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THE FAITH IN CHRIST and ITS FUNCTIONING
“…The just shall live by faith.”
(Rom.1:17)
·
“Verily, verily, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life.”
(John 6:47)
·
“Yes, and if I be offered on the sacrifice and
service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.”
(Php.2:17).
Continued from #050a – EN
Part 3c:
Teachings and erroneous traditions
1.
The erroneous opinion that
“Satan can upset even the plans of God”
There is a belief or an incorrect conviction that Satan is so strong that he
can prevent not only our own plans but also God’s plans.
Theoretically, of course, we
do not believe such a thing but it is
that which we actually live at the bottom of our heart. We very often say:
“The devil did this and that, the devil
prevented me from doing that… the Devil destroyed… etc”. Lord, have pity on
us!
The truth is that
Satan is already a defeated enemy.
The prince of this world was judged on the cross. He
was thrown outside and
judged (John 12:31 and 16:11).
Christ “…Blotting (blotted) out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and
took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them
openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Col.2:13-15). Moreover, it is
written: “But the Lord is faithful, who
shall establish you, and keep you from evil.” (2Th.3:3). In the same manner,
it is written: “And the Lord shall
deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me to his heavenly kingdom:
to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (2Tim.4:18).
Some of those who hold this opinion base it both on verses of the Bible and on
experience: “Why we would have come to you, even I Paul, once and again; but
Satan hindered us.” (1Thes.2:18).
Satan can provoke man’s soul (1Chr.21:1), can come and take away the word
(Mark 4:15), can bind man’s body (Lu.13:16), can enter man’s heart (Lu.22:3 and
John 13:27), desires to sift man as wheat (Lu.22:31), can fill man’s heart to
lie (Ac.5:3), can tempt man (1Cor.7:5), can be transformed into an angel of
light (2Cor.11:14) and can do, up to a certain point, “miracles”. Yes, Satan can
create persecutions, hinder the free distribution of the Bible, can prevent the
free establishment of churches etc. If we examine closely all these cases, we
will find out that Satan can do nothing without the collaboration of man’s
heart or without God’s permission. God has His own sovereign purposes. All
Satan’s power lies in lies and false or erroneous doctrines.
The victory against the Wicked is
not mentioned in the Word of God in a
doubtful way but it is openly proclaimed from Genesis to Revelation.
The Holy Spirit tries to convince us that the devil is already a defeated enemy
… By faith, we put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand
against the wiles of Satan (Eph.6:10-18). The believer must have always in his
spirit that he should not resist Satan by his own forces, by squeaking the
teeth and/or by showing him his fists or by using certain curses against him
but by standing on certain promises or by being based on certain statements of
the Word of God, which is worthy of all acceptance… If we want to see the LORD
bruise Satan under our feet shortly we must be
wise to that which is good, and simple concerning evil
(Rom.16:19-20). It is not written, “Bruise
Satan by your imprecations or your curses.” This is also held in a similar way
by Peter in his epistle: “Whom resist
steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in
your brothers that are in the world. …” (1Pet.5:9).
If we believe, therefore, that
Christ overcame Satan, we will see that we are able in the Name of Jesus and
by the power of the Holy Spirit to resist him effectively.
His power is in his lies and his
erroneous doctrines. We should
never forget what is written in the book of Revelation:
“And they
overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and
they loved not their lives to the death.”
(12:11).
We must believe that he is defeated:
“For whatever is born of God overcomes
the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. Who
is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of
God?” (1Joh.5:4-5). The winner is he that believes…
The cross of the Christ, which is
also our cross, is the most essential point about our justification by
faith, our victory against sin, passions, our bad habits and weaknesses, as well
as our victory against Satan. When our faith in the redeeming sacrifice of our
Lord Jesus Christ on the cross is intact and healthy, we will see the
victory with our own eyes… “Jesus said
to her, Said I not to you, that, if you would believe, you should see
the glory of God?” (Joh.11:40). Amen! “I had fainted, unless I had
believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living”, said
the Psalmist (27:13). Closing this point I deem necessary to mention a couple of
verses concerning the Word of God and the Christ’s church:
·
“Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even to bonds; but the word of God
is not bound.”
(2Tim.2:9)
·
“…I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
(Mat.16:18)
·
“No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall
rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the
servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, said the LORD.”
(Isa.54:17)
2.
The incorrect opinion about
the “thorn in the flesh”
This opinion is based on the verse: “And lest I should be exalted above
measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn
in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted
above measure.” (2Cor.12:7). God the Father, by what He allowed in the life
of Paul, HE wanted to bring him to humility, to save him from any presumption
and to emphasize the all sufficiency of the grace of God.
