Faith is Boots on the Ground

[HKHaugan]

Faith is Boots on the Ground

“Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law (Rom.3:27-31).”

This passage sets apart the gap between law and faith. When faith takes the lead law becomes its servant. This is not just faith in anything but faith in Jesus Christ as the means to identify the correct attitude toward any and all groupings from family to government. All law attempts to give structure to how we think and behave in whatever group we find ourselves. But law is derived from the human need to govern interpersonal behavior. Every legal system has an agreed premise. Welfare of the individual and group in balance is the usual consideration. Whether it is a king, dictator, elected officials, father, chairman or gang leader law is an agreement to live under the principles each presents.

The difference between faith in those above systems and faith in Jesus Christ is their source. The first is originates in man's limited ability to arrive at a logical set of rules. They are arrived at through the dreams, pains and hopes of and for human interaction. This a horizontal summation of values agreed upon through general acceptance.

The second is in the Resurrected Jesus which is spiritual, personal and relational. Whereas the first is based on external agreement the second is internally directed by faith in a person from above. It's claims are not based on human agreement but in a vertically directed person, God the Son. It's declaration is that Jesus and His Word contain such individual enablement that a society built on this moment by moment interaction will modify and support any man made system. For instance, the command in Romans 13 to obey all authority, since all authority comes from God, gives stability since the concept is God-centered as opposed to man-centered. One is perfect, the other sketchy as daily media show from one minute to the next. One relies on the importance of the individual in the mind of God, the other on the tiring adjustment to the shifts and imbalances of cultural opinion.

The issue is ultimately in the hands of the individual and what that individual relies on to give guidance. This is what makes the Gospel of Jesus such a clear distinction from the wandering baseless meandering of human intellect apart from God. It's all guesswork. The Gospel of Jesus remains the same regardless of time, culture and individual pride. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb.13:8).”

The Law sets the stage to do three things.
First, it convicts and exposes sin.
Second, it is a framework for personal spiritual and relational stability.
Third, when guided by the Holy Spirit, individual obedience is the means to honor God and one another as opposed to earning horizontal reputation, self applause, vertical acceptance and salvation.

Paul's clear principle in Rom.14:23 states, “That which does not proceed from faith is sin.” It's never about being good or better than others or even about how I feel about myself. It is always about allowing the God of goodness to be seen through the way we live and share our lives. It's not for our glory but for His.

What happens in the process is that we become the glory of God when our focus is on Him and not on us. We experience His glory and become His glory without even realizing it. Jesus' humility happens in us. Humility is not something we work at but rather it is a gift that is given to reflect the humility of Jesus. If we try working at being humble and good then it is all about me and not about God. This is what makes legal obedience a dead weight and not a platform. When your focus, words and actions are done to give God the glory you shine whether you are aware of it or not. That's exactly what Jesus did. His desire was to be obedient to His Father's will; to speak it, obey it, do it. Whenever, wherever and with whomever He was, His passion was to be His Father's word and will.

Jesus chose to be Father conscious and that was what Paul was talking about when he says in Philippians Jesus, “...did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing...humbled Himself...became obedient to death, even death on a Cross...(2:7-8).” That's humility in perfection. That's belief personified. That's trust visualized. That's when faith is action. Jesus' life on this planet was a looking forward to every next moment as the way to show His Father's love and plan for recovering our humanity, restoring our relationship with Him and reconciling the world to Himself. For us this means we practice losing our self consciousness so we can become more God conscious.

As we read the Gospels Jesus is spontaneously conscious of His Father and His surroundings at the same time. It was the Holy Spirit, His Spirit, that moved Him. Jesus is the perfect balance of mind, heart and spirit, the exact image of God. This is why we study the Word and allow the Spirit to move our minds within it. Our goal is to allow the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of humility, to build that humble spontaneity in us. This is Paul's objective in this epistle. Our work is not to try and be like Jesus so we can earn God's approval and the approval of others. That is how we find ourselves being the old self conscious person attempting to be good on our own. No, the work we are called to is “...to believe in the One He has sent (Jn.6:29).” Belief in Jesus sets the path for the heart to trust which in turn paves the way for faith which is the action we take based on our belief and trust. This is why faith is what justifies us, makes us right, because this process of belief-trust-faith is what allows the Father's will in Jesus to send the Holy Spirit working through us. That's how we, with impaired spiritual vision, see to walk into the unknown, the every next future moment. We see Him as the Word describes Him and trust Him into those moments.

One more thing to underscore this point. Faith to act is always a risk in every next moment. As we have said, we don't know what it brings. So we repeat: believing Jesus is present in us, we look forward to act for Him in our every next moment because that is the whole area of the future, the unknown, the unseen and the primary field of our being images of God. The future is always looking forward right now. We are placing ourselves at Jesus' disposal in every next moment totally dependent on Him. “Faith is the substance of what we hope for, the evidence of things unseen (Heb.11:1).”