The Secret of Effectual Faith

One of the most common questions asked within Christian circles today is how to properly apply our faith. How do we take the information that God has given us and apply it to our lives in a real and working way that makes it be of some benefit and effect? Often-times this is the “million-dollar question”. And the lack of a real answer to this question has stumbled many people over the years. People become frustrated because the answers that are usually given, generally are not really answers at all. People say things like “Well, just keep on fighting, keep on pressing in.” – and that’s a nice word, the Bible does speak about the importance of perseverance, but at the same time, it totally fails to answer the question at hand… how do we apply our faith to our lives and make it effectual?

This very question is what we will be answering today in this study, and we will be answering it directly from scripture, so that this important question will not be a stumbling block any longer. If you have been looking for a breakthrough regarding faith, then you will find it today in this study.

The first thing which we must do for a study such as this is to lay the proper foundation. And we know from 1^st Corinthians 3:11 that there one solid and sure foundation upon which anything can be built is Jesus Christ and His completed work on the cross for all of us. So with that understanding, let us proceed to to lay the foundation upon Christ for why we can have any faith it all. For this, we begin with Romans 3:20-26:

“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;

Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ to all and on all them that believe: for there is no difference:

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.”

As verse 20 points out, no flesh (no work, no self-reliance, self confidence or self-effort) will be justified in the sight of God. Nothing you do, will ever earn favor, points or right-standing with God. Why? Well this verse also gives us a very deep and eye-opening answer: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. This parallels, what we can also read about in Galatians 3, that the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. This is how it accomplishes its task; it shows you that you have sinned, you have failed to be perfectly righteous in and of yourself, therefore you are in need of a savior. This is the purpose of the Law. To try and use the Law for any other purpose, to try and use the Law to make yourself holy, or to please God is an abuse of the Law – a misapplication of it… but that’s another teaching.

It is very important that we all understand the incredible significance of verses 21 and 22 here: But now… this is indicating that now in our present time, something has changed. Something new has come – and for us, something wonderful! What is this thing that has changed? What is this something wonderful? … the righteousness of God without the law is manifested… There is so much to say about the one single section of scripture. First take notice whose righteousness this is. This is not the righteousness of an animal. This is not the blood of a bull, goat or dove, which could only cover sins for one year in the Old Covenant. This is not the righteousness of a man, which can not produce any true righteousness. This is not even the righteousness of an angel, but it is the very righteousness of God! This is God’s Own righteousness, and interestingly enough, look how it comes: without the law. You cannot receive the righteousness of God through the law, that’s not how it comes. The righteousness of God is manifested without (or apart from) the law; and as the rest of the verse says … both the law and the prophets are witnesses to this fact! Both the Law and the prophets actually affirm and testify of the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus Christ.

Verse 22 then continues further with another amazing truth:...to all and on all them that believe

That, dear friend, is the only qualification for receiving the righteousness of God. Not efforts, not works, not laws, but belief. The verse also says that in the economy of God, there is no difference between people, you either believe or you don’t. It doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or Gentile, or Male or Female. It doesn’t matter what color your skin is, or whether you are big or small or young or old. Here’s the hardest part for many of us… it also doesn’t matter how “good” you think you are versus the person next to you. All freely qualify for the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

How could that possibly be?! Because as verse 23 states, there really is no-one that is good – that’s the other difficult aspect for us…. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

Thank God for verse 24, because verse 24 is a key verse in our foundation. You see the answer does not come from trying harder, clenching your fist tighter, pulling our your hair, rending your garments or looking up at the sky and screaming “This time I’ll do it!”… none of that! Look at what verse 24 says:

Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

This is how it happens; this is how it comes. You are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Many times what people do, is they try to be justified through the Law or their own efforts and merit. Sometimes they do it as an automatic reflex without even stopping to think. I’ll give you an example. If something bad happens in your life, something unusual or unexpected that is disruptive, such as your car breaking down or some unusual symptoms in your body. And you’ve rebuked Satan and prayed prayers of faith, and done all of the “usual Christian things” to try and control the situation, do your thoughts shift to “maybe God is angry with me.”, or “I wonder what I did to deserve this.” and then you start to mentally Rolodex through your recent list of sins to see if one of them might be the cause of your current trouble, and then you start confessing them all just to be absolutely sure that you are covered. My friend, I’ve been there – and all that does is place an artificial separation between you and God. The way out is to stand upon the truth in this verse of scripture that we have read, that we are justified freely by His grace, not through ourselves, or anything that we have done, but through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Verses 25 and 26 then go on to say that God set forth (which means that He showed) Jesus to be a propitiation (an atoning sacrifice), again this is through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.

