The Gospel of Peace
Good News Faith
The Gospel of peace is the only source for building real faith.
For years Christians have taken Romans 10:17 to mean, “If you keep hearing the Word, faith will come.”
However, this is not what scripture says, and history certainly does not bear it out.
If just hearing the Word would build faith, why aren’t all people?
- Working miracles.
- Healing the sick.
- Raising the dead.
Why don’t all people who hear the Word trust God?
If faith (trust) comes from just hearing the Word, it would be a simple thing to bring all people to a life-changing faith in God.
But many people who read the Bible become:
- Fearful.
- Often pull away from God.
The majority of people sitting in churches don’t really trust God with every aspect of their lives.
Yet they are hearing the Word.
Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
To understand this, or any scripture we must understand it in light of the context.
The context for understanding this passage is the previous ten chapters of Romans, which are all about faith-righteousness.
Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
This verse begins to get specific and explains the progression whereby a person is compelled to call upon the name of the Lord.
Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
People will not call on the name of the Lord if they do not believe.
The Bible goes on to say:
- People will not believe if they have not heard.
- What you hear about God will determine if you call on Him.
- If what you hear makes you believe that God loves and accepts you, you will confidently call upon Him.
- If what you hear make you unsure of God’s love for you, you will not call upon Him with confident trust (faith).
Verse 14 asks, “How shall they hear without a preacher?”
Regardless of what the Bible says, the preacher you hear will affect the way you hear (understand) the Word.
Luk 10:26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? How readest thou?
What the Word says and how we read or interpret it can be worlds apart.
We have been tempered and molded to see God the way the preacher sees Him.
It is so essential to read the Bible for yourself and to develop your own concepts of God through the Word and personal involvement.
Luk 8:18 So pay attention to how you listen, because to the one who has something, more will be given. However, from the one who doesn't have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away from him."
How you hear is as important as what you hear.
If you hear a promise of God, it is absolutely true.
But if you place a wrong stipulation on receiving that promise, you have taken what could bring life and turned it to bring death.
We must:
- Allow the Word to speak for itself.
- Not place what seems to be reasonable interpretation on the Word of God apart from it having a foundation in the new covenant.
We can’t look to the old covenant to understand how God will operate under the new covenant, although it may seem reasonable and logical.
To do so is to reject the validity of the new covenant.
We must realize that the person who preaches the Word to us affects our hearing.
We are partaking of his perceptions and preferences.
Rom 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
People who are not sent:
- With the message of the new covenant.
- Have run forth out of their own zeal.
- Are anxious to perpetuate their own perceptions.
- Are not sent with the Gospel of peace.
This scripture says that the ones who are sent:
- Preach the Gospel of peace.
- Bring glad tidings of good things.
Preachers, who do not preach the Gospel of peace, preach fear and condemnation.
They have fulfilled Romans 19:16.
Rom 10:16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?
Faith does not come from hearing the Word in general.
Faith comes when we hear the Good News, the glad tidings of the Gospel of peace.
Hearing the Gospel of peace will:
- Build faith (trust).
- Make one run to God.
Hearing bad news about works, law, and performance will:
- Destroy confident trust (faith).
- Make one run away from God.
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Real faith is always the product of hope.
Hope – a confident expectation of good things.
A confident expectation of good things always produces faith.
In every situation we should be expecting good things from God.
We will never do that if we are hearing teachings that labels God as the source of all our hurts, trials, problems, and tribulations.
This produces fear of God.
Faith cannot exist where there is no hope (confident expectation of good).
If we must do anything to get God to respond, then we are in works.
Faith is not what we do to get God to respond; faith is our response to what God has already done in Jesus.
If we know that God has given all provision in Jesus, then we have a confident expectation in this life.
If we are not confidently expecting good, then we are in fear or worry.
The wrong concept of God generally comes from the inability to separate the old and new covenants.
Most Christians have mixed the two together and are trying to relate to God on the basis of a perverted covenant.
Psa 78:37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
God explains that Israel’s problem was a heart problem.
Because we are not steadfast in the new covenant:
- We are quick to pervert it by mixing it with the old.
- We are continually looking to the Old Testament to understand how God will relate to man.
Since our beliefs are not based in the new covenant, we come to God with certain predetermined perspectives.
These perspectives determine how we hear, read, interpret, and understand the Word of God.
In our lives, it is not the direction of the Word we read as much as it is the direction of the beliefs of our hearts.
We have set our sails through our traditions.
Those traditions can make the Word of God to be of no effect in our lives, just as it did for the Pharisees.
Mar 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
Apart from the Gospel of peace, we won’t have the hope that brings faith.
Jesus read the same Scripture as the Pharisees, yet He found:
- God to be a healer and miracle worker.
- God to be a merciful Father, ready to forgive and restore man.
The Pharisees found:
- An angry God who would weigh men down with heavy religious burdens.
You will find what you look for.
If you believe God to be mean and judgmental, or just hard to please, you will find Scriptures to reinforce that.
But if, like Jesus, you see God as a loving Father, you will find the promises that give hope.
Pro 10:29 The way of the LORD is strength to the upright: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.
According to the condition of your heart, the word that sets one man free can make you bound.
The word that shows one man the love of God can show you something different.
Therefore, we should be careful who or what is forming our view of God.
Our view of God is continually being developed.
We should guard our hearts against anything that would cause us to lose confidence and trust in God.
Rom 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
Everything we hear should support the view of faith-righteousness and thereby cause us to trust God.
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