What God Requires

God requires, of us certain things. Such as faith, a believing heart, that God can, and will do all that He has promised and that we rest in His finished work in Christ.

It is also essential that we know that salvation is by grace, that God may be glorified. The faith spoken of in scripture, is incomplete without grace. James wrote, in his epistle, that faith without works is dead, but faith without grace being at the center of it, and any works without the faith that comes through grace are dead works. We are saved by grace, through faith and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8). It is a free-gift, not of works, lest any man should boast. Our faith is to be in the God that promised, which is the same faith that the father of faith, Abraham had.

Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded, that, what he (God) promised, He (God)was able to perform and therefore, it was imputed to him for righteousness (Romans 4:20-22). God only gets the glory if our faith is, of Him and by Him and in His ability to bring to pass all that He (God) has promised in Christ.

It follows then that, righteousness is imputed onto us if we have faith in God, who has given unto us great and precious promises (2 Peter 1:4). Pleasing God is not a matter of works, such as the keeping of holy days, touch not taste not and the like, Which were under the law of sin and death, from which we have been delivered. The wages of sin (trying to earn something- a result of debt) is death, but the gift of God is eternal life (but only if it is known as a promised gift).

The time in which man was given to attempt to please God through works, was six days, or six thousand years (a day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day). However dead works have no part in the seventh day, in which man was to enter into God’s rest. It should be clear that man failed miserably under the law. He could not keep the law for the law was Spiritual and he was carnal. As it is written, by the deeds of the law there shall be no flesh justified in His sight, for by the law, is the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20). Why then would we want to go back under any system of law to try to please God? Did Christ set us free so that we again might be under bondage, only this time to the laws of religious doctrines and rituals, A contrived system of works that we might be blessed by God?

I believe I am blessed, therefore I do what I am and that is to be a blessing to others. True faith speaks on this wise, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved (Romans 10: 9). I fear that many are taught to make a profession of faith for something that they might receive, if they do all the right things. The only right thing we can do is to believe God for all that He says we are and shall become. When God says we are His Sons who He has called, justified and glorified (Romans 8:30), then believe him, In spite of all that appears to oppose our glorification, especially our performance.

Faith that must be increased is not biblical faith. It is not the faith as a mustard seed, spoken of by our Lord. The mustard seed knows it can be nothing but a mustard plant because it is that, in seed form. The Lord was not speaking necessarily about the size of the mustard seed but the quality of the faith of the seed to become what it is destine to be. Within us, and as us, has been planted an incorruptible seed and that seed is Christ, the Son of God. Mustard seed faith would say, how can we become anything else but a full -grown son of God? If we are born of God, His seed remains in us and we are children of God and of the God family. Now we are the Sons of God, but it does not yet appear what we shall be: but when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as he is (1 John 3:2). When who shall appear? Christ, who is our life. Mustard seed faith is not trying to do something to be anything. It does what it is because of what it is. It rests in what is it’s destiny, there is no struggle to become.

Are God’s Children under law?

God’s children should not be lawless and unrestrained in their behavior. They are under law unto Christ, which is the law of the Spirit of life, walking in accordance with Him, led by His Spirit and not in accordance with the flesh. The law of God becomes our nature, written in our hearts and in our minds, not as the rulers of Israel, who kept the letter of the law, written in stone, only resulting in stony hearts. Who, though they attempted to keep the letter of the law, failed to know God who came and kept the intent of the law, God fulfilling the law through the Son in their sight. He went around healing and doing good and that on the Sabbath, which they perceived as the breaking of the law. And because Jesus did not conform to their concept of God’s will, they had Him crucified. The love of God to all mankind was rejected for the self-righteousness of the law yet the law properly understood, is love.

I fear the same is happening today. I hear our Lord saying, “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20). He is still outside of the camp. Do you know that it is possible to attend “church” three times a week, pray four times a day, tithe all your money and do it all in the flesh? Do you know that you can cast out devils and do many wonderful works in His name and yet He may say, He never knew you, depart from me you workers of iniquity (Matthew 7:22-23).

