The fight of faith is the only one the Christian is called to fight. We do not fight fellow Christians. We do not fight the Church. We are called to fight the good fight of faith. The faith fight is the only fight we are supposed to be in. If we are in any other fight - we are in the wrong fight.
Paul wrote to Timothy: "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses" (1 Tim. 6:12, NKJV, emphasis added).
The "good fight of faith" is the spiritual conflict with Satan's kingdom of darkness in which all men of God are necessarily involved. When Paul advised Timothy to "lay hold on eternal life," he was not speaking of Timothy's salvation, but instead of his fruitfulness in this life and his rewards in the next. "The good confession" is Timothy's call and ministry. Paul was urging Timothy to continue his ministry of preaching the Word of God.
There wouldn't be such a fight to faith, if there weren't enemies or hindrance to faith. You can't very well have a fight without having an enemy or an opponent.
The greatest enemies to faith
One of the greatest enemies to faith is the lack of understanding of the New Birth. You cannot believe beyond your actual knowledge of God's Word. This is the reason many people fail in their prayer life and in their faith life because they are trying to believe beyond their knowledge of God's Word.
One reason we, as Christians, live in unbelief and our faith has been hindered, is because we lack knowledge about redemption and about our redemptive rights. We lack knowledge of what God's Word says about our redemption, and the lack of knowledge is the greatest enemy of faith. Lack of knowledge of God's Word produces unbelief. Because we don't understand what the New Birth actually is - what it means and the benefits it provides the believer - our faith is hindered.
Christians are God's new creatures
Paul said: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17, KJV, emphasis added).
The New King James version says "a new creation" - completely recreated by God our Creator.
We are Spiritual beings
We must realize this New Birth is speaking of the inward man (the real man) and not speaking of the outwward man.
Paul said: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day" (2 Cor. 4:16, emphasis added).
The "outward man" is the physical body of man. The "inward man" is the real you.
No one can ever know himself, much less anyone else, unless he has been born again by the Spirit of God and has become a new man in Christ. Without the New Birth man does not even know he is a spirit man.
The answer to man's need exists in the spiritual realm. A man doesn't really know or understand himself unless he is a Christian, and a man who isn't a Christian is liable to do or think anything. This is because the spiritual nature of man is fallen nature, and man cannot change his own nature.
God said through Jeremiah, "Can the Ethiopian change his own skin or the leopard its spot" (Jer. 13:23)? No, man cannot change his own nature - but God can!
Contending with the flesh
In a new creation, of course, all things would become new. As Christians, we need to learn to let this new man - this new reation - on the inside dominate the outward man. The outward man is not a new man, because the body has not been born again. The body will keep on wanting to do things it used to do - things that are wrong. Paul said his body did; so don't be surprised when your body does.
Paul said: "But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified" (1 Cor. 9:27).
Into subjection to what? To the inward man. God is not going to do something with your body. You are going to have to do something with your own body, or else nothing is going to be done with it. God does something with your spirit. He makes the inward man, man's spirit, a new creature. Then He sends His Holy Spirit to dwell in your spirit to give you the power so you can do something with the outward man.
Someone may say, "Well, I can't help the things I do. I just can't help doing it." Yes, you can!
Paul said, "I keep my body under, and I bring it into subjection." You know as well as I do that Paul wouldn't have had to keep his body under if his body were not wanting to do things that were wrong, would he? Certainly he wouldn't.
After we were born again, we still have the flesh to contend with, and the Devil will work thought the flesh. In times of tests, trials, and temptations the Devil will sometimes tell Christians, "You must not even be saved. If you were saved, you wouldn't want to do wrong." Satan insinuates that it was really you who wanted to do the wrong deed. But the man on the inside doesn't want to do wrong to begin with.
Paul's body evidently wanted to do some things that were wrong, or he wouldn't have had to keep it under subjection. He simply said, "I am not going to let my body dominate me. I bring my body into subjcetion. I keep it under lest by any means, after I have preached to other, lest I should be disapproved."
Remission and Forgiveness
Many people who are born again by the Spirit of God can't believe that Lord will do anything for them (such as heal their bodies or answer their prayer) because they lived such a sinful life before they were saved. These people have a lack of understanding concerning the New Birth and the "new creation" they have become in Christ. The Word says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things heve become new" (2 Cor.5:17).
When the sinner comes to Jesus, his sins are remitted. His sins are simply blotted out. All that he was spiritually speaking in the sight of God before he was born again is blotted. He became a new man in Christ Jesus. God does not see anything in his life before the moment he was born agin. The sinner receives remission of sins.
After being born again and becoming a child of God, the Christian receives forgiveness of sins.
Peter said, "... as new born babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby" (1 Peter 2:2). He was writing to born-again Christians who have become new men and women in Christ Jesus. The Bible teaches there is a similarity between spiritual growth and physical growth. No one is born a full-grown human. We are born babies in the natural and we grow up. No one is born full-grown Christian either. Christians are born as babies and they grow up.
