Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from “The Adult Sabbath School Guide” is titled “All Future Generations”. A good beginning lesson on the “covenant”. The covenant for which God gives the “rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth” (Genesis 9:13). Once again, God uses signs and symbols to relay to mankind His promise(s) and to demonstrate His trustworthiness. Like all His dealings with Man, God does the work, we are to trust Him to perform what He promises.
But this trust/ faith/ belief is not a passive acquiescence. The Book of Hebrews gives us a definitive explanation of this “faith” that Noah had. “By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith” (Hebrews 11:7). By building the Ark, Noah “became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith”. Once again we see here, that faith is established by our actions. Faith does not oppose works. But what part do these “works” play in my walk of “faith”? Why is this faith established by our works? Don’t “we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law” (Romans 3:28)?
The Bible has never disparaged “works” or “obedience”. On the contrary, it enjoins it, commands it. But it is we who misunderstand “WHY” we are to obey. We think that “works” and “obedience” denies “faith” and is our attempt to “work the works of God” (John 6:28). We think “works” are opposed to “faith” and opposed to Christ’s proclamation, “this is the work of God… that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:29). But this is not so. Obedience never was the way to Godliness. As if we can of ourselves achieve holiness on our own, by our own effort. Of course we sinners cannot achieve the righteousness that proceeds only from “faith”. So how are we to reconcile this? We are to “obey”, we are to “work”. But our “works” cannot achieve the righteousness of “faith”. In 2 Peter 1: 1-15, Peter frames his list of virtues with the answer.
“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1: 2-4). So Peter introduces his list. And at the conclusion of his list of virtues he states, “For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1: 8). He frames his list with the concept of knowledge… knowledge about God… knowing God. As if to say, that it is this list that will lead you to knowing God. And knowing Him who is righteous, coming into contact with Him alone who is righteous, will lead you to be righteous. “Works” and “obedience” is how you come to know God. In obeying Him you come alongside Him, relate to Him, come to know Him. And when you come to really know Him, you will only trust Him (have faith in Him) more and more. That is the reason to obey. Not to be righteous, but to be united with Him who is righteous.
Because of this, James rightly states, “thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17). And if this is not strong enough, he adds “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only” (James 2: 24). A statement that led Martin Luther to recoil and place the book of James in a questionable light. But John adds the same understanding as James and Peter when he states, “Now by this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments” (1 John 2:3). Again connecting obedience with knowing Him. Saying that we really don’t know Him if we don’t obey. Therefore, obedience and “works” are the way to know Him. And thus become intimate with the “Righteous One”… the only way for us sinners to become “righteous”.
Remember, faith is not some mental exercise. The faith that we are to have, is not faith in some “plan of salvation”. We are not to have faith in Christ’s “merits”. We are to have faith in a Person. And this faith/ trust comes only as we experience a relationship with that Divine Person. Faith, trust, belief must center on a person. And this faith cannot come by some proclamation, command or by some mere mental acknowledgement. It must come as we get to know and to love our Savior and God. It’s really a simple concept. Faith, based on a sustained and growing love-relationship with our “Father”, our “Brother”, our “Husband”.
“Works” rightfully understood establishes our “faith”. And it is not just “works”. Because “the only thing that counts is faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). So the “righteousness that is in accordance with faith” that Noah inherited by acting on his faith-in-God to build the ark, was the motivation of love. Love for the antediluvians. The same love that our Creator/ Father/ God had for all of them. Therefore, we now can rightly interpret God’s motive in that great flood. It was love for the antediluvians. Love that would die for them that they might escape the captivity of sin. Love that would slay them instead of have them remain the captives of sin.
As we study, let us never forget this grand and glorious motive of love that motivates our God. And never let us disparage “works” again, as if all “works” are antithetical to faith. Works to earn salvation is foolishness and destroys us. Works that spring from our faith in God, and love for Him and our fellowman, establishes our faith. It all depends on the motive… as always.
With brotherly love,
Jim