The Law of faith, Part 1
By Pastor Frederick K. Price Jr.


True Christianity is living by God's Word, and without faith it is impossible to please God.

My dad, Apostle Frederick K.C. Price said faith is acting on the Word. In his teaching, he offered practical applications and biblical illustrations of how faith is put into action. Apostle Price said everything is about choice.

Romans, chapter 3, points out some basic of faith 101. I'm going to teach on faith, so either I'm foolish or I'm anointed. It's one of the two.

Romans 3, verse 27, reads: Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law?  Of works? No, but by the law of faith – by the law of faith and the law of faith alone. What the law means and what the law produces does not allow for us to boast about our salvation unless we're boasting on what God did.

In no way can we boast on what we've done because there is not enough that we can do in the area of works or deeds to obtain the salvation of the Lord. It is by faith alone. It is made available by the grace of God.

As a result of His grace, He has made salvation available to be received by faith alone, not by works. If it is by works, then we can boast.

Paul begins the 27th verse with: Where is boasting then? It's excluded. The law of faith excludes boasting. By what law? Of works? Why? Because if it is by the law of works. We can boast, but salvation is not by works. It is by faith.

Verse 28: Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.

Our justification means we have been declared righteous as a result of faith, not works. But the latter part of verse 27 is what we want to zone in on, which is this law of faith. The Scripture is telling us that faith is a law, and if faith is a law that means the law can either be violated or cooperated with it.

Whatever we decide to do, the consequences or rewards are not the fault of the law, but of the cooperation or violation of the law. We are familiar with the law of gravity. The law of gravity can be violated. What goes up will come down. So if I decide to go to the top of the Empire State Building, which has 102 stories, and decide to jump off, what is going to happen?

Unless a miracle takes place, that is the end of this flesh. The law of gravity did not cause the end to happen. I violated the law. I was not in cooperation with the law. When we cooperate with the law, we reap the benefits of the law.

Consider the airplane. You have the law of lift, the law of gravity and the law of aerodynamics all working together, and we can fly from coast to coast because we are cooperating with the law. And each of these laws were present in the garden of Eden. Laws don't just show up.

We must figure out how to cooperate and work within the parameters of the laws. It’s the same with the law of faith. What is the law of faith? To discover what the law of faith is, we need to first find out what faith is.

So what is faith? How about we let the Word tell us?

Even if you already know what faith is because you have been well fed on the subject, remember what Second Peter 1:13 says: . . . as long as I'm in this tent . . . and what is a tent? It is a house, habitation, building, clothing, home.

As long as I am in this tent I am going to stir you up. . . . Peter did not say, "I am going to stir you up by telling you for the first time." He said, "I am going to stir you up by reminding you," which means you've heard it before but you need to hear it again so you can be stirred up. And when you are stirred up, guess what comes? Faith. Faith does not come by having heard; faith comes by hearing.

Let's look at Hebrews 11:.1 What does the writer have to tell us about faith? Here are the first three words:  Now faith is . . . .

`           That's an interesting way to begin a sentence, by using the word now. If you were to come to me and begin our conversation with the word now, I would feel like I had missed something, like there was something previously that I did not get, or that something was left out. If you walked up to me and shook my hand and said "now," in my mind, I am thinking, "Wait, wait, wait, slow down.  What is this in connection with?"

But let’s look at Hebrews 10:36, which reads: For you have need of endurance (patience or perseverance) so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

It appears here that the promise follows doing the will of God. In order to do the will of God we must know the will of God.

Now, when we received Jesus we received the first phase of the promise. But there is more to the promise. And to experience the fullness of the promise, which is the same as experiencing the fullness of the blessing, we need to do the will of God. And to do the will of God, we must know the will of God. The writer in Hebrews says, . . . after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come, and will not tarry. He will not wait.

Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.

But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

We take much from this verse. We can walk away with a harvest of knowledge from this one verse: Now faith is the substance . . . .

This scripture first tells me that faith is substance. But what is substance? If I don't know what substance is, I need someone to tell me what substance is. Substance is tangibility and materiality.

I think that is the best definition. But on a smaller scale, we could even go with the word matter because, all things are made of matter.

Take H2O, for example. We are familiar with H2O. Most people would say “water,” but that's only the liquid state of H2O. There is a gas state – steam – and a solid state – ice. So H2O is not only water. Water is H2O, but steam and ice are also H2O. Water is matter in three different states, so substance is matter, materiality, tangibility.

And the scripture is telling us that faith is materiality and tangibility.  Isn't this what we're supposed to live and walk by? So now we know that faith is the materiality and the tangibility. It is the substance.

One of the definitions – I love this definition – of substance is that which has existence. If there is substance, it exists. And the scripture is saying, Now faith is the substance. The substance of what? Of things hoped for.

Have you ever hoped for anything in life? What do we learn from hope? What have we learned from hope? From the hope that we have hoped, what did we hope to learn? Possibility and expectation. I like possibility and expectation, but there is something missing from the expectation when it comes to hope. That is that there is no assurance with hope.

Here is how you know. Let us say I say “I hope the Rams [football team] win today.” All I have is hope? Can I guarantee a Rams win today? I cannot. So hope puts me in me a great attitude. It puts me in a great position, but my hope could be shattered by the end of the fourth quarter of the game.

We hope for a lot. “I sure hope he shows up.”See, that's the beautiful thing about God. I do not hope that God shows up. I do not hope God delivers. I may hope you deliver, and you may hope I deliver, but I do not hope God delivers. God always delivers.

So hope gives me that good attitude. Apostle Price said it like this: Hope allows us to have a good attitude while the ship is sinking, but hope is not keeping the boat on the surface of the water.  Faith, on the other hand, is tangibility, matter, materiality. It is substance. Substance is that which has actual existence, and the Bible is telling us that faith is that which has actual existence.

Faith, therefore, is materiality. Faith is the tangibility of that for which I am hoping. Hope alone does not produce it, but faith will. So in the walk of the believer, in the life of the believer, if I am in the position of hope, my goal should be to arrive at the position of faith. Faith is what will produce what I desire. Hope is not going to produce it but it positions you with a great attitude.

Once again, I hope the Rams win, but I can't guarantee it. Simultaneously, not only is faith substance, but the scripture also says it is evidence. We have already established that substance has actual existence, so if faith is substance, then with faith comes actual existence. But the scripture is also saying that faith is evidence, and what is evidence? Proof.


     
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