Lesson 5. Righteousness by Faith. The “Faith and Confession” school lays an amazingly deep foundation on the Word of God. Charles Capps teaches how to activate the power of God in your life.
And righteousness by faith speaks this way…
The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart…
Romans 10:6, 8
These are Paul’s words, revealing to us the way the Word of God enters the human spirit.
The power of the Word of God hidden in the human spirit produces a power called faith. Mary hid the Word of God in her heart, and it produced its effect in her physical body.
I want to share with you God’s principle and how you can apply it in your life. These are divine principles. They are spiritual laws. And we can use them.
Practice Leads to Understanding
To succeed in applying the principles of the Bible, you need to learn to practice them. You may have heard the saying, “Practice what you preach.” But when you preach what you have already practiced in your own life, it has much greater power. As you do this, you will understand what can help you and what may hold you back.
Try applying God’s principles. Put them into action. Make them work in your life.
Let us turn our attention to how God acted in two situations and which principles He used.
In Luke 1:20, we see that Zechariah lost his ability to speak for more than nine months because he doubted what the angel had told him. God sent him an angel, but Zechariah did not receive the Word from God.
Elsewhere, we are told of a similar situation, when an angel appeared to Mary with the message that she would have a Son. And this is what she replied: “...let it be to me according to your word...” (Luke 1:38).
Feeling or Believing
Also note how Abraham believed God. This is mentioned in several passages of Scripture: Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Righteousness means being in right standing. In other words, Abraham was in right standing before God because he chose to believe God’s vision for his life.
I am sure that Abraham did not always feel faith within himself, but he made the decision to believe God.
For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not given to Abraham or his descendants through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Romans 4:13
The promise was not through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. What was this promise? That Abraham and his descendants would be heirs of the world. God promised Abraham that he would be
And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.
Gal. 3:29
The promise was given to Abraham and his seed, but it did not come through the law; it came through the righteousness that is by faith. Notice that the promise was to be fulfilled through the righteousness of faith.
Let us look at Rom. 10:6. Pay special attention to what Paul says about the righteousness that is by faith.
First, Paul says what the righteousness that is by faith would not say.
But the righteousness that is by faith says this: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down)
Or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does the Scripture say?
Rom. 10:6–8
Paul says that the righteousness that is by faith would not say, “Who can withstand the power of death? Who could make Jesus descend from heaven again
in order to heal us and do something for us as He did in those days when He walked on earth?”
The righteousness that is by faith would never say that.
I know what you are thinking right now: “I would never say that.” But if you have ever said, “Lord, come and touch me!” then that is exactly what you said.
Heb. 10:12–13 tells us that Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet.
Jesus is there in His physical body. And He will not come to earth until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. But He sent His Word to heal us.
He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their graves.
Ps. 107:20
The Scriptures reveal this understanding to us even more deeply in the Gospel of John.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
John 1:1, 3, 14
The Incarnate Word
In the beginning, the Word was with God in heaven. Then the Word became flesh. And when this happened, the Word was called Jesus. One translation says that the Word was, so to speak, clothed in flesh. The Word walked on earth, clothed in flesh. God sent His Word and healed the people and delivered them from death. This applies to us as well.
This is how it all happened: Mary hid the Word from God in her spirit, and it was fulfilled on the physical level, in her body. The Word literally became clothed in flesh and dwelt among us. By sending the Word to earth, God proved that It has the power to create everything on earth, just as in heaven. God clothed His Word (Jesus) in a physical body and sent Him to us to live among us. God showed that His Word is effective on earth as well.
Jesus became the embodiment of the Word of God on this earth. He came to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out demons. The Amplified Bible says that Jesus came to destroy, set free, cancel, and annul everything the devil had done. The Word of God came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8).
Often, when we talk about Jesus, we do not associate Him with the Word mentioned by John in chapter 1. As the Word, Jesus was the creator of the entire world. God used the Word to create.
And to demonstrate that the Word of God is just as powerful on earth as it is in heaven, God clothes Him in flesh and sends Him to earth. And here on earth, the Word performs all the same deeds.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to My Father.
And whatever you ask the Father in My name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
John 14:12–13
Therefore, when God says that He sent His Word and healed us, this is precisely what He expects from His Word—the ability to heal and deliver from the bonds of death.
Someone may ask, “What, is Jesus not healing anyone on earth now?”
Yes, He is. But He will not come in His physical body to heal you. He dwells within you in the Person of the Holy Spirit. And through the Word, you receive healing. Someone may lay hands on you in prayer, but only the Word fills you with faith that healing will come. As for Jesus coming personally to heal you, that will not happen. He is seated at the right hand of God on the throne until His enemies are placed under His feet.
Someone may say, “But I have heard people say that they saw Jesus. He came to them, stood by their bedside, touched them, and they were healed.”
These were spiritual visions. It was not Jesus in His physical body.
What would righteousness say?
In Romans 10:8, the Apostle Paul says what the righteousness that comes by faith should say:
But what does Scripture say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith that we preach.