Paul, by the expression of the “thorn
in the flesh”,
made allusion to some infirmity or perhaps chronic body disease which reoccurred
from time to time. Perhaps, there was an anomaly in the eyes and or of vision of
which he was affected. We have a mention of it in Galatians 6:11: “You see
how large a letter I have written to you with my own hand.” (great letters
in the ancient Greek texts) ! Nothing is specified concerning the nature of this
infirmity. In addition, it is necessary to take seriously into account what is
written in Galatians 4:13-15: “You know how through
infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my
temptation which was in my flesh you despised not, nor rejected; but
received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is then the
blessedness you spoke of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible,
you would have plucked out your own eyes, and
have given them to me.” ……… It is not a proof but it is a good
indication… Another serious indication is the fact, while he was
judged by the Council, he did not
discern that the man who commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the
mouth was the high priest Ananias … (Acts 23:2,
5)
Very probably this was why he had the
habit or the need to dictate his letters. In the case of the epistle to
Galatians, Paul was obliged – perhaps because of a lack of a secretary or for
reasons of safety, so that his letter could not be considered as falsified by
malevolent people – to write this epistle with his own hand with large letters.
Some suppose that his eyes were terribly irritated… red, because of a chronic
inflammation, appeared periodically or they were even swollen… and consequently
disgusting! Who knows?
We have a similar or parallel case in the testing of Job: The Word of God
says that Job was a man
“…perfect and upright, and one that
feared God, and eschewed evil” and
“there is (was) none like him in the
earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God, and eschews evil”
(Job 1:1, 8). In the case of Paul there was a possibility to fall into arrogance
on account of the holiness of his life, the excellence of his work and because
of the above measure through the abundance of the revelations. In the
case of Job, there was an intense tendency of self justification (Job 33:9)
because of his perfect character and the blessings with which God had surrounded
him. They both were in danger of being trapped in a spirit of arrogance and fall
under judgment. God, because of His love and protection, allowed Satan to buffet
them and impose on them torments in their body so that they are kept humble and
be prevented from falling into the horrible sin of pride. Let us pay attention
to the fact that in both cases, source of their affliction was Satan whose aim
is to buffet, to torture and to destroy. It is good to always remember what is
written in the book of Job: “That he may
withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man (remove
pride from man - Gr).” (Job
33:17). Let us also mention what the Holy Spirit expressed through David:
“Keep back your servant also from
presumptuous sins (arrogance - Gr.);
let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be
upright, and I shall be innocent from the great
transgression.” (Ps.19:13). The enmity or the scorn from their
enemies or from their friends was faced, by both Job and Paul, with courage,
boldness and power. Job had not seized the cause of his humiliating testing but
Paul understood it because of the light he had received from above and
particularly through God’s refusal to exempt him from his thorn in the flesh.
So, Paul accepted gladly to transform his weakness into a challenge for more
blessings and for God’s glory. Job arrived at this point when God reproved him
and put him in his place. His murmurings and his protests were changed into
Job’s humiliation and in God’s glory. Both of them were protected and were
blessed and became precious examples to be imitated.
I remember the case of a dear brother, how often he felt humiliated when he
could not take part in the discussions because of his partial deafness… I
remember vaguely a phrase that he had used: “I do not manage to follow what
they say and I feel like an imbecile”. It was as if Satan “buffeted” and
humiliated him… The disease or rather the diseases do not come from God. They
come either from Satan (the Bible testifies) or as a result of our own sins (for
example: aphrodisiac diseases) or because of hereditary defects…
It should not be forgotten that because of the sin of the man the ground is
cursed; yes, because of us! The earth is sick! “For we know that the whole
creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only they, but
ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our
body.” (Rom.8:22-23).
Many believers have adopted the incorrect belief that it is useless to cry
to God because they believe that God does not want to deliver their life
from their disease or from other problems. They say that everything comes
from God; thus they accept all
passively, calling their problems, their diseases or afflictions
“a thorn in the flesh”, identifying
or confusing, in many cases, the problem of Paul with theirs. Let us
clarify some things:
·
The word of God says that Christ came not only to forgive our sins but to
also heal our diseases and to comfort us in our afflictions… Isaiah says,
“…Surely he has borne our griefs, and
carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised
for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was on him; and with
his stripes we are healed.” (Isa.53:1-5). We
see application of this principle in Mat.8.13-17 in the case of the centurion,
the mother-in-law of Peter who was sick and confined to bed with fever, in the
delivery of a man who was possessed by demons and in many others who were sick:
“…He took our infirmities, and bore our
sicknesses. He took Himself our infirmities and carried our diseases.”
