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Following the Spirit’s sanctification and man’s repentance is man’s believing, or man’s faith. Genuine faith is always preceded by repentance. In the same manner, genuine repentance is always followed by faith. If a person believes, that proves he has repented; if a person repents, he surely will believe. These two—faith and repentance—are intimately related, and neither can exist without the other.
In the previous lesson we saw that the repentance spoken of by the world differs in meaning from the repentance taught in the Bible. Likewise, the believing referred to by man differs in significance from the believing presented in the Word. Man considers that to believe is merely to agree or to acknowledge. But what the Bible speaks concerning faith indicates that it is more than agreeing and acknowledging.
To believe, as taught in the Bible, first means to receive. John 1:12 says, “As many as received Him [the Lord Jesus],... those who believe in His name.” This shows that to believe is to receive. Therefore, to believe is not merely to agree or to acknowledge, but even more it is to receive. If one assents to the gospel and agrees that the Lord Jesus died to accomplish redemption for man, one still cannot be counted as having believed. Furthermore, even if one acknowledges the gospel and the redemption of Christ, one still cannot be counted as having believed. Believing includes agreeing and acknowledging; nevertheless, the believing itself is the receiving. A person may agree, yet he still may not receive; he also may acknowledge yet still not receive. But a person who receives surely is one who agrees and acknowledges. Therefore, only when a person receives can he be counted as having believed. With our heart we must receive Christ into us to be our Savior. This is the genuine believing.
Christ is the Word who was in the beginning and who was God Himself (John 1:1). He is also the true light who came into the world to enlighten every man (John 1:9). Now in resurrection He has become the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Therefore, by believing in Him, by receiving Him, we can receive this One, who is the Word, the very God, and the light, into us to be joined to us as one.
To believe is not only to receive but also to “believe into” (John 1:12; 3:15-16, 36, lit.). To receive is to receive Christ into us and to allow Him to be mingled with us. On the other hand, to “believe into” is to enter into Christ and be joined to Him. One who genuinely believes in the Lord Jesus is one who has entered into Him and has been joined to Him through faith. Therefore, the Bible says that a saved person is one who is in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).
The Lord’s name denotes the Lord’s Person, the Lord Himself. To believe into the Lord’s name (John 1:12) is to believe into the living Person of the Lord, to believe into the Lord Himself, to be joined to Him as one.
John 3:36 and 9:35 and 38 all point out that to believe is to believe into the Son of God. God is the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Father is the source, the Son is the expression, and the Spirit is the entering in. The God who dwells in unapproachable light in heaven is the Father (1 Tim. 6:16; James 1:17); when He is manifested among men, He is the Son (John 1:18; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3); and when He enters into man, He is the Spirit (1 John 3:24). The Son, therefore, is the expression of God; He is God expressed. This manifested God is the Lord Jesus, who is the Son of God, the very God Himself (John 1:1). He and God are one (John 10:30). Having passed through death and resurrection, He has become the life-giving Spirit who, like the air, fills all things and is omnipresent. Hence, man can enter into Him through faith to receive the eternal life (John 3:36; 1 John 5:12) and have an organic union with Him.
The Lord Jesus is not only the Son of God but also the Son of Man, who died and was resurrected (Luke 24:39-43). He was the Son of God, yet He partook of blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14) that He might undo the works of the Devil (1 John 3:8). He put on the likeness of men (Phil. 2:6-7), becoming the Son of Man (Luke 19:10), that through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the Devil (Heb. 2:14). In Genesis 3 this Devil, who was embodied in the serpent, injected his evil nature into man’s body. Later, when the children of Israel sinned against God and were bitten by snakes (Num. 21:4-9), God told Moses to lift up a serpent of brass, which would bear God’s judgment in their place, so that anyone who would look at the brass serpent would live. This is a type. In John 3:14-15 the Lord Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.” He applied this type to Himself showing that when He became flesh, He came in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3). Just as the brass serpent had the form of a serpent but did not have the poisonous nature of a serpent, so Christ had the likeness of the flesh of sin, yet He had nothing to do with the sin in the flesh (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15). When He was lifted up on the cross, the old serpent, Satan, was dealt with by His death in the flesh (John 12:31-33; Heb. 2:14). This means that the serpentine nature within fallen man was dealt with. Furthermore, He was resurrected from among the dead, indicating that all His accomplishments before His death were a success and that they all have eternal efficacy in His resurrection. Therefore, if men would repent and believe into the Son of Man, who died and was resurrected, their sins would be taken away, their evil nature would be dealt with, Satan would be destroyed within them, they would have the eternal life, and they would have an organic union with Him.
Once a man believes in the Lord Jesus with the genuine faith mentioned previously, immediately he receives the blessings of forgiveness of sins, washing, sanctification, justification, reconciliation to God, regeneration, eternal life, the Holy Spirit, freedom, and salvation.
Immediately after a person believes in the Lord, he receives forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43; 26:18). This is the first blessing in God’s salvation that a person receives at the time of his believing. When a person believes, God forgives him of all the sins that he has before Him, canceling the charges of sin against him, that he may not be condemned but be delivered from His righteous punishment.
After a person believes in the Lord, not only are his sins forgiven, but he is also washed. Forgiveness cancels the charges of sin; washing, on the other hand, removes the trace of sin. Because of a person’s faith, the precious blood of Christ washes him from his sins (Rom. 3:25; Rev. 1:5b). After the washing, it is as though that person had never sinned and had never been defiled by sin.
