Having perceived that a man is not being justified by
works of law, except alone through the faith of Christ Jesus, we also
believe in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by the faith of
Christ" (Gal.2:16). The faith of Jesus Christ, not our own faith,
is the basis of our justification. The righteousness of God is
manifested for all through Jesus Christ's faith (Rom.3:21,22). This is a
basic truth and foundational element of the evangel. It will pay us well
to meditate on this wonderful faith of our Lord.
Faith in God is a matter of believing and depending
upon His word and having confidence in His character, regardless of
circumstances. The faith of Jesus Christ in His God and Father
illustrates both of these aspects of faith.
"My Son are You; I, today, have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I shall give the nations as Your allotment, and as Your
holding, the limits of the earth" (Psa.2:7b,8).
Here is one of a number of promises made by God the
Father to His only-begotten Son. In the weakened condition brought about
by forty days and nights of fasting, Christ was offered the opportunity
to hurry the fulfillment of God's promise if He would fall down and
worship the Adversary (Matt.4:8-10). Similarly, Abraham was offered the
opportunity to hurry the fulfillment of God's promise to him when Sarah
suggested that he father a child by Hagar. So often we too, in our
impatience and weakness of faith, want to "help God" fulfill
His promises. But He needs no help—He desires our faith. The Lord's
response to the Adversary reflects both His faith and His reverence for
His Father.
Christ still awaits His day of authority, but, like
David, waiting on the Lord to remove Saul, He rests in faith, awaiting
the Father's time. Facing death, the apparent end of all things for
those in the flesh, the Lord Jesus said to Pilate, "Yet now is My
kingdom not hence" (John 18:36). He believed He would have that
promised kingdom, but that it was yet future, and thus He showed His
belief that His Father would raise Him from the dead and eventually seat
Him on His throne. This is the same faith that rouses us together with
Him (Col.2:12).
Before Paul mentions the faith of Jesus Christ in
Romans 3, he paints a vivid and detailed picture of human depravity as
he progresses through the first three chapters. He does this because we
cannot grasp the faith of Christ until we begin to realize the
offensiveness of humanity's sin to God. As children, we probably behaved
better for other adults than we did for our own parents. At home we knew
where all the invisible boundaries were that could not be crossed. If we
behaved poorly at a friend's house, and were confronted by his parents,
we would study every expression of our friend in an effort to determine
how serious the offense was. Our initial rearing is in the world—not
in God's house, and we are incapable of realizing the degree of
repulsion that God experiences from our sin. Only by examining Christ
and the cross can we come to any realization of the offensiveness of sin
to God.
But the Lord Jesus was "in the bosom of the
Father," and knew the Father so intimately that He could
"unfold" or reveal Him to the world's gaze (John 1:18). Christ
knew the Father's love for humanity, but He also knew the unfathomable
depth of offense that the Father suffered because of mankind's
sinfulness. Only Christ could realize how grievous a thing it was to
bear the sin of the world. Only Christ could know how heinous He would
be to the Father He loved when He bore our sin. Gethsemane speaks
volumes of the close filial relationship between the Son and the Father
and of the agony inflicted in the severing of that relationship.
Christ had the utmost confidence in the character of
His God and Father. He could view the indignation of God over man's
depravity and offensiveness and still not doubt His Father's reconciling
love. How different this is from our faith! Some people believe they
have already sinned so grievously that God could never dispose of their
offense. Some think that God has tied His love before them on a string,
so that He can retrieve it if they ever falter in obedience. Many
observe God's indignation toward the world and conclude that if God
exists at all, He is an angry God, devoid of love. Still others focus on
God's reconciling love to the neglect of the inestimable cost of the
cross to Him. A balanced faith will view God's love against the
background of the offense of the cross.
The cross of Christ sets before us the death of the
flesh. All creation was in Christ and came into being through Him (Col.
1:15-17), and in His death all may be viewed as having died: "...
if One died for the sake of all, consequently all died" (2 Cor.5:
14). Thus the cross brings the end of all flesh before us. And the cross
also marks the death of the flesh in the believer's life.
It is interesting that when the Lord Jesus came in
flesh to His people under the law, He did not search for anyone who had
fulfilled the law. Of course such a search would have been fruitless,
but the point is that instead, He searched for those who had faith. Law
is dependent upon the flesh, and faith and the flesh are continually in
opposition to each other. Faith forsakes all confidence in the flesh,
even in the best things of the flesh, and clings to God Who is Spirit
(Phil.3). Faith is spiritual. The presence of faith verifies that God
has bestowed a spiritual ability. Faith is an act of maturity of which
the flesh is incapable. In fact, all too often, faith only flourishes as
our flesh becomes weaker and weaker with the advance of years. Yet Paul
says of the believers who have received a realization of the cross,
"those of Christ Jesus crucify the flesh together with its passions
and lusts" (Gal.5:24). And so the cross may be seen as the end of
the flesh and also as the beginning of faith.
When Christ our Lord faced the cross, He faced it
empty of all His rightful authority and ability. He faced the end of
Himself, unless God would bring Him back. Faith in His God and Father
was all and only what He had. Such is what God desires our condition to
be. Oh that the flesh were dead and faith flourishing, that we rested
immovable upon the word of God and upon His divine, immutable character!
� J. Philip Scranton
