the Gentiles, who said, “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philip. 3:3). Since nobody is trying to impose circumcision on believers today, we can accurately update that statement as follows: "For we are the baptized, who worship God only in spirit, and worship Jesus by the holy Ghost, and give no regard to ceremonies that only pertained to the flesh.” The only things we should regard are the things that Jesus had to die and raise to give us, meaning the things that are of the Spirit of God. Because “Christ is the end of the [ceremonial] law for righteousness to every one that believeth" (Rom. 10:4). Amen.