In Christ, Faith Is Working Through Love

So today, we're going to talk about, we're going to work on just two verses, Galatians chapter 5, verse 5 and 6. In response to 3 and 4 that talks about that if you're going to be under the law, you've fallen from grace, Paul says, well, let's look at the other side.

He says, for we, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. So it's kind of a complicated verse because it just jumps from falling from grace to this. And so the first word we want to talk about is we. As for we, we Christians, the real Christians, or the Christians that are living under grace, through the Spirit are waiting for the hope of righteousness by faith. We're not like those other Christians who are putting themselves under law and who are attempting to live righteously through self-effort and dependence upon the Spirit. It's like they're saying, whatever other Christians may be doing, we repudiate the law as living by Christians.

So to kind of get that in frame, frame reference is what they're saying. So that's how it starts. And the word wait. We're waiting. It means, like in Philippians 3.20, Paul says, for our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait, or use the word look, for a Savior, the Lord Jesus. And there that same word is translated, we're looking. Here it's we're waiting.

It kind of means that they have an intense attitude, a yearning, an eagerness waiting for something. and they're waiting expectantly. The best thing I could think of that fits that kind of waiting is your kids at age five waiting for Christmas. You know, there's an expectancy, there's an eagerness, the time goes really slow, and they want to get to that Christmas tree and get to those presents. So that's what these believers who operate and live under law are waiting for this interesting thing that's called the hope of righteousness. They're waiting for, as we say on the overhead, a practical righteousness. It's not like having a wish that I'm really, really hoping that I'm going to get this righteousness, like I'm really, really hoping the Broncos win a game once in a while. It's a really strong certainty, an absolute certainty that something's coming. It's an intense desire and an eager expectation for this practical righteousness, which will be constantly produced in their life by the Holy Spirit.

Are we righteous as believers? The answer, yeah. We're positionally righteous before God. positioned in Christ. We talk a lot about position and condition in our teaching here. But this righteousness is the practical conditional kind. The way that that righteousness that we all possess positionally is to be worked out in our life. Not only in our life, but also from us. Because righteousness means a right standing or a right relationship with God himself.

Here's an example. Paul in Colossians 127 says, To whom God willed to make known what is the riches of His glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in us. It's an absolute certainty that Christ is in us. But that glory, from our perspective, hasn't really been experienced or seen yet. It's a growing thing. It's manifested in us slowly but surely. But then we read in John 17 that the Lord says in His prayer, look, the glory which you've given me, I've given them. Now, if you're like me, you've thought someday, well, when is that going to show up? I believe God in what He says about me, that God's glory is in me, it's going to be manifested to me, but boy, today I could really use some of that.

This righteousness, like I say, has nothing to do with justification righteousness. Abraham was declared righteous because he believed God. It didn't change anything about his experience, but God looked at him as being righteous. Here, believers who live under grace are waiting for the practical righteousness, the everyday working out of righteousness in their lives as they walk day by day. So it's a matter of, we got the positional righteousness because God the Father and God the Son completed the work on the cross. The Lord Jesus died and took care of the sin issue. And the Father, because of that, justifies every single believer on the basis of the work of Christ on the cross. If you believe that, you're righteous.

The context here, though, is conditional. It's not my standing at all. I have the standing, but I may not be able to operate in the condition. We're dealing with a method of the Christian life. It's not the relation that a person has in a standing before God, but it's the working out practically of how that righteousness looks and operates. And Paul has already said, well, that isn't going to happen under law. That won't happen.

So we believers, the ones that are understanding this, are waiting for this to be part of. We want to know. We want to rest in the love of God. We want to know that the Holy Spirit is manifesting that life through us. It's something that every believer awaits expectantly if you understand, if you have been taught about your position. and how God has done everything and that what you own and what you're part of as being in Christ. So, again this shows that the grace spoken of back in verse 5 is growth, I would call it growth grace or sanctifying grace, it has to do with spiritual growth, of which legal Christians in Galatia were totally depriving themselves of. by their act of depending upon self-effort in an attempt to obey any law system.

