Part 4 - The Application of Faith

Reckoning the Separation through the Light of the Gospel

The believer has been set apart from darkness into the light of Christ. This is a finished work of Jesus. Every believer has available to him the ability to know God, for such knowledge comes through the Holy Spirit, whom Christ enabled to indwell the believer. Through Christ, the Logos, has come God's revelation to mankind. This is the Bible, God's word. The Holy Spirit communicates the truths of God's word to the believer, enabling him to walk in the light.

God's part in redemption is the work, and man's part is faith. The work is finished, but a person must apply faith to that finished work. The writer to the Hebrews warns, "Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it" (Heb. 4:1-2).

The light of the gospel

The basic light that God has given is the light of the gospel. The starting point of a saving relationship with God begins when the believer applies faith to the gospel message. Paul the Apostle wrote of this to the Corinthians: "Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you; unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor. 4:1-4).

Paul continues about the resurrection of Jesus, "For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!" (1 Cor. 15:16-17). Not only is faith that "Christ died for our sins" essential, but also faith in His resurrection. Paul expounds on this: "For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:21-22). It is "in Christ" that the believer is "made alive." This happens in the resurrection of Christ. Concerning this, Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26).

"Sanctify them by your truth"

Paul wrote previously, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor. 1:18). The message is the power of God to deliver a person when faith is applied to that message. Satan is conducting spiritual warfare against mankind in an attempt to blind them to the light of the gospel. Scripture shows, "But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them" (2 Cor. 4:3-4). Because faith in the gospel message is so powerful, there is a great attack against it by Satan.

Jesus prayed to the Father, "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth" (John 17:17). As the Logos, the word of God, Jesus is that truth. The sanctifying work of Christ is that which has set apart the believer into the light of Christ, into the life of Christ, into the body of Christ, and into the rule of Christ. Experiential sanctification comes when the believer reckons this work by applying faith and then abiding in this separation in Christ. When Jesus prayed, "Sanctify them by Your truth," He was making a reference to that part of His sanctifying work of bringing the believer into His light.

Baptized into Christ

Speaking of the necessity to reckon the light of the gospel, Paul writes: "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God" (Rom. 6:3-10).

This is the first part of the answer to the question, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Paul in reply asks, "Do you not know?" It is implied that all believers should know and reckon this basic truth of the gospel: Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world, was buried, and was resurrected, and the believer is united together with Christ in that death and resurrection. The believer is to reckon that he has been translated from one kingdom to another through Christ. The death of Christ on the cross is the death of "our old man," this being the old nature that was a slave to sin. The believer has been freed from one life through death and now has a new life in Christ. Death ends the dominion of sin.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind

Part of the definition of faith is that it is the "evidence of things not seen." Here is where the believer must take an inventory of the work of Christ and count it so: This deliverance is not visible on the worldly and fleshly level. The believer is still living in a fallen world and inhabiting a fleshly body that is a part of that fallen world. The visible kingdom is the one of sin and darkness. But on a spiritual level, a whole new reality takes precedence. The believer is a new creature in Christ, alive in God's kingdom. The believer has a new nature, one that longs after the righteousness of God. This spiritual reality, unseen by the flesh, is what the believer must reckon. He must count it so and put faith in God's word that says it is so. And he must do so despite what the flesh says.

Romans 12:2 says, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." There is a renewing of the mind that takes place when one exercises faith in the light of God's word. A new mindset will develop that will result in transformation. The Scripture says to "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:2-3).

Paul demonstrates this faith in the gospel when he said, "For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:19-20). Jesus said, "I am the ... truth." As the Truth, Jesus is the object of reckoning, believing, and trusting. Paul says, "Or do you not know," and again, "knowing this ..." One is to reckon and believe the truth of Christ, and this begins with one's deliverance from sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.