After thirteen years of handling tons of the books, I
finally saw it right there on the cover!
The Liberty Bell, that is.
In preparation for publishing Free In Christ, a graphic
artist gave me several suggestions for
the cover art. The Liberty Bell was my
choice. It was only a few months ago,
however, that I saw a discrepancy in it other than the
inscription being on the
bell instead of the rim. Dr. Prasad in
India made a sort of letterhead to advertise our publishing
ministry there. On it, he had slanted the bell
to the left. On the thousands of books,
it is slanted to the right. In a huge bell
like that, the clapper does not move to ring the bell, but the
bell moves on a spindle to contact the clapper. So it
would never be in the position shown on all five of my
books!
I assume that my erroneous depiction of the bell will affect
the eternal destiny of no one, but this illustrates how
unquestioning and
comfortable we can become with things which may give a wrong
slant or outright misrepresentation.
Hebrews 11 has always been a favorite portion of the
Scriptures for me. It is thrilling to
read of those heroes of faith pictured there.
Only a few years ago, however, I was chagrined to realize that through
the years I had held up the heroes of faith as heroes of works
instead. That is much more serious than the slant of
a bell on a book cover!
In teaching about those men presented to us as examples of
faith, I always felt the need to quickly emphasize their
obedience lest someone
might think they were righteous because of faith! I knew
those worthies of the past could not be saved by dead
faith, and I thought that most everybody else believed they
could!
I wonder now, however, just how many people really believe
they can be saved by an inactive faith.
Most all who tell the sinner to “just believe” go on
to advise them to
pray “the sinner’s prayer,” to call on the Lord,
to invite the Lord into their
hearts, to commit their lives to God, or some other such
expression of active faith. Even though they may leave
baptism out because they think it would be an effort to do works
of salvation, they still require some active work of faith.
In the first sentences of Hebrews 11, it is declared,
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped
for, the conviction of things not seen.
For by it the men of old received divine
approval.” Yes, those men and women
were heroes of faith.
Abel was already righteous before he offered his sacrifice
by faith. God bore witness of his
righteousness by accepting his gift. He
was not a sinner made righteous by offering a legally specified
sacrifice in a legally specified manner. God accepted
him and his sacrifice because he was righteous already.
God rejected Cain and his offering, not
because it was the wrong thing but because he was already an
evil person (1 John 3:11-12). Abel’s faith brought
forth the response of worship but the emphasis in the story is
his faith rather than his worship.
Although no specific action is accredited to Enoch, he “
walked with God” (Gen. 5:22) “ …
before he was taken up he was attested as having pleased
God. And without faith it is impossible to please
him.”
“By faith Noah, … took
heed and constructed an ark … and became an heir of the
righteousness which comes by faith (11:7) By faith, or
works?
He achieved his righteousness by following the exact instructions
given for building the ark. Right? That is the
“works righteousness” that I
always concluded with. How misdirected
I was! “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the
Lord” (Gen. 6:8) before
the command to build an ark was given.
The faith through which he had found favor led him to do what God told
him, else we can be assured that he would have become a drowned
believer.
“By faith Abraham
obeyed when he was called…” (Heb. 11:8-12).
From that start it was easy to review the tests that Abraham’s
faith survived, finally reaching its zenith when he offered
Isaac. There and then God declared, “Now I know
you fear God, seeing you have not
withheld your son, your only son, from me” (Gen.
22:12). Wasn’t that when he was accounted righteous
and became pleasing in God’s sight?
Does not James tell us, “Was not
Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son
Isaac upon the altar?” (James 2:21)?
If we could interview James and ask him, “James, do you mean
that Abraham was still an unjustified sinner through all those
years since God
called him until he set about to offer Isaac?” we could
expect him to respond
in this manner, “Oh my! No! No! Abraham was
continuing to act on his
original justifying faith. Faith is not
completed in a point in time. It had to
be a continuing thing. Faith should be
a growing thing. The essence of faith
involves more than mental acceptance of some facts.
‘You see that faith was
active along with his works, and faith was completed by
works’ (2:22). Don’t you understand that
faith must be active or it is dead?”