Doesn't it seem like an oxymoron? We just have this built-in mindset that, well, if you tell me what to do, I'll do it. Right? So we look at God and say, well, tell me what to do, and I'll do it. And he says, believe me. Period. Believe me. And so we go through this process of trying to learn how to do the Christian life. And if we're taught legalism, that's what we adopt to, and that's what we adapt to, and we really try hard. So what happens under legalism? Let's say that I'm really trying to obey God.

I wasn't a Christian two months, and some guy brought me a book that said, now that you're a Christian, here's what you do. And I looked in this and I thought, well, this book kind of gets away from what becoming a Christian was all about. It was by grace through faith. And this book was giving me, uh-oh, here's the rules.

And if I live under those rules, what are the results going to be if I try hard? Roger taught last week that you fall from grace. What happens? You fall out of the realm of grace. Why? because grace requires me to receive, not to do. Grace makes me a receiver, not a doer. Grace makes me an object of God's activity, not the one who promotes it. I receive. So, if I want to work out my own salvation under the law system, the first thing that happens is that I fall out from under the practical application of grace in my life. The second thing is, I don't grow. I don't grow at all.

Paul says, Courtney reminded me of this verse earlier, he said, we're to grow, Peter says we're to grow in the knowledge and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't say do these 25 things and you will grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus. We're to receive the knowledge of who Christ is, who we are in Him, and we're to trust Him and allow the Spirit of God to cause us to grow in this grace so we can experience. If we don't do that, if we try to implement some sort of system or program out of our own flesh, how much growth do we get?

Zero. Zero. So you have to think, well, gee, these people that are in these Reformed churches that have all of this legal system going on, are they growing? Answer, no. Not according to this verse. They're not growing. Here's the third thing. They become a debtor to do the entire law. Now, if you talk to one of them, they're going to say, well, we don't have to do the whole law. The ceremonial part of it we've put aside, but we're going to do the moral part of it. Right? Well, that isn't what the Word of God says.

The Word of God says if you're going to do it, you've got to do it all. If you break one of the little things, you break the whole thing. You know, it's like a whole glass, big piece of glass like those doors back there. If they were made out of tempered glass and you broke one, it would break into a thousand pieces and it would be up to you to put them all back together so that there weren't any cracks and you could see through it again. What chance do you have of doing that? None. None. But you are a debtor. If you're going to be under the law, you can't pick and choose. You've got to do it all or none. Here's the other thing.

You're severed from fellowship with Christ. Now, what does that mean, if I'm severed from fellowship? Where does that take me? Well, it takes me into my own thought about what I think God likes and what He wants me to do, and I'm doing the best I can. But I fail to talk to him about, well, what's important to you? I want to be in fellowship with you. I want to understand. I want you to show me who you are.

I want this growing in the knowledge and grace of you from Peter to be part of what my experience is. If I'm under law, that's not going to happen. Because here's the interesting thing about law that causes every one of us to have a huge problem with it. If I'm operating under grace, one of the great things that grace teaches me is that I'm okay.

There's a lady that lives two doors down from us, she's got this license plates on her car that says, I'm okay, are you? And she did it, you know, I am okay, are you? And I'm thinking, well, she can't be a believer in Christ because she's Jewish. And she never... well, if you knew her, you would know she wasn't a believer. So I, as I live under grace, can I say, well, I'm okay? Answer, yeah.

Can you think of one spiritual blessing that you have not received? Ephesians tells you that you have been blessed with every single spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. Every single one. If you can think of one, then God's lying to you. Every single blessing, I live under grace.

In any sense in which I put myself under a lost system where I think I'm going to do something that God's going to appreciate me more, love me more, bless me more, where does my focus go? It goes off of Christ and onto me and my performance. There went the fellowship. Because, you know, that pity party, me, myself, and I, that's what I live with. I don't have Christ as my object. I don't have Him as the one I fellowship with because the law forces me to pay attention to me. The great thing about grace is that it frees me up to behold Him. That's the great thing about it. And the last part is that I'm discharged from serving Him. So you do all the spiritual push-ups in the world, and what happens? You just get tired. You don't go anywhere. You just get tired.

