Rom. 4:15 says the law produced wrath. This does not refer to the fact that some people get mad at God’s law or become haters of God. People don’t get mad at God’s looks, intelligence, power, or His longsuffering nature: rather they get mad at what He says. People get mad at the Bible because it disagrees with them. No, the wrath here is God’s judicial wrath. Note the latter part of the verse; where there is no law there is no transgression. Thus, where there is law there is transgression and where there is transgression God’s righteous anger results. This being so, the Law is not a vehicle for salvation- it just produces wrath .
So in v.16 he says it is of faith. Why? that it might be by grace! You see, law doesn’t operate by grace. It doesn’t need it – you simply keep the law and you stay out of trouble, uncondemned. You have earned your freedom by your performance which is owed to you as a debt (verse 4). But faith needs grace because it has no ‘earning power’. Rather faith is directed, not to the person possessing it, but to Someone else’s virtue, ability and performance.
Nobody was ever saved by law (except Jesus). There is a common idea that the Jews of the Old Testament were saved by law, and Christians today are saved by faith. Wrong. Anybody who is saved is saved by faith. Note in verses 1-3 that Abraham, 500 years before the law, was saved by faith. Then note in Verses 6-8, that David, who lived 500 years after the giving of the law, and a breaker of that law, was saved by grace through faith. When you look through the “faith chapter”, Hebrews 11, they are all Patriarchal and Mosaic characters.
The basis of the Old Covenant was a standing achieved by obedience to all the law (Deut. 6:25). Some have argued that the Jews should not have accepted that covenant; that they were deceived by God into accepting something that required perfection. Over forty years after receiving the law they put up their hands again in acceptance of the law. Joshua bluntly told them “You can’t serve the Lord”. (Josh 24:19). This faithful man who had watched all of his contemporaries die in the wilderness because of their faithlessness knew exactly what they were like. Having heard this assessment they cried, “Oh but we will serve the Lord!” (verse 21). In verse 22 Joshua lays it upon them that they were their own witnesses as to what they had chosen – to serve the Lord. They were not deceived by God since the law was never designed to save – it was a tutor to lead them to Christ (Gal. 3:24). It was given in anticipation of Christ and His new and better covenant (Deut. 18:15ff). Sad to think that the blood of the New Covenant was shed by those who had the law which was fulfilled by and in Christ. Those killed by the law killed the Christ who could save them when the law couldn’t!
Faith being the means to obtain salvation, What is it?
Certainly it involves belief (note Heb. 11:6 – without faith it is impossible to please God and he who comes to God must believe that he is…. note also James 2:19a – you believe there is one God; you do well but..). How do we use that word believe? We mean that we accept something as true, existing, or valid. For example, I believe that the world is round, and that 2+2=4, but we would not call that faith. Even believing in God is not faith.
Faith is more than belief…..note James 2:19b – the demons believe and tremble. If we are saved by faith (and we are – Rom. 5:1), and if faith is the same as belief, then why aren’t the demons saved?! Evidently one can believe something emphatically and yet not have the faith that saves. So faith requires belief as the first step, but strictly speaking belief does not require faith. (It is to be noted that the term believers, because it is the first step, is used of faithful and baptised ones from time to time)
Faith is invisible (like the wind – it’s real but you can’t see it – John 3:8). James lays out a challenge in 2:18 – show me your faith without your works. That’s quite a challenge, but it can be perceived by actions as he goes on to say: I will show you my faith by my works. There are such things as works of faith as 1 Thess. 1:3 testifies.
Faith can be possessed at different levels. This too is different from belief. We either believe 2+2=4 or we don’t. We either believe the world is round or we don’t. We may not know whether to believe something or not, but in that state we cannot be said to believe but rather to be in doubt. Faith, however, is described as being strong (Rom. 4:20), weak (1 Cor. 8:7), little (Matt.8:26), great (Matt.8:10), incomplete James 2:22), or seemingly non-existent (Luke 8:25).
So what is faith, this invisible thing?
One verse that defines faith is Heb. 11:1: Faith is the assurance of things hoped for; the conviction of things not seen. What are things not seen? These are things hoped for (Rom. 8:24,25). This is a piece of Jewish parallelism and we could write it thus: Faith is the assurance of things not seen; the conviction of things hoped for. So faith is identified with assurance and conviction. You can’t see or weigh faith, it being a faculty of the human soul and mind. If faith is assurance and conviction of the invisible, how is it perceived? By the action of faithful people: people who have assurance of God’s promises and act on their conviction. So it is that faith without works is dead. (James 2:17).
Hebrews 11 is known as the “faith chapter” and it has many examples of what we are talking about: verse 4 – Abel offered: verse 7 – Noah built: verse 8 – Abraham went out and so on. Interestingly verse 31 says that Rahab the harlot received the Hebrew spies by faith, and James 2:25 says she was justified by works in the same action.
You can live by faith (Gal. 3:11; Hab.2:4), and you can die in faith (Heb. 11:13; Rev. 2:10): that is, you can hold your assurance and convictions and manifest them to the end. Even old and dying people can manifest their faith – Heb. 11:21,22.
If faith is assurance and conviction of unseen things hoped for, does that mean if I have faith in fairies at the bottom of the garden, they exist? Not at all. We need to check out the altar before we lay it all on the altar. There is such a thing as blind faith. True faith is connected to reality – the unseen reality, not the unseen unreality. It is God who reveals the unseen reality and makes the promises and issues the commands. Faith comes by hearing the word of God (Rom. 10:17). One can have zeal but not according to knowledge (Rom. 10:2). Faith requires knowledge (John 8:32). If I don’t know the truth I cannot believe it, and if I cannot believe it I won’t obey the gospel (Rom. 10:16). That is, I won’t have a living faith.
Do I possess faith, or do I possess a set of beliefs? A set of beliefs are essential to biblical faith, but the beliefs by themselves do not constitute faith. If I was arrested on suspicion of being a faithful Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict me?