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I was raised in a religious environment that emphasized this belief so it is not new to me. However, based on what I have been learning over the past few years about the gospel and salvation, this assertion is starting to raise red flags in my mind. I in no way want to enter into a theological debate over the topic, but I do want to know what God's plan really is differentiated from any counterfeit that sounds very plausible, very religious or has been accepted by great numbers of people. I try to maintain an open mind and heart so that the Spirit of God can challenge and correct the many lies about God and His ways that permeate so much of religious beliefs, both in those around me and in myself.
In my search for truth, I am realizing that it has to stand the test of fitting into the heart in addition to passing intellectual tests using the Word of God as a virus check – test every spirit. The world is full of religious experts that can prove all sorts of notions about theology based on stringing together proof-texts, quotations, philosophy etc., but it is much more difficult to find people who are grounded in the Word but just as in earnest to live and grow in their heart-life and be open to learning from other people of like “mind”. I will say that some of the visitors to this blog site have blessed me with this perspective and spirit and are enriching my life.
So – I got sidetracked a little. As I was starting to say, I am quite uncomfortable with the statement above that could just as easily come from my own mouth only a few years ago. I am still learning more in this area and I do not want to make any dogmatic declarations, but based on my deeper understanding of what constitutes the gospel and salvation this explanation cannot work for me anymore. As I look at the context in this chapter, the message emerging is not the one expressed above but something quite different.
The core difference I believe, is where the source and origin is from – the initiative. “Religion” always wants to slip in some percentage of human performance no matter how small, into the mix. Paul was well aware of this penchant and took great pains to expose and denounce it. Unfortunately theologians have taken great pains to try to rationalize what he said to undo and confuse the very points he was trying to get across. Hence there is great confusion as to how we are saved and why. When we believe that our trust in God is what qualifies us for salvation, as I have been taught all my life and was again repeated in the above comment, then we in fact are inserting an ingredient of performance into the equation no matter how subtle it may seem. I have heard many of the arguments about this issue and I am sure this may heat some of them up again. But the Word, when properly understood both with the head and with the heart, simply does not support man helping out God in “saving” him.
Of course some of our problems come from starting with very different definitions for many of the words we are using in our discussions. This adds greatly to our confusion and is one of the major factors in heating up and extending arguments indefinitely. And even when the definitions are clearly spelled out it seems that others do not apply them when listening to repeated explanations. This again, I believe, is a symptom of disconnected hearts and an over-emphasis on left-brain arguments that sometimes demand to be “right” at all costs.
To present what I believe I am seeing here as the real message about faith in relation to salvation, I would like to start out by saying that there is a great difference between “having” faith and exercising faith. I know that at first glance that sounds ridiculous and it certainly exposes the problem of condensing heart concepts down into English words. But in my experience “having faith” always carried with it the subtle implication that somehow I had to work up enough “faith” to convince God to do whatever it was I was trying to have faith about. Usually in my mind the idea of faith was simply believing hard enough that what I wanted God to do would really happen and blocking out any and all doubts from my mind that might give God reason to refuse my request because I didn't have pure enough faith. That's stating it from a heart-perspective more than a mind perspective, but I don't think I am alone in that perception. Most of the religious world is trying to get God to do all sorts of things for them and trying to “use” God to force circumstances and/or other people to their own advantage. Then when God doesn't deliver what they want they assume they didn't have enough “faith”. This even opens up great opportunities for the enemy of God to step in and provide the supernatural power they are looking for and in the process they are deceived into believing that they have “the truth” because their prayers and faith seem to be “working” and they are being “blessed by God”.
I learned something yesterday about faith that made much more sense to me than this typical approach so familiar to us. It was pointed out to me that most of the references in the New Testament to faith in relation to Jesus are referring to HIS faith instead of ours. Different translations of the Bible render it differently depending on the translator's bias, but the original language as well as the contexts support a reading of “the faith OF Jesus” rather than “faith IN Jesus” as is so commonly thought.
This opens up a whole new realm of possibilities and insights from the Word. That is a subject for another study, but it has strong implications for this passage. Let me quote the verses I am looking at here.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH." For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, (Romans 1:16-18 NAS95)
Looking at the interconnections of these phrases I see the “gospel” as the focal point of everything else surrounding it in the text. It is the gospel that is described as the power of God. It is the gospel that is the revelation of the righteousness of God. It is the gospel that is lived out by those with faith. And it is the gospel that is the truth that is suppressed by those who are ungodly and unrighteous.