Romans 10:8
Notice that the Word is first in the mouth and then enters the heart. And if it is not in your mouth, it cannot enter your heart. You can study a great deal about the Word. You can hear about the Word often. But until you put the Word of God in your mouth and speak it, it will not reach its highest expression. Faith comes by hearing, and in order to hear the Word, you must first speak it.
The righteousness that comes by faith would never say, “Let Jesus come back to earth and touch me,” or “We will have to undo death and bring Jesus back from the grave so that He can walk again in His physical body and meet all our needs.”
The righteousness that comes by faith would say this: “Jesus is here, near me—not in a physical body, but the Word lives in me.”
This is also the Word by which the heavens and the earth were created. Can you imagine that the Word of God is just as powerful and strong as it was when Jesus walked on earth? The Word of God in the New Testament has just as much power and authority as Jesus had. God sent His Word and healed them through His Word—or Jesus did.
This is how we become heirs of this world, heirs of this promise: through the righteousness that comes by faith. When the righteousness that comes by faith speaks, it declares faith—not fear and doubt. Let us read verses 8 and 9 from Romans chapter 10 once again.
But what does Scripture say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith that we preach.
For if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:8–9
Activating the Promise Through Faith
Paul tells us to confess Jesus as Lord. When a sinner comes forward in repentance, turning to Scripture, he confesses Jesus as the Lord of his life. He says this because he believes the Word of God. He can say, “I believe that Jesus died for my sins, and I confess that He is the Lord of my life.”
Until then, Jesus had not been the Lord of his life; the devil had been. But because he made that decision by faith and declared it, all the demons of hell will not be able to hinder it.
At that moment, such a person is in the right standing before God. This is the righteousness that comes by faith. Surely, this person did not feel righteous within or feel that Jesus was his Lord, but he chose to believe and declared it. This is how righteousness by faith works.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 10:10
A person believes with the heart. Faith is a function of the inner person, or the heart. A person believes with his entire inner being. Faith dwells in the heart, not in the head.
When a sinner repents and makes a confession of faith, he releases the power of God within himself. He speaks to his very being. With the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
The word salvation comes from the Greek word sozo. It is a comprehensive concept that includes “deliverance, salvation, healing, and a sound mind.” All these concepts are contained in the single word sozo. But sometimes we mean only one of its components: salvation, or being born again.
Let us picture it this way. Paul says that a person can believe with the heart and be born again. But if you want to receive deliverance, healing, and a sound mind, you need to put your mouth into action. Begin declaring the promises. … And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, deliverance, healing, and a sound mind. Here Paul is speaking not only about being born again. He also means possessing God’s promises.
That is why he said that the promise of being heir of the world belonged to Abraham not through the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. Such righteousness
The Word of God speaks. It says, “The Word of God is within me. These promises can be fulfilled in my life. The promises are in me.”
When you are in need, remember that the promises are within you. Use that promise. Speak it with your mouth. When you speak it, you hear it and release the power of God.
When God says something, it is absolute truth. Even if you look at a situation that says, “You will not succeed,” the Word of God says: “And whatever he does shall prosper” (Psalm 1:3). The Word says: “…that you may prosper in all that you do” (Deuteronomy 29:9), and also: “No weapon formed against you shall prosper…” (Isaiah 54:17).
With our mouths, we speak the Word of God. This is exactly what
Righteousness by faith.
Grace – God's desire
Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all…
Romans 4:16
Someone may say that this applied only to Abraham, not to us.
But Scripture says that the promise was for all his descendants. It was by faith and by grace…Grace is God's desire to use His power and strength on your behalf, even though you do not deserve it. This is what God Himself desires. And grace is His will.
We have always heard that grace is God's undeserved favor toward us. But think about it: If God saved us merely as a favor, without personally desiring to be involved, would that help you? What if God said, “If the world can save itself, I am completely fine with that, and I am not going to have anything to do with it”?
If our salvation were merely a favor, it would do us no good. After death, we would go to hell. But God personally takes part in our salvation. So grace is not merely a favor; it is God's desire and His will to use His power on our behalf.
Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
Romans 4:16
Scripture tells us that God first preached the Gospel of faith to Abraham (Gal. 3:8). Although the Old Testament contains relatively little teaching about faith, they still lived by faith. The people of the Old Testament believed what God told them, and it was credited to them as righteousness. Yet very little is said about how they obtained faith or how they were guided by it.
The first teaching about faith is mentioned in Genesis, when God spoke with Abram.
Paul writes about this in Romans 4:17.
Covenant
(As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of God, whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.
Rom. 4:17
Here Paul refers to Genesis 17, where God said, “I have made you a father of many nations.” Notice that God said made, not I am going to make.
The first time God spoke to Abraham about his son, he was “only” 75 years old.
The promise was fulfilled when he was 100 years old.
As you can see, Scripture says that when Abraham had almost no hope left, he believed in hope (Rom. 4:18). You can receive a revelation in your spirit about what God is going to do in your life. For example, 20 years ago I saw visions of the ministry I have today. The visions I saw were not fulfilled that same year; it took 20 years before it happened. I saw this ministry through the eyes of faith. God gave it to me through revelation. But I did not go out and immediately start telling everyone about it. We make a mistake when we tell everything we know.
