THE SECOND PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews
Message Four—The Unique Way of Faith
Scripture Reading: Heb. 11:8-19, 23-27, 32-38; 1 Tim. 1:4; Gal. 2:16; Rom 12:3
I. Faith is the unique way to enjoy Christ in His heavenly ministry and to experience all the bequests in the new testament—Heb. 11:1; 4:2; 6:1; 4:3; 6:12; 10:22. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
II. Abraham, Moses, and the martyrs are part of the history of faith and witnesses to the unique way of faith—Heb. 11:8-19, 23-27, 32-38: (1998 WT, msg. 21)
A. By faith Abraham, the forefather of all believers, obeyed God’s calling—Heb. 11:8; Rom. 4:1, 12; Gal. 3:7: (1998 WT, msg. 21)
1. When Abraham was called by God, he went out by faith, not knowing where he was going—Heb. 11:8: (1998 WT, msg. 21)
a. God appeared to Abraham to call him out of his fallen condition and to bring him back to Himself as the tree of life—Acts 7:2. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
b. Abraham’s faith did not originate with himself; his believing in God was a reaction to the transfusion of God’s element into his being. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
2. Abraham was justified by faith—Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:2-3: (1998 WT, msg. 21)
a. Abraham’s believing was the springing up within him of the element that God had transfused into him—Rom. 4:3. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
b. God’s reaction to Abraham’s believing was to justify him, that is, to account him righteous—Gen. 15:6. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
3. Abraham experienced God as the One who calls things not being as being and as the One who gives life to the dead—Rom. 4:17: (1998 WT, msg. 21)
a. By the birth of Isaac, Abraham experienced God as the One who calls things not being as being—Rom. 4:18-21; Heb. 11:12. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
b. When Abraham received Isaac back after offering him to God on the altar, he experienced God as the One who raises the dead—Heb. 11:17-19. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
4. Abraham lived by faith, living the life of the altar and the tent—Heb. 11:9; Gen. 12:7-8: (1998 WT, msg. 21)
a. In order to live by faith, we must first build an altar, signifying that our life on earth is for God, and then pitch a tent, indicating that we do not belong to the world. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
b. By living the life of the altar and the tent, Abraham testified that he was sojourning by faith, as in a foreign land, longing after a better country and eagerly waiting for the city whose Architect and Builder is God—Heb. 11:9-10, 16. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
B. By faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and chose to be ill treated with the people of God, looking away to the reward and persevering as one seeing the unseen One—Heb. 11:24-27. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
C. By faith the martyrs experienced God’s peaceful silence, exercising faith in God even when He did nothing to deliver them—Heb. 11:32-38; Matt. 11:6. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
III. Faith is the unique way to carry out God’s New Testament economy—1 Tim. 1:4: (1998 WT, msg. 21)
A. The believers in Christ are justified by faith, and have life and live by faith—Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38: (1998 WT, msg. 21)
1. By faith, which is the moving and working God in Christ who puts us into Christ as our righteousness, we have the divine life according to God’s righteousness judicially—1 Cor. 1:30. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
2. “The righteous shall have life and live by faith” (Rom. 1:17); “This word should be the banner of God’s eternal economy, which is altogether a matter in faith (1 Tim. 1:4)!” (The Crystallization of the Epistle to the Romans, pp. 123-124). (1998 WT, msg. 21)
B. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are brought into an organic union with Christ—Gal. 2:16: (1998 WT, msg. 21)
l. Faith in Jesus Christ denotes an organic union with Christ through believing—1 Cor. 6:17: (1998 WT, msg. 21)
a. This is related to our experience of Christ as the most precious One, who is infused into us and who becomes in us the faith by which we believe into Him. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
b. Faith creates an organic union, a life union, in which we and Christ are one—1 Cor. 6:17. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
2. In this organic union we experience Christ and live Christ—Eph. 3:17, John 14:17, Gal. 2:20, 2 Cor. 5:7: (1998 WT, msg. 21)
a. The real experience of Christ is invisible; it is altogether a matter of faith—Heb. 11:1; Eph. 3:17. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
b. We should not put our trust in anything extraordinary or spectacular; instead, we should take the way of faith, which is to read the Word and believe it—Rom. 10:8, 17. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
C. In the Body “God has apportioned to each a measure of faith”—Rom. 12:3: (1998 WT, msg. 21)
1. God first allotted faith to us in quality, and then He apportioned it in quantity—2 Pet. 1:1. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
2. How much faith we have depends upon God’s apportioning. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
3. We should esteem ourselves according to the faith that God has apportioned to us, that is, according to the measure of God’s element that has been infused into us. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
D. Faith is the divine requirement for the overcomers to meet Christ in His triumphant return and to receive the reward of the kingdom—Luke 18:8; Heb. 10:35, 39: (1998 WT, msg. 21)
1. The believers who live an overcoming life by faith will be found by Christ at His return as the treasures ready to receive the salvation of their souls as the end (result) of their faith—1 Pet. 1:7-9, Heb. 10:39. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
2. The overcomers will be rewarded by Christ with the co-kingship and the top enjoyment of divine life with Him in the millennium—Rev. 20:4, 6. (1998 WT, msg. 21)
3. To the overcomers the Lord will say, “Well done, good and faithful slave….Enter into the joy of your master”—Matt. 25:21, 23. (1998 WT, msg. 21)