faith for faith

No man can work his way to God, for, “No one does good, not even one,” and no one can will his way to God, for, “No one understands, no one seeks for God.” It is for this reason that the apostle writes later in the Epistle to the Romans, “So then, [salvation] depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy” (v. 9:16), and why he quotes the prophet Isaiah later in that same chapter concerning Israel, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah” (v. 9:29).

The Good News is that God has not left us to ourselves. For Paul declares in Romans 5 that that same Offspring that preserved the life and the holiness of ancient Israel has come into the world as the Second Adam–the second head of the human race–and where the first Adam failed, the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, succeeded. Where the first Adam brought judgment into the world, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ brought justification into the world. Where the first Adam brought the reign of death, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ brought the reign of righteousness unto eternal life. Where the first Adam was disobedient, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ was obedient. Where the first Adam brought the condemnation of the law, the Second Adam–Jesus Christ brought the abundance of grace.

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“Lord kill me if I don’t preach the Gospel.” It is the first line of Lecrae’s song, “Go Hard,” and it is a prayer that most of us are terrified to utter. For if we pray such a prayer, we know that if the Lord grants us our request that one of two things will happen: either our lives will be radically changed so that everything we think, say, and do revolves around the Gospel, or we will be killed. And more often than not, neither of those two options appeal to us. For if we must live for the Gospel, we would forfeit the lives we desire to live, and if we do not and are killed, we would lose our life so that we could not live the lives we desire to live. Either option produced by such a prayer requires that our lives in this life become forfeit for the sake of the Gospel.

For the apostle Paul, this prayer was the prayer of his life. For, instead of regarding this life as worth living for and indulging in, he regarded it as rubbish, and it was for this reason that he was able to say, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Ph. 1:21). For his heart’s desire was his Lord Jesus Christ and to glorify his name, and he knew that whether he lived or died, his Lord ruled both the living and the dead.

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There is little doubt that when the Holy Spirit through the prophet Moses penned the narrative of the life of Joseph that Joseph was portrayed in such a way to make him a pre-figuring of the coming Messiah promised in Genesis 3:15 and realized in Jesus Christ. We see this in the narrative sinlessness and blamelessness of Joseph (though we know he was a sinner, yet there is never any mention of his failings), and how, through the person of Joseph and his unmerited sufferings, that he saved God’s people from starvation and extinction and thereby fulfilled the Promise of God given to Abraham. In Sunday School yesterday, our teacher made an excellent observation concerning the narrative of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife found in Genesis 39. The observation was in the similarity between the Joseph’s temptation in the house of Potiphar and Adam’s temptation in the Garden. Both, though low in rank compared to their masters’, were given charge of their masters’ estate and were permitted to enjoy all things save one–in the case of Adam, eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and in the case of Joseph, Potiphar’s wife. Both were tempted to take both, yet unlike Adam, Joseph did not fail. Where Adam did not succeed, Joseph did, thereby demonstrating the coming Messiah’s position as the Second Adam, the second head of the human race, who, rather than imputing his sin to his subjects as did Adam, imputes to his subjects his righteousness (cf. Rm. 5:12-21). Just as through Joseph’s righteousness and obedience, God saved Israel from physical annihilation, so too now through Christ’s righteousness and obedience, God has saved spiritual Israel from eternal destruction (cf. Gal. 6:16). Just a thought.