Justified by the faith OF Christ and not faith IN Christ; Part 4

Gal 2:16 NET "yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified."

Heb 11:6 NET  "Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."

Think about the incarnation of God in Christ. Having been born into the world similar to all of humanity, he was born with no recollection that he was from God, or at least, if babies are born with that understanding they soon lose it, and do not ever communicate it or remember it beyond the time that language and thinking is formed. While the gospels explain that Jesus was bright and above average as a youngster (Luke 2:39-52) He did not receive the Spirit until his baptism. It is important to understand the humanity of Jesus to understand his mission. The Holy Spirit was the way in which the Father spoke to Jesus. The Holy Spirit enabled Jesus the human incarnation of God to perform the miracles, and be clairsentient, clairvoyant, claircognizant and clairaudient.

This is where Jesus' perfect faith came into play. It is the way in which he was the representative human that would completely and absolutely please God. In fact, the scripture records the Father saying "this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." When you examine that proclamation of God in light of Hebrews 11:6 it is easy to understand what Paul meant when he said that we were justified by the faithfulness/faith of Christ. First it is only faith that pleases God, and secondly, God says my beloved Son in whom I am WELL PLEASED! If faith is the only thing that pleases God, then it follows that if He was well pleased it would be by perfect faith, and the perfect faith is the faith/faithfulness of Jesus.

And, the scripture tells us that. John 8:28-29 NET  "Then Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak just what the Father taught me.  (29)  And the one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do those things that please him.” When you read the above passage from John chapter eight it should become crystal clear that Jesus had perfect faith, and that it was his perfect faith that was his perfect obedience. First, he did NOTHING on his own initiative but only what the Father taught him, and secondly, he ALWAYS, let me emphasize this, ALWAYS does/did the things that pleased the Father. This means that he always operated out of faith in what the Father was telling him, and thus had perfect faith.

Paul goes on to state that faith = obedience. Rom 1:5 NET  "Through him we have received grace and our apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name." Jesus obedience was his perfect faith in what the Father told him, even unto death on the cross, and our obedience is believing what God did in the incarnation of Christ. It was the Holy Spirit, first given to Christ at his baptism, that enabled perfect faith for Christ, and it is Christ's faith that has enabled us to receive the same Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables us to apprehend the faith of Christ. Therefore, our obedience is to believe the gospel no matter what.

That means we must believe the gospel no matter what we see or do. God wants us to believe that He reconciled the world through Christ, that he is not counting sin, and that he has declared us to be the very righteousness of God based on Christ's faith. This is a tall order, and is a long ways from easy believism, a term devised by those truly ignorant of the true, pure gospel. Believing the gospel is anything but easy, and it was certainly not easy for Jesus to be the forerunner of such faith.

Links to the previous posts in this series.  Part 1  Part 2  Part 3