Implications of New Testament teaching

Strategy and structure

Leadership in the New Covenant community

"I will pour out my Spirit"

A teaching series drawing modern lessons from the early ‘ekklesia’

God is about to do mighty things in and through Britain.

Exchanging glory for worthlessness.

“‘Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror’, declares the Lord.”

This announcement expresses something of the Lord’s indignation. Justice is outraged! The most appalling thing imaginable had happened. Jeremiah said you could travel from Cyprus to the mouth of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates and never see anything like this. It had never happened before. No nation had ever changed its gods, even though they were only bits of wood and stone fashioned by human hands.

Even more incredible was the fact that the nation that had done this dreadful thing was the only nation to have known the one and only true God – the God of Creation! He was the God who had created the universe and he had chosen Israel to be a special people, his own servant through whom he would reveal himself, his nature and purposes and his teaching to all nations on earth.

Here was Israel, this special nation in a unique relationship with the one and only true God - and they had actually exchanged their ‘Glory’ for worthless idols. It was unbelievable! All the heavens were appalled and were shuddering with horror.

Altars to Foreign Gods

Idolatry in Jeremiah’s time was everywhere to be seen in the land of Judah. In the countryside under a grove of trees, or on the high places up in the hills and mountains, there were altars to pagan gods. In the villages there were Asherah poles and in the walled cities there were street-corner shrines. Even in the holy city of Jerusalem there were altars to foreign gods within sight of the Temple itself.

No nation had ever changed its gods, let alone exchange the Glory of a unique relationship with the one and only true God for worthless idols.

The people of Jerusalem worshipped openly at these urban sanctuaries, especially at the time of the spring fertility festival. They baked cakes with the image of Astarte, the Babylonian goddess known as the Queen of Heaven. They offered their worship to her because they thought that she was responsible for the power of the Babylonian Empire, whose armies were all-conquering in nation after nation. The Israelites thought that if they paid obeisance to the goddess of Babylon, she would bless them and ensure that they were safe from attack by the Babylonian army.

It seemed to them a logical thing to do, but to Jeremiah it was horrific. He could hardly believe what he was seeing:

The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. But am I the one they are provoking? declares the Lord. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame? (Jer 7:18-19).

Jeremiah and Jesus

Another word tumbled from Jeremiah’s lips as he spread before God the things he was seeing on the streets of Jerusalem and he listened to the outraged indignation of the Lord: “My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (2:13).

Maybe Jesus had these words in his mind when he sat beside a well in Sychar talking to a Samaritan woman. “Whoever drinks of the water I give him will never thirst.” He said “Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). And on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus repeated that offer to all the people of Jerusalem, declaring that God would give them “streams of living water”, which John says was a promise of the Holy Spirit (John 7:38-39).

Jeremiah saw the Spirit of God as a spring of living water giving new life to all those who put their trust in God and who came into a new and intimate relationship with him.

This is one of the many parallels between the ministry of Jeremiah and that of Jesus. Jeremiah saw the Spirit of God as a spring of living water giving new life to all those who put their trust in God and who came into a new and intimate relationship with him. 500 years later, Jesus would identify this as a promise of the Counsellor – the Spirit of Truth who would be with his disciples for ever. “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said”, he promised (John 14:26).

Promise of Living Water

Springs of the Jordan at Banaias, Israel. See Photo Credits.

Fresh, running water - living water - became a symbol of life for the prophets. At the springs around Mount Hermon, a place known in Jesus’ day as Caesarea Philippi (Banaias today), pure fresh water bubbled up through the rocky ground as it does today.

These are the springs of the River Jordan, which feed the Sea of Galilee. Jesus sat there with his disciples, undoubtedly teaching them about the Father’s utterly dependable, everlasting love for them because of their love for him, and that the Father would send the Holy Spirit to be with them forever.

The Holy Spirit would be like this fresh water bubbling up through the rocks where they were sitting. Pure, clean, fresh and utterly trustworthy without any contaminates; it was constant, unceasing, dependable even in a time of drought - the spring water from Mount Hermon never ceased to flow. It was a beautiful symbol of the Holy Spirit.

The same springs were there in Jeremiah’s day and were honoured by the Psalmist who saw the dew of Mount Hermon falling upon Mount Zion (Ps 133).

Fresh, running water - living water - became a symbol of life for the prophets.

