Biblical Faith - As a Principle

This morning, what I'd like to do is talk about our walk by faith. So if you'll turn in your Bible to Colossians chapter 2, verse 6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Now, here's my question. How have we received the Lord Jesus Christ? By faith. We received him by faith. How are we to walk? same way, by faith. Now, observe something. In verse 6, the word faith is never mentioned, but it's implied that we receive them by faith or to walk in faith.

We have seen, as we've gone through this study, that there are four major aspects of biblical faith. The essence of faith, faith in terms of the faith where there's a definite article with faith, faith in terms of personal faith, and then faith as a principle of faith. So far as we've gone through this, we've defined the first three terms, but we've never defined the principle of faith. We've looked at passages, though, on the principle of faith, just to show you that that's one of the major aspects of faith.

In Romans chapter 3 and verse 27, it contrasts the law of works with the law of faith. Or you could translate the word law as principle, nama, law or principle. It contrasts the principle of works versus the principle of faith. The context of the passage says that we're justified by God's grace through faith. So the whole context in that passage is the principle of faith. What is the principle of faith? The word principle means the way something functions or the way something operates. God has set up a system as to how we function with respect to Him. And it's by this principle of faith. Faith as a principle is talking about all of these three things above. faith in its essence, the faith, faith in terms of personal faith.

In Colossians 2.6, when it says, As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, and ye received him by faith, by the principle of faith, so walk ye in him the same way, by the principle of faith. Faith in its essence, the faith, and personal faith.

When we talked about the essence of faith, we looked at Hebrews 11.1, that faith is the sustenance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things, or the proof of things, not seen.

And we saw that the word sustenance means reality, that faith is reality. And it's a reality of things hoped for. We saw that the things are the things of God. What is reality are the things of God. And those are the things that are hoped for. Those are the things that are absolute certainty. And we've also seen that Jesus Christ is the source of faith.

He is the author. He is the originator of faith. He is the finisher. He is the one who completes it. So, this is the essence of faith. Everything that God reveals, the utility of God's revelation is the essence of faith. The way we know about it is by God's revelation to us through the Word of God. Man hears it. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. So man hears the Word of God. He hears the essence of faith, biblical faith.

It's independent of man, nothing to do with man. It's totally to do with God, who He is, what He's done, what He's doing, and what he will do, his ways, his thoughts, his mind, his eternal purpose, and who we are, and who we were in Adam. All of that is part of the essence of God's total revelation to man. But as part of that revelation comes the bad news.

In Romans 5.12, it says, For by one man sin, the sin, entered into the world, the sin, nature, entered into the world, and death by sin. And death passed upon all men, for all have sinned. In the context of Romans chapter 5, you find that there's death and there's condemnation. Because we're in Adam, as an unbeliever, there's death and there's condemnation. We were condemned, as an unbeliever, to be separated from God forever, eternally.

But then there's the good news, and the good news is about God's will. God's will is that not one should perish. Part of that essence of faith is to talk about God's love. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting or eternal life. There's the good news, and part of that good news is that Jesus Christ came and died and paid the penalty for your sins and for my sins on the cross at Calvary. And we often know that Jesus Christ is the propitiation, He's the satisfaction not for our sins only, but for the sins of the entire world. That's the good news that comes out from the essence of faith. And it's interesting the way God comes at it.

Usually there's the man of God or the woman of God with the word of God. they come to us and explain this essence of faith. They specifically explain THE faith, which is the gospel, that portion of the total essence of faith. They come at us with that portion of the essence of faith, which is THE faith, definite article, and then the Spirit of God comes alongside us as unbelievers and convicts us as the Word of God is presented to us and convicts us of sin because we do not believe on the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the ministry of the Holy Spirit. That's the way we receive Christ. There's a decision to make. We hear the Word of God. Now, what do we do with it? The faith, here in Romans 10, 17, as we've seen, is the personal faith which comes out of, springs out of, hearing the Word of God.

What the Spirit ministers to us, we just believe. Believing is just resting. Resting in what the Spirit of God reveals to us. So personal faith is just resting in the facts that have been presented to us by the Holy Spirit. as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." You received him by this whole principle of faith, the essence of faith, the specific word of faith, the gospel, you heard it and you responded, you just rested and trusted in the Lord to say, I enter into the truth that you have presented and I believe it.

