Preface
Most of us have never seen the difference between Jesus' and Paul's teaching on faith.
Jesus was talking to the unregenerate Jew.
Paul is talking to the recreated sons of God.
The body of Christ is what Jesus wanted the Jews to be.
He told them what faith would do.
Paul tells us what faith has made us by grace.
Jesus urged and demanded faith on the part of the faithless Jewish nation.
The Pauline Revelation lets us into the secret that we are believers; and as believers, we are possessors of all the things that Jesus promised that faith would do.
The believer has a legal right to the use of the Name of Jesus.
It is not a problem of faith with him—whatever he asks of the Father in Jesus' Name he gets.
Jesus said to the believing ones, "If two of you shall agree as touching anything that you ask of the Father, it shall be done unto you."
That didn't belong to the unregenerate Jew, it belonged to the body of Christ.
When we urge the believer to believe, we are ignoring the fact that he is a believer, and that all things belong to him.
When we take what Jesus said to the Jew about faith and try to get this untaught believer to exercise faith, we are sinning against the Pauline Revelation and the untaught believer.
What we should do is to so open the Word that he can't help but act upon it.
We should never urge the unsaved man to believe, but we should give him the Word to act upon. Believing is acting on the Word.
The man without Eternal Life can act upon the Word.
He can take Jesus Christ as his Savior.
He can confess Him as his Lord.
And the moment that he does it, God takes him to be His child and imparts to him Eternal Life; then all things in Redemption belong to him.
Chapter 15
NEVER URGE PEOPLE TO BELIEVE
Give them something to act upon and they will do it. Open the Bible to them until Acts 20:32 becomes a present tense reality. "And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all them that are sanctified."
Paul is leaving the church at Ephesus. He may never see them again and he commends them to the Father. He turns them over into the hands of love.
And he said, "I not only do this, but I commend you to the word of His grace." These Epistles of Paul's are the words of His grace.
The four gospels are the words of His grace, and so the whole New Testament makes up the book of the words of the Father's grace.
If he were here he would say, "I want you to study it. I want you to prove yourself capable of doing the Word."
There will be ability in the Word as you study it to put you over and make you a conqueror.
To merely know the Word has no real value in it unless it becomes a part of your life.
It does not become a part of your life until you begin to practice it.
As you begin to live the Word, then the Word becomes a part of your very being, enters into your blood, into your very system. The very strength and ability of God becomes a part of you.
1 Corinthians 2:12 has a beautiful suggestion here: "That we might know the things that were freely given to us by God."
These things that were given to us were in the finished work of Christ. We have access to all the riches of His grace unveiled in that finished work of Christ. Colossians 2:2-3, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Notice some of them.
Satan was conquered, defeated by Jesus before He arose from the dead, and that defeat of Satan is set to our credit so you can safely say and joyously too, "I conquered Satan in Christ."
As Jesus was Master of the Devil, so I am in His Name.
I was raised together with Christ.
I have in me His resurrection ability, His resurrection life. I am a Master.
Ephesians 1:17-23, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
And that great, mighty Holy Spirit who has come to make His home in my body is guiding me into all the reality of the wealth that has been given to me in Christ.
He is making me know what the resurrection means to me: that if I were raised together with Christ, I am a Master of the forces that operated in slaying Jesus; that I am now taking Jesus' place in this earth walk.
I have a legal right to the use of His Name that has all authority.
I have a legal right to the ability of the Holy Spirit and I know it is God who is at work within me, willing and working His own good pleasure. I am not left to my own resources.
2 Corinthians 9:8 "And God is able to make all grace abound unto you; that you having always all sufficiency in everything, may abound unto every good work."
God is making His grace to come leaping toward you in all its fullness, and that grace has within it His all sufficiency for every emergency.
What a Master you are!
How ashamed we ought to be that we have ever talked about our weakness and our lack when the ability of God, the measureless ability of God is ours.
Why, in the tenth verse He says, "And he that supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, shall supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness."
How little we have appreciated this that His very sufficiency and ability are all at our disposal.
You understand what He means by "increase the fruits of your righteousness." All the gracious words that Jesus said and all the mighty acts that He performed were the fruits of His righteousness.
I wonder if we have ever thought of it.
Jesus was fearless in the presence of the enemy in every place.
He had no fear of a storm at sea.
He had no fear of lack.