And those are just practical things of what it's like to live under grace. Now, I read The Hungry Hearts every day, and I know a lot of you do, and I saw one last week. I thought, gee, this is really This is really good, so I'm going to read it to you slowly, hopefully not in a kind of a robotic way. But it was titled, Position and Possession.

The verse he used was Philippians 3.12.

He said, I follow after, if that I may apprehend that which also I am apprehended of Christ. If I were to translate it with a different translation, it would say, I do not say that I have already won the race or have already reached perfection, but I'm pressing on, striving to lay hold of the prize for which also Christ has laid hold of me.

Now he quotes J.B. Stoney, and here's what Stoney says, to know our position in the Lord Jesus is necessary so that we may understand the ways and rest in His means. Then, by processing through the years, He slowly narrows the discrepancy between our heavenly position and our personal condition. Truth is received in the mind, it's assimilated in the heart, and it's manifested in your walk.

The first step is we believe that the Lord Jesus was sent of the Father. The second step is that in the fullness of his work we are justified. Third, we make his acquaintance. Fourth, we come to see him in heaven. We know our association with him there and we rest here. Fifth, we learn the mystery, the great things we are entitled to because of being in his body and being his bride. And sixth, we are seated in the heavenly places in him. And lastly, we rejoice in the wonder and in the praise in the knowledge of himself.

As a result of the work of Christ's cross and resurrection, eternal life is received, complete, by those who believe. But while that life in itself is victorious, it's incorruptible and it's indestructible, the believer has to come by faith to prove it, to live by it, to learn its principles, to be conformed to it.

The life in itself and the believer needs no addition so far as its quality and quantity are concerned. So far as its power, its glory, its potentialities are concerned, nothing can be added to it. Nothing. But the course of spiritual experience, of spiritual life, is to discover, to appropriate, and to grow in all that that life represents and means.

And he closed with the verse Colossians 2, 7, rooted and built up in him and established. So, this verse says that all this happens by faith. The words are interpreted, we wait by faith. We wait for this hope of righteousness out from faith, because the word ek is in there. If you were to define, and we've had a lot of faith classes, but if you were to define faith, the very essence of faith is pretty simple.

It's Hebrews 11.1, which is, faith is the substance or the reality of things hoped for, the things which are absolutely certain, the evidence or the proof of things that aren't seen. Faith is an absolute proof of the things of God. And that's the essence. Personal faith is a conviction based on the hearing of the Word of God. It's my faith. So Paul says that it is not only by faith, but it's through the agency of the Holy Spirit. He's the one that shows us. And it's not by the agency of your flesh. It's not by self-effort. It's by the agency of the Holy Spirit.

So therefore, what happens? for the presence of an experimental righteousness in our life. That's what we hope for. And hope is a certain thing. We're taught by the Holy Spirit to cherish this hope, this abundant certainty that we share in Christ's righteousness and His life and glory. We're taught to live expectantly, moment by moment. So expand the translation on verse 5. For whatever other Christians may be doing, As far as us, we Christians, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, on the ground of faith, a hope for righteousness we are eagerly awaiting for. So verse 6, For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love. Every single believer is in Christ Jesus. Everyone. This is probably the most wonderful statement in the Bible. I think it's the greatest phrase in Scripture.

This idea that we are in Christ. It's speaking. So we ask ourselves, when we're in Christ Jesus, are we talking about, again, position or condition? When you and I believed in the person and work of Christ, we were placed into Christ. We were initially placed into Him by the Holy Spirit. That's our position. And at what point did we go in?

If you put Christ's life on a timeline, where in His life did the Spirit include us? Was it when He was born? Was it the Sermon on the Mount? Was it His suffering? Was it when He was hanging on the cross? When He died, He buried and resurrected? When did He go in?

