Where does Faith in YaHuWaH come into this matter of keeping Feast days?
Answer
Faith is confidence, reliance or trust in the Almighty. It is taking YaHuWaH at His word, believing Him, trusting Him implicitly. Without faith it is impossible to please the Most High. (Heb.11:6) Faith knows that El-Shadai (Elohim Almighty) and His son YAHUSHUA (in YaHuWaH is salvation) will always do what they have promised.
Mature faith never asks God for visible manifestations or miracles to prove His love or His power. Mature faith believes the Almighty without any proof and accepts what the Father and Son have to offer without doubting their word.
Faith, however, is not a blind belief born of ignorance. Instead, it is intelligent, spiritual confidence based on the Almighty's absolute reliability, His past performance as seen in His creation, in fulfilled prophecy and in answered prayer. Faith is an action of the mind. It is an inner conviction that YaHuWaH Elohim of Israel is holy, just, merciful and good and that He loves every one of His children. Faith is invisible righteousness and is sometimes called the 'righteousness of faith.'
Faith is the main factor which distinguishes the people of YaHuWaH from the rest of the world. Believers have faith in YaHuWaH. Unbelievers do not; many do not even believe that He exists. We are saved by faith in YaHuWaH 's only begotten son YAHUSHUA the Messiah. Nothing else can save us. This is the very first fact we learn about salvation; that it is a free gift which we receive from YaHuWaH - by faith! The Bible says: the just shall live by faith!
OBEDIENCE, on the other hand, is faith in action. Obedience is the fruit of faith. Obedience is practical righteousness. It is speaking the truth and doing good works. Obedience is following in the footsteps of the Almighty and His Son. Obedience is the visible expression of our love for the Most High. Obedience is the best and, perhaps, the only tangible evidence that our faith is alive. Obedience is living faith! Without obedience all professions of faith are nothing but self-deluding presumption; because where there is no obedience there really is no faith.
The Bible says:
| James 2:26 |
For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
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The Bible shows us that the penalty of sin is death, eternal death! And since all of us have sinned at some time or the other. So we all need a Savior to save us from that death penalty. Only YAHUSHUA the Messiah, the Savior of the world, can do that for us. We cannot save ourselves. Neither can our obedience save us; however perfect it may happen to be. To cancel past sins we need help from above. We need a Savior. We need YAHUSHUA to wash away the record of our past sins. That's where faith comes into the picture. The Almighty sent His son to save the world, to save you and me from sin and its eternal consequences - death! YAHUSHUA is the Savior. His name means 'YaHuWaH is salvation.' He alone can save us from sin and its eternal consequences - death! That's why He came to Earth; to save His people from their sins.
(Matt.1:21) In short: we receive Him by faith, we accept Him by faith, we live by faith in the Son of YaHuWaH, who gave Himself for us - that we might inherit eternal life.
The Savior doesn't only save us from the consequences of our past sins; He also annihilates from within us the tendency to sin in the future. That is the Savior's ultimate objective, to save us from our sins - past, present and future; to annihilate within us the tendency to sin in the future.
Believers accept the Savior by faith. Countless millions of Gospel tracts echo this basic truth about salvation. But having accepted salvation through faith doesn't mean we can thereafter blatantly disobey YaHuWaH, by breaking the very commandments that define sin and classify us as sinners in the first place. That would make a mockery of salvation. That would make YaHuWaH 's people the laughing stock of every evil angel in the universe. It would prove how ineffective the Savior's efforts have been to save his people from their tendency to sin. Instead we believers should express our faith by keeping the Almighty's commandments, by being obedient, by not sinning in the future.
The Bible says:
| 1 John 2:3: |
And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
4: He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. |
Put another way, we may say that faith and obedience are two sides of the same spiritual coin. If either is missing the coin is worthless. Consequently to the two most important questions ever asked:
- 'What must I do to be saved?'
- 'What good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?'
YAHUSHUA said:
| Matt.19:16: |
And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
17: And He said unto him, Why callest thou Me good? there is none good but One, that is, YaHuWaH : but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
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YAHUSHUA speaks of obedience, the visible actions that reflect what is in the mind. The Apostle James says the same thing in yet another way. He wrote
| James 2:20 |
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? |
In short, Obedience is faith in action, living faith! You cannot have one without the other. Both are absolutely essential if you want to please YaHuWaH. That is what the Bible teaches. Dare we say anything different!