Tragic Rejection

The tragedy that Jeremiah was crying out about was that this wonderful spring of everlasting fresh water – the Spirit of the Living God – that had been given freely to the people of Israel, had been rejected wilfully by them. They had exchanged the spring of pure fresh water for stale, lukewarm, dirty, infected water in cisterns they had dug for themselves – broken cisterns that leaked and would probably run dry when they needed water most! How could they be so utterly stupid?

But is not this exactly what we have done in the Western nations that have had the Gospel for centuries, and where our entire civilisations have been built upon Judeo-Christian biblical principles and values? In a single generation we have destroyed the foundations of our society. We have exchanged the Glory of God for worthless idols of humanism and paganism!

We worship at the shrines of labour-saving gadgets, hedonistic pleasure and material wealth. We are just as stupid as the people in Jeremiah’s day who baked cakes for the goddess of fertility and rejected the word of the Living God.

God withdrew his covering of protection as Jeremiah warned that he would, and Jerusalem was destroyed along with all its great buildings, including the Temple. Is not this a warning for us today?

This article is part of a series. Click here to read other instalments.

The laying on of hands (Part 2)

Editorial Comment: Campbell McAlpine was a good Bible teacher from solid Brethren stock. He wrote the little booklet First Principles, which we are serialising today, back in the 1960s. At that time of its publication by PWM Ministries (1992), none of the charismatic phenomena that we saw later in the 1990s had yet been experienced. Today we have a very different view on the laying on of hands. We have therefore carefully revised Campbell’s teaching in line with current biblical scholarship, so that the teaching given below represents that of Prophecy Today UK and Issachar Ministries.

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We have already seen that the laying on of hands is a practice with significance running right through the whole of Scripture. It was not only used to set people apart for certain ministries, but often as human authority was given to them to fulfil their calling or role within an institution. In this second study, we turn to how the laying on of hands can be important (or misused) in blessing, healing, and receiving the Holy Spirit.

Laying on Hands to Bless

It is important to understand that the act of laying on hands is not a magical formula or ritual to obtain automatic blessing – indeed, it can have rather undesirable results, as we will see. It is, however, a public statement: an act of faith to which God responds when done in line with his word. It is God alone who can bless, heal and fill with the Holy Spirit – and yet, in his grace and mercy, he chooses to allow us, his children, to take part in the process of blessing others with our personal faith.

In the Old Testament we read of fathers laying hands on their sons and blessing them. In ancient times, the practice of fathers blessing sons was part of the procedure through which inheritance was formally transferred. This does not mean that they imparted God’s blessing to them – no-one can give God’s blessing to someone! It is only God who can give his blessing.

Isaac blessed his son Jacob, and he was blessed, but this was Isaac’s own personal blessing upon his son, which God then honoured. Jacob in turn blessed each of his sons, and they were blessed, but again, it was not God’s blessing: it was the personal-yet-prophetic blessing of a father to his sons, which the Lord accepted.

What we learn from these examples is that laying on hands to bless is a practice that must be done with God-given authority and in line with God’s will – but that any resultant blessing comes from God. In the same way, the Apostle Paul talks about spiritual gifts and ministries in his letters but makes it clear that it is God who gives these, not people (see Eph 4:11; 1 Cor 12:28).

Laying on hands to bless is a practice that must be done with God-given authority and in line with God’s will - and any resultant blessing comes from God.

A Word of Caution

But passing on evil spirits is another matter. Although we cannot pass on pure things like the Holy Spirit to others by laying on hands, we can pass on evil spirits. The Prophet Haggai spoke to the Temple priests about passing on things from one body to another by touch. He stated emphatically that we cannot pass on holiness to someone else but we can certainly infect them with defilement (Hag 2:10-14).

This is why we should always be careful about who we allow to lay their hands on us – and this is the sad story of the charismatic movement of the 1990s, which was marked by all sorts of spirits being passed on from one to another, with people barking, laughing uncontrollably and falling around like drunkards. This was wrongly attributed to the Holy Spirit.

Jesus’ Ministry of Blessing

When we read in Matthew 19 of Jesus taking little children and laying his hands on them and blessing them, we are dealing with a different dimension. One thing is sure, these children would have been truly blessed – not least because of Jesus’ direct relationship with the Father.

Jesus said “anyone who has seen me has seen the Father”, but he also acknowledged that he could do nothing on his own initiative: he could only do what he saw the Father doing and what he heard from the Father (John 5:19, 8:28) and he always obeyed the Father’s commands (John 15:10). So a blessing from Jesus was a direct blessing from God the Father.