He wasn't afraid of death. He raised Lazarus who had been dead four days.
He wasn't afraid of a mob.
Those were some of the fruits of His righteousness.
When these fruits abound in us they will make us like Jesus, and these fruits can abound in us.
Righteousness was given to us with that intent.
2 Corinthians 3:4-5 "And such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward; not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant."
Now notice this carefully. He is not only our ability, but He is our sufficiency.
There is no lack in us, in our service, in our finances, in anything connected with our earth walk.
You see when He took us over and came into us and began to build His Word into us, He was building His sufficiency and His ability into us.
That Word of His created this universe; created this earth with all its flowers and fruits, its wealth of minerals, chemicals, and oils: His efficiency in that Living Word created these things.
Now He is building into us that Living Word with its supernatural efficiency.
A Prayer Life backed with this knowledge becomes invincible.
We haven't said anything but what is true in regard to the New Creation.
All we need to do now is to take our place and act our part for it is God who is at work within us.
Not only is He building Himself into us, but He is there to work through us.
Now just take this thing home to your heart and read Ephesians 1:3, "Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ."
You are blessed with everything that you need.
His very fullness is yours.
His ability is yours.
His love is yours.
Yes, He Himself is yours!
Contrast Of Paul and Jesus On Faith
Christ tells us what the Jew can be.
Paul tells the Believers what they are in Christ.
Christ tells the Jew what he could do if he had faith.
Paul tells us what we are because we have believed on Christ.
Paul reveals to us that we are in the realm with Christ now.
Jesus tells them, "If they believe."
Paul shows us that we are believers and that we possess all things in Christ.
Paul's revelation is what we can do, because we are what Jesus wished the Jews to be.
Jesus is talking to a nation of natural men.
Paul is speaking of the New Creation, the sons of God, members of the body of Christ.
Jesus is speaking to the First Covenant people who have lost their faith in God.
Paul is speaking to those who are in Christ, sons of God.
Jesus is challenging the unbelieving Jew by revealing what faith will do in the lips of a man.
Paul thanks God for leading him in triumph in Christ.
Jesus said to the disciples before Pentecost, "Greater things than these shall ye do because I go unto the Father."
All that Jesus had done for Israel was in the sense realm.
He had healed the sick.
He had fed the multitudes.
He had opened blind eyes.
He had raised the dead, and stilled the sea.
But the disciples, after they were recreated, were to perform miracles upon men's spirits.
They were to do spiritual things as well as things in the sense realm.
The "greater things," were to lead men into the New Creation and unveil spiritual realities for them to enjoy.
Jesus was surrounded by unbelief, and He was seeking to inspire faith in natural man.
It would be well for us to recognize this fact, that natural man cannot have faith in the revelation realm.
He has sense knowledge faith.
He believes what he can see, hear, and feel.
All God asks him to do is to act on the Word.
He demands that he confess Jesus as Lord and act upon the Word that declares Christ died for his sins and was raised for his justification.
For years I tried to get natural men to believe. I can see them now struggling, crying, weeping and confessing their sins. It was so hard for them to grasp it.
But now I can see how simple it is.
All I ask them to do is act upon what God has spoken, and He counts that as faith.
The man who acts on that enters into the family, becomes a member of the body of Christ.
He becomes a partaker of the divine nature, so that all things that God wrought in Christ in the Substitution belong to him.
Now he can act intelligently on the Word either for himself or for another.
Believing is acting on the Word. Faith is the result of acting.
Under the First Covenant, the word "faith" does not occur in connection with Moses or Israel until Paul unveils it in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews.
Moses obeyed what the angel told him to do.
God never left it as a problem of faith, but it was a problem of obedience.
The word "faith" does not once occur.
They were servants acting under orders from God which came through angels.
Malachi 1:6 unveils it to us. "A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I am a father, where is mine honor? and if I am a master, where is my fear? says Jehovah?"
Malachi 3:16: "Then they that feared Jehovah spoke one to another; and Jehovah hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name."
And Malachi 4:2: "But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings."
All through the Old Covenant you will notice, especially in the Psalms and in the prophetic books, that Israel feared Jehovah.
Fear and love don't blend.
They were natural men who lived under an iron law called the law of death.
We are the New Creation folks.
Fear has been taken out of us, and we love because He has imparted His love nature to us.
All of Israel's mighty men were mighty because God revealed Himself to them.
They learned to do what He told them to do.
