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From faith to faith, part 4

Most of our spiritual growth from faith to faith occurs during the outworking of Pentecost. Our Passover experience of justification is a momentary enlightening, much like the day that Israel left Egypt. Our Tabernacles experience of glorification will likewise be short, “in the twinkling of an eye” (1 Corinthians 15:52), even as Israel only needed one day to enter the Promised Land. Everything in between, its lessons, revelations, and experience in following the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night (i.e., being led by the Spirit) is our daily spiritual growth.

Such is the importance of Pentecost. By definition, all believers have experienced Passover, without which they would yet remain in “Egypt,” but not everyone has experienced the baptism of the Spirit. Many denominations see no need to go beyond Passover into Pentecost. Once “saved” (i.e., justified by faith), they see their eternal future as secure. They have been released from the bondage of sin, and they expect to journey directly from Egypt to the Promised Land.

The Journey First Leads us to Sinai

The journey, according to the pattern of the church in the wilderness, must invariably lead them first to Sinai for the baptism of the Spirit and the revelation of God’s nature in the Law. Passover in itself, though absolutely necessary, is insufficient to receive the inheritance. God requires spiritual growth after justification. God requires us to learn obedience so that we do not enter the Promised Land as lawless believers.

We see this most clearly in Jesus’ admonition in Matthew 7:21-23,

²¹ Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. ²² Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?” ²³ And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness” (anomia).

This appears to be directed primarily at those who have received the baptism of the Spirit through Pentecost, but it applies equally to those who remain in the realm of Passover. To be able to say, “Lord, Lord” is a sign of the Holy Spirit, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:3, “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.”

Hence, these that Jesus never knew (or recognized by the divine court) appear to be justified and even filled with the Spirit. They have produced evidence of being Spirit-led or Spirit-filled by the working of miracles and perhaps other spiritual gifts. However, such miracles, while important, are not what God is actually looking for in either a Passover believer or a Pentecostal. His criteria in that day will be whether or not a person has absorbed the nature of God (Christ) through the revelation of the law.

It is not about faith apart from works, which justifies us through Passover. It is about doing the will of our heavenly Father—faith-obedience—which is the second level of faith (Pentecost). Jesus thus implies that not all Pentecostals are Pentecostals, even as “they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel” (Romans 9:6). In fact, I have observed that most believers, both Passover types and Pentecostals, have been taught to despise the law of God as if it were unspiritual. They say God put aside His law, as if somehow He could deny His own nature and remove it as the righteous standard for His creation.

Paul wrote in Romans 7:14, “For we know that the Law is spiritual.” Perhaps his audience knew this, but many today believe the opposite. Our problem is not the law but our own flesh which is incapable of achieving the law’s standard of measure. David asserted that “the law of the Lord is perfect” (Psalm 19:7) and is “more desirable than gold” (Psalm 19:10). This was true, even though there were some changes in the law when the priesthood shifted from Aaron to Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:12).

A Change, not a Repudiation

A change in the law is not a repudiation of the law. It is an alteration to suit a new situation that came through Christ. So when Christ came as “the Lamb of God” (John 1:29), sacrifice was altered from animals to Christ Himself, who was offered up as the true Sacrifice for sin. God would no longer inhabit temples made of wood and stone, for a greater Temple was being built, where Christ is the chief cornerstone, prophets and apostles are its foundations (Ephesians 2:20-22), and believers are its “living stones” (2 Peter 2:5).

Neither do we advocate for the earthly Jerusalem to be the “mother” of the Kingdom, for it is “Hagar” and her advocates are her sons (Ishmael), as Paul teaches in Galatians 4:25, 26,

²⁵ Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶ But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother.

For this reason, too, our father Abraham looked for a heavenly city (Hebrews 11:10) and “a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16). Those who have not been able to make these alterations, whether Jews or Christians, are pinning their hopes on the wrong city and the wrong country.

And what can we say about the change in the manner in which the feast days are now to be kept? Do we need to kill lambs at Passover, as Moses commanded in Exodus 12:6? Do we need to offer the first fruits of the wheat harvest on Pentecost (“feast of weeks”), as Moses commanded in Exodus 34:22? Shall we build booths at the feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:42) in which to study the word for a week?

No, these were all fleshly conveniences designed by God to point to greater things in an age to come. But the moral principles of the law remained unchanged, because “I, the Lord, do not change” (Malachi 3:6). Therefore, if we are to avoid being lawless believers, we ought to know how the law changed when the arrival of the New Covenant rendered the Old Covenant “obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13).

The Old Covenant Repudiated

While some laws were changed, it was the Old Covenant that was set aside in favor of a better covenant. A covenant is a promise. Whoever makes a promise is the one responsible to keep it. The Old Covenant is man’s promise to God (Exodus 19:8); the New Covenant is God’s promise to man (Jeremiah 31:33). Each defines a different manner in which the law must be fulfilled. The Old Covenant fails, due to its dependence upon sinful men to fulfill their word. The New Covenant succeeds because God is able to fulfill His promises.

Both covenants retain the law itself. The first required men to be obedient to an external law in order to receive life (immortality). It requires mortal and corruptible men to be obedient without giving them a change of heart that is necessary to succeed. The second requires God to write His laws in our hearts so that our nature aligns with His and thereby empowers us to be obedient until we come into full agreement with Him.

Faith is a Gift from God

The faith-obedience of Pentecost must be based on New Covenant faith—that is, faith that God is able to fulfill that which He has promised (Romans 4:21). If it is based on the promises of men and by the will of men, then such Pentecostals will continue to flounder in failure and will continue to struggle with guilt when they see their imperfections.

I myself struggled with this when I was young. Having made my decision to follow Jesus at an early age, I quickly discovered that I still sinned every day. I reasoned that if I continued to sin, it meant that I was not truly sincere when I was saved earlier. So I found myself having to be saved again and again for a number of years, until God revealed to me that I did not have to be perfect to be saved. This was only a partial revelation, but it changed my life and was sufficient until I was old enough to receive deeper revelation.

I later learned that my decision to follow Christ did not initiate my salvation. My decision was instigated by the Spirit of God who was fulfilling His promise in me and causing me to turn to Him. John 1:12, 13 then came alive to me,

¹² But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, ¹³ who were born [begotten], not of blood [bloodline], nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

I came to realize that I believed in Him because He had first revealed Himself to me and had drawn me by His Spirit. His decision preceded my decision. So Jesus said in John 6:44,

⁴⁴ No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws [helkuo, “drags”] him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

If we did not initiate our salvation by the will of man, then we have no reason to boast (Ephesians 2:9). When I realized that God Himself had initiated my faith as a “gift” (Ephesians 2:8) to fulfill God’s New Covenant promise, it became a foundational revelation in my own life. Never again would I say, “I was saved because I made a decision to follow Christ.” Instead, I now say, “By grace alone, God called me and gave me the gift of faith, so that I was able to believe that He is able to fulfill that which He has promised.”

My own walk with God has been a journey to understand the nature of God and His divine plan of salvation. The three feasts give us the basic outline of that plan, but each feast must be properly understood through a deep study of His word. My journey began in childhood ignorance and progressed gradually over the years. God was in no hurry, yet He drew me continually by His grace into the deep things of God. It is my hope and prayer that my readers will benefit from the things that I have learned, so that their faith would be increased until the Kingdom is fully revealed to them.