Father, thank you for sending your Son to show us the way to you.   Lord Jesus, thank you for making the way to everlasting clear.  Holy Spirit teach us to abide in Jesus.  Make the path clear, let every hindrance to us walking in Jesus be removed as far as the east is from the west.  

Last week we talked about discerning God, and how faith exercises our senses to be able to discern God. We discern God by looking unto Jesus; by looking unto the Faith.  Jesus is synonymous with the faith.  Theosis occurs as we discern God by looking unto the Faith revealed in Christ Jesus.  We are conformed to the image of God by looking unto the faith revealed in Christ Jesus.  

We left off last week saying “By Faith, By Faith, By Faith”.  We can do all sorts of things liturgically, to be stirred up through the remembrance of Jesus.  But the point is the remembrance of the faith revealed in Jesus.  The point is not we must do these things.  Christian worship is not about the things you do in the service, it’s about looking to Jesus, the author of faith, and also the only one who is able to perfect faith in us. It’s a natural law kind of a thing.  If Jesus is the author of faith, then by necessity the only way for faith to be perfected in you, is by looking to the one who is the author of faith.  

When we say salvation is through faith, and not rituals or sacraments, is it our faith we’re talking about?  When we say by faith alone, do we mean you say a magic prayer one time and voila, that’s it I’m good to go.  I’ve settled by eternal destination, now back to my regularly scheduled program.  Is a life of faith; defined as I say a magic prayer so I don’t go to hell.  Or is a life of faith about continuously looking to the faith that was revealed in Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God.  

The scriptures say in multiple places the just shall live by faith.   Faith is a way of life.  Faith is about so much more than just your eternal destination.  It’s about looking into the mystery of the divine will and workings of the Father, Son, and Spirit, for the purpose of partaking with them in their divine nature, in the here and now, as well as forevermore.  If all we think about when we think of faith is about going to heaven or hell, we’ll end up forgetful hearers, not continuing to behold our lives in the perfect law of liberty, and Christ will be rendered of no effect in our lives, in the here and now, just as Paul told the Galatians.  

So what does it mean to live by faith ….. When we talk about faith we’re talking about the wisdom from above; we’re talking about the revelation of Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God; we’re talking about the truth that was revealed concerning God and man, in Christ Jesus.  We’re talking about the trinity, and the life and fellowship in the trinity, and the way in which Father, Son, and Spirit manifest themselves in our lives to make us partakers with them in their divine nature.  

Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

In the past I saw this as saying it’s difficult to enter rest, and so there will be great afflictions as you try to rest.  Now I see it much more clearly to be saying there’s a deed that results in rest.  

What is rest?  Rest is to be immovable.  It’s a state of being whereby you found stability.  Rest is what happens to you when you find the kind of safety and security that’s immovable.  It’s what happens when you’ve discovered a place of refuge; a place that is a strong tower; something that can be a shield and a buckler to you, and can never be shaken or removed, or breached.  Rest is a state of eternal well being.  

Everyone is in a state of activity.  Everyone is already laboring for something.  Hebrews were already …. Affection … Labor is to exert yourself towards something because your affections are set there.  It’s to endeavor yourself towards something.  It’s to give diligence and careful attention to something.  It speaks of doing something; to put effort towards a thing, on account of some passion at work in you.  Paul says, in his letter to the Galatians, do not grow weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

I know all that sounds so bad, but look at it like sitting at the feet of Jesus.  Mary’s labor was to sit at the feet of Jesus.  She endeavored to be at his feet.  She was diligent in her pursuit of his feet.  She put forth effort, and her effort was towards, ending up at the feet of Jesus.  It wasnt self effort.  Her effort wasnt born from her willpower.  She was moved to sit at the feet of Jesus because her senses were exercised, and her passions were desirous of what’s in him.  

Everyone’s in pursuit of something; everyone has passions, even if they aren’t acutely aware of it.  And our movements, or our labors; our deeds; our workings are towards whatever it is we esteem to be filled with lovely goodness/well being.  You cant get around it, it’s a function of the nature of man.  When God created mankind He set us in motion towards a state of sabbatical rest/eternal state of well being.

The author of Hebrews says, seeing we are currently in a state of activity, or movement, where we are moving towards something.  Theres a movement; there’s a work, that finds its conclusion in a state of rest.  Let your movements; let your labor; let your affections.  Let whatever it is you are doing be the labor that concludes itself in a state of being that is at rest.  