(Mat.8:17)
·
We are exhorted to call upon God on the day of distress to deliver us, and we
in our turn, to give glory only to God in words and acts, because glory
belongs to Him, with Him. If things are so, then there can be no excuse that,
when we are visited by disease or tribulations or afflictions or sadness, we
should not accept them passively or
without any kind of resistance.
The first thing
that we must do is to ask God,
with reverence,
why He allowed the “visitation” of such a crisis in
our life.
·
Many are those who have swallowed these incorrect doctrines believing
that their disease or problem is a “thorn
in the flesh” which was given to them, just like that of the apostle
Paul (2Cor.12:7). “The thorn” of Paul brought glory to God because the power of
Christ could rest on him. And while in the case of Paul “the thorn in the
flesh” was to protect him from pride or arrogance due to the excessively
great revelations, on the contrary, in a considerable number of Christians, the
so-called “thorn in the flesh” is due to the abundance of darkness, sins,
weaknesses, disobedience and lukewarm spirit that we have in our life! God
is obliged to raise His stick of punishment and to take measures of
correction! Some Christians do not understand the Word of God! And
some of them do not read His Word or if they read it, they do it
sporadically! If we distinguish ourselves, God would cease to chastise us
severely:
“For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we
would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are
chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”
(1Cor.11:30-32).
If we become zealous and repent, God, in his mercy, will remove our
affliction. He will give us the Great Interpreter, the Holy Spirit and the
unction, which are planned for each child of God and would allow us to
get rid of our covetousnesses, sins or weaknesses and to live a holy life,
pious and worthy of His call. We cannot, naturally, exclude the case of pious
Christians who, in spite of their testing, tribulations, diseases and the
blowing by Satan, bring glory to God because of their patience, tenacity,
perseverance and faithfulness; in a word, because of their attachment to God.
·
Let us believe, brothers and sisters, that many are the afflictions of the just
but let us not remain only in that. Let us also believe the continuation of
the verse, which indicates that God will deliver us from all our troubles…
(Ps.50:15). Our Lord Jesus-Christ, the Man of sorrows, came to give us life
and that one abundantly (Joh.10:10). He came to
bear our griefs and carry our sorrows, to renew our force,
to do us good and to deliver us from the bonds of sin and Satan’s
slavery! The goal of Satan is to afflict the children of God in their
heart and their body. The goal of Satan is to bind the body and the soul.
On the contrary, the goal of God is to untie our body and our soul in
order to be able to appreciate the blessings and His astonishing grace. We
should never believe that the chastisement of God has a permanent
character in the life of His children. If it is so – and it could be so –
let God say it to us, as he did to Paul about his thorn in the flesh. Let us not
hasten to say it ourself. As for us, let
us pay attention not to leave in us a sin or a weakness or bad habits, which
would oblige God to chastise us. Let us never forget that our
heavenly Father is afflicted in all our afflictions, and the angel of His
presence saves us. In His love and in His pity he redeems us and He bears us and
carries us all our days (Isa.63:9). He is afflicted with us and His Spirit
seeks the depths of our heart in order to help us to come to the
repentance
so that He can bless us.
He is ‘after us’ to bless us.
Let us learn our lesson and we will see how the things of our life will
change! Let us put our life and our behavior in order and we will see
that God will show us and to bring itself to the plenitude of our salvation
and deliverance (Ps.50:23; 91:14-16).
3.
The erroneous opinion concerning the acquisition
“Christian virtues”
Faith accepts and faith obtains! Faith receives the great and invaluable
promises of God by which the believer becomes
partaker of divine nature.
Moreover, faith adds virtues, one after the other. From the moment man
becomes a child of God, he becomes also
heir to God and co-heir with Jesus-Christ! Then all God’s promises are
deposited into the spiritual bank account of the believer. And some of the
promises of God can be received in the twinkle of an eye but for other
promises it is required to await them patiently. God’s promises are inherited
by faith and perseverance
(Heb.6:12). With regard to the
remission of our sins, it is given to us as soon as we
repent sincerely and reject our sins (1Jean 1:9). In the
case of certain virtues, things are a little different. By faith, we add
virtues, as it is written: “…add to your
faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to
temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly
kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.” (2Pet.1:5-7). Each one of
these spiritual virtues is added ONLY
if we admit their lack or their inexistence and ask for it with all our heart
by faith to the Father, in the name of Jesus-Christ.
God adds each virtue in one moment,
in the twinkle of an eye, but their increase takes place gradually by our
exercise, obeying to them and by facing the circumstances of life by faith…
Thus, the word of God is accomplished that,
“For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The
just shall live by faith.” (Rom.1:17).
This great truth is confirmed and corroborated by the verse Mark 11:24:
“Therefore I say to you, What things
soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall
have them.”