In 1 Kings 18:36 Elijah said, "O Jehovah, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word."
Then the fire fell upon the altar and consumed the offering and the altar.
Elijah was simply doing what God had told him; not through anything that he had read, but an angel always communicated with him, or God gave him a dream or a vision.
Today we are to act upon the written Word and Revelation Knowledge.
During the first century of the early church only a very few people had the written Word.
Wherever Paul went, it was "the spoken Word."
Where Peter and John went, it was "the spoken Word."
We have the written Word, but faith makes of it a living Word, a life giving Word, a healing Word, a comforting Word.
To the unbelieving it is just ink on paper; just words that may bring condemnation, or, if the heart is responsive, bring life and healing.
Legal and Vital Side of the Plan of Redemption
It helped me greatly when I found that prayer was based on legal grounds; that it didn't depend upon struggle and long hours of agonizing before the Lord.
It wasn't based upon pity, but upon a legal foundation.
You remember that the Bible is made up of two covenants, two binding contracts: The old one and the new one.
The first contract was made with Abraham—sealed with blood.
The second contract was between Jesus and the Father—sealed with the Son's blood.
Israel were the beneficiaries of that first covenant.
We are the beneficiaries of the second.
Our redemption is based on legal grounds.
Our New Birth is legal.
Every child of God is legally in the Family.
The book of Romans that gives to us the plan of Redemption is the greatest legal document in existence.
The New Testament or New Covenant is the greatest document on jurisprudence ever given man.
Hebrews 7:22: "By so much also hath Jesus become the surety of a better covenant."
God said to Abraham, "By Myself have I sworn." He becomes the surety or the guarantor of the old covenant.
You see, the throne is back of the covenant. Jesus and the Father are back of the new covenant and prayer is based upon this covenant—consequently, it is based upon legal grounds.
Hebrews 11:1—One translator makes it read: "Faith is the title deed to things hoped for, putting to the proof things not seen."
Practically all the basic terminology of English Law comes from the Bible.
Then if prayer is based on legal grounds, we should learn what they are.
In the first place, we are legally justified or made Righteous; legally Born Again; have a legal right to Eternal Life and a son's place in the Father's family.
And He is legally responsible for us because He brought us into being.
There are two phases of our Redemption: One is the legal and the other is the vital.
The legal is what God has done for us in the past, like the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.
The vital is what the Holy Spirit through the Word is doing in us.
Romans 4:25 is a good illustration of the legal: "Who was delivered up on account of our trespasses and was raised for our justification."
The vital is illustrated in Philippians 2:13: "For it is God who is at work within you willing and working His own good pleasure." Also 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Ephesians 3:16-19: "That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with his ability through the spirit in the inward man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts on the ground of faith; to the end that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to grasp with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fulness of God." This is vital.
Notice the next verse: "Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the ability of God that is at work within us."
Redemption is legal. It is in the past. It is a finished work.
The New Birth is vital. It is now.
When you know that prayer is based on legal grounds and you know that God has legally tied Himself, has bound Himself to do certain things, then you will learn to take your place and act accordingly.
His Son, the Living Word, is the guarantor, and gives you your rights and privileges in Redemption.
God gave us this Word of His own free will.
He has led us into the prayer life.
He has led us to trust Him and now He will not fail us.
So we can confidently turn to Isaiah 41:10 and hear Him whisper "Fear thou not for I am with thee; be not dismayed for I am your (Father) God; I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness."
That "right hand" is Jesus and He is upholding us by the Word of His power, by the Word of His grace.
Questions
1. Why should we never urge the unsaved man to believe?
2. What is the word of His grace able to do for you?
3. To merely know the Word is what?
4. What does He mean by "increase the fruits of your righteousness”?
5. He is not only our ability, but He is our sufficiency. What does that mean?
6. Jesus said to the disciples before Pentecost, "Greater things than these shall you do because I go unto the Father." What did He mean?
7. What fact should we recognize about natural man?
8. Under the First Covenant, the word "faith" does not occur in connection with Moses or Israel until Paul unveils it in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Why?
1)
2)
9. Elijah was simply doing what God had told him. How did God do that? How does He do it today?
1)
2)
10. How did the Bible influence English Law?
11. There are two phases of our Redemption: One is the legal and the other is the vital. How does each work?
1)
2)
12. How do you learn to take your place and act accordingly?
Most of us have never seen the difference between Jesus' and Paul's teaching on faith.
