CRYSTALLIZATION-STUDY OF THE GOSPEL OF GOD
in the Epistle to the Romans

Message Ten

The Structure of the Gospel of God—
the Righteousness of God, the Life of Christ,
and the Faith of the Believers
(6)

The Essence of the Faith of the Believers
(4)

Scripture Reading: Rom. 1:17; Gal. 2:20; John 14:19; 2 Pet. 1:1; Rom. 12:3; Eph. 2:8; Rom. 1:12; 1 Cor. 13:13

OUTLINE

3. The faith of the believers:
   18. The linking faith:
       1. “The righteous shall have life and live by faith”—Rom. 1:17.
       2. “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God”—Gal. 2:20.
       3. “I live, you also shall live”—John 14:19.
   19. The God-allotted faith—2 Pet. 1:1:
       1. “Equally precious” (in quality, not in quantity) to all the believers.
       2. “In the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
   20. “Not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think so as to be sober-minded, as God has apportioned to each a measure of faith”— Rom. 12:3.
   21. “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (both salvation and faith are of the gift of God)—Eph. 2:8.
   22. “I with you may be encouraged among you through the faith which is in one another, both yours and mine”—Rom. 1:12.
   23. “Now there abide faith, hope, love, these three” (faith ranks first)—1 Cor. 13:13.

In this message we want to see six more crucial points related to the crystallization of the faith of the believers.

R. The Linking Faith

The first crucial point is the linking faith. We have spoken about this to a certain extent, but we want to go into more depth here. Actually, faith has different stages. In the first section of our crystallization-study on faith, we saw that faith comes from the hearing of the word (Rom. 10:17). That is the initial stage of faith. When we were sinners, one day under God’s sovereignty we heard the preaching of the gospel, that is, the word of Christ. Through that hearing of the word, faith came into us. This faith brought us into a life union with Christ. This union is a kind of linking.

The electricity in a building is a very good illustration of linking. The installment of the electricity into the building is the first stage. Then from that day, this installed electricity continues in this building. In like manner, when we heard the gospel, we repented, and something happened to us. That was the installation of the Spirit. We had the Spirit installed into us through the hearing of the word. We all received the Spirit in this way. Now this Spirit, or this faith, which has been installed into us, stays within us and grows.

After electricity has been installed into a certain building, there is a current going on. You can either stop it or use it all the time. Also, when we were saved, the linking faith entered into us, and it remains in us. The faith through which we were saved became a linking faith within us. This is not just in the initial stage, but also in the progressing stage. In a building in which electricity has been installed in the initial stage, there is a current of electricity going on in the progressing stage. We are like the building. We have the faith, the initial faith, produced in us. It remains in us and goes on all the time, unless we stop it.