That means, I've come short of your glory, I'm a sinner, and I trust that Jesus Christ came and died and paid the penalty for my sin. That's personal faith. Now, we have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord to walk the same way. So let's just summarize this. We received Christ by faith. Faith in his person, that he is the eternal son of God, and in his work on the cross. What must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Rest in the truth. Rest in the truth about his person and his work and you shall be saved.

I want to highlight something that is active voice that you participate in this. You believe via the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit. you participate, active voice. The result of this is justification. Justification simply means that God declares us righteous when we believe in the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that's the way we receive Christ. And the second part of verse 6 says, so walk the same way, by faith.

But now the walk is in who Christ is and who you are in Christ. Again, it's an active voice. You do the walking, and it's a present tense. You keep on resting in Christ, who is your very life. When you trusted Christ, He became your life. And you rest, you walk in Him, who is your very life.

This is a process. This is called sanctification, being set apart moment by moment. I want you to observe one thing. that there's a distinctiveness in the ministry of the Holy Spirit with respect to an unbeliever and a believer. In our receiving Christ, the Holy Spirit bore witness to us of God's love. He bore witness to us of what Christ did on our behalf and the efficacy or the value of the cross and his death and burial and his resurrection. As we walk by faith, there's a distinctiveness that the Holy Spirit reveals to us who Christ is, who we are now in Christ, and in that process, He forms Christ in us. He conforms us to the very image of Christ. But, I want you to notice, the response is the same. With an unbeliever, the response is by faith. With a believer, the response is by faith. The response is always the same, even though there's a distinctiveness in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

So we respond by the principle of faith. That's how we walk, by the principle of faith. Now, what is this walk that we have by the principle of faith in Colossians chapter 2? Let's just go back to verse 6 and we kind of get it in a little context. as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith." Notice that the word faith is there. In the faith, notice the definite article.

"...as ye have been taught, abounding with thanksgiving." Verse 7 describes four aspects of our walk, and it describes it by using four participles that has Intent and voice, like a verb does. Intent and voice is important in this passage, and I want to show you why. So there's four statements, and the first one says this, by having been rooted in Him, and the word rooted there means to be firmly planted, to be established in Him. This is speaking of our position in Christ.

Our position in Christ is immutable. It will never ever change. It's eternal. It's for all eternity. We're rooted, we're established in Christ. So this is talking about our position in our walk. When were you rooted and firmly established in Christ? And the next question is, how were you rooted and established in Christ? And the answer to the when part is, when you received Christ, when you rested and trusted in the truth that the Holy Spirit ministered to you in terms of the gospel, in terms of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, you became rooted in Christ. Really rooted? Yeah, really rooted. Full root.

How did God do that? The how is when we were put into Christ. when we were baptized into Christ. Romans chapter 6 verse 3 says that we were baptized into the person of Christ. The word baptized, baptizo, means to be immersed and that immersion is to be immersed and never taken out. You were immersed into Christ and never taken out. So we were baptized and identified with the Lord Jesus Christ, put into this living union with Christ, which is our position in Christ.

It's immutable, it will never ever change, it's for all eternity. No one can dig down and cut those roots. No one. We can never be unrooted from the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to observe that it's a perfect tent. which simply says that it's a completed action in the past, and it has abiding results up until the present time. The completed action in the past is when you and I trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. At that very moment, we were rooted into Christ, and it has abiding results right up until the present.

And notice something else. It's a passive voice. Passive voice simply means that you didn't do anything. God did it. You were acted upon. That you didn't do it. If I say that I hit the ball, active voice, I hit the ball. But if I get hit by the ball, then that's passive voice. I was hit by the ball. The subject receives the action.

So that's our position in Christ. Look at verse 7. It says, rooted and built up in Him, in Christ. So the second statement is, by being built up. The word built up is to be edified. To be edified spiritually. We're built up, edified in Him. Now, this is talking about the purpose of our walk. This is God's purpose to edify us, to build us up in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, it's present tense, it's a process. And who's performing the action? It's a passive voice. God is performing it. God is the one that is building us up, edifying us in the person of Christ, in who He is. Turn over to Ephesians chapter 4. I want to show you two things in Ephesians chapter 4 concerning God's purpose in edifying us, building us up in Christ, and also establishing us in the faith. And I think Ephesians chapter 4 beautifully summarizes this. Look at verse 11, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.

