Acts 14:21 ...they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, (22) Establishing the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith and saying that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. 6:7 And the word of God grew...and a large number of the priests obeyed the faith. Romans 16:26 But has now been manifested, and through the prophetic writings, according to the command of the eternal God, has been made known to all the Gentiles for the obedience of faith;
[Part 1 of 2] In 13:43 they appealed to the believers to continue in the grace of God, but here they entreated them to continue in the faith. To continue in the faith is more difficult than to continue in the grace of God. As in 6:7, the faith in 14:22 is the objective faith. It refers to what the believers believe in concerning Christ's Person and work. The entire revelation of the New Testament concerning Christ and His redemptive work is considered the faith of God's New Testament economy (Rom. 16:26). If we understand what the faith is, then we shall realize that continuing in the faith is a deeper matter than continuing in the grace. To continue in the grace of God is to enjoy the Triune God. But in order to continue in the faith, we need not only to exercise our spirit to enjoy the Triune God, but we also need to exercise our minds to study the New Testament revelation, all of which is included in the objective faith. Today many Christians do not know what is the entire revelation of the New Testament concerning God's economy. How poor is the situation concerning this! If we do not know what the objective faith is, we certainly cannot continue in it. [Continued tomorrow]
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Acts, p. 340. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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