Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith (Romans 3:27)
The Bible calls faith a law, i.e. the law of faith (Romans 3:27). A law also refers to something that is guaranteed to happen one hundred percent of the time if the necessary conditions are met. An example is the law of gravity. Once you are within the earth’s gravitational pull, you will be kept from floating into space. It’s the same with faith. Once the necessary conditions needed for faith to function are met, the law of faith will produce results one hundred percent of the time. So then, it is not a question of whether faith works or not. It’s a matter of whether we have fulfilled the conditions that guarantee that our faith will always work. Let’s examine the requirements that constitute the law of faith according to the Scriptures.
First of all, for the law of faith to produce results what we have set our hearts to believe God for must be in line with God’s will for us. James 4:3 says “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures”. If what we are asking for is not according to God’s pleasure then we have no basis to expect to receive from God. It is the purposes and counsels of the Lord alone that will prevail and stand (cf. Proverbs 19:21). Therefore, if you want to see your desires accomplish then let them be in line with God’s purposes, and counsels and pleasure i.e. His will.
As Dr. Kenneth E. Hagin puts it, “faith begins where the will of God is known”. Without the knowledge of God’s will, our faith will just be presumption, nothing more than a trial and error with no assurance of results. It’s frustrating to live this way. To ignore God’s will and attempt to get God to do what you want is not faith: that amounts to ignorance and/or arrogance. Therefore we ought not to be foolish, but we need to understand what the will of the Lord is (Ephesians 5:17).
To be continued…
-Kwadwo Omari, PhD
© Jan., 2016