There are at least five distinctions of works:
1. Works of law. “For we hold that a man is
justified by faith apart from works of law”
(Rom. 3:28). Law has no
power to save, neither the Law of Moses nor any other code of
law. Even an unbeliever might conform to
regulations of law.
2. Works of merit or “earning power.”
“For
if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast
about, but not before God” (4:2). “…
it is the gift of God –
not because of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph.
2:9). If we could do works that would merit God’s
grace, then we could boast. It would no
longer be grace, a gift, but something we earned or had enough
goodness to deserve.
3. Evidence of living faith. “For
as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart
from works is dead” (James 2:26). “ Obedience
of faith” (Rom. 1:5; 16:26) is an evidence of living
faith, hence, it becomes a part of the essence – the definition – of
faith. If dead faith is effective, the demons are
justified. Factual faith falls short of
meeting the definition of saving faith.
4. Completing works. James identifies the
fourth as the active element of faith: “You see that faith was
active along with his works, and faith was
completed by works.”
Faith must be sustained.
It is not something like a birth that is experienced once for
all time, but it is more like life which must be maintained at all
times. Faith bringing continued justification is
always conditional, “…if you hold it fast
– unless you believed in vain” (1 Cor. 15:2).
Paul and Barnabas went about “…
strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to
continue in the faith…” (Acts 14:22). Many
references call for maintenance of faith.
It can be renounced (1 Tim. 5:8).
We may all yearn as the apostles did for Jesus to
“Increase our faith” (Luke 17:5).
The faith that God accounts for righteousness is not itself
correctness with God. None can claim
correctness (Rom. 3:9-18).
Righteousness is not accomplished in us by our own doing or that of
God. We can only be sinners accounted
or reckoned as justified through his free gift (Rom. 5:15-17;
all of Ch. 3). Because we cannot do justifying
works ourselves, we are totally dependent on grace.
Justification is a gift.
Since dead faith avails nothing, active faith is
essential. Breathing is not usually
defined as life, but because life is sustained by it, it
actually becomes a
part of the essence of life. When we
speak of a living person, we know that it is a breathing
person. In similar manner, works cannot be defined
as faith, but because living faith cannot be sustained without
works, activity becomes a part of the essence of faith.
When the Scriptures speak of a faithful person, we know that
believer is active. With that understanding it is
appropriate to say a person is justified only by faith for we
are speaking of the full essence of faith. Evidently,
James was referring to faith in its full definition when he
spoke of the necessary activity of faith.
Works do not produce faith, but living conviction initiates
activity. My endeavor should have
always been to produce faith, like Hebrews 11 illustrates.
That is what the evangelists did as recorded
in Acts. When conviction was
sufficient, appropriate action followed.
That is the emphasis of Hebrews 11.
5. Actions of acceptance. Jesus died for all
but all will not be saved. His salvation is offered to all
but it is not accepted by all. It is
forced on no one else evangelism would be a senseless
activity. The gospel was proclaimed to produce faith
which would bring forth repentance and submission to baptism as
is illustrated on Pentecost. Baptism does not save, is
not a response to demands of law, nor is it a meritorious
deed. It is the submissive act of acceptance instructed
by Peter who held the keys of the kingdom entrusted to him and
spoke as the Spirit gave him utterance. How sad it
is that preachers today refuse to tell sinners what Peter told
them to do!
It must be observed that the heroes of faith had neither
sufficient faith nor works to produce a flawless
character. They were not justified by personal
perfection. None could develop the
ultimate perfection of character or obedience.
If either, or both, of those qualities were necessary for right
standing before God, they would have been hopeless.
Our prospect is no better. God
does not perfect our character but, by his grace, he accounts us
as though we were perfect. Our right standing before
God is a gift – not an achievement even by grace which we
must reach out to receive.
“Therefore,” in view of the inspiring examples of those
heroes of faith, the writer urges, “Therefore,
since we are surrounded by so
great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight,
and sin which
clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race
that is set before
us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who
for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb.
12:1-2). []
(Cecil Hook: FR 31; August 1998, revised in October 2006)
“I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).