The Faith Once for All Handed Down to All the Saints
Much of what passes as Christianity, today, seems to look for something novel. It gains its inspiration from the world rather than from church history or the Bible.
Christianity is an historical faith. It is historical in the sense that it is believed in time and space. It is not philosophy, myth, or legend; but it is written revelation from God (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:20–21). The people in the Bible were real people in history. This revelation produces a number of doctrines, which together grant us a Christian worldview. This worldview has practical ramifications on how God, our Creator, would have us live (Gal 2:20; 3:11).
It is right to say, “We believe the truth,” but we must also say, “We do truth.” This is truth, as it is in Jesus Christ (Jn 1:17; Eph 4:21). He has left us an example to follow in His steps (1 Pet 2:21). Blessed is the man who walks in the truth along with his family (2 Jn 1:4; 3 Jn 1:4).
God is true (Rom 3:4), and He sent us truth in the Person of His Son (Jn 14:6). It is the Spirit of truth who guides God’s children into all truth (Jn 16:13). We grow in the knowledge of the truth (2 Pet 3:18), and it is this truth that sets us free (Jn 8:32), from bondage to sin and from the lies of our adversary, the deceiver (Jn 8:44).
Because God is true, His revealed Word is true (Ps 119:160), and it is this Word of truth that sanctifies God’s elect, redeemed people, whom He loves with an everlasting love (Jer 31:3; Jn 17:17). God loves His adopted children (Rom 8:15, 23), and He tells us the truth, in order that we might know Him (Phil 3:10), who is our exclusive hope of glory (Col 1:27).
Knowing God in Christ is our salvation. It is God’s revealed Word that causes us to hear the voice of Christ and to believe what is preached to us from the Scriptures (Ps 95:7; Jn 10:3–4, 27; Rom 10:17). God saved us (Titus 3:5), that is, His irresistible and powerful grace that grants us faith (Eph 2:8–9; Phil 1:29).
Not all have faith (2 Thess 3:2) because not all have the Spirit (Rom 8:9; 1 Jn 5:12), and those without faith and without the Spirit do not belong to Christ (Jn 10:26). These never receive regeneration from the Spirit because the Spirit is never sent to them (Jn 15:26). The Spirit is never sent to them because they are not elect of God (Eph 1:4–5). They are vessels of God’s wrath being prepared for destruction (Rom 9:22). Does anyone have the right to question God about this? The Bible asks those who protest, “Who are you O man, who answers back to God (Rom 9:20)?” Dead men in sin do not have a case.
The Holy Spirit is God’s merciful gift to dead men. Dead men do not will for or choose to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit because their sin nature loves darkness and hates God (Jn 3:19; Rom 1:30; Eph 2:3). They simply cannot comprehend the light of truth revealed from the Bible (Jn 1:5).
Salvation belongs to God (Ps 3:8; Jon 2:9; Rev 19:1), which is why no man could ever boast in his wise, free will decision to accept Jesus Christ as his Savior. It takes a miraculous act of God for one’s dead soul to be made alive in Christ (Eph 2:5; Col 2:13). But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus (1 Cor 1:30), and if He does this miracle, it is according to the kind intention of His sovereign will (Jn 1:13; Eph 1:5), then you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God (1 Cor 3:23). This mystery of His will, He made known to us (Eph 1:9).
God has done something with incomparable mercy (Rom 9:15); and as select vessels of mercy, He has also revealed He is preparing us for glory (Rom 9:23). The Bible gives believers small glimpses of the incomprehensible glory that is to be revealed to us (Rom 8:18). Christian, your hope in Christ, alone, is only as valid as Christ himself. The eternal purposes of God, concerning you, are carried out in Christ Jesus (Eph 3:11). He is able to do above and beyond all we could think or imagine, and therefore, He alone is worthy of our praise.
We have a great cloud of witnesses (Heb 12:1), who have all found Jesus Christ, faithful and true (Rev 19:11). We have the witness of the Scriptures (Jn 5:39), and those who preached what they knew of this divine testimony that deserves our utmost trust (Prv 3:4–5). There are the martyrs, today, and throughout history, who have shown us the spiritual gift of faithfulness (Gal 5:22). We have heard of this eternal inheritance (Heb 9:15), reserved in heaven for us (1 Pet 1:4), but let us never neglect the token, the pledge granted to us in the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 1:22; 5:5). He is the foretaste of the fullness to be enjoyed forever in the presence of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 1:4; 2:13; 3:6; Rev 21–22).
The Christian faith being handed to you in part, today, is a legacy that is shared in every generation the same. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8). He does not change. His Word does not change. Only glory becoming greater glory is our experience. This is true in what we see of Jesus, but it is also true of his work in us to transform us.
As the Christian faith handed down to us becomes clearer we become bolder in our boasting of Him, who loved us and gave Himself for us. As our all in all, we unashamedly proclaim Him, as Lord and Christ. Our joy in the kingdom of God, in the Spirit (Rom 14:17) strengthens us for each battle. We know the battle belongs to the Lord (1 Sam 17:47), and His victory has overcome the wretched kingdom of this world (Jn 16:33).
As God leads us by His Spirit in Christ’s triumph (2 Cor 2:14), we too, become overcomers despite our sufferings for the sake of the elect (2 Tim 2:10), each one doing his share on behalf of Christ’s body, the church (Col 1:24). As the fathers have told us, the church is our mother, who has labored to hand us the faith. Now, go and do likewise, in the wisdom and power of the Spirit, who has come upon you (Acts 1:8).
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
November 12, 2022
