Biblical Faith - It's Essence Part 1

Our study this morning is going to be on faith. Personally, I believe it's one of the most misunderstood subjects in Christendom today. Last week, I asked you, when you think of faith, what comes to your mind? What's your frame of reference about faith? You responded that when you think of faith, that it's trust, dependence, rest, reliance on, and somebody said and somebody said that it's a gift. As I thought about those responses, most of them had to do with our faith, our trust, our dependence, our reliance. And that was fine. And what we did is we went through some passages of scripture to see if your definition and your understanding of faith matched what scripture said.

So we went to Matthew chapter 8, and we looked at the Roman centurion who believed that the Lord Jesus Christ could heal his servant by just speaking the word. And the Lord Jesus Christ responded that he had not seen so great a faith in all of Israel. And this was a Roman centurion. Then we looked at what I like to call the Hall of Famers, God's Hall of Famers in the book of Hebrews. By faith, Abel offered a more perfect sacrifice. By faith, Enoch was translated. By faith, Abraham. By faith, Sarah.

And we asked the question, does our understanding of faith, trust, reliance, dependence, and all of that, does that match with what Scripture says about the faith of all of these people? And we said, yes, that's a one-to-one match. With the exception of two of the responses. Because one of the responses was that faith was proof. And the other response was that faith was a gift. And as we read through those passages, those definitions of faith didn't match the passages that we read. But they will match some other passages. An important observation is this.

When we talk about personal faith, which most of you were talking about, faith must have an object. And we never looked at the object of these people's faith. We didn't focus on the object. just by faith, they did this by faith, they did that. When we say that faith must have an object, there are many words that must have an object. For example, if I say, I love, where I use it as a verb, I love, I need to have a direct object to finish that sentence, to complete it. I love what? The Broncos? My wife? I need to complete it. It has to have an object.

Otherwise, it's not a complete thought. Faith requires an object. So if I use it as a noun, I have faith. Faith is a noun. I have to tell you what the object of that faith is. So if I say, faith, and I use it as a verb, in the verb form, you would say, I believe. I have to tell you what I believe. It takes an object. What was the object of all of these Hall of Famers faiths that we read about last week? Now I want to do this.

I want to postpone the answer. We're going to answer the question, but my purpose right now is to look at the big picture in terms of faith. So, so far we've looked at personal aspect of faith in terms of how it's used personally. Now what I want to do is take a look quickly at some other passages where if we translated faith by dependence, reliance, and rest, and those definitions, that the definition kind of would be out of place if we put that definition in the passages that we're going to look at. That tells us something. These passages have a different meaning with respect to faith.

I want you to turn to the first one, Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11. The focus of the book of Ephesians is on the church, the body of Christ. It describes what God has done for the body of Christ. All of those who have put their trust and personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 11, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Why did he give them? For the perfecting of the saints. for the work of the ministry, for the edifying or the building up of the body of Christ, that is, you and me as body of Christ.

Verse 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith. Now, is this saying that we all should come into unity in our personal faith? That every one of our personal faith should be identical? that are trust, that are reliance, and are dependent, that they should be identical somehow?

Why the definite article? So we all come into the unity of the faith. What does the faith mean? When there's a definite article, it designates something specific. What faith is it designating here? I'm not going to answer it, but just want to get you to see a big picture that when you talk about faith, sometimes faith is associated with a definite article, the faith.

It means something different than our personal faith. And then just to finish the verse, so we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. You know, one of the questions that was asked is, what's the difference between faith and knowledge? Is there a difference between faith and knowledge? There's a passage that talks about faith and knowledge.

Unto a perfect man. Are we going to be perfect? Let me ask you a question. Are we perfect? How many sitting here today are perfect? Wow. Now I want you to know, we've got a lot of hands raised. And I want you to know, there's a lot of people scratching their heads. How can these people say that they're perfect? How are they perfect?

As you come to scripture, you have to ask the question, is this talking about a positional truth? Something that is true of us, positionally? That this truth will never change? It's immutable? That this truth is an everlasting truth? Truth about us now and forevermore? That's positional. Or is it conditional? That sometimes I'm perfect and sometimes I'm not, as I walk moment by moment. This is a positional truth.