Since the gospel is defined as “the power of God for salvation”, then it would be very helpful to know what salvation means. Again, we are diverted by the commonly held assumption that salvation is all about getting us to heaven so we don't have to live in discomfort and pain in this sinful world anymore. Face it, that's the underlying belief of most of us though it seems crass to express it that way. If we honestly think about the way most people preach and teach about salvation today, you have to conclude that salvation is centered on human beings and God is just the external Force that must alternately be appeased or induced to make us feel better and get us out of our mess. This is sick and selfish thinking but, in reality, lies at the foundation of most religious systems, thinking and teaching.
What we desperately need is a much bigger perspective on what is really going on. We need the eyes of heaven to see the real issues and keep in mind the much larger controversy over the battle about God's reputation. That too, is another discussion that I try to address on my other web site but am only referring to for context. Our biggest problem is that our view of the gospel and salvation is so small and so self-focused that it corrupts our theology without our realizing it. That is why we find ourselves looking at these verses and putting the emphasis on living by faith (self-focused religion) instead of receiving the revelation of God thereby entering into an experience of real power in our lives.
I am beginning to sense that one of our big problems is our broken “receiver”. One of the tasks of maturity for an infant is learning to receive, and many of us never learned that very well. I know I certainly didn't, and it has been a serious problem for me all of my life. I believe this is a core problem in our relationship with God as well. We are so conditioned and determined that we must give something, that somehow we must do something to EARN, that it filters into our relationship with God and we contaminate the gospel with our faulty thinking and assumptions; hence, our emphasis more on our faith than on accepting the revealing of God's righteousness.
That triggers an even bigger block for understanding this passage because the word “righteousness” is possibly one of the most misunderstood words in the English language. That is not surprising though, because the core problem of the whole great controversy is our misconceptions and lies about what God is really like. So as long as we don't have healthy and truthful concepts of the truth about God we will equally have misunderstandings about the true meaning of the word righteousness.
This passage gives us a window into the true meaning of the word by telling us that, whatever it is, righteousness is revealed in the gospel, and the word gospel simply means the “good news”. If we take the definitions that I have on my definition page and apply them in this passage, it might read something like this –
I am not ashamed of the good news about God, for the good news is that the power to salvage us, to restore us to our original design and function is released in our lives when we begin believing the truth about God. This can happen first in those who have had a better picture of God to start with, but it will also happen in the hearts of everyone else as well who enter into this relationship by accepting and believing the truth about God.
In this good news about God, we find the righteousness of God – His faith and love – revealed which inspires faith within us that responds to His faith in us. It has already been stated in the Old Testament that real righteousness, people who want to be righteous, live in this relationship of spontaneous faith created within their heart in response to God's amazing love and faith in us.
On the other hand, the “wrath” of God, that misunderstood passionate love that appears so threatening to those who don't believe in His faith and love, is revealed from heaven to be working in a different direction from those who resist it. Everyone who refuses to respond to God's love and be brought into harmony with His faith and love for them, who suppress this truth about Him and cling to Satan's lies about God will experience the natural consequences of that resistance that they will believe to be “wrath”.
What I see here is an issue of getting my receiver fixed by God so that faith can more easily be produced in me spontaneously in response to the faith of Jesus in me. Jesus had so much faith in us that He took the immense risk of eternal death, took upon Himself all of the consequences of pain and suffering that happens when we resist God's power of love, and let all that sin and its effects kill Him through unfathomable internal torture while externally wicked men tortured His body and mind on the cross. He did this in faith that some of us would see enough of His love for us that we would allow Him to work and live in our hearts and restore us to the original intimacy and family relationship that God originally created us for.
If I am willing to believe with my heart that God indeed has this kind of love, that He is passionate about restoring me into close association and fellowship with the Godhead, that He trusts me enough to give me complete freedom to choose His love without any coercion, to even go so far as to offer an arrangement of marriage to God and all the privileges that that implies – then I will discover that faith will grow spontaneously in my heart, which was designed for this very purpose. I will discover that if I receive first, then I will find myself beginning to give to others and back to God.
But nothing that I give has anything whatsoever to do with “saving” me. That is absolutely preposterous! The only thing I can do to participate in salvation is to exercise my power of choice to give Him permission and authority to live in my heart and face the mirror of my heart in His direction. I surrender my “rights” to myself and abandon myself to His love, just as lovers give themselves unreservedly to each other in the act of making love. In that surrender I will find the abundant life that is found only in connecting to the one true Source of life. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:25)
