Today on Truth Time.
There's this idea that was put out in the greater grace space about 23 years ago
that changed it just a bit.
They changed it and said, well, he didn't actually empty himself, but he laid aside his deity.
Folks, that's just semantics.
Something that was put out there to avoid the kenosis label.
Laid aside, emptied, either way, you still got a Jesus that ceased being God.
If you believe Jesus was 100% man, 100% God, but at some point he laid aside one of those, what's left?
So if Jesus laid aside his 100% God, then you've got a Jesus ceasing to be God.
And in that case, God didn't die for your sins.
And if God didn't die for your sins, then a man did.
And buddy, you're dung out of luck.
Count it all as dung, because if you don't have a Jesus that is God, you better trade him in for one who is.
Because no man's blood could have satisfied God, Acts 20:28.
That verse destroys kenosis and that Jesus is his own father in one fell swoop.
This is Truth Time Radio.
Last time with you, we addressed some verses in Galatians concerning the phrase, Faith of Christ.
Today, we're moving on to Philippians 3:9.
No time to waste.
Let's just get into it.
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ,the righteousness which is of God by faith.
See the contrast?
I want to bring your attention to the contrast here, the opposites.
On one side, we have mine own righteousness, which is of the law.
On the other side, we have, the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
A clear contrast.
Faith plus law versus faith alone.
Look at the verse very closely.
This is the Apostle Paul's Romans 1:17, from faith to faith.
Etch that in your mind and watch how the verses about the faith of Christ start to make sense.
Mine own righteousness, that's the law, versus the righteousness which is of God.
That's by faith.
That's the faith of Christ.
So, mine own righteousness in the law was written information, just as the righteousness which is of God by the faith of Christ is also written information.
Just think of it this way.
Just think law to faith.
Think prophecy to mystery.
Think from faith plus works to faith alone.
Think from the faith of God to the faith of Christ.
That's what faith to faith means.
The law of Moses versus Paul's faith of Christ.
Look at the last part of the verse and watch how God defines his own terminology right here for us.
It's right under our nose.
The faith of Christ, comma, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
He did not say anything about Christ needing to place his faith in the Father to raise him from the dead.
That's man-speak, not God-speak.
That's man-text, not context.
Now, can you think of any other verses that use a comma separation to further clarify terms?
Here's one.
Ephesians 1:13.
A popular one amongst most of us.
Here we see Paul saying, In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth-comma-the gospel of your salvation:
You see that?
Paul defines the word of truth as being the gospel of your salvation.
That's what the word of truth is.
And notice, please notice, don't miss this.
He did so in the exact same manner that we just saw faith of Christ defined.
As being the righteousness which is of God by faith, not faith that Christ needed to have.
Just take God at his word and it's impossible to go wrong.
You can leave this study today and keep pushing the same false faith of Christ narrative but, you'll do so without the support of context.
You'll be on your own.
Because neither Philippians 3:9 nor any of the other faith of Christ verses say anything of Christ having to have faith.
Not one.
According to context, that theory is just make-believe.
The three words, faith of Christ, is, it's like a title.
And nowhere, nowhere that it's used suggests anything else.
A title for Paul's written doctrine.
The faith of Christ is what we believe, not what he had.
The law of Moses is written information.
And so is the faith of Christ.
From faith to faith is two faiths.
I think we can all agree on that.
Now, Paul had to begin with the first faith in order to move his readers to the second faith.
From the law of Moses' righteousness to the Romans 3 but now righteousness.
It's different.
From faith to faith.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.
Being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ.
There it is.
That's the faith of Christ.
It goes from faith to faith.
From what is written in the law of Moses to what is written in the grace books of Paul.
When you think of the terminology from faith to faith, in your mind, try to imagine a whiteboard.
Make it a split screen by, by seeing a line straight down the middle.
On one side of the line at the top for your heading, see the words, Law of Moses.
Got it?
Now, on the other side, see the words, Faith of Christ.
Law of Moses.
Faith of Christ.
Now, underneath your heading on the left, see the words, Prophecy, forward slash, Written law books of Moses
Okay?
Now, on the right side, underneath your heading, see the words, Mystery, forward slash, Grace books of Paul.