Jesus was talking to the unregenerate Jew.
Paul is talking to the recreated sons of God.
The body of Christ is what Jesus wanted the Jews to be.
He told them what faith would do.
Paul tells us what faith has made us by grace.
Jesus urged and demanded faith on the part of the faithless Jewish nation.
The Pauline Revelation lets us into the secret that we are believers; and as believers, we are possessors of all the things that Jesus promised that faith would do.
The believer has a legal right to the use of the Name of Jesus.
It is not a problem of faith with him—whatever he asks of the Father in Jesus' Name he gets.
Jesus said to the believing ones, "If two of you shall agree as touching anything that you ask of the Father, it shall be done unto you."
That didn't belong to the unregenerate Jew, it belonged to the body of Christ.
When we urge the believer to believe, we are ignoring the fact that he is a believer, and that all things belong to him.
When we take what Jesus said to the Jew about faith and try to get this untaught believer to exercise faith, we are sinning against the Pauline Revelation and the untaught believer.
What we should do is to so open the Word that he can't help but act upon it.
We should never urge the unsaved man to believe, but we should give him the Word to act upon. Believing is acting on the Word.
The man without Eternal Life can act upon the Word.
He can take Jesus Christ as his Savior.
He can confess Him as his Lord.
And the moment that he does it, God takes him to be His child and imparts to him Eternal Life; then all things in Redemption belong to him.
Chapter 15
NEVER URGE PEOPLE TO BELIEVE
Give them something to act upon and they will do it. Open the Bible to them until Acts 20:32 becomes a present tense reality. "And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all them that are sanctified."
Paul is leaving the church at Ephesus. He may never see them again and he commends them to the Father. He turns them over into the hands of love.
And he said, "I not only do this, but I commend you to the word of His grace." These Epistles of Paul's are the words of His grace.
The four gospels are the words of His grace, and so the whole New Testament makes up the book of the words of the Father's grace.
If he were here he would say, "I want you to study it. I want you to prove yourself capable of doing the Word."
There will be ability in the Word as you study it to put you over and make you a conqueror.
To merely know the Word has no real value in it unless it becomes a part of your life.
It does not become a part of your life until you begin to practice it.
As you begin to live the Word, then the Word becomes a part of your very being, enters into your blood, into your very system. The very strength and ability of God becomes a part of you.
1 Corinthians 2:12 has a beautiful suggestion here: "That we might know the things that were freely given to us by God."
These things that were given to us were in the finished work of Christ. We have access to all the riches of His grace unveiled in that finished work of Christ. Colossians 2:2-3, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Notice some of them.
Satan was conquered, defeated by Jesus before He arose from the dead, and that defeat of Satan is set to our credit so you can safely say and joyously too, "I conquered Satan in Christ."
As Jesus was Master of the Devil, so I am in His Name.
I was raised together with Christ.
I have in me His resurrection ability, His resurrection life. I am a Master.
Ephesians 1:17-23, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
And that great, mighty Holy Spirit who has come to make His home in my body is guiding me into all the reality of the wealth that has been given to me in Christ.
He is making me know what the resurrection means to me: that if I were raised together with Christ, I am a Master of the forces that operated in slaying Jesus; that I am now taking Jesus' place in this earth walk.
I have a legal right to the use of His Name that has all authority.
I have a legal right to the ability of the Holy Spirit and I know it is God who is at work within me, willing and working His own good pleasure. I am not left to my own resources.
2 Corinthians 9:8 "And God is able to make all grace abound unto you; that you having always all sufficiency in everything, may abound unto every good work."
God is making His grace to come leaping toward you in all its fullness, and that grace has within it His all sufficiency for every emergency.
What a Master you are!
How ashamed we ought to be that we have ever talked about our weakness and our lack when the ability of God, the measureless ability of God is ours.
Why, in the tenth verse He says, "And he that supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, shall supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness."
How little we have appreciated this that His very sufficiency and ability are all at our disposal.
You understand what He means by "increase the fruits of your righteousness." All the gracious words that Jesus said and all the mighty acts that He performed were the fruits of His righteousness.
I wonder if we have ever thought of it.
Jesus was fearless in the presence of the enemy in every place.
He had no fear of a storm at sea.
He had no fear of lack.
He wasn't afraid of death. He raised Lazarus who had been dead four days.