This is true about us as to who we are in Christ, positionally. He sees this as perfect, because he also says to us that there's nothing more to be added. And if there's nothing more to be added, then we've got to be perfect, positionally. But now we are growing, growing to understand what we are and who we are in Christ. Finishing up to 13, unto the measure So here's the measure, listening to this, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

So there's a passage of scripture that has this definite article. Now what I'd like to do is look at another aspect of faith where it doesn't have the definite article, but it has another word associated with faith, Romans chapter 3 verse 21. I want you to observe in verse 22 and verse 25, it uses the word faith, and ask yourself the question, what faith is it talking about in those two verses? Starting at verse 21. But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, or law, there's no definite article in the Greek, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith.

What faith is that? I think that's personal faith, that when we trust and put our trust and faith in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that God imputes his righteousness to us, which is by our faith. Our faith of Jesus Christ, and I think that's what is called an objective genitive, which you can translate by faith in Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation or a satisfaction through what? Faith. Through personal faith? I think personal faith is involved there.

Through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him who believes in him. So here's the verb form of faith, believing in Jesus Christ. Now, focus on verse 27. Where is boasting then?

Answer, it is excluded. By what law? Of works? No. By the law of faith. Here we have another usage of the word faith. By the law of faith. And we can translate law as a principle. By the principle of faith. Is it talking about our personal faith? may be included, it certainly is another aspect of faith when it talks about the law of faith or the principle of faith.

So here is another aspect of faith. So far, we've seen three aspects of faith. We first looked at the personal aspect of faith. We then looked at faith with the definite article, the faith, talking about something specific. And we just now looked at faith as a principle. So those are three aspects so far of faith.

As you go through every single verse in the New Testament and categorize every single verse, there is one more category of faith. Turn to Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Question, is it talking about the faith? Well, there's no definite article there. Is it talking about our personal faith? That our personal faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen? Or is it talking about faith as a principle?

I think we have another category of faith, or another aspect of faith, and that's faith in terms of its essence. This passage describes the essence of faith. So, where we're going is to try and understand these aspects of faith. I'm going to start with faith in its essence, because when you talk about the essence of faith, that's the building block. If we understand the essence of faith, we will be able to understand all of the other aspects of faith, the faith, personal faith, and faith as a principle. The essence of faith is the building block, and it is critical.

And I just want to drill it into your mind that it's critical that we understand the essence of faith. Remember those 10 questions I put up last week? Understand the essence of faith is going to help us understand and answer every one of those 10 questions.

We're going to look at Hebrews 11.1.

In order to understand the passage of Scripture, you have to understand what the subject is, what the verb is, what the direct object is. So, it starts out, subject, face, and then the verb, is, and then what is normally what we would call a direct object, but in this case, it's not a direct object.

Remember from English, when you have the verb to be, that the object is called what? The word substance. What is that called? This is called a subject complement in the Greek. This is called a predicate nominative. is, in English, is called a linking verb.

And what it does, it links the subject to the object, or it ties the subject to what normally we would call direct object. In any other sentence, without a verb to be, or a linking verb, the subject is never tied to the object. So if I say, I hit the ball, I, the subject, and the ball is the correct object, there's no link between me and the ball. The ball doesn't describe me, it doesn't identify me, it's independent of me.

In a sentence where there is a linking verb, in Greek it's called an essence verb, and an essence verb is a verb of status quo. It tells you the state something continuously exists, and it ties the subject-complement-pagetic in the Greek. This is called a predicate-nominative. I don't want to get too complicated here, but if it's a noun, it's called a predicate-nominative. If it's an adjective, it's called a predicate-adjective. This is a noun, so it ties this noun, faith, with this noun, substance.

It ties them together, and it says that the state in which faith continuously exists is substance. The question you have to ask is, what's substance? If you look at this word, Pupistasis, it means reality. One of the definitions of substance is reality. So we can say this, that faith, in its essence, it's intrinsic about faith that it's reality. It's the state in which it continuously exists, reality.

Now, let me ask the question, do you think that's describing our faith? Some shook their heads no. In no way. When we talk about this, we're talking about something that never changes. Does our faith change? It certainly does. So, it certainly is not talking about our faith. This is independent of our faith. Totally independent.