Okay?
For your next line, on the left side, see the words of Matthew 19:16, What good thing shall I do to have eternal life? Keep the commandments.
Now, move to the right side of the board on the same line and see the words from Acts 16, What must I do to be saved? Believe on him.
See the contrast?
Keep the commandments versus believe on him.
These are two different faiths.
From faith to faith.
One falls under the law of Moses, which we find written in prophecy, the other falls under the faith of Christ, which we find written in mystery.
Now, let's continue with our chart.
Drop down to your next line, the one on the left, on the left of the split screen, and place John 4:22, Salvation is of the Jews.
But over on the right side, place Titus 2:11, Salvation has now appeared to all men.
By now, you should start to see a pattern here.
Two different faiths.
From faith to faith.
In 2012, I wrote a book called, Compare the Verses.
So, we could do this all day, but I think you get the picture.
On the left side are all the verses that fall under the law of Moses.
On the other side, on the right side, are the verses that fall under the faith of Christ.
Because that's what the faith of Christ is.
It's written information that Christ gave Paul to give to us.
Written grace that is opposite to written law.
Written mystery that is opposite to written prophecy.
Hopefully, the puzzle has taken shape.
The faith of Christ is what we believe, it's not what he had.
The words, faith of Christ, is like a title, like my gospel, and like my doctrine.
It once was salvation is of the Jews' faith, but now it's neither bond nor free faith.
Neither male or female faith.
Because we've moved.
We've moved on.
We've moved from faith to faith.
From the former to the latter.
From the former faith to the faith of Christ.
Paul's gospel.
Paul's doctrine.
Something he's been trying to get across since the first chapter of the book of Romans.
To take us into the but now.
Where there is only...
Ephesians 4.
One body.
One spirit.
One hope.
One Lord.
And there it is.
One faith.
The faith of Christ.
Paul's doctrine written in the books of Romans through Philemon.
Okay.
Let's look at another one here.
Another one that will demonstrate how God defines his own terminology for us.
Ephesians 1:17. Here's a good one. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ-comma-
the Father of glory.
See, here Paul tells us that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Father of glory.
It does not say that Jesus is the Father.
Don't fall for the Jesus is his own father garbage being taught by some who claim to be Pauline.
They're not right dividers, but slight dividers.
Who have built a disfigured Frankenstein godhead.
It's heresy being taught by those who need to go brush up on their grammar and some of the punctuation rules before running around acting as if they're chosen to go point out the holes in other people's ministry.
Meanwhile, their bucket can't even hold water.
The verse here plainly says, The God of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How do they miss it?
We don't know.
That's the Father of Glory.
Not Jesus the Son.
Just like the word of truth is the gospel of your salvation.
Just like the faith of Christ is the righteousness which is of God by faith.
And not Jesus needing to have faith that the Father will raise him from the dead.
That's nowhere in the context anywhere you see the term faith of Christ.
Think about that.
Some want you to believe that God who was manifest in the flesh, the, before Abraham was, I am, the, I know the end from the beginning Jesus needed faith in his Father to raise him.
Guys, if you know the end from the beginning, guess what you don't need?
If you already know what's going to happen, there's no faith required.
You see, some follow Paul until they don't.
In Philippians 3:9 he defined the faith of Christ for us.
What more could he have done?
If you look closely, it's clearly defined here.
The righteousness which is of God by faith.
The righteousness which is of God by faith.
Is it about Jesus needing faith to be raised from the dead?
No.
Let me say it again.
I'll quote it for you.
The righteousness which is of God by faith.
Paul couldn't have made it any clearer.
It's simple.
The righteousness which is of God by faith is a clear contrast to the Deuteronomy 6:25, Righteousness which is of God by law.
If we replace faith of Christ with Jesus having faith, watch what happens to Philippians 3:9. Watch this, And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through Jesus needing to have faith during his earthly ministry.
The righteousness which is of God by faith.
That destroys the verse.
It renders the verse nonsensical.
It makes no sense.
No sense whatsoever.
If Jesus needing to have faith during his earthly ministry is the same as the righteousness of God which is by faith, then we have serious problems.