You have no past
Those who are born-again babes in Christ are newborn babes who desire the sincere milk of the Word. You have become a new creation! You are like a newborn babe. You have no past. Your past is all gone! God will not remember anything against you.
God said, "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgression for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins" (Isaiah 43:25).
The Lord said, "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more" (Heb. 8:12).
As He looks at you, God doesn't remember that you have any past. Why should you remember it? Remembering past sins and mistakes will hinder your faith.
Religious Labels
The Lord has taught me something - we sometimes let ourselves be religiously brainwashed by whatever religious or Church group we are with. It was the same in New Testament days. After the Church was instituted and the Gentiles were saved, some of the brethren of the circumcision wanted the Gentiles to be circumcised. Here the Gentiles were already saved, already baptized in the Holy Spirit, already speaking with other tongues, and these Jewish brethren said, "You cannot be saved unless you are circumcised."
Some Churches believe that unless you are baptized in water in the Name of Jesus you are not saved. I believe being baptized in water in anyone's name (including the Name of Jesus) has nothing in the world to do with being saved. The New Birth is a spiritual birth; you are not born again of the water. Being born of water would not be a spiritual birth; being born again by the Spirit of God is a spiritual birth.
Some members of some Churches believe that unless you belong to their Church you are not saved. What a ridiculous belief! You can put any kind of a label on an empty can, and the can would still be empty! It is not the name on the Church door, or even being a member of a Church that saves you. It is getting something on the inside of you - Jesus Christ - that saves you!
Not knowing the truth of the New Birth will hinder your faith and keep you from receiving the blessings God intended you to have. Walking in line with what God's Word says. Feed your faith on God's Word - and watch your faith grow!
Understanding how faith grows
In order to experience the growth of faith we need to understand the enemies of faith.
Paul said, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17).
The greatest enemy or hindrance to faith is a lack of understanding of God's Word, because faith come by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. When people pray for faith it is really knowledge of God's Word they need, because we cannot have faith beyond our actual knowledge of God's Word. As soon as the light of God's Word shines in the heart of man, faith comes. That is why the psalmist said, "The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understand to the simple" (Ps. 119:130). When you have knowledge and understanding of God's Word - you have faith.
Let us investigate one of these hindrances to our faith - the lack of understanding "righteousness" or our right standing with God.
James said, "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit" (James 5:16 - 18, emphasis added).
This passage states that the prayer of a "righteous" man avails much. A lack of understanding of what righteousness is and what privileges righteousness gives to the believer holds more Christians in bondage than any other thing. In my opinion, righteousness is one of the most misunderstood subjects in the Bible.
Paul said, "For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:10, emphasis added).
Paul also said, "For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17, emphasis added).
Notice that Paul makes two significant statements in these verses about righteousness.
1. With the heart man believes unto righteousness.
2. when we receive Jesus and we are born again, we receive "the gift of righteousness."
The Bible says in Romans 5:17, that righteousness is a gift. Too often we have associated righteousness with good works. The Bible teaches good works and right conduct of course, but all of our good works and right conduct will never make us righteous. If good works could make us righteous, we wouldn't need Jesus!
Another fallacy about righteousness is that we've thought we had to grow into some kind of "high" spiritual state in order to be righteous. We might think - "My prayers would work if I could just get to be righteous. If I could just develop to some high state of spiritual maturity, then I would be righteous."
Thank God, we can grow in the Lord and we can develop spiritually, but we cannot grow in righteousness. Why? Righteousness is a gift and not fruit. You'll never be any more righteous than you are right now! You'll not be any more righteous when you get to heaven than you are right now - at this very moment!
The gift of righteousness
Paul said, "For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more thos who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will rign in life through the One, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17, emphasis added).
Righteousness is a gift. When you were born again, you become a new man in Christ Jesus, and you were made the righteousness of God.
Paul said, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor. 5:17, 21, emphasis added).
You are made the righteousness of God in Christ in the New Birth.
The Bible teaches that there is a similarity between spiritual growth and physical growth. Christians are born babies, and they grow up. And those who are newly born again into the Kingdom of God are just as righteous in the sight of God as older saints who have been born again and living for God 50 or 60 years, and are full of good works and right conduct. Those new born babes can get their prayers answered just as quickly as older saints - because righteousness means right standing with God. We must realize that we have right standing with God not because of what we did, but because of what Jesus did! Right standing with God is a gift! We have received the gift of righteousness in Christ Jesus.
Conclusion
The faith life is the most beautiful life in the world, and it is the life God wants us to live (Romans 1:17). And the walk God wants us to walk is the faith walk (2 Cor. 5:7). It is those who act upon God's Word who get results. You act faith. You talk faith. You actions and your words must agree that you are a believer. It will not do you any good to talk faith if you are not going to act faith. And if it were somehow possible for you to act faith without talking faith, that would not do you any good either. Let both your words and your action agree.