There is also the wonderful story in Revelation 1 where John, on the island of Patmos, had a sight of the glorified Lord Jesus. So overwhelming was that sight, that he “fell at His feet, as though dead.” Then Jesus laid his right hand on him and said, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Rev 1:17-18). Immediately John was strengthened and enabled to be Jesus’ messenger to the churches in Asia.

A blessing from Jesus was a direct blessing from God the Father.

Healing and the Laying on of Hands

The scriptures give several accounts of people being healed when hands were laid on them. This was evidenced in the ministry of Jesus:

• In Nazareth: “He laid His hands on a few sick people, and healed them” (Mark 6:5).
  
• A blind man: “Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly” (Mark 8:25).
  
• A disabled woman: “When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, ‘Woman, you are set free from your infirmity’. Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God” (Luke 13:12-13).
  
• A paralytic man: Jesus said “Friend, your sins are forgiven”. In dealing with this man’s sins before his healing, Jesus demonstrated that he was not just a faith healer. His mission set him apart from the rest of humanity. He was “the word made flesh…who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
  
• After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to the 11 disciples and commissioned them to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature”, giving them this promise, “These signs will accompany those who believe. In my name they will drive out demons, they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well” (Mark 16:17-18).
  
• When the Apostle Paul was shipwrecked on the island of Malta, he laid hands on the father of the chief citizen of the island who was ill with a fever, and he was healed (Acts 28:8).

The question we have to ask is whether ordinary human beings were given the power to heal by laying on their hands. There is no evidence of this in the New Testament. There are instances of the apostles laying hands upon the sick and praying for them and they were healed. But there is no evidence of healing being transmitted from the well person to the sick person through the laying on of hands. The healing was received in answer to prayer.

So again, we have the laying on of hands being an act of faith, done by those with God-given authority and in line with his word; an act to which God responds with power.

The scriptures give several accounts of people being healed when hands were laid on them.

The Holy Spirit and the Laying on of Hands

When Peter and John went down to Samaria, after hearing of the many who were being saved through the ministry of Philip, they ministered to the new converts and, “they placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:17). When Paul was in Ephesus, it is recorded that after baptising some believers, he “placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied” (Acts 19:6).

These verses are often misunderstood as meaning that the Holy Spirit was somehow imparted or transferred to the believers through the laying on of hands. But the Greek does not say that. It simply records that ‘this happened, then that happened’ – without any causative interpretation.

In the teaching of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is the gift of the Father. Jesus said “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth” (John 14:15). It is essential to understand that we cannot impart or pass on the Holy Spirit to anyone. He is entirely in God’s hands to give or to withhold as he chooses. In the Old Testament, Elisha had to learn this. He asked the dying Elijah for a double portion of his spirit - but Elijah made it clear that it was not his to give (2 Kings 2).

A particular passage that needs careful interpretation is Paul’s advice to Timothy: “Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you” (1 Tim 4:14). It is evident that one day while Timothy and the elders were waiting on the Lord, someone prophesied indicating the ministry the Lord desired Timothy to have. In response to this, the elders laid hands on him.

We can be certain that the elders prayed for him; but what is even more significant in the context of Paul’s words was that the elders recognised the ministry Timothy was to exercise in the ‘ekklesia’ – the scattered congregations around the Empire that made up the Church at that time. The laying on of hands was a sign of this recognition. It was not giving the Holy Spirit or any ministry gifts – Timothy had already received these. The laying on of hands was a sign of their blessing - giving Timothy the authority to go and exercise his ministry gifts amongst the various congregations.

This is what happens today in a service of ordination: the elders (or bishops) of the church lay hands on the ordinands and pray for them. Through this act they are not imparting any spiritual blessing upon him or her, but from their position of authority, they recognise the ministry to which the ordinand has been called by God. This recognition gives authority to the ordinand to exercise ministry within the organisation of the church in accordance with its rules. It does not confer blessing or spiritual gifts – it confers institutional authority.

The laying on of hands is an act of faith, to which God responds with power.

Impartation

The whole subject of ‘impartation’ has caused much division and confusion in churches in recent history. In the 1990s there were men who went around laying hands on people and causing them to behave strangely. One man even called himself a ‘Holy Spirit Bartender’ because when he touched people they behaved like drunkards. Clearly, the spirit he was passing on to others was not the Holy Spirit!

We believe that a true interpretation of biblical teaching on this subject is that we human beings can pass on evil spirits, but we cannot pass on the Holy Spirit or any of the spiritual gifts of God by laying hands on people. These gifts are entirely God’s to give.