Faith is reality. What's the reality? Faith is reality. Faith is something that is real, that is true, a hundred percent of the time it's real, What is that reality? The verse goes on, of things hoped for. Now the question is, what are the things? And what does hoped for mean? Is it things that are wished for? Does hoped mean wished? Let me tell you what I think the answer is. The things it's talking about, in the context here, are the things of God. Everything that is related to God. And when we talk about God, we're talking about the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Everything that is related to them. And then it says, hope for. And in our vernacular, and in our understanding of the word hope, we interpret it as wish.

It doesn't have one iota of that meaning in the Greek. That word hope, altizo, means confidence. Certainty. Not only certainty, but absolute certainty. So you can translate it this way. That faith is reality. Reality of the things of God which are in absolute certainty.

Now, the verse goes on. And it talks about the evidence of things not seen. This is another predicate nominative. See that line pointing back to the subject? It means that this relates to the subject. That reality relates to the subject. It defines it. And this line, evidence, proof, relates to the subject. Someone last week, when I asked the question, what does faith mean? One of the answers was proof. And that's exactly right. There it is. That faith is proof.

Of what? It's of things. What things? Things of God. What things of God? The things that are not being seen. And the verb there for seen is not the word for perception, it's the word blepo in the Greek, which means that which we visually see, or something that we can't visually see. The things that we can't visually see, the things of God.

But are they real? Absolutely, they are reality. If I were to put this in a more user-friendly fashion, faith is reality. It's reality in the things of God, and these things of God are an absolute certainty. Now comes your turn. What are these things of God, which are an absolute certainty, which are proof of things not seen? What are these things of God? What do you think of when you think of the things of God that are reality? God says, he holds up the Bible and says, how about his revelation?

What else? His essence. Very good. Can you see his essence? What is his essence? Some total of who he is. What are some of the attributes of his essence? Okay, love, mercy, omniscience. omnipresence, veracity, truth, the fact that he's eternal, that he's sovereign. So if we think of the things of God that you can't see, it certainly has to do with his essence, the totality of who he is. His holiness, his righteousness, the fact that he's just, the fact that he's infinite, as some of you said. You can't box God, you can't circle him in. because he's infinite. But when you think about the things of God, those are some of the things in terms of who he is.

How about what he's done? And let me do it this way. Handle it in three parts. Not only what he's done, but what he's doing, and what he will do. So what he has done is creation. So what it says, the things of God, creation, is reality. Here we are. How did we get here? Did we get here through an ape? or chimp, or did God create it? God says that he created it in his image and in his likeness. That's what he said.

So when Bob held up scripture and says everything that's in here, well, it tells us that he created the universe and he created in six days. Six literal days. Six 24-hour days. How do we know that? Because that's what Scripture says. It was the first yom, the second yom, and the third yom. And how do we know that yom means the 24-hour day? Well, we know it means the 24-hour day because every time the word day, yom, is preceded by a numerical ordinal, it always means the literal 24-hour day. Can you prove that from Scripture?

Sure. You go over to Exodus chapter 20. It says, Thou shalt keep the Sabbath day holy. Well, just as God created the heavens and earth in six days and rested on the seventh day, that you shall rest on the seventh day and keep the Sabbath day holy. Is it millions and billions of years, days up here in Genesis? Well, if it is, then you have to translate that we're going to work millions and billions of years, six of those, and then rest for millions of billions of years.

So, things of God. what he's done. What else has he done? Did he judge the earth at one time with a worldwide flood? Did he tell Noah to build an ark and save eight souls and flood the entire earth? How about the most important thing? He sent the Lord Jesus Christ, the cross, and his burial and his resurrection.

That's another thing he's done. How do we know that? The Word of God tells us that. And so the only thing we have to tell us that, in terms of the things of God, is the Word of God. It tells us not only what He has done, it tells us what He's doing now and what He will do. He's going to come back and God is going to judge this earth again, not by water, but there's going to be a terrible judgment on this earth for a period of seven years. And all of this with respect to the sins of God. Are any of those sins dependent upon us?

Were we instrumental in any one of those things, zero. We had absolutely nothing to do with any of them. Nothing. So do you see where faith, as the essence, as reality, has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with you and me, in terms of the essence of faith? This is what is called biblical faith. You want to know what biblical faith is. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1, is what biblical faith is. It has nothing to do with us. Can we enter into this? We sure can. And we're going to see later on how we enter into this. But right now, when we talk about faith, biblical faith, it has zero to do with us.