This is exactly what we are doing today. Instead of realizing Paul was making it possible for the Jew to look up from blind adherence to the Law of Moses and place his faith in that which God now was doing, we are concluding that all God requires is our mental assent to the facts concerning the atonement and the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We really are doing the same thing the Jews were doing. We are trying to develop a formula that does not require a daily response to the living God. The formula the Jews used to avoid looking constantly to God for His will and direction was to diligently adhere to the letter of the Law. The formula we Gentiles use to avoid looking constantly to God for His will and direction is to maintain that we hold a right belief concerning Christ and therefore we are "righteous by faith."

We have lost the Presence of God in America by doing just this.

God commanded Abraham to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham obeyed God by doing what was commanded. Abraham could not merely believe God had spoken to him. He had to get up in the morning and bring Isaac to the place of sacrifice. It was not enough to just believe God had spoken to him.

So it is with us. There is a time when God says, "Only believe." The only correct response is to believe. When we do this, apart from any adherence to a moral code of conduct, we are held to be righteous in God's sight.

But there are times when the Lord directs us to do something, either in His written Word or by personal revelation. Then the appropriate response is not belief, it is the indicated action. In fact, genuine belief requires that we take the indicated action. Only then are we held to be righteous.

The eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews is a long, graphic definition of "the just shall live by faith." Most if not all of the appropriate responses outlined in this chapter are actions rather than mental assent. Faith is shown to be action based on the promises of God, not merely belief in the promises of God.

Several times in the Gospels Jesus told us if we love Him we will keep His commandments. Christ issued many commandments, especially through His Apostles. They are things we have to do. If we do not do them, with the Lord's help, we do not have saving faith. We have a mental belief in the promises of the New Testament, but we do not have the saving faith that directs us to do what is written.

Because of this monumental error of interpretation of the Apostle Paul's doctrine of Divine grace the Christian churches, in many instances, are void of the Spirit of God or else lurching out wildly in unscriptural directions, trying to develop a program God will endorse.

To be continued.