Faith

 

Romans is a book that teaches us about righteousness and how we actually obtain the righteousness of God.  Romans also teaches us a great deal about faith.  It is by grace that we are saved but we don’t receive that salvation without faith. God’s grace provided forgiveness of sin but that gift is only received through faith.  God’s grace is there for everyone, hence the term “but by the grace of God go I” is not a good term to use because it implies that God’s grace wasn’t there for someone else who did something bad or had something bad happen to them.  God’s grace is available to everyone the problem is that everyone doesn’t have faith in God to receive that grace. 

Faith is so important for living the Christian life.  Faith is so important that there is actually a law of Faith. Romans 3:27-30 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. {Andrew Wommack has a great teaching on this subject. https://www.awmi.net/audio/audio-teachings/?teaching=the-faith-of-god&lesson=the-laws-of-faith} ²⁸ Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. ²⁹ Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, ³⁰ since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. 

Faith establishes (To make firm; to confirm; to ratify what has been previously set or made.)  the law. Romans 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law. 

Why does is it we establish the law? To answer this, we look at what the Bible defines sin as. 1 John 3:4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 

It is easy to forget that God is a God of laws. There were laws at work from the beginning of creation. The law of gravity, the laws of motion, the laws of thermodynamics, these are not laws made by man, these are laws that God created and that man later discovered. Actually, all of God’s laws have always existed and will always exist.  For example, the law of faith didn’t come into existence when Paul first wrote about it in Romans 3.  We can see it all the way back in the garden and it was the violation of this law that led to humanities current condition. 

Let us take a quick trip back to the creation of man and let us see what is the first thing that God says to the man. 

Genesis 2:16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

The first thing that God does after creating man and placing him in the garden is to give him a command.  If we look at this command, we see that it isn’t just a don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil it starts with you may eat freely of every tree of the garden.  There weren’t just 2 trees in the garden but many trees. This wasn’t just a choice between eating from the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  It was the choice of eating from a multitude of different trees and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God always gives us an abundance of the best to chose.

Contrary to some beliefs the tree of life doesn’t have spiritual healing properties, else God would not have put a cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the tree of life from mankind getting to. 

Genesis 3:22-24 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

As at the start so it is now. We are meant to live by faith.  Faith has always been the key for salvation.  People ask how were people in the Old Testament saved before Christ died on the cross? The same way that everyone is saved after Christ died on the cross, by faith.  Faith is the only way we are justified and the only way we can please God.   Romans 1:17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

Galatians 3:11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”

Hebrews 10:38 Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”

Hebrews 11:6 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.