The Law Of Faith

The Law of Faith

Mark 2:1-12

Salespeople understand that very few people will buy an item "sight unseen." As human beings we sometimes find it very difficult to visualize something we cannot see. When we buy a car, for the most part we want to kick the tires, see the shiny new paint, and smell the new upholstery before we’ll sign on the dotted line.

Yet biblical faith demands that we do just the opposite - it demands that we commit even when we do not see, that we submit even when we do not understand, that we possess even what we do not yet have.

Is it not true that the need to see before we commit is sometimes simply an expression of the limitations of the physical realm. Biblical faith introduces us to a new dimension - a dimension where seeing is not believing, but believing is seeing, where reality is not defined by popular science or common understanding but by revelation, and where life is not limited by perception but empowered by potential. Now the key to unlocking that potential, to redefining reality, to embracing a new dimension of seeing is what Paul, in the book of Romans, calls The Law of Faith.

In Romans 3:27 "Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith."

Please open your Bibles with me to the Gospel written by Mark, and the second chapter, and I want to read verses 1-12 to you.

While you are turning there I want to show you this morning how you can literally turn your life completely around simply by choosing to live by The Law of Faith. Now you do not have to understand or embrace the Law of Faith to live, but without it you will continually find yourself running into your limitations, frustrated by your lack of ability and always ending short of what you need.

But the Law of Faith will change all that. You see my friend, it is through faith, and only through faith, that we can engage life with God’s perspective, that we overcome obstacles with God’s strength and that we live life to accomplish God’s purpose. Without faith none of these things are possible. That is why the Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God - the only place you will learn about The Law of Faith is from The Book of Faith.

So what is the Law of Faith? It is the perspective of life that refuses to be limited by the facts, to be defined by the popular vote or set about by the parameters of parochial thinking. Rather, it says, "I will allow the One Who made reality to define it, Who gave my life to show me how to live it, and Who gave me faith to empower it."

I want to read to you the story of five man who understood something of that.

Mark 2:1-12 - Read - Pray

The Law of Faith . . .

1. Will Give a New Purity

Jesus said, "Be holy as your Father in heaven is holy." (Matthew 5:48)

Hebrews 12:14 "strive after holiness without which no man shall see God."

"But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify" (Romans 3v21).

Because the power of salvation is in the cross of Christ alone, man has no cause for self-congratulation or self-satisfaction-much less for the self-exaltation.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith," Paul declared to the church at Ephesus; "and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast." (Eph. 2:8-9).

The greatest lie in the world, and the lie common to all false religions and cults, is that, by certain good works, men are able to make themselves acceptable to God.

But watch this precious believer - the Law of Faith says that by God’s grace, faith is the receptacle of a righteousness that is complete, that is sufficient and that renders you perfect. My Bible says that Jesus Christ became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

The Law of Faith . . .

Will Give You a New Purity

2. Will Give You a New Perspective

Scientists tell us that the earth is spinning on its axis at a speed of over 1000 miles per hour at this very moment. Yet we have no sensation of motion. At the same time, the earth is rotating around the sun at a speed of 66,000 miles per hour. Do you feel anything? The earth is moving at an incredible speed but we do not perceive it. Einstein made this point by striking two consecutive blows with his fist and saying, "Between those two strokes, we traveled thirty miles." Incredible motion with no perception!