This does not mean, however, that we shouldn’t lay on hands! It is undoubtedly a practice that God has ordained and to which he responds, when done in accordance with his word and will. As we have seen, laying on hands is an outward act of faith which can be used in certain circumstances to give a personal blessing, or as part of praying for healing or petitioning the Lord to pour out his Holy Spirit.

It is a lack of sound biblical teaching and interpretation of Scripture that has caused so much confusion about this issue in recent years. Further teaching can be found in the book ‘Blessing the Church?’ which we serialised on Prophecy Today earlier this year. The book, written in 1995, is currently out of print but may be digitalised by Issachar Ministries in the near future.

The doctrine of baptisms. (Part 2)

Last week Campbell MacAlpine unpacked the importance of baptism into the Body of Christ, water baptism and baptism in the Holy Spirit. We continue with the second part of this study on baptism.

3. Baptism with the Holy Spirit (continued): Indwelling vs Filling

The baptism with the Holy Spirit occurs the first time a person already indwelt by the Spirit, is filled with the Spirit. There is a difference between indwelling and filling. During my travels in many countries I have stayed in many homes. I gained entry to the home by knocking on the door and being invited in. Immediately I started to indwell the home. How did we become Christians? Jesus knocked on our heart's door, we invited him in and he began to indwell us.

Now, although I am indwelling the home and been given the guest room, I cannot do what I like. I cannot wander into my host’s and hostess’s bedroom and open the cupboards and drawers. I have not been given that right. However, supposing they say to me one day, ‘Campbell, we don’t want you just to have the guest room, we want you to have the whole house. Here are all the keys, it is yours.’ Immediately my status changes. Now I can do what I wish. I can control every activity in the house now that I am in full possession.

Just as there are different words used for being saved (such as ‘born again’; ‘he that believes’; ‘converted’; ‘new creature in Christ Jesus’), there are different descriptions for the experience of being initially filled with the Holy Spirit (‘received’; ‘came upon’; ‘poured out’; ‘fell on’; ‘baptised with’). As we saw in the teaching on water baptism, that it was not a suggestion but a command, so we are exhorted: “be filled with the Spirit” (Eph 5:18).

The baptism with the Holy Spirit occurs the first time a person already indwelt by the Spirit is filled with the Spirit.

Why should a Christian be filled with the Spirit?

• Jesus assured his disciples that they would receive power to be his witnesses and we, like them, need that enablement.
• We need to be filled so that there can be greater expression of the ‘fruit of the Spirit’: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Gal 5:22-23).
• We need to be filled to enable him to have liberty to manifest ‘the gifts of the Spirit’: the word of wisdom; the word of knowledge; faith; healings; miracles; prophecy; discerning of spirits; tongues; interpretation of tongues (1 Cor 12:7-10).

Someone once asked a Spirit-filled Christian the question, ‘do you think you are better than other Christians?’ His reply was, ‘Oh no, just better equipped’.

How can a Christian be filled with the Holy Spirit?

(a) A clean heart: The Holy Spirit can never fill any area of our life where there is sin. There is an interesting account in Leviticus 14 of the actions of the priest when a person had been healed of leprosy. Part of the ceremony included the priest taking the blood of the offering and placing it on the right ear, the right thumb and the big toe on the right foot. Then he took oil and placed it on the right ear, the right thumb and the big toe on the right foot. The oil, which is an emblem of the Holy Spirit, never went where the blood had not been. So the first essential is that the life is clean and right with God.

(b) A sense of need: The Lord Jesus, during the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, offered a wonderful invitation and promise: “’If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him’. By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:37-39). 

We see from the Lord’s statement that we must be thirsty. To be thirsty is to feel dry and know it. It means a consciousness of need. Many times in our Christian lives, circumstances, behaviour and problems underline the fact that we have needs. Thirst is also a desire to know God better. David expressed his longing in this way, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Ps 42:1-2).

(c) Come to Jesus: He is the source of all that we need. He is the Saviour. He is the baptiser in the Holy Spirit. His loving heart calls out, ‘come to me’.

(d) Drink: To drink means to receive. When one is thirsty and is given a glass of water, all that is needed to quench the thirst is to receive that which is offered.

(e) Believe: The promise is to him who believes. Jesus said, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer” (Matt 21:22). The promise is: “out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”.

Someone once asked a Spirit-filled Christian the question, ‘do you think you are better than other Christians?’ His reply was, ‘Oh no, just better equipped’.