He wasn't afraid of a mob.
Those were some of the fruits of His righteousness.
When these fruits abound in us they will make us like Jesus, and these fruits can abound in us.
Righteousness was given to us with that intent.
2 Corinthians 3:4-5 "And such confidence have we through Christ to God-ward; not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God who also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant."
Now notice this carefully. He is not only our ability, but He is our sufficiency.
There is no lack in us, in our service, in our finances, in anything connected with our earth walk.
You see when He took us over and came into us and began to build His Word into us, He was building His sufficiency and His ability into us.
That Word of His created this universe; created this earth with all its flowers and fruits, its wealth of minerals, chemicals, and oils: His efficiency in that Living Word created these things.
Now He is building into us that Living Word with its supernatural efficiency.
A Prayer Life backed with this knowledge becomes invincible.
We haven't said anything but what is true in regard to the New Creation.
All we need to do now is to take our place and act our part for it is God who is at work within us.
Not only is He building Himself into us, but He is there to work through us.
Now just take this thing home to your heart and read Ephesians 1:3, "Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ."
You are blessed with everything that you need.
His very fullness is yours.
His ability is yours.
His love is yours.
Yes, He Himself is yours!
Contrast Of Paul and Jesus On Faith
Christ tells us what the Jew can be.
Paul tells the Believers what they are in Christ.
Christ tells the Jew what he could do if he had faith.
Paul tells us what we are because we have believed on Christ.
Paul reveals to us that we are in the realm with Christ now.
Jesus tells them, "If they believe."
Paul shows us that we are believers and that we possess all things in Christ.
Paul's revelation is what we can do, because we are what Jesus wished the Jews to be.
Jesus is talking to a nation of natural men.
Paul is speaking of the New Creation, the sons of God, members of the body of Christ.
Jesus is speaking to the First Covenant people who have lost their faith in God.
Paul is speaking to those who are in Christ, sons of God.
Jesus is challenging the unbelieving Jew by revealing what faith will do in the lips of a man.
Paul thanks God for leading him in triumph in Christ.
Jesus said to the disciples before Pentecost, "Greater things than these shall ye do because I go unto the Father."
All that Jesus had done for Israel was in the sense realm.
He had healed the sick.
He had fed the multitudes.
He had opened blind eyes.
He had raised the dead, and stilled the sea.
But the disciples, after they were recreated, were to perform miracles upon men's spirits.
They were to do spiritual things as well as things in the sense realm.
The "greater things," were to lead men into the New Creation and unveil spiritual realities for them to enjoy.
Jesus was surrounded by unbelief, and He was seeking to inspire faith in natural man.
It would be well for us to recognize this fact, that natural man cannot have faith in the revelation realm.
He has sense knowledge faith.
He believes what he can see, hear, and feel.
All God asks him to do is to act on the Word.
He demands that he confess Jesus as Lord and act upon the Word that declares Christ died for his sins and was raised for his justification.
For years I tried to get natural men to believe. I can see them now struggling, crying, weeping and confessing their sins. It was so hard for them to grasp it.
But now I can see how simple it is.
All I ask them to do is act upon what God has spoken, and He counts that as faith.
The man who acts on that enters into the family, becomes a member of the body of Christ.
He becomes a partaker of the divine nature, so that all things that God wrought in Christ in the Substitution belong to him.
Now he can act intelligently on the Word either for himself or for another.
Believing is acting on the Word. Faith is the result of acting.
Under the First Covenant, the word "faith" does not occur in connection with Moses or Israel until Paul unveils it in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews.
Moses obeyed what the angel told him to do.
God never left it as a problem of faith, but it was a problem of obedience.
The word "faith" does not once occur.
They were servants acting under orders from God which came through angels.
Malachi 1:6 unveils it to us. "A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I am a father, where is mine honor? and if I am a master, where is my fear? says Jehovah?"
Malachi 3:16: "Then they that feared Jehovah spoke one to another; and Jehovah hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name."
And Malachi 4:2: "But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings."
All through the Old Covenant you will notice, especially in the Psalms and in the prophetic books, that Israel feared Jehovah.
Fear and love don't blend.
They were natural men who lived under an iron law called the law of death.
We are the New Creation folks.
Fear has been taken out of us, and we love because He has imparted His love nature to us.
All of Israel's mighty men were mighty because God revealed Himself to them.