Why? For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Notice that God gives gifts to men for the edifying or for the building up of the body of Christ. which includes you and me. So if God has a purpose, if his purpose is to build us up and edify us, guess whose responsibility it is? It's his responsibility to carry that out. If that's his purpose, has a voice, we receive the action, then he's going to fulfill his purpose. And he's going to fulfill his purpose by supplying gifts to men to edify the body.

Next, in verse 7 in Colossians 2, the third thing it says is this, by being established or fixed in the faith. It's talking about the result of our walk. Now, the word established or fixed means to be immovable. Immovable in the faith. To be stable. To be certain. be sure. Why is it critical that we be established, fixed, certain in the faith?

The question is, which aspect of faith is that? Is it the essence of faith? Is it your personal faith to be fixed, certain, sure? Here's the definite article, the faith. Remember when we talked about that aspect of faith, the faith? It could mean one of three things. it could mean the totality, the revelation of God, or it can mean a portion of that revelation, like the faith, like the gospel, or it could mean personal faith, the faith referring to one's personal faith. I believe that it's, number one, to be established, fixed, certain, and movable in the faith, in the total revelation of the Word of God.

That's where we're to be fixed. Why are we to be fixed in that? Why are we to be grounded in the total revelation of the Word of God? Look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 13. Till we come in the unity of the faith. Again, the whole body of truth there, the essence of faith, and of the knowledge, the word there for knowledge is epignosis, which is intimacy, until we have that intimacy with the Son of God, unto a perfect man, a complete man, unto a measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Why, that we henceforth be no more little children who cannot speak, tossed to and fro, and carried about every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive." So, we're to be established in the faith so that someone can't come along with some wind of doctrine.

In our men's Bible study, the question has come up about the prayer of Jebez. And he's put out this book on the prayer of Jebez, coming at believers saying, you should be praying the prayer of Jebez. So let me read it to you. Jebez called on the God of Israel, saying, O that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me. And God granted him that which he requested.

So, the message going out to believers, if you want to be blessed, then you repeat the prayer of Jebez But look at what it says, Oh Lord that you would bless me. Do we have to ask for the Lord's blessing or has he already blessed us? We are in Christ. He has blessed us with what? Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly. Every single one. And not one has been left out. Not one. What blessing are we to pray for?

Enlarge my borders. Lord, I'm on a quarter acre now. I would like to have 40 acres. I think that when it says enlarge my borders, it's talking about the physical realm. But are we to be praying for things? Where should our focus be? Should our focus be here on earth or focus on things above in the heavenlies where we reside spiritually and not on things of the earth? your hand be with me. Is God's hand with you and with me? In Hebrews, what does it say?

That I'll never, never, never. It's a triple negative in the Greek. It's the strongest, most emphatic way you can say something. I'll never, never, never leave you. Is he with you? Is he with me? He said he's never going to leave us. Romans Chapter 8, verse 34-35 says nothing, nothing in this entire universe will ever separate us from the love of Christ. Whether it be height, depth, principalities, powers, there is nothing that will ever separate us from the love of Christ. Do we have to pray to the Lord for Him to be with us? Absolutely not. So, as we're built up and edified in Christ, there's a result, that we get established. We get fixed in the faith, in the totality of the faith.

It's an ongoing process, present tense, passive voice, God does it, so we don't get tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by every book that comes out. Have you noticed that in all of these aspects so far, it's been passive voice, passive voice, passive voice, were acted upon, what did we do? We started out by walking by faith, active voice. That's all God has required of us so far, just to walk by faith, rest and trust in what He's revealed to us and what He is revealing to us. All of the rest, He does.

But there's one more active voice that we participate in, by abounding with thanksgiving. So the response of our walk is that we abound with thanksgiving, that we are grateful to Him, that we abound with gratitude, that we abound with thankfulness. That's our response, and we are the ones that participate in that. So we've talked about our walk. We have a responsibility. Our responsibility is to walk by faith, active voice.

God's responsibility He does the rest. As we walk by faith in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, in who He is, and who we are in Him, and respond to the ministry of the Holy Spirit as He reveals the person of Christ to us, and conforming us to the very image of His Son, our only response to all of that is one of being thankful. Thank you, Lord. Amen.