Some of these virtues are the product of other virtues: Meekness,
for example, is the product of wisdom as it is written in Jacques 3:13. Take, as
example, the case of Moses who was very meek, above all men – who were on the
face of the earth – because of his wisdom (Nu.12:3).
The problem still, even for a good number of believers, is the
insistence of man to see in order to believe!
Some want to see or feel the Christian virtues in
their life in order to believe them. This behavior, however, is a behavior
which is not compatible with faith but with sight… God, nevertheless, has put
another order. Here it is: “…Jesus said
to her (to Martha),
Said I not to you, that, if you would believe, you should see the
glory of God?” (Joh.11:40). Thus, man cannot see, feel and appreciate the
salvation of God as well as His virtues and His promises being realized in his
life unless he believes in the first
place God’s words and unless he honors God for His love and
faithfulness. God will not conform to our manner of thought and with
our mentality. Naturally, there are cases in the Bible where God, in order to
encourage humble and good willed men to believe, He condescended to
give them some signs, as in the cases of Gideon (Judges Ch.6) and Abraham
(Gen.15:8). However, Jesus always refused to give signs to the haughty
and arrogant men who required signs because of curiosity or because of a
provocative spirit…
Allow me to insist on this point: The believer looks for feelings to believe
that he has already received the virtue that was missing in his life and that he
had requested from God.
It is a serious error due to the weakness of our flesh, which wants to see and
feel in order to believe. Religious people can be easily imprisoned in the error
to put sight and feeling before faith.
“For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2Cor.5:7). He had the same believer,
most probably the same problem, when he faced the problem of salvation… He
wanted to feel something before believing. For example: He prays to God for
self-control and waits to feel something to believe that God has heard his
prayer. But things are not so.
Suppose that you receive an official document from the government
announcing to you that there was an error about your wages during a certain
number of years and that the government owes you a considerable amount of
money! When are you going to rejoice? Only when you put the money in your
pocket or from the moment that you received the official document? Naturally,
from the moment you received the official document! The certainty and the joy
which you feel encourage you to start making plans how to spend or invest this
money! The Bible is the official
letter of God, the official document! It means what is written inside!
The certainty and the feelings which are created in you put your will and
feelings in action!
If you open my “old and used”
Greek Bible, you will see certain dates on the margins. For example, 10/6/1959,
3/8/1988 etc. On those days, I beseeched God to remove, for example, the spirit
of impatience and to give me the spirit of patience. I believed that God heard
me. I did not feel anything at that time. After some time, and without having
seen any miracle or having felt anything, I discovered that the impatience of
which I suffered and I was fighting for did not exist anymore. It was replaced
by patience and my heart started to bless God!
The Bible says:
·
“Therefore I say to you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe
that you receive them, and you shall have them.”
(Mrc.11:24)
·
“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing
according to his will, he hears us: And if we know that he hear us, whatever we
ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”
(1Jean 5:14-15). May God bless us abundantly!
The goal of this series of studies aims at the spiritual deepening of us all!
At this point, we must add that the promises are
inherited “through faith and patience”
and not little by little.
I repeat: There are cases when man is called to wait patiently until he
enjoys the accomplishment of a promise of God. Then, he must
consider the promise as already
accomplished and wait patiently it in order to see it accomplished.
Perhaps, this promise will take a certain time to become obvious. At this point
in time, he must resist the vultures of doubt as Abraham drove away the fowls
that came down on the carcasses that he was going to sacrifice (Ge.15:11).
Man must drive them out by the power of the Word and the Spirit of God.
Our hearts are not always alert or vigilant or patient until their
accomplishment. The promises of God are inherited
by faith and patience (Heb.6:12).
Abraham believed the promise of God but he waited 25 years to see the promise of
God being accomplished to have a son! In many cases, we do not await them
because we are not actually interested in them. We wish them but, actually, we
do not await them or worse we do not want them.
Allow me to mention a personal example. When I was about to finish high school,
a friend of mine and I decided to learn English all by ourselves by using a
self-teaching method. We started studying it together. I learned English,
but he did not. Why? Because he
simply wished to learn English, but
I desired and wanted to learn
it. There is a world of difference between wishing and desiring something and
wanting (or willing) it. There is a world of difference between desiring or
wishing the will of God and to be decided at
any cost to see the will of God to
be realized in our life…
It is by faith in God that we
receive all we need from God for the spiritual warfare of our life (Job 7:1).
Our faith in God gives Him the possibility of rendering us active so that He can
act through us.
And when God acts through us, then all is
possible for us…
This is why all is possible to him that believes.
“Only believe”! And elsewhere it is
written: “If you know these things,
happy are you if you do them.” (Jean 13:17), our Lord said!
John BALTATZIS
baltatzis@skynet.be
To be continued…
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