Be filled with the Spirit, thirst, come to Jesus, receive, believe. We came to him in a similar way for salvation. First we had a sense of need because of our sin, and we needed a Saviour. Then we came to the Lord Jesus, believing that he died for our sins, and rose again, and on the basis of his promise received him into our hearts and the Spirit witnessed with our spirits that we were saved.
What happened in the New Testament when Christians were initially filled with the Holy Spirit?

• On the day of Pentecost, the 120 “began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (Acts 2:4).
• Ananaias said to the newly converted Saul of Tarsus, “Brother Saul, the Lord - Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here - has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:17-18). Although there is no mention of his speaking in tongues, he later told the Corinthians, “I speak in tongues more than you all”.
• In the house of Cornelius, it is recorded, “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God” (Acts 10:44-46).
• Paul went to Ephesus and ministered to 12 men who responded to the teaching. “On hearing this, they were baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus…and they spoke in tongues and prophesied” (Acts 19:5-6).

The usual result in those who were initially filled with the Spirit was they spoke in a new language given to them.

4. Baptism with Fire

The fourth expression used in the teaching of baptisms is baptism with fire. John the Baptist said of Jesus, “He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire”. What does this mean? We read the rest of the verse, “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor; gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Matt 3:11-12).

In the growth of wheat, chaff is necessary. However, there comes a time when it is no longer necessary and the farmer gets rid of it. In the Christian life the Lord, from time to time, through a variety of ways and circumstances, will lovingly deal with us and with things which would interfere with fruitfulness in our lives. Jesus said, “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15:2).

In the Christian life the Lord, from time to time, through a variety of ways and circumstances, will lovingly deal with us and with things which would interfere with fruitfulness in our lives.

There will be times in our lives of purging and purifying, when he lovingly shows us the non-essentials and things that would prevent us going on to maturity: the removal of chaff. It is good to know that in the life which desires to do the will of God, nothing will happen without a divine purpose.

When unusual circumstances come in to our lives the answer is not to run to the emergency exit but ask the question, ‘Lord, what are you trying to teach me? What is the reason for the heat? Is there something in my life needing correction or adjustment?’ Sometimes it is a ‘baptism of fire’.

When you read of the lives of men like Moses, Elijah, Elisha, David, Job, the prophets, the disciples, Paul and many others, you find their lives were punctuated by strange and adverse events in which they not only learned more about God, but more about themselves. Yes, there will be testing times, proving times, purging times, but in them all there is a loving Heavenly Father who only desires the very best for us.

5. Baptism of Suffering

We now come to the last teaching on this doctrine. We have seen that when we were saved we were ‘baptised by one Spirit into one body’, and given the privilege of openly confessing Christ in being baptised in water. He has made the power of the Holy Spirit available to us through being filled with the Spirit, and because he desires us to be holy, there will be times of learning through a baptism of fire. We are reminded that being a Christian will include suffering.

Jesus never tried to gain followers under false pretences but rather called on would-be followers to ‘count the cost’. One day, the mother of James and John came to Jesus to ask a special favour for her sons, “’Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom’. ‘You don’t know what you are asking’, Jesus said to them. ‘Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?’ ‘We can’, they answered. Jesus said to them, ‘You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father’” (Matt 20:21-23).

We know that both disciples had a ‘baptism of suffering’. James was beheaded by King Herod and John was banished to Patmos and, if some historians are right, was eventually martyred. Paul wrote to Timothy and reminded him: “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12).

We are reminded that being a Christian will include suffering.

Multitudes have suffered, and today many still suffer for being Christians. Many have been martyred and many more will be, but we can thank God that whenever we need his grace or strength in times of suffering he is faithful to provide. He has promised, “I will never leave you, or forsake you”. Paul could write, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Rom 8:18).

Conclusion

These basic biblical truths need to be absorbed into the life of every believer to enable them to be committed members in their local churches.

If you have not been baptised in water, obey the Lord and he will bless you. If you have never been filled with the Holy Spirit, yield the totality of your life to the Lord. Ask him to fill you, believe his promise, and receive. Realise how much the Lord loves you and that from time to time he will lovingly deal with the non-essentials in your life. Embrace the implications of following Jesus even when that involves suffering for his Name's sake.

Questions

1. Explain your understanding of the ‘baptism with the Holy Spirit’, and has this happened to you? If not, what are the difficulties?
2. As you look back on your life, or perhaps in your present situation, can you recognise God’s purifying process? How have you responded? Is there any response required now?