We've got a serious problem concerning who Jesus actually is.
We now have a Jesus who had to have faith in order for him to be righteous.
Oh, no.
That's a big no-no.
Hey, if the faith of Christ is the righteousness of God by faith, then you're saying that his faith is what made him righteous.
Only those who believe that Jesus is not God would say such a thing.
Only they would teach that he needed to be righteous the same way we do.
That's cray-cray.
He was already righteous based on the simple fact that God is righteous.
And Jesus is God.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
Oh, wait a minute, Trey.
God the Son is not in the Bible.
When some screwball goes off flapping his gum saying that, grab old Mr. King James and smack him with a shot of truth.
You're dealing with a biblical bankrupt person.
That's what you're doing.
God the Son is not only in Scripture, but multiple times.
Here's one.
You go do your homework to find the rest.
But here's one.
Hebrews 1:8, But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
Plain and simple.
Unto the Son, O God.
What?
Unto the Son, O God.
God the Son.
Say it again.
Unto the Son, O God.
Checkmate.
There's God the Son right there.
Unto the Son, O God.
That is God the Son.
You see, those who say, God the Son is nowhere in your Bible, all braggadocious as if they know everything, they don't actually read their Bible.
Instead, they do lazy word and phrase searches, and when the three words, God the Son, doesn't come up in succession in their search, they run off thinking they've found a gotcha.
Now, to say that Jesus needed faith in order to be righteous is downright blasphemy.
It's blasphemy and it's a denial of his deity.
It destroys the Godhead.
It removes Christ's ability to save anyone.
It removes the Godhood of the literal Son of God.
If you say Jesus needed faith and scripture says over and over that faith is required for righteousness, if you follow that to its logical conclusion, you got Jesus needing faith before he can be made righteous.
That won't work.
You're stuck up a gum tree, a cart with no horse, a boat with no paddle.
For those who say, it's not our faith that saves us, it's his.
Or, it's not our faith that makes us righteous, it's his.
Well, you can't have his faith making you righteous unless it made him righteous too.
You see, you got a problem.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have needed to have faith in the first place.
How can we read Romans 4 without understanding that righteousness can't be imputed without faith while at the same time claiming that Jesus needed to have faith?
Did Jesus need righteousness imputed to him?
If the answer is no, and it is, then he had no need for faith.
That argument's cooked.
It's over.
Now, we know of some that maintain that Jesus, what he did, he laid aside his deity,
they'll say.
He laid aside his deity attributes during his earthly ministry.
But, listen, number one, there's simply no scriptural evidence for that.
Okay? That should be enough.
But, okay, number two, that's just plain old what they call kenosis.
Kenosis teaches that Christ emptied himself of his deity attributes during his earthly ministry.
He did no such thing.
There's this idea that was put out in the greater grace space about 23 years ago
that changed it just a bit.
They changed it and said, well, he didn't actually empty himself, but he laid aside his deity.
Folks, that's just semantics.
Something that was put out there to avoid the kenosis label.
Laid aside, emptied, either way, you still got a Jesus that ceased being God.
You still have the before Abraham was, I am Jesus, walking around in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John as a man with no deity.
They'll say Jesus was 100% God, 100% man, but then, have us to believe that at certain times he wasn't 100% God.
If you believe Jesus was 100% man, 100% God, but at some point he laid aside one of those, what's left?
100% of the other.
So if Jesus laid aside his 100% God, then you've got a Jesus ceasing to be God.
And in that case, God didn't die for your sins.
And if God didn't die for your sins, then a man did.
And buddy, you're dung out of luck.
Count it all as dung, because if you don't have a Jesus that is God, you better trade him in for one who is.
Because no man's blood could have satisfied God.
Acts 20:28. You done messed up, A.A.Ron.
That verse destroys kenosis and the Jesus is his own father in one fell swoop.
Our position here is that, Jesus was 100% God and 100% man at all times, from his birth to his resurrection.
Just because you may run into a verse that seems a little veiled at first, that's no reason to change the fact that before Abraham was, I am.
Christ is and always has been God.
Kenosis is a problem and something we may get more into later on down the road.