There are many faiths today, differing denominations to which people have subscribed. Many of them are forms of Godliness but deny the power thereof. There is only one faith spoken of in Scripture, which is the word of faith, or the word of God. He said, “I will send forth my word, and it will not return unto me void”. His word is an incorruptible seed that produces a faith that rests in Him, on this the Sabbath day.

The Seventh Day

The seventh day, or the Sabbath of God, is truly a day of rest. No work is to be done on the Sabbath of God. The day of the week that people choose to worship on, be it Saturday or Sunday, is only a type of the true Sabbath rest of God. Man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man. Christ is our Sabbath rest, He is the morning breaking upon the mountains, the day star arising in our hearts, the dawning of the day of the Lord, the promise of God.

In John chapter six verse 28 and 29, the question is asked of our Lord, “What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent. It follows then that the work of God is to believe God for all He has purposed in Christ. When one truly has faith in God the work of God becomes a rest in knowing that all that God has promised shall come to pass, in spite of the incredible odds that appear to be against it. For we do not walk by sight but by faith. Not faith in our ability to bring it to pass if we do every thing right, but faith in God's’ ability to bring it to pass in spite of us.

We have seen our salvation, in Christ. We have realized the incorruptible seed of God, planted in our earth. We are one with the seed, we are no longer the earth it is planted in. The only law we can keep is the law of faith and it is not faith in our ability or our effort, but faith in God.

The Free Gift

Everything that we have in Christ is free and is God given. Jesus paid the price, in full for our redemption, it is only for us to receive our salvation as a free gift. Unfortunately, most of us are still trying, either to earn it or to pay back the debt. We have not understood the parable of forgiveness taught in Matthew chapter 18, where a certain man owed his Lord a very great sum of money and could not pay off his debt. He said unto his Lord, “Lord have patience with me and I will pay the all”. It goes on to say that his Lord was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him all the debt. However, Because the man thought he could pay back the debt, based on his statement, ”be patient, and I will pay the all”, he had no forgiveness toward his fellow-servant who owed him little.

We as well need to realize how great a salvation, has been purchased for us by the blood of Christ and our total inability to pay God back for what He has done. All we are asked to do is believe it by faith and not pollute God’s Sabbath by laboring in an effort to either earn or keep our place in God, but rather labor to enter into His rest. The only way we will keep from laying hands on or brothers and grabbing them by the throat and casting them into prison, is to realize our complete forgiveness and right standing in Christ, is not a matter of debt.

We are forgiven, as we forgive and we only forgive, if we realize our forgiveness. One who is laboring under the concept of debt, is not loosed and set free and they will not loose others and set them free, until they realize their own freedom. If the new covenant Christian is to labor at all, it is to labor to enter into His rest. The rest of faith in knowing that all that God has promised in Christ shall come to pass.

I am convinced that the church as we know it, has learned to strain at a Nat and swallowed a camel”. We have learned the traditions of men and our faith is in our religious activities, rather than God given faith. We do not believe all that God has said through His word, written or incarnate. We do not rest as God did in and on God’s Sabbath. Christ is the Sabbath rest of God, the fulfillment of all the Sabbaths since creation. He is a day without beginning our end and we are children of that day in which there is no night. No darkness at all, for he is the light of our life. He is the daystar arising in our hearts, for the darkness has past and the day is at hand.

God will not allow mixture. He will not allow us to commit fornication with the world, by bringing the concepts we have learned in the world, taught by religious organizations, with us into the Kingdom.

We were born again of a virgin birth, the flesh was not involved. He is the author and finisher of our faith and we are his workmenship. Having begun a good work in us He is able to complete it and to keep us unto that day. We have been delivered from a system in which nothing is considered free and there is no rest. Delivered from a system which is condemning by nature and thank God the system is condemned. It is hard to believe that God is so good, but in truth, it is that goodness that leads to repentance.

We must believe God for all that we have in Christ. Knowing that we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ and that all the promises of God are yea and amen and only conditioned upon our faith in His ability to bring it to pass. It is not by power or might but by my Spirit, says the Lord. We can rest in God’s promises through faith, giving glory unto God. We are to offer an offering of righteousness, which is the calves of our lips, thanksgiving unto God. For thanksgiving is the true essence of praise.

Art Groesbeck