After a person believes in the Lord, he is not only forgiven of his sins but also sanctified in Christ (2, 1 Cor. 1:30), that is, sanctified unto God in the element and sphere of Christ. Furthermore, through faith man enters within the veil by a new and living way which He has opened for man by His blood (Heb. 10:19-20), to partake of and enjoy this glorified, heavenly, and sanctifying Christ (Heb. 13:12) and to receive an inheritance among those who have been sanctified (Acts 26:18).
The Bible says clearly that a man is not and cannot be justified before God by works; he is and can only be justified by faith (Gal. 3:8; 2:16; Rom. 3:22, 28; Acts 13:39). “By works” is to rely on man’s own doing, whereas “by faith” is to trust in what Christ has done for man. “Works” require man’s effort to do, to perform; “faith” is man’s receiving, obtaining, without effort. No one has the strength to do the works, but everyone can believe.
Faith is to believe in Christ and in what He has done for man. He died and shed His blood to accomplish redemption, satisfying God’s righteous demand (Heb. 9:22b), so that God can justify man according to His righteousness (Rom. 5:9; 3:24). Moreover, He has risen from among the dead, proving that His death has satisfied God’s righteous requirement and that man has been justified by God because of His death (Rom. 4:25). But unless a man believes, he still has no share in the redemption accomplished by Christ and cannot be justified through His redemption. Therefore, man must believe, that he may be joined to the Lord and be brought into Him, and that he may receive Him and what He has accomplished for man. Thus, man can participate in Christ and in His redemption and can receive God’s justification.
After the fall men became enemies of God (Rom. 5:10a). Men are in enmity against God and are not subject to the law of God (Rom. 8:7); they do not approve of holding God in their full knowledge (Rom. 1:28); they have no fear of God before their eyes (Rom. 3:18); they hate God (Rom. 1:30) and blaspheme God (1 Tim. 1:13); and they even say that there is no God (Psa. 14:1). Hence, they are sons of disobedience and children of wrath (Eph. 2:2-3). However, through His death and the shedding of His blood on the cross, Christ has made peace between God and man (Rom. 5:10; Col. 1:20). Therefore, when a person believes in the Lord, he can be reconciled to God and also accepted by God through all that the Lord Jesus has accomplished.
Through the aforementioned items—forgiveness of sins, washing, sanctification, justification, and reconciliation to God—the outward problems between man and God have been solved. However, besides having problems with God outwardly, man also has problems inwardly in his life and nature. Therefore, when a person believes in the Lord, God not only solves his problems without but also regenerates him within that he may receive His life and partake of His nature (1 John 5:12; 2 Pet. 1:4). Based on what is revealed in the Bible, man is regenerated, that is, he is begotten of God, at the moment he believes.
The life a person receives at regeneration is the eternal life (John 6:47), the life of God (1 John 1:1-2). Since a person is regenerated at the moment he believes, by this believing he receives the eternal life of God and has passed out of death into life (John 5:24).
Once a person believes in the Lord and is thus regenerated and possesses God’s life, God gives to him His Holy Spirit, the One who regenerates man (Eph. 1:13). The Holy Spirit is God Himself entering into man to be the divine life and essence in man.
Once a person believes in the Lord and receives forgiveness of sins, he is freed from God’s judgment and condemnation (John 3:18; 5:24), from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13), from the wrath of God (Rom. 5:9; John 3:36; 1 Thes. 1:10), and from the fear and slavery of death (Heb. 2:14-15). Moreover, because he is begotten of God and has received the eternal life of God and the Holy Spirit of God, he is freed from sins (Matt. 1:21) and the power of sin (John 8:34, 36; Rom. 6:6) as well as from the law (Gal. 4:4-5; Rom. 7:6) and the bondage of the law (Gal. 5:1; 4:7). Furthermore, He is released from the flesh (Col. 2:11), the old man (Col. 3:9), Satan’s oppression (Luke 4:18; Acts 10:38), the religious world and its ordinances (Gal. 1:4; 6:14-15; Col. 2:20), and his vain manner of life handed down from his fathers (1 Pet. 1:18). He is therefore completely set free (John 8:36) and is no longer under any kind of bondage or confinement.
Once a person believes in the Lord, he is saved (Eph. 2:8; Acts 16:31; Luke 7:50). Salvation includes God’s calling, the Spirit’s sanctification, the union between the Triune God and man, and the aforementioned items, namely, forgiveness of sins, washing, sanctification, justification, reconciliation to God, regeneration, eternal life, the Holy Spirit, and freedom. All the grace God has bestowed upon man is included in this salvation. Once man believes, he receives this full salvation with all its riches. After believing, he does not receive anything additional, but rather experiences continually what he has already received.
Immediately following the Spirit’s sanctification and man’s repentance is man’s faith, or man’s believing. To believe is to receive; it is also to “believe into.” The believers receive Christ into them that He may be mingled with them; on the other hand, they believe into Him that they may be joined to Him. Once a person believes, he receives Christ, who is the Word, the very God, and the light, into him. He also believes into His name, into the Son of God, and into the Son of Man, who died and was resurrected, to be joined to the Lord Himself and receive the eternal life. At the same time, his sins are taken away, his evil nature is dealt with, and Satan is destroyed within him. Moreover, once a person believes in the Lord Jesus, he immediately receives the blessings of forgiveness of sins, washing, sanctification, justification, reconciliation to God, regeneration, eternal life, the Holy Spirit, freedom, and salvation. Thus, through faith man receives all the grace with all the riches that God bestows upon man.