Now stop here for a moment, because many people start wondering about that phrase “the sins that are past” and they begin thinking that only past sins are forgiven – so that if you sin right now, you are lost. However this is not what the verse is saying. In short, the sins that are past, in this context is referring to the sins which happened before the atoning sacrifice of Jesus – for example all of the sins that were merely covered by the animal sacrifices of the Old Covenant. This is God the Father’s way of giving Jesus even more glory by showing that Jesus is the ultimate atoning sacrifice – even for those sins which the animal sacrifices could not remove.

Now remember back from verse 21, that something has changed, a new time has come, and verse 26 brings it back to the present, with this: To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus.

This is another key verse of our foundation because it is important to understand that when God forgives by grace through Christ Jesus, He forgives justly. It’s not as if your sins are escaping unpunished. Make no mistake about it, they have been punished completely in the body of Jesus Christ. Some people despise the Grace of God thinking that people should “get what they deserve.” But they have no idea what they are saying, because we all deserve death. (Romans 6:23)

So then, we have laid the foundation of faith on Jesus Christ. We understand how we are justified freely by Him. We did nothing to earn it, and we also can do nothing to lose it. It is a free gift through believing on Jesus Christ.

Now we can move on to our main scripture, and answer the question of what is the secret of having effectual faith. How can we take the information that we have received of God and apply it to our lives for benefit and effect?

For the answer, turn with me to Philemon verses 4-6:

“I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers,

Hearing of your love and faith, which you have toward the Lord Jesus, and toward all saints;

That the communication of your faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.”

Paul says here that he thanks God, always making mention of Philemon, and the home-church they had there, because as said in verse 5, he has heard of their love and faith, and that they had this love and faith toward the Lord Jesus, and by extension, toward all the saints.

Paul then mentions in verse 6 that he prays that the communication of your faith may become effectual… Now that word “communication” there in the King James Version actually means something very different than what we think, and something very interesting… it means intimate communion. It is something very personal, something very private. So the meaning here is one of personal faith, private personal information given by God. Paul wants this personal faith to be made effectual. And that makes sense because when God gives you information, it doesn’t do much good if we don’t apply it.

The rest of verse 6 goes on to tell us how to apply our faith and make it effectual, and it may surprise you… we make our faith effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.

This is why it was so important to lay the foundation of justification by faith in Christ Jesus first. Because if we do not understand that our position, and everything that we are and have is because of Christ, then we can never accomplish what is said here in this verse. If on-the-other-hand, we realize that everything that we are and have is a free gift in Christ, then it suddenly becomes possible to see and acknowledge all of the good which is in us in Christ Jesus, exactly as this verse states.

This right here is the secret to effectual faith. So when you experience symptoms in your body, you recognize that in Christ Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you, the very same Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead and will also quicken your mortal bodies (Romans 8:11).

When you feel depressed or alone, you acknowledge that in Christ, you are abiding in Him and He is in you and you are one with Christ and the Father as Jesus prayed in John 17. You are never alone.

Whatever trial you are facing and whatever spirit seems to be opposing you, greater is He that that is within you than he who is in the world. (1^st John 4:4)

So in closing, I encourage you today to acknowledge every good thing that is in you in Christ. It is indeed there. This is not just the power of positive thinking or new age psychology. This is your reality in Christ Jesus. This takes your faith from merely being useless information, and making it personal, intimate and alive as Paul wrote about. This is the secret of effectual faith – and it is all possible, because of Jesus.