This article is part of a series, re-publishing a booklet entitled 'The Biblical Basis of First Principles'. Click here for previous instalments.

Faith toward God.

We now come to the second truth in the foundational series. Having turned from dead works, that is everything not initiated by God, we are called to a life which looks to God for everything - totally trusting him - for, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Heb 11:6).

When a person first becomes a Christian he usually has very little knowledge of God or his Son Jesus Christ. The Christian life is a continual exploration of the knowledge of God. Obviously you cannot trust anyone you do not know well, and the more you get to know God the more you can trust him.

Faith toward God develops and grows by us using the means available to us to increase in this knowledge. Daniel the Prophet wrote, “the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits, and those of the people who understand shall instruct many” (Dan 11:32-33, NKJV). Next week we will pursue the means by which we get to know God, but this week let us briefly consider the subject of faith itself.

Faith unto Salvation

In the Bible, faith is spoken of in three main ways. First, what is termed ‘saving faith’, is the initial faith which brings us into relationship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul puts it this way, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no-one can boast” (Eph 2:2-3).

Although one can be told the Gospel message which is “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Rom 1:16), it is not possible to explain fully what happens when a person believes. Salvation is a miracle and you cannot explain miracles because they are supernatural.

The whole Godhead is operative when a person comes to Christ:

• Father: Jesus said, “No-one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day" (John 6:44).
• Son: God draws us to Christ. The Lord Jesus gives us eternal life. He said. “For you granted him [Jesus] authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him” (John 17:2).
• Holy Spirit: When Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, he told him that it was the Holy Spirit who brings about the new birth, “I tell you the truth, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:5-6). The Holy Spirit convicts of sin and when we respond to the Gospel message he comes to dwell within us, thus giving us life.

Although we cannot explain it we know that when we responded to the conviction of sin and came to that place where we were ready to turn from sin, believing that Jesus died and rose again and willing to submit to his Lordship, God gave us the faith by which to receive his Son, Jesus. No wonder the writer to the Hebrews describes it as, ‘so great a salvation’.

The Christian life is a continual exploration of the knowledge of God.

Faith by Which to Live

Second, there is faith by which to live. We have seen that when we become a Christian the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us, and the “fruit of the Spirit is faith”. Not only is there a God-given faith by which to come to the Lord Jesus, but also a God-given faith to live the Christian life: "the righteous will live by faith".

Our faith is in God, who is the Faithful One. God can be trusted because of the perfection of his character. It is impossible for God to lie. It is impossible for God ever to do one thing which is unrighteous or unfair.

Circumstances can come into our lives which we do not understand and God is not obliged to give us an explanation of everything that happens. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow the words of this law” (Deut 29:29). But even though we sometimes cannot understand, we can be totally confident in the fact that as long as we seek to live in obedience, then “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28).

Jeremiah the Prophet, out of his experience of trusting God, proclaimed “His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam 3:22-23).

The Bible contains a great many stories which confirm God’s reliability. A few examples are the miracle of the partings of the Red Sea and the River Jordan; the feeding of over two million people each day in a wilderness; the sun standing still in the days of Joshua; the closing of the mouths of lions in the den where Daniel was incarcerated; the miracles of Jesus; his resurrection, and so many more. God will allow or ordain circumstances in all of our lives to show us what a wonderful Father he is and how much he loves and cares for us so that we can fully trust him.

The Gift of Faith

Third, there is what is termed ‘the gift of faith’. This is included in the list Paul gives in 1 Corinthians 12 when he is leaching on the different kinds of gifts of the Holy Spirit. The gift of faith is a supernatural endowment of faith given by God for some specific circumstance, or need, or event.

This gift was obviously given to Peter and John while they were both going to the Temple after the day of Pentecost. There at the gate was a crippled beggar who asked them for money. Peter said to him, “Look at us…silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk” (Acts 3:11-8).

God will allow or ordain circumstances in all of our lives to show us what a wonderful Father he is and how much he loves and cares for us so that we can fully trust him.

This special gift is sometimes given to initiate some work or mission, such as the establishment of orphanages by George Muller in Bristol; the launching of the China Inland Mission by Hudson Taylor, etc. It can be given by God to remove some mountain, some obstacle. It can be given to you as he sees necessary for some specific purpose or ministry.

The next step is to explore how we can go on to know this wonderful, powerful, loving, just, and faithful God.

Next week: Exercising faith to know God better.

This article is part of a series, first published as a booklet in 1992. It has been edited for online publication. Click here for previous instalments.