The Works of Faith

(Offerings In Righteousness – Part 4):

‘Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years’ Malachi 3:3-4.

We have established that righteousness is by faith in the finished work of Christ. We cannot manufacture righteousness. It is a gift of God’s grace that we receive by faith. That is why it is so crucial that we allow the truth we have shared so far to truly sink in. You might want to go back and prayerfully go through the previous articles and especially the scriptural references there. As the revelation of what Christ has done in us dawns on us, faith will arise in our heart. This is crucial for it is only by faith that we can appropriate God’s grace.

Yet there is a misconception about faith in many quarters. Some people seem to think that to believe implies doing nothing. So they are confused about how to practise faith. They have come to equate faith with being passive.

But the scriptures teach nothing like that. Just read through that great chapter on faith (Hebrews 11) and you will see a faith that acts:

‘By faith Abel offered a sacrifice…By faith Noah…moved with godly fear…By faith Abraham obeyed…By faith Abraham…offered up Isaac…By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau…By faith Moses…refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter…By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land’

Notice that the faith of every one of these men (and women)  always made them do something. The Bible knows nothing of a faith that does not produce action. This is what James speaks of when he says ‘faith without works is dead’ (James 2:26 – KJV).

A faith that does not lead to a definite action on the part of a man is no faith at all. It is the very response of faith that makes faith, faith. James says ‘Show me your faith without deeds (which he knew was impossible), and I will show you my faith by what I do (by my action born out of what I believe – my response to the work of grace within me)’ (James 2:18b). You see, while it is possible to act without faith, it is impossible to have true faith and not act. For when we truly believe something we are going to begin to act as if it were true.

The action of faith is a response to what you believe. It is behaving as if what you believe is a reality.

We are talking of putting on Christ as our righteousness. We say this is to be done by faith. This means that we are to begin to act as if we have his righteousness. We ought to begin to behave knowing we have power over sin. This has nothing to do with how you may feel or how many temptations (sinful suggestions) the enemy throws at your mind or how many times you might have fallen in the past. It is based on the fact of what God has said you are, that is, his righteousness. So to appropriate it, we act on that assumption.

This is how faith always works (what I call the practise of faith) whether it be for salvation, physical healing or anything else that grace offers. First you accept what God says about you or your circumstance, then you begin to act as if it is so. It is when we do this that we will see the result of faith. James says of Abraham, ‘You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did’ (Jas 2:22). When our action comes from  our believing, then faith comes full circle.

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