They learned to do what He told them to do.
In 1 Kings 18:36 Elijah said, "O Jehovah, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word."
Then the fire fell upon the altar and consumed the offering and the altar.
Elijah was simply doing what God had told him; not through anything that he had read, but an angel always communicated with him, or God gave him a dream or a vision.
Today we are to act upon the written Word and Revelation Knowledge.
During the first century of the early church only a very few people had the written Word.
Wherever Paul went, it was "the spoken Word."
Where Peter and John went, it was "the spoken Word."
We have the written Word, but faith makes of it a living Word, a life giving Word, a healing Word, a comforting Word.
To the unbelieving it is just ink on paper; just words that may bring condemnation, or, if the heart is responsive, bring life and healing.
Legal and Vital Side of the Plan of Redemption
It helped me greatly when I found that prayer was based on legal grounds; that it didn't depend upon struggle and long hours of agonizing before the Lord.
It wasn't based upon pity, but upon a legal foundation.
You remember that the Bible is made up of two covenants, two binding contracts: The old one and the new one.
The first contract was made with Abraham—sealed with blood.
The second contract was between Jesus and the Father—sealed with the Son's blood.
Israel were the beneficiaries of that first covenant.
We are the beneficiaries of the second.
Our redemption is based on legal grounds.
Our New Birth is legal.
Every child of God is legally in the Family.
The book of Romans that gives to us the plan of Redemption is the greatest legal document in existence.
The New Testament or New Covenant is the greatest document on jurisprudence ever given man.
Hebrews 7:22: "By so much also hath Jesus become the surety of a better covenant."
God said to Abraham, "By Myself have I sworn." He becomes the surety or the guarantor of the old covenant.
You see, the throne is back of the covenant. Jesus and the Father are back of the new covenant and prayer is based upon this covenant—consequently, it is based upon legal grounds.
Hebrews 11:1—One translator makes it read: "Faith is the title deed to things hoped for, putting to the proof things not seen."
Practically all the basic terminology of English Law comes from the Bible.
Then if prayer is based on legal grounds, we should learn what they are.
In the first place, we are legally justified or made Righteous; legally Born Again; have a legal right to Eternal Life and a son's place in the Father's family.
And He is legally responsible for us because He brought us into being.
There are two phases of our Redemption: One is the legal and the other is the vital.
The legal is what God has done for us in the past, like the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ.
The vital is what the Holy Spirit through the Word is doing in us.
Romans 4:25 is a good illustration of the legal: "Who was delivered up on account of our trespasses and was raised for our justification."
The vital is illustrated in Philippians 2:13: "For it is God who is at work within you willing and working His own good pleasure." Also 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Ephesians 3:16-19: "That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with his ability through the spirit in the inward man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts on the ground of faith; to the end that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to grasp with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fulness of God." This is vital.
Notice the next verse: "Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the ability of God that is at work within us."
Redemption is legal. It is in the past. It is a finished work.
The New Birth is vital. It is now.
When you know that prayer is based on legal grounds and you know that God has legally tied Himself, has bound Himself to do certain things, then you will learn to take your place and act accordingly.
His Son, the Living Word, is the guarantor, and gives you your rights and privileges in Redemption.
God gave us this Word of His own free will.
He has led us into the prayer life.
He has led us to trust Him and now He will not fail us.
So we can confidently turn to Isaiah 41:10 and hear Him whisper "Fear thou not for I am with thee; be not dismayed for I am your (Father) God; I will strengthen you; yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness."
That "right hand" is Jesus and He is upholding us by the Word of His power, by the Word of His grace.
Questions
1. Why should we never urge the unsaved man to believe?
2. What is the word of His grace able to do for you?
3. To merely know the Word is what?
4. What does He mean by "increase the fruits of your righteousness”?
5. He is not only our ability, but He is our sufficiency. What does that mean?
6. Jesus said to the disciples before Pentecost, "Greater things than these shall you do because I go unto the Father." What did He mean?
7. What fact should we recognize about natural man?
8. Under the First Covenant, the word "faith" does not occur in connection with Moses or Israel until Paul unveils it in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Why?
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9. Elijah was simply doing what God had told him. How did God do that? How does He do it today?
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10. How did the Bible influence English Law?
11. There are two phases of our Redemption: One is the legal and the other is the vital. How does each work?
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12. How do you learn to take your place and act accordingly?