The Mystery Of The Faith

by Johnston, Brian, D. | Category: Opened Secrets | May 2005

Last month's contribution to this series featured the 'mystery of the gospel' (Eph.6:19), a topic that is bound up with the mystery we hope to consider next month, namely 'the church, which is His (Christ's) body' (Eph.1:22,23) - described as 'the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God' (Eph.3:9).

In the present age the truth of that Church, His Body, is in turn very closely linked to the truth of God's spiritual house (1 Pet.2:5) in the sense that it would ideally be God's will that all members of the Body living on earth at any one time should also be serving Him unitedly in churches of God. Direct references to either are not found in the Old Testament which reserves itself to alluding to these things in types and shadows (for example, the formation of Eve and the Tabernacle respectively). The former (the Church) we have already associated with the mystery of the gospel; and with the latter (the spiritual house) we now wish to associate the mystery of the faith (1 Tim.3:9).

While the Scriptures distinguish between these mysteries, the Gospel and the Faith are nevertheless linked. Paul wrote to the Philippians concerning 'the faith of the gospel' (1:27), an expression which shows how the whole body of Christian doctrine, the Faith, is an integral part of the 'good news' (note also the scope of the good news in Heb.4:2 & Acts 8:12). However, we often essentially define the Gospel in terms of 'repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ' (Acts 20:21). This is all that is required for eternal salvation. However, even there our attention is drawn to the title 'Lord' with the implied obligation of ongoing discipleship by remaining obedient to the claims of Christ.

In what sense then is the Faith a mystery? 'Mystery' in the Bible, as we were reminded in the lead article in this series, refers to something which is only knowable through divine revelation to those taught by the Holy Spirit. These are truths which God does not want to remain hidden from believers, but He wishes now to reveal them to us in the Bible. Biblically then, what is this 'mystery of the faith'? The Faith is 'the body of doctrine' as opposed to saving faith in Christ. 'The faith' refers to the content of what is taught, while faith is the capacity to believe it. Jude in his short letter near the end of the Bible makes this distinction very plainly when he says: 'while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you �? to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints' (v.3, NKJV). So 'the faith', different from our common salvation, that is different from saving faith, was something that could be described as having been fully delivered to the New Testament believers. In fact the Bible uses the same once for all ['hapax'] expression that it reserves elsewhere for the finished work of Christ on the cross (Heb.10:10). So there is real uniqueness and finality associated with the teachings of the Faith. While we can never fall away from the unconditional salvation blessings which faith brings us - the Lord stresses 'they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them' (John 10:28) - it is possible to fall away from giving expression to a clear grasp of the Faith; since for that Jude urges us to contend earnestly.

The Faith is the sum total of what the apostles taught, as preserved for us in the New Testament of our Bibles. It is the teaching they received from the Lord Jesus Himself in order to pass it on. We read in Acts 1:3 that it was to the apostles that the Lord 'presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God'. This teaching was evidently what they put into practice wherever they went (1 Cor.4:17). For example, in Acts 14 we read of Paul and his companions that when they had 'made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed' (vv.21-23). In the space of those three verses we come across expressions which are mentioned together because they belong together: disciples, the faith, the kingdom of God, elders, every church. Everywhere we look in the New Testament this is the pattern that emerges wherever the Faith is taught: companies of disciples, all baptized by immersion in water, all added locally to church of God fellowship, all within an overall community of interdependent churches serving everywhere according to one pattern of teaching, maintained under a fellowship of elders and separated to God.

In our so-called 'post-modern' world, the notion has become popular that you may have your truth and I may have mine, and that what is true for you and what is true for me may be very different and even contradict one another, but each must be considered as valid as the other. In fact the post-modernist can tolerate every view except the view, of course, which says there can only be one true view! The apostle Paul, however, wrote two letters in our Bibles to a young man called Timothy in which he urged him to stay in Ephesus that 'you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine' (1:3, NKJV). Paul's objection was to teaching that was 'heteros' or different. He does not come right out with it and say that it was false, but he describes it as being 'different'. That does not mean it was not false - it was - it simply means it was false because it was different. Different from what? There can be no doubt that Paul was indicating that there was already by that time a recognized norm, an absolute standard of truth, and it was from this well-defined body of doctrine that these false teachers had deviated.

Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus are known as the Pastoral Letters, for they concern the pastoral care of local churches. In them he refers to this standard body of teaching by various descriptors like 'the faith' (1 Cor.16:13; 1 Tim.1:19; 3:9; 4:1,6; 6:10,12,21; 2 Tim.3:8; 4:7), 'the truth' (1 Tim.2:4,7; 3:15; 4:3; 6:5; 2 Tim.2:18,25; 3:7,8; 4:4; Titus 1:1,14), 'the (sound) teaching' (or doctrine or words 1 Tim.1:10; 6:1,3; 2 Tim.1:13; 4:3; Titus 1:9; 2:1). In all these references the definite article ('the') belongs in the Bible: the faith, the truth, the teaching. This indicates that already by that time a quite specific body of doctrine existed, deposited at the first by the Lord to His disciples, forming an agreed standard by which all teaching could be tested and judged. This was the teaching of Christ and His apostles - indeed 'the apostles' teaching' (Acts 2:42). This was truth that was unique, absolute, not subjective, and passed on in turn to faithful men (2 Tim.2:2).

Upholding this standard of sound doctrine was something Paul considered to be of first importance. When he comes to give Timothy instructions as to who may hold the position of being a deacon in the local church, with the responsibility of assisting overseers in their teaching ministry, Paul specifies that one of their qualifications should be that they hold 'the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience' (1 Tim.3:9). Deacons must have orthodox convictions, for it was their responsibility (alongside overseers) to teach the way of serving God which was according to the pattern of teaching displayed everywhere throughout the New Testament.

Paul never did tolerate teaching that was 'heteros' or different. Few today seem prepared to take a similar stand on the Bible and say there is only one absolute norm of teaching with the unity of practice which flows from it. Denominational variation must be tested against the New Testament standard, always remembering that the 'little flock' of disciples throughout the early churches were united together to form God's spiritual kingdom on this earth (Luke 12:32).

A lot of New Testament imagery for the people of God is drawn from its Old Testament counterpart in Israel. There was a kingdom of God on earth then (Ex.19:6), and in those days it was the Law of Moses which provided the standard of doctrine and practice needed to secure their tenancy of the kingdom of God. The obvious candidate for being the New Testament counterpart to the Law of Moses is the Teaching of the Apostles (the Faith). The way the book of Acts is written shows this to be God's design. Compare, for example, the forty day period in Acts 1:3 with that found in Exodus 24:18. Happily, the earliest Christians with their Jewish heritage were enabled to see this for 'a great many of the priests were � obedient to the faith' (Acts 6:7) realizing the Law had in fact been their 'tutor [to lead them] to Christ' (Gal.3:24) and to subjection to the Faith

An Israelite was simply born a child of Abraham, but to maintain his or her status as a subject of the kingdom of God as had been invested in Israel adherence to the Law was most certainly required (Ex.19:5,6; 2 Chron.13:8-12). Believers on the Lord Jesus today are children of God by faith alone, but to enter and maintain a place within the spiritual kingdom, house and priesthood of the present age adherence to the Faith is scripturally required (1 Cor. 5:13; 6:9,10). The latter is conditional, as opposed to our unconditional membership of the Church the Body.

'Retain the standard of sound words � Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you' (2 Tim.1:13,14). The standard of sound words, the Faith, is characterized as treasure. This indicates what our heart's attitude towards it must be, and surely goes further to emphasize the value to God of our obedience to this precious revealed truth of His.

Johnston, Brian, D. | May 2005
Opened Secrets