Revelation Faith

Chapter V
REVELATION FAITH

THERE are three great scriptures in the Old Testament on which the Pauline Revelation is based
The first one is Gen. 15:6 “And Abraham believed God and He reckoned it unto him for righteousness.”
This means that he had made an “unqualified committal” unto Jehovah and He reckoned it unto him for righteousness.
This “unqualified committal” is identical with the thought in Romans 10:9-10, “Because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved; for with the heart man believeth unto Righteousness; and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be put to shame.”

Revelation Faith as given to Paul demands a confession with our lips of the Lordship of Jesus. This means an “unqualified committal” to the Word, because the Word takes the place of the absent Christ.
The second Scripture, Isaiah 28:16, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste.”
There are two other translations: “Whosoever believeth on him shall not wander about distractedly seeking another foundation,” or, “Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be put to shame.”

It says that whosoever does this shall not be put to shame. Regardless of circumstances, of appearances, or sense evidences, he rests his case absolutely on the Word.
The third Scripture is Habakkuk 2:4. “My righteous one shall live by faith.” It carries us a step further.
“My righteous one” has been made Righteous by a New Creation. He is to walk, not by sight or by feeling, he is to walk by faith. In other words, he is to walk by the Word.
2 Cor. 5:7 “For we walk by faith, and not by sight.”

Hebrews 10:38 “My Righteous one shall live by faith: And if he shrinks back, my soul hath no pleasure in him.”
You notice in each one of these scriptures a challenge for our confidence.
You are His Righteous one. You are to live by faith.
You are not to draw back to Sense evidences and to Sense Knowledge, but you are to walk on with Him in the light of the Word.
You will do as Abraham did.

You are looking at the Word and you wax strong through faith, giving glory to God, for you reckon that God is able to make good in you all that He has promised in His Word.
You can see how these great Scriptures become the foundation of the Revelation of Righteousness by faith in the Word as it is found in the Pauline Epistles.
You will find at the beginning of his great argument in the book of Romans that Paul uses Abraham’s faith as a type.
Romans 4:3-5 “For what saith the scripture? And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.”
Righteousness means the ability to stand in God’s presence without the sense of sin, guilt, or inferiority.

You will notice that after God reckoned Righteousness to Abraham that he made his great appeal for the salvation of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Read carefully Genesis 18 and see the fearless faith of Abraham.
He was not Righteous as we are Righteous. His Righteousness was merely reckoned to him.
It was set to his account. It gave him credit with God.
The Scripture we just read from Romans 4 tells us that Righteousness is not reckoned on the ground of works.
This Righteousness is granted on the ground of faith. One does not work for it. He accepts a gift.

Eph. 2:8-9 “For by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory.”
Salvation, Redemption, Eternal Life, the New Creation, the Indwelling presence of the Spirit, the legal right to use the Name of Jesus, and all of our privileges as sons and daughters of God, are based upon grace through faith.
No one earns them. No one has a better position than another.
Every person has the same Righteousness, the same privileges, the same standing, for it is all of grace.

Abraham’s faith is described in Romans 4:18-21. “Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations.”
This is a startling statement. Faith had a combat with hope, and faith won.
Hope is always future. Faith is always now.
Hope would have robbed Abraham of a son, but faith combatted with hope, defeated it, and received as the reward, Isaac.

19th verse, “Without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead (he being a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.”
This is a beautiful picture of faith.
Abraham had nothing to rest upon except the Word of an angel.
Yet he believed that Word; he looked upon his own body and said to himself, “I am ninety-nine years old. I have passed the age where I can be the father of a child.”

He thought of Sarah, ninety years of age. He knew that she was too old to bear a child.
Yet, turning away from the evidence of his Senses, he looked at the Word that God had spoken through the angel, and he waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God. For he said without doubt or fear, “God is able to make good what He has promised.”
This is not Sense Knowledge faith. This is Revelation Faith. This is the kind of faith which Paul has given to us in his Revelation.

Notice the twenty-second verse: “Wherefore also it was reckoned unto him for Righteousness.
He did not have the Righteousness we have. He had it set to his credit.
Romans 4:23-25 “Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was reckoned unto him: but for our sake also, unto whom it shall be reckoned, who believe on Him that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised because we stand right with God.” (Lit. trans.)

The Pauline Revelation shows that God wrought a perfect Redemption in Christ.
Col. 1:13-14 “Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love; in whom we have our Redemption, the remission of our sins.”
Eph 1:7 “In whom we have our Redemption through His blood, the remission of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.”
Romans 3:26 “For the showing, I say, of His righteousness at this present season: that He might Himself be righteous, and the righteousness of him that hath faith in Jesus.”
That Redemption was a redemption from Satan’s dominion. It was a redemption from the guilt and penalty of sin.
It was a Redemption of our physical body from the dominion of disease.

It was a Revelation of a New Creation created in Christ Jesus.
That becomes a reality when we accept Christ as our Savior and confess Him as our Lord.
God gives to natural man His life and nature.
2 Cor: 5:17 “Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new. But all these things are of God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.”

Eph. 4:23-24 “And put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.”
This Revelation of a New Creation is the most amazing fact of the grace of God.
God can take a Satan-ruled man, one who is called “sin” (because he is identified with Satan, he is a child of Satan), He can redeem him, take him out of this condition and impart to him His own nature, making him His own child.

I John 5:12-13 tells us what he has received.
“He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life. These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.”
John 6:47 “He that believeth hath Eternal Life.”
A believer is a possessor. There is no believing without possession.
If I believe that God laid my sins upon Jesus and that Jesus was my Substitute, that He died in my stead, that He arose because He had put my sin away and had obtained justification for me, the moment I believe I receive Eternal Life and become God’s child.

Believing is having.

Next, He gives to us Righteousness. It is a Revelation of the Righteousness of God that becomes available to the man who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26)
God becomes the Righteousness of the man who takes Christ as his Savior and crowns Him as Lord of his life.
2 Cor. 5:21 “Him who knew no sin, He made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the Righteousness of God in Him.”
He not only becomes our Righteousness, but by the impartation of His nature, we become His Righteousness, His sons and daughters.
Heb. 10:38 “My Righteous one shall live by faith.”
We are called His Righteous ones.
Not only are we the Righteousness of God, but we have become the sons and daughters of God.
The climax of the Revelation that God gave to Paul, recorded in Romans 8:14-17 states this clearly.

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.”
This is sonship with all its glorious privileges.
Paul does not stop there. These sons and daughters are partakers not only of God’s nature, but of God Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:11 “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you. He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
I Cor. 6:19 “Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit which is in you?”
This all comes to the believer by faith.
There is no Sense Knowledge faith required.
You do not need to have any feelings to prove that you are Born Again.
All that is necessary is the Word of God.

Romans 10:9 declares: “Because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
You do not need Sense Knowledge evidence to prove that you have received the Holy Spirit.
Luke 11:13 “How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.”
Your confidence is not in any physical manifestation or physical evidence. It is always in the simple Word of God.

Luke 1:37 “No Word from God is void of power” (or ability to make good).
These mighty Scriptures give one ground for Faith.
We have confidence when we know what we are in Christ.
Unbelief is largely the result of ignorance of what we are in Christ.
When I saw what God had done for me in Christ, my whole being was thrilled, faith was an unconscious fact, it was mine, He did it for me, I said “Thank you Father” and I began to enjoy my rights in Christ.