Hebrews gives us the definition of faith:
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Romans gives us the source of faith:
Rom 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Neither the definition of faith, nor the source of faith can even be a concept which could be assigned or connected with Jesus. The very phrase, Jesus' faith, is an oxymoron. It makes no sense. It cannot be attributed to Jesus Christ, God the Son.
Jim, Jesus
as the Son of Man, did
increase in wisdom, knowledge and faith, yes faith! Though Jesus was God, living in human flesh~he also was
fully man as much as you and I are, yet without sin. Jesus was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, in order to condemned sin in the flesh and making him the perfect sacrifice for our sins as the Lamb of God that would be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God through him~his perfect obedience and faith which he possessed
as a man. God
did not die
as God, but Jesus as
the man Christ Jesus, did! Jesus
as a man did have faith in God~call it oxymoron all you want, yet it only shows that you do not fully understand the atonement that God provided for his elect in his Son's life, death and resurrection from the dead.
Also, I would point out that justification is a legal concept. Justification is the legal act of God declaring a complete right legal standing before the law of God and a freedom from the law’s penalty. It is the declaration by God of the complete forgiveness, the total remission, of the sins of the repentant believer. There really is no other justification than "legal" justification.
Jim I understand that justification is used in a legal sense, which I said so above, even though it also is used in other senses, which I will not go into now, since it would serve no purpose for this subject of this thread. But, knowing that it is used in a legal sense, then it is in no way offered to the sinner who is dead in trespasses and sin, but it is
freely given to God's elect by
grace alone. Please consider:
Romans 3:20~Therefore by the deeds of law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by law is the knowledge of sin.
The word
therefore denotes the final conclusion drawn from the whole of the preceding discussion, beginning at
Romans 1:18. The Apostle had shown that both the Gentiles and the Jews are under sin; that is, they have brought down upon themselves the just condemnation of God.
The conclusion, then, from the whole, as containing in this verse, is evident. By the deeds of the law, or......The reference here is to every law that God has given to man, whether expressed in words, or imprinted in the heart. It is that law which the Gentiles have transgressed, which they have naturally inscribed in their hearts. It is that law which the Jews have violated, when they committed theft, adulteries, and sacrileges, and which convicted them of impiety, of evil-speaking, of murder, of injustice. In one word, it is that law which shuts the mouth of the whole world, as had been said in the preceding verse, and brings in all men guilty before God.
The deeds, or works of law~ When it is said, by works of law no flesh shall be justified, it is not meant that the law, whether natural or written,
was not capable of justifying. Neither is it meant that the righteousness thus resulting from man's fulfillment of all its demands would not be a true righteousness,
but that no man being able to plead this fulfillment of the law before the tribunal of God ~that perfect obedience
which it requires~no man can receive by the law a sentence pronouncing him to be righteous. So how in the world could it possibly be offered to such men.
To say that the works of the law, if performed, are not good and acceptable, and would not form a true righteousness,
would contradict what had been affirmed in the preceding chapter, verse 13, that the doers of the law shall be justified. A scripture you and others often quotes but does not understand, is that,
no flesh born of Adam is capable of performing perfectly.
The Apostle, then, does not propose
here to show either the want of power of the law in itself, or of the insufficiency of its works for justification, but
solely to prove that no man fulfills the law, that both Gentiles and Jews are under sin, (its condemnation) and that
all the world is guilty before God.
No flesh~Paul reference appears to be to Psalms 143 David there says, 'no man living.' Paul says, 'no flesh.' Is a term that marks a certain dignity, the other denotes meanness. The one imports that whatever excellence there might be "supposed" to be in man, he could not be justified before God; and the other, that being only flesh~that is to say, corruption and weakness~ he ought not to pretend to justification by himself. Thus, on whatever side man regards himself, he is far from being able to stand before the strict judgment of God.
Shall be justified in His sight~ The meaning of the term justified, as used by Paul in the whole of this discussion, is evident by the different expressions in this verse. It appears by the therefore, with which the verse begins, that it is a conclusion that the Apostle draws from the whole of the foregoing discussion. Now, all this discussion has been intended to show that neither Gentiles nor Jews could elude the condemnation of the Divine judgment. The conclusion, then, that no flesh shall be justified in the sight of God by the works of law, can only signify that no man can be regarded as righteous, or
obtain by means of his works a favorable sentence from Divine justice. It is in this sense that David has taken the term justify in Psalms 143, to which the Apostle had reference, Enter not unto judgment with Thy servant; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified. The terms in His sight testify the same thing, for they accommodate themselves to the idea of a tribunal before which men must appear to be judged. It is the same with regard to the other terms, by the deeds of law; for if we understand a justification of judgment, the sense is plain:
no one can plead before the tribunal of God a perfect and complete fulfillment of the law, such as strict and exact justice demands; no one, therefore, can in
that way obtain justification by their own works~thereby it must be given freely to them by grace.
In justifying men,
God does all the work, and men receiving justification,
contribute nothing towards it. This is in opposition to the justification proposed by the law by means of obedience, in which way a man would be justified by his own righteousness, and not by the righteousness
which God has provided and bestows FREELY.
For by law is the knowledge of sin~ Paul does not here intend simply to say that the law makes known in general the nature of sin, inasmuch as it discovers what is acceptable or displeasing to God, what He commands, and what He forbids; but he means to affirm that the law convicts men of being sinners. For his words refer to what he had just before said in the preceding verse, that all that the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God, which marks a conviction of sin. But how, it may be said, does the law give that knowledge or that conviction of sin? It does so in two ways. By the application of its commandments, and its prohibitions to our new man, for it excites and awakens the conscience, and gives birth to accusing thoughts. This is common both to the written law and the law of nature. It does this, secondly, by the declaration of punishments and rewards which it sets before its transgressors and observers, and as it excites the conscience of the awaken elect sinners, and gives rise to fear and agitation, thus bringing before the eyes of the elect sinner the dreadful evil of sin. This also is alike common to the law of nature and the written law~but mainly the written Law which our minds have been quicken to see and understand.
Here it is important to remark that God, having purposed to establish but one way of justification for all men, (Jews and Gentiles) has permitted, in His providence, that all should be guilty. For
if there had been any excepted, there would have been two different methods of justification, and consequently two true religions, and two true churches, and believers would not have had that oneness of communion which grace produces. It was necessary, then, that all should become guilty. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that
the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given (
the knowledge of this justification to their conscience) to them that believe, Galatians 3:22; Romans 11 32.
We shall consider the
Mertitorious Cause of Justification; The
Efficient Cause of Justification; The
Instructmental Cause of the elect knowing their Justification; and lastly, the
Final Cause of Justification.
Job 25:4~"How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?"
