The True Word Of Faith: Faith In The Resurrection Of Christ.

The True Word Of Faith: Faith In The Resurrection Of Christ. 

The righteousness which is of faith is anchored on the resurrection of Christ, and by resurrection the cross of Christ is implied. The foundation of the resurrection is the cross, as without the death on the cross, there would be no such thing as resurrection; and the resurrection is the basis/ground of justification and righteousness by faith(Romans 4:25).

The righteousness which is of faith rebukes unbelief in the resurrection power, and emphasizes the word of faith in the resurrection power.

Romans 10:6-9
But the righteousness of faith speaks thus: Do not say in thine heart, Who shall ascend to the heavens? that is, to bring Christ down; or, Who shall descend into the abyss? that is, to bring up Christ from among the dead. But what says it? The word is near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach: that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead, thou shalt be saved.

The righteousness which is of faith says: the word is near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith...believe in thy heart that God has raised Jesus from among the dead and confess him(the risen Lord) with thy mouth.

There is no salvation without faith in the resurrection of Christ, as justification and the righteousness which is of faith, is impossible without the resurrection.

According to Romans 10:8-9 what is the word of faith which the apostle says we preach?
- the resurrection of Christ and by implication, the cross of Christ..."Christ and Him crucified".

Often we hear people talk about the word of faith, and they have even turned it into a movement thus they speak of word of faith movement. Sadly it's a false movement for when you hear what it's all about/what they preach, the resurrection of Christ is not the crux of their message. They merely talk of faith in God as centering in what a man can get/acquire or achieve(the exploits a man can do) by believing.

It is not a faith centred in Christ and Godward, but a faith centred in man/man's wellbeing, and only 'Godward' in the sense of it's presentation of God as a means to an end; which is the good/welfare/wellbeing/prosperity of man in this transient/fleeting world.

The indifference to the resurrection/the risen Lord, or lack of the consciousness of the resurrection power/risen Lord in a professing believer, is as bad as unbelief in the resurrection power.
It is just as mentally assenting/agreeing that God raised Jesus from the dead, while the heart is not livingly in touch/fellowship with the reality and power of the risen Lord.
Sadly this is where many professing christians & believers are; in an empty profession of faith which is just as dead and lifeless as unbelief in the resurrection.

What was the chief obsession of the apostle Paul?
What was the one thing he was after?

"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before" -Philippians 3:10-13.

Note: If by any means i might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
The word translated as attain in the text above is the greek word "katantaō" which means to come to, arrive, to come to a place over against, opposite another.
It is the same word translated as "come" in Ephesians 4:13..."Till we all come(arrive) in(into) the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ".

In Phippians 3:10-11 the apostle so expressed his obsession and passion to know the resurrection power that he said, if by any means i might attain/arrive at/into the resurrection of the dead.
This in essence, is a desire of attainment unto perfection/the perfect state of incorruptibility and immortality(what in Ephesians 4:13 he refers to as the perfect/full grown man...the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ). In the next verse(12) he thus says "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect"; and in a much later verse(20) he says our citizenship is in heaven from whence we look for/expect the saviour who shall change/transform our vile bodies that it might be jointly formed/conformed into his glorious body....hinting on the transition from the vile/mortal flesh and blood body to the heavenly/immortal/incorruptible body, as the ultimate goal for the christian; thus those who walk as we walk in the christian profession but have not this as their ultimate goal and the mark they press toward, are clearly earthly minded and enemies of the cross of Christ, even if they preach Christ as earlier hinted by the apostle, that some indeed preach Christ yet out of envy


In Luke 20:35 we see Jesus speak of this attainment unto the resurrection of the dead.

"But, they who have been accounted worthy, to obtain that age, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage".

The word translated as 'obtain' here is tugchanō in the original greek and means to hit the mark, of one discharging a javelin or arrow, to reach, attain.


It is undoubtedly, the actual possession of Christ in glory that the apostle in Philippians 3 is after.
Of course he knew Christ by faith having encountered Him, but does not count this knowledge yet as the knowledge that he seeks. He cannot, of course, set aside this, as he set aside & counted other things as dung.
He would not mean to undervalue it; it was all of Christ he had for the present; but what, nevertheless, would it be in that day when Christ Himself would be at last before his eyes, the goal of the race he had been running? 

He wanted to know Him after this manner, to know the power of His resurrection not, as many think - a present power, of resurrection at work in his soul, - that he already knew. 

He was risen with Christ and knew it; but it is not a condition to be attained down here, still less a condition that he had attained, that he was thinking of, but that which will put him in the place in which he seeks to be...the shores of eternal glory when finally many sons fully conformed to the image & stature of the firstborn, are brought to glory in the Father's house.