Scripture Reading: 1 Tim. 1:4; Heb. 11:1, 6; 12:2; Gal. 2:16, 20
Ⅰ
God's economy is in faith—1 Tim. 1:4:
A
Faith is the unique way for God to carry out His New Testament economy with man—Heb. 11:6.
B
In the New Testament faith bears two denotations—objective and sub-jective:
１
In the objective denotation, faith refers to the entire revelation of the New Testament concerning the person of Christ and His redemp-tive work—Acts 6:7; 14:22; Rom. 16:26; 1 Cor. 16:13; 1 Tim. 1:19b; Jude 3, 20.
２
In the subjective denotation, faith refers to the act of believing— Luke 18:8; Mark 11:22.
C
The economy of God is a matter in faith, that is, in the sphere and element of faith, in God through Christ—1 Tim. 1:4.
D
God's New Testament economy, which is to dispense Himself into His chosen people, is not in the natural realm nor in the works of law but in the spiritual sphere of the new creation through regeneration by faith in Christ—Gal. 6:14-15; 3:23-26:
１
By faith we are born of God to be His sons, partaking of His life and nature to express Him—v. 26; John 1:12-13; 2 Pet. 1:4.
２
By faith in Christ we are put into Christ to become the members of His Body, sharing all that He is for His expression—John 3:15; Rom. 12:4-5.
E
Faith is the principle by which God deals with His people in the New Testament—Gal. 3:22-24.
Ⅱ
Faith is the unique requirement for people to contact God in His New Testament economy—1 Tim. 1:4; Heb. 11:1, 6:
A
The faith in Christ by which the believers are justified is related to their appreciation of the person of the Son of God as the most precious one— 12:2:
１
The experiential definition of faith is that faith is the preciousness of Jesus infused into us.
２
Genuine faith is Christ Himself infused into us to become our ability to believe in Him; after the Lord Jesus has been infused into us, He spontaneously becomes our faith.
B
When we believe in Christ, we enter into Him; we believe ourselves into Christ and thereby become one spirit with Him—John 3:15; 1 Cor. 6:17.
C
The faith of the Son of God (Gal. 2:20) refers to the faith of Jesus Christ in us (v. 16), which becomes the faith by which we believe in Him—Rom. 3:22, 26:
１
As we behold the Lord, hear Him, and treasure Him, He causes faith to be generated in us, enabling us to believe in Him—Matt. 17:5; Heb. 12:2.
２
He becomes the faith in us by which we believe in Him; this faith is the faith in Him, and it is also the faith that belongs to Him.
Ⅲ
Jesus is the Author of faith, the Originator, the Inaugurator, the source, and the cause of faith—v. 2:
A
The faith of the believers is actually not their own faith but Christ entering into them to be their faith—Rom. 3:22; Gal. 2:16:
１
When we look away unto Jesus, He as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) transfuses us with Himself, His believing element.
２
This faith is not of ourselves but of Him who imparts Himself as the believing element into us so that He may believe for us.
B
Faith is a substantiating ability, a sixth sense, the sense by which we sub-stantiate, give substance to, the things unseen or hoped for—Heb. 11:1:
１
We do not regard, look at, the things which are seen but the things which are not seen—2 Cor. 4:18:
ａ
The Christian life is a life of things unseen—Rom. 8:24-25; Heb. 11:27; 1 Pet. 1:8; Gal. 6:10.
ｂ
The degradation of the church is the degradation from unseen things to seen things; the Lord's recovery is to recover His church from things seen to things unseen.
２
Faith assures us of the things not seen, convincing us of what we do not see; therefore, it is the evidence, the proof, of things unseen.
３
Faith is to believe that God is; to believe that God is, is to believe that He is everything to us and that we are nothing—Heb. 11:6; Eccl. 1:2.
Ⅳ
Jesus is the Perfecter, the Finisher, the Completer, of our faith— Heb. 12:2:
A
As we look away unto Jesus continually, He will finish and complete the faith that we need for the running of the race set before us—v. 1.
B
We all have the same faith in quality, but the quantity of faith we have depends upon how much we contact the living God so that we may have Him increased in us—Rom. 12:3; 2 Cor. 3:18.
C
When we contact the Lord, He overflows within us, and there is a mutuality of faith among us; we are encouraged through the faith which is in one another—Rom. 1:12; Philem. 6.