We went in at the very point that He died. And it's important to know that that's the point we went in. Romans 6, 3 and 4 says, And do you not know that all of us who have been baptized, which means we've been placed into Christ, never to be taken out, have been baptized into his death? So we go into him at the point in which he dies. Therefore, having been buried with him through the baptism into his death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, We, too, might walk in newness of life.

So what's happening here? Everything that happened to Christ on that cross, starting with His death, has now become true of us. His death is my death. His burial is my burial. His resurrection is my resurrection. His seating is my seating. All of that's my position in Christ.

So what does the word death mean? It just simply means separation. And if I recognize that through Christ's death and my inclusion in it, I've been separated from everything that was not pleasing to Him, which included my sin nature, the world I live in, the law for sure, the influence and the control of Satan, and death itself, I've been separated from all of that.

If that's true, where did I go? If I got separated, where did I land? I landed in Christ. I landed in Him, into a new creation. I landed into a new operating system, now called grace. No law anymore. I landed into a brand new relationship with my Father. I have exactly the same relationship with God the Father as Christ has with God the Father. I'm free. I landed into freedom.

So, whenever you see that phrase in the Word that says, in Christ, in the Beloved, in Him, it's really important that you understand what it means. Paul talks about it 147 times in the New Testament. 147 times. So what was he telling us in regards to facts about circumcision, that in Christ Jesus there's neither circumcision or uncircumcision? Because we're in Christ, in Christ Jesus, circumcision is a non-starter.

You understand what I mean by that? When we were crucified with Christ, buried and resurrected, and we landed in Christ, so to speak, circumcision is what goes on in Christ. Because to get there, we had to be spiritually circumcised. We had to be cut off from all that was not pleasing to Him. So whether we're circumcised or not, it has no value in Christ at all.

No value at all. Even if we don't know it, or we do know it. Even if we don't understand it, or do understand it. Or we don't believe it. It has no value. So what are the facts? Circumcision is of no value to God because it's from the flesh, which is of the old creation. We've been separated from the old creation.

However, if we don't know or understand or believe in these facts, we have this, in computer language, you have a default position, you know, default back to whatever was the fact reproduced. Our default position is to try harder to be a better Christian, or try to be more like Christ, or try to be a good example for everyone who's around me, or try and be more loving, or more considerate, or more patient, or more understanding.

I'm going to try to be less angry. I'm going to be less anxious. I'm not going to be as bitter as I was. And I'm really not going to resent things. All of that is the default position. The problem is that I've been deceived about that. I've been deceived that God's going to be pleased and overjoyed with me and my efforts. With this understanding, what am I supposed to rely on? I either rely on what I think and the value of my flesh, or I rely on what the Word of God tells me.

The Christian life, if you put it in a small, short sentence, is real simple. It's the person of Christ. The Christian life is a person Christ. He is our very life. His desire is to live his life through me as we walk by faith. That's what his desire is.

So to say that in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or uncircumcision means anything But faith working through love, here's the contrast here. On the one hand, circumcision has no value. On the other hand, being in Christ is tremendously valuable. On the one hand, my thoughts are of no value. God's facts really matter. And on the one hand, my workings don't matter. Faith workings really do matter. My doing doesn't matter, but my believing is really big. Miles Stanford used to talk about that we have to be before we do. We have to believe and understand who we are before any action comes. Circumcision or uncircumcision doesn't matter. Receiving matters to God.

Energized by my flesh's ability doesn't matter. but I'm energized by God's love, that really matters. Now, notice that this word says means or the King James uses the word avail. It doesn't have power. It doesn't wield any power or exert any power. To be effective or capable in producing results so that they have any value.

So if I think circumcision, and Roger talked about, well, I think water baptism is something that's really going to be pleasing to God because it's a ritual that I can do and He'll really think I'm great because I did it. It has no value in Christ. No value at all.

Now, does that mean you don't get baptized? No. But you don't get baptized because you think God is going to be more pleasing with you if you do. You get baptized. Really, with baptism, I think we ought to take this baptismal and stick it out on the front yard. Because what really happens? I go down in the water, I'm waving goodbye to the world. I die in Christ and when I'm raised up to newness of life, they can all see I'm not of them anymore. That's why I ought to be out there.