The Lord Jesus echoes this same thing in John 6 when he says labour, there’s that word LABOUR.  Jesus says labour not for the meat that perishes, but labour for the meat that endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give you, for God the Father sealed him.  Jesus says let your movements; let your passions; let your workings be set on the meat that doesnt perish, but endures unto life everlasting.  The disciples, wanting for their labour to find it’s conclusion in the meat that doesnt perish, but endures unto life everlasting, ask Jesus what are the works of God that we might work them.  What is this labour you speak of Jesus, we desire for our movements to find their conclusion in the meat that doesnt perish.  Jesus responds by saying, this is the work of God; the labour I’m speaking of is to believe on the one the Father sent.  To believe means to be persuaded by.  It’s to be persuaded by the one the Father sent.  How will you be persuaded by the one the Father sent?  Looking unto Jesus; looking to the faith Jesus authored in the earth; that is the labour that perfects Christ in your life. **** continuos ongoing action **** 

Hebrews defines the labor as looking unto Jesus; looking unto the faith that is of Jesus.  This faith is born in us by looking unto Jesus, and it has its perfect work in us, through continuing to look unto Jesus.  Both the Old Testament and the New talk about forgetful hearers.  God is immovable … He endures all afflictions and contradictions and chaos and disorder.  Not even the death of the cross was able to move God ……. The work or labor; or movement that finds its conclusion in the stability of the one who is immovable; is to look unto faith; the faith authored in the earth through Jesus.  Be persuaded through the one the Father sent … the way you are persuaded is by looking unto Jesus; the one who authored faith in the earth, and the one who perfects the faith of God in you.  That’s how you are kept from being a forgetful hearer.

The faith revealed in Jesus exercises your senses so you can perceive God.  The faith that is of Jesus exercises our senses so we can discern what is beautiful and full of well being.  Jesus; the faith that is of him; is the image of the invisible God.  By faith we esteem the reproach of Christ to be greater than the riches of the world(so our passions begin seeking Jesus; seeking the faith; instead of the treasures of the world) why?  Because we see him who is invisible to the natural sight.  We can see the mystery of what we’ve been predestined for in Christ.  The faith revealed in Jesus sets our passions; or movements; or labor towards the word that was made flesh.  The faith revealed in Jesus exercises our senses so our passions long for and desire the creator and not the creature ….. it shoes us the lovely goodness we’ve been predestined for in the glorified Jesus, and that fixes our passions on him; on the faith.  

We’ve been predestined to find our conclusion in God …. When God created us, our lives were set in motion towards Him who is immovable(thats the rest) …. By faith we perceive what it is God predestined us for;  We see the conclusion of what we were created for in the resurrected Jesus ….. by faith we see the safe space we long for in Christ, and its by continuing to look unto the faith that is of him, we experience the safety thats in him ….. Faith performs a work in you …. we are the clay.  God is the potter.  We are God’s workmanship.  He creates us in the image of what is seen in Christ Jesus by grace through faith.  The Father sent His son; He sent the Spirit of Faith.  Faith exercises your senses so you can discern where eternal well being is found, then it sets your passions on the faith, so you are continuously looking to the faith revealed in the face of Jesus.  This is the good work you were ordained for from the foundation of the world.  The letter to the Hebrews says the works were finished from the foundation of the world.  Do not strive to cleanse yourself from sin and death; do not look to your own workings to bring yourself out of the miry clay; do not look to your own strength to make yourself fruitful … You are God’s workmanship, the good works you were created to walk in is, looking unto to Jesus the author and perfecter of the faith that is full of the grace needed for Christ to be fully formed in you.  This is why the letter to the Hebrews says moving on to perfection.  Moving on to that which perfects, having had your senses exercised by the faith revealed in Jesus.  

Does this mean I don’t have eternal life yet, but if I keep hearing the faith I can get eternal life one day?  Does it mean I’m progressively sanctified?   Does it mean I’m not perfected once for all time.  Let it never be said?  

If you look at a seed.  Theres a potency in the seed.  The full potency of life and nutrients is present in the seed, even before its outer shell dies and the seed produces roots in the ground, and then fruit.  Just as with a seed, those who’ve called upon the name of the Lord possess the full potency of life now.  Peter says you’ve been born again from an incorruptible seed.  The full potency of the incorruptible seed is present in you now.  You’ve been hypostatically joined with the divine nature, having been fully cleansed from corruption, and the defilement of sin and its death.  

The apostle Paul says no one can lay any foundation, other than the foundation thats already laid in Jesus Christ.  He says one may plant and another may water but its God who gives the increase.  You possess the full potency of the seed the Father sowed in the earth.  You are fully set apart from death to life.  Your life is built on the rock that is Christ.  And the life you live now in the flesh is about the seed that indwells you being watered, through the hearing of the faith revealed in the Son of God. 

Jas 1:22  But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
Jas 1:23  For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
Jas 1:24  For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
Jas 1:25  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Gal 6:9  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 

Prayer ….