Some of you might be pretty surprised where the notion of mid-acts kenosis actually originated from, and how much it connects to other doctrines such as sonship theology
and Jesus-only teachings.
According to the definition included in this one single verse, Philippians 3:9, the faith of Christ is literally the righteousness which is of God by faith.
And if you'll do your homework and look at the surrounding context, you'll find,
just as we did, that the Jesus needing faith in something just doesn't work.
The definition doesn't maintain integrity.
Instead of just reading Philippians 3:9 and making a doctrine out of it, how about try reading the surrounding verses and see what you get.
Even if you only read verses 7 through 11.
If you only read those verses, you'll see there's no connection with the popular faith of Christ narrative.
It's M.I.A.
Verses 7 to 11 are five verses together and make up only two sentences.
Go check them out and see what you think.
I submit that this Jesus that needs faith is absent from the context.
Once you read past verse 9, you should notice Paul elaborating a little further
on the results of the righteousness which is of God by faith.
Go check out James chapter 2 verse 23, see what you got there.
Brother James says, And the scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God
and it was imputed to him for righteousness and he was called a friend of God.
And Paul in Galatians verse 6 says, Even as Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.
If that's not enough for you, Paul really drives it home for us in Romans 4:3, For what saith scripture? Abraham believed God and it was counted him for righteousness.
Verse 4, Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt.
Verse 5, But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Whose faith?
In the context, it's Abraham's faith.
And to apply it as our doctrine for today, our faith of Christ.
Our faith in the finished work of Christ is counted for righteousness.
See, there's this thing called grammar.
And in grammar, there's a thing called a clause.
Romans 4:5 has a clause right in the middle of the sentence that can be removed
without changing the context.
Let's try it.
But to him that worketh not, his faith is counted for righteousness.
The part of the verse we removed for the sake of this example, quote, believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, didn't change a thing, didn't change the meaning of the sentence by removing it.
And it only further explains the sentence when it's added.
That's how grammar works.
The quote, "him," that worketh not is the same quote, "his," who had faith at the end of the verse.
Soon, coming up in this Roman series, we'll be moving into the fourth chapter.
And as we do so, we'll see how Paul uses Abraham as a wonderful example of how righteousness is imputed to everyone in every dispensation.
And it's not through Jesus needing to have faith.
Never is.
It's through the faith of the individual.
This is a timeless, trans-dispensational truth about faith.
The individual believes God.
Meaning, they have faith in what God specifically told them.
And that faith is counted for their righteousness.
That is true for every single dispensation, no exceptions.
We've heard some make an outrageous claim about 2 Timothy 2:15, I'm sorry, 2:13,
but they can't provide even one verse to substantiate it.
They say that, here where Paul says, quote, If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself.
They say that means Jesus had faith.
Yet, now think, what that really does, it demonstrates their failure to understand that faith and faithful are different words with different meanings.
For Christ to put his faith in someone, hey, that's not the same as being faithful to someone.
Go study that out for yourself.
Christ's faith would be his dependence on someone doing something for him.
Christ being faithful is his commitment to doing something for us.
Okay, we've got to end it here.
We'll end it here today.
Next time we'll talk about verses, quite a few, in Paul's epistles that some in this newer extremist group, claim to be about Jesus needing to have faith.
And when we show you these verses that are being used, most of you will be shaking your heads, just as we did, and you'll be doing so because of some of the wild interpretations that they're coming up with.
We'll also take a look at a few times where the faith of Christ is spoken of outside
of Paul's epistles.
And that'll be interesting.
We'll dive into the Gospels and talk about some of the verses they use over there.
And we'll end with talking about the teaching that started all this among the Mid-Acts camps.
It all goes back to a sermon called, When Did Jesus Learn the Mystery?
We believe you'll see how three false doctrines ended up crossing paths and feeding off one another.
Alright, okay.
At the moment Christ died for your every sin, God stopped imputing them.
He was buried, but rose the third day to offer you new life in Him by believing this good news.
New life is a free gift and a free gift that the religious system has always tried to suppress.
But you heard it here.
You heard it here today.
Receive it.
Receive the free gift through faith, by grace, through faith.
Until next time, grace and peace.
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