Our Text for this series:
Hebrews 5:12-14 NKJV
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Hebrews 6:1-2 NKJV
Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
This is the 3rd in a series in which we are covering the “elementary principles of Christ,” also referred to as “milk.” In order to go on to the “solid food” we need to get these foundations set first. In the last episode, we covered “repentance from dead works” which is in its simplest form, making a mental decision to turn away from where you are and turn to God. In this episode we will cover “faith toward God.”
Rick Renner, who is very knowledgeable with biblical Greek, translates “faith toward God” as this: “it is the picture of complete trust; it depicts no self-reliance; a faith that rests ONLY on God.”
This is a great depiction of the phrase because in the natural, that is, in and of ourselves, we can do nothing to wipe out the sin and death that has been left to us as a legacy by Adam.
Romans 5:12 MEV Therefore as sin came into the world through one man (Adam) and death through sin, so death has spread to all men, because all have sinned.
Hebrews 11:1 KJV Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Let’s look at a few of these words in our concordance in order to get a better understanding of what is being said here.
“Substance” can also be assurance or confidence. “Things hoped for…” can be expect, hope, or trust. Then we see that complete trust in God is the confident assurance of things expected. So the next question here is what is “the evidence of things not seen?” It is the Word of God, it is every promise that He has given to us through His Word and it is the Word, Himself, that ratified God’s new covenant with man through Jesus’ Blood.
Let’s take a moment and expand on this because it’s essential that you receive and understand these things.
John 1:1 KJV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
So we see here that Jesus is the Word. Take some time and read Hebrews 10 into 11, it speaks of God’s new covenant with us through Jesus. Don’t take the word covenant lightly, in God’s eyes it is a contract that He won’t break. E. W. Kenyon has an excellent book called “The Blood Covenant” which will help you to understand the fullness of God’s covenant with us. In short, a blood covenant would be made between two tribes or parties in order to strengthen both parties. For example, if one tribe was made up of excellent infantryman and the other was made up of excellent archers and they came under a blood covenant, they would each cover the weakness of the other with their own strengths. If this bond was broken it would demand the death of the party who broke it.
Since we are the weaker party in God’s covenant with us through Jesus, we gain the strengths of Jesus spoken of in the Bible and God gains us as sons and daughters.
Now let’s look at the word for salvation, which is soteria.
Soteria is deliverance, preservation, safety, salvation.
Three of the gifts I want you to get down in your hearts are:
- Spirit of Life (Divine Life).
- Healing (Divine Health).
- Riches (Divine Prosperity)
Spirit of Life:
Romans 8:2 NASB For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
The Believer’s Bible Commentary says:
The Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death. These are two opposite laws or principles. The characteristic principle of the Holy Spirit is to empower believers for holy living. The characteristic principle of indwelling sin is to drag a person down to death. It is like the law of gravity. When you throw a ball into the air, it comes back down because it is heavier than the air it displaces. A living bird is also heavier than the air it displaces, but when you toss it up in the air, it flies away. The law of life in the bird overcomes the law of gravity. So the Holy Spirit supplies the risen life of the Lord Jesus, making the believer free from the law of sin and death.
Healing:
1 Peter 2:24 NASB and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
Psalm 107:20 NASB He sent His word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions.
The word “healed” is better translated “made whole,” which encompasses not only healing, but restoration of anything lost due to what ailed a person.
Riches:
2 Corinthians 8:9 NASB For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.
The Believer’s Bible Commentary says:
The word grace is used in a variety of ways in the NT, but here the meaning is unmistakably that of generosity. How generous was the Lord Jesus? He was so generous that He gave all He had for our sakes that we through His poverty might become eternally rich. Moorehead comments:
He was rich in possessions, power, homage, fellowship, happiness. He became poor in station, circumstances, in His relations with men. We are urged to give a little money, clothing, food. He gave Himself.37
So speaking again of faith:
Galatians 3:6-14 MEV Even Abraham “believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 7 Therefore know that those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel in advance to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. 10 For all who rely on the works of the law are under the curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the Book of the Law, to do them.” 11 Now it is evident that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, for “The just shall live by faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith, for “The man who does them shall live by them.” 13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us—as it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— 14 so that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Hebrews 11:6 MEV
And without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
So to sum it up, faith is that complete belief, that confident expectation, that total conviction that God will perform every word of the unbreakable, paid in blood, contract that He has made with us. And that is why knowing and understanding the elementary principles of Christ and getting them down into your heart is so important. It’s hard to receive and put to use something advanced without first receiving and putting into use the basics and God wants us to experience everything that He has for us in this world and in the next, not just in the next. So don’t forsake all that He has for you for anything the devil has for you here. Don’t sell Him short and don’t sell yourself short.
Romans 10:8-10 NASBS
8 But what does it say? “The WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART”-that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
In the next episode, we will cover the three types of baptism.
E. W. Kenyon, The Blood Covenant
Kenneth Copeland MEV Study Bible
Oral Roberts KJV Study Bible