So in the case of the one who's joined to Christ in that life-giving union which is affected through the act of the Holy Spirit baptizing the believer and the sinner into the Lord Jesus, the fact that I'm circumcised or not circumcised has no power for anything in the use in this new life. None whatsoever. So, the thing that is powerful or has power to affect the transformation in your life is faith. The faith of the justified person which issues in love In his life, a love produced by the Holy Spirit.

I hope you can see these. I'm going to talk a little bit about the aspects of biblical faith. There are four aspects we've taught on this class before. The first we've already talked about, which is what faith is. It's the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It's really the reality of who Christ is, who God is, his ways and his thoughts. Then you see in scripture the word the before the word faith. It can either mean the entire body of beliefs that we have, or maybe a specific part of it, like we believe in the gospel, the gospel of salvation, 1 Corinthians 15. We say, well, that's the faith. But Paul's epistles are the faith. The epistles, we wouldn't say that the Gospels are necessarily the faith, although we believe what's in there, but they're not relevant to us. The third one is faith as a principle. You know what a principle is?

It's how a thing operates or functions all the time, like the principle of gravity. If I drop this, it goes to the floor. Why? Because the principle of gravity takes it down there. Well, faith is a principle and it operates and functions the same way every time.

Personal faith in what he has revealed in the personal work of the Lord Jesus is the principle. We operate on this principle of faith. And the last one is personal faith. What is my personal faith? Personal faith, as you can see in the bottom, is rest and trust in what is revealed to us through the Word of God in the essence of faith and of the faith. We receive information in our mind, assimilated through our hearts, and through the work of the Holy Spirit, it's manifested in our life.

We walk and function and live by faith, no matter what the circumstances are. And notice I use the word biblical faith, because everybody's got faith. If you've been to a DIA and gotten on an airplane, you have faith. Biblical faith allows me as a believer to rest, and it makes the Lord Jesus the object of my life. Personal biblical faith is a subjective trust. That's where you and I come in to this whole scheme of things. It's subjective. It's from in. It's where we get our rest.

We trust God about what He said to us. We trust Him about the objective truths that He reveals to us, either by our own reading and study or by fellowship with other believers. And we respond that way. We respond by faith, by resting in the objective truth.

The object of faith is the person of the Lord Jesus. He's the object. It isn't to cram your head full of facts. The object of your faith is the Lord Jesus. It is to know Him by faith. So, in closing, I want to talk a little bit about the last, faith working through love. Now, faith has got to have a motivation.

God's love is always active and it's aggressive. I'm sure we all know that. We've all experienced it. He always makes the first move. He's always moving towards us. John 3.16, 15.6, Romans 5, Romans 8, 8.35-39, 1 John 4.8. Read those verses and you'll see God is always making the first move. We're studying Genesis on Wednesday night. That's one of the things you discover in reading Genesis.

No matter how awful man is, God is constantly looking for a way to bless him because he loves him. He's always looking for a way to show that He loves His creation all the time. And man doesn't do a too good a job of even recognizing it. So, He's always moving out in grace, and He's always moving out in love.

When we see it, that we are the objects of His love, That love begins to energize our faith. When you realize, take any of you who are loved by another human being, it makes a difference in how you respond to them. When you begin to realize the intensity with which Christ loves you, it energizes your faith. He becomes more and more an object to you, which makes us want to be in His presence.

You know, the example is like Mary and Martha. Martha was really busy helping. Mary just wanted to be with him, just want to sit at his feet and learn of him. In closing, to demonstrate how God is so desirous of us to know his son, I'm just going to quote Colossians 2, 9 through 12.

For in him, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. And in him you have been made complete, and he is the head of all rule and authority. And in him you are circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God who raised them from the dead.

That's who we are. So let's close. Dear Father, our prayer today is that we would come into the fullness of understanding of not only what you've done, but really who you are and this heart that you have, that we would know your Son, that we would be motivated by his love, and we would function and live by grace through faith. And we pray in his precious name. Amen.