Keep God’s secrets
Joseph told others his secret, and as a result he almost lost his life (Genesis 37:5–18). I do not believe it was God’s will for Joseph to go through all those sufferings in order to become ruler of Egypt.
Joseph revealed his secret, and the devil found out about it. Then the devil tried in every possible way to destroy Joseph so that he would not fulfill his destiny.
Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him (Ps. 105:19). Joseph had a revelation from God. The word tested him to see what he would believe: the Word or the circumstances in which he found himself. But despite every trial, Joseph saw everything through to the end. And he was always on top.
Pour milk into a separator and shake it thoroughly. The cream will always rise to the top. The same thing happens with people.
Joseph had a Word from God. Like Abraham, he decided to believe the Word, even though he had to wait for many years. Everything looked as though he was constantly failing, but he made the decision to believe God. When Joseph was taken to Egypt, he was imprisoned there for something he had not done. But he did not give up, because he had decided to believe God and continued to maintain a right relationship with God. He would never allow his dream to retreat from him.
Sometimes God reveals something to us that we should not share with others. One reason is that God does not want the devil to know His plans for your life. He could reveal so much to us about our future if only we would not tell others about it. If you tell someone God’s secrets, the devil will hear and will certainly try to do everything possible to prevent them from being fulfilled.
Did you know that the devil does not know everything? Sometimes we reveal God’s secrets even while praying to Him. There are things we should not even pray about in our native language; in such cases, it is better to pray in the spirit. Then they will certainly happen before the devil finds out about them.
This may explain why there was a revelation from God in your life that was not fulfilled. You immediately began telling everyone about what God had revealed to you. The devil sent people across your path who told you that you would not succeed. That was not God. And they managed to knock you off course.
We need to be sensitive to the Spirit of God concerning revelations from God.
Believing with hope
Let us return to the Epistle to the Romans, where Paul speaks about Abraham. In verse 17, we find that God calls things that do not exist as though they did, and He taught Abraham to do the same. Then, in verse 18, God tells us what to do when there is no hope.
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed, and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him: “So shall your offspring be.”
Romans 4:18 This verse says that Abraham made the decision to believe beyond hope. You are probably thinking, “How can one believe with hope, beyond hope?”
He returned again and again to the word in which he found hope. This is not natural hope, but supernatural hope.
What will you do when you no longer have any hope regarding the situation with your finances? Perhaps you are already in such a situation, and your hope is at its limit.
Take the Word of God and draw hope from it for yourself. See what God says about your finances. God believes in miracles. And you will believe too if His Word is on your lips. Here is the key to the solution: confessing that what God has said is the truth concerning your finances.
He (Abraham), contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken: “So shall your descendants be” (Rom. 4:18). What he actually saw did not look at all like he was the father of nations, but he chose to believe so that it would be as God had said.
And not being weak in faith, he did not consider that his own body, already dead, being about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
Rom. 4:19
Notice that Abraham decided not to pay attention to his body, which was already dead. Naturally speaking, men who are a hundred years old are physically no longer able to father children. But Abraham decided not to consider that his body was already dead. He did not simply ignore this fact; he intended to do something about it.
Sometimes people simply ignore the situation, thinking that everything will resolve itself. But it will not happen just because you think so.
Abraham decided to do something about his body. He believed what God had said and began to declare it himself.
Perhaps Abraham said something like this: “Everything looks so difficult that it is hard to believe this can happen. I do not feel it. But I choose to believe God that I will become the father of many nations” (Rom. 4:21).
Be “fully convinced”
He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God
And being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore it was accounted to him for righteousness.
Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was accounted to him,
And also with regard to us; it will be credited to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus Christ, our Lord, from the dead our Lord.
Romans 4:20–24
God placed these verses in the Bible not simply to share with us that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. They were recorded so that we could be sure that our faith, too, can be credited to us as righteousness.
Have you ever considered that Abraham did not have the Bible from which to learn something for himself? He would have gladly read what we can read today. Job surely would have progressed much more quickly if he had been able to read the first chapter of the Book of Job and learn that everything that happened to him was not from God but from the devil. But we sometimes forget that they did not have the information we possess.
Abraham did not waver at God’s promise through unbelief. He paid no attention to his body. He did not believe in the capabilities of his body; he believed in the Word of God.
And the first thing God did on the path to increasing his faith was change Abram’s name.
The Principle of God’s Faith
The fact that Abram was too old to have children was obvious. And his wife was 90 years old. But God called those things that do not exist as though they did. And so that Abram could do the same, God gave him a new name. God said, “You will no longer be called Abram. From now on, you are Abraham, which means ‘Father of Many Nations.’”
By doing this, God was not playing a game. This was a way for Abram to follow the principle of faith. God operates according to His own laws and principles. He knew that if Abram spoke what He had said, it would produce faith in him. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17).
But Abram could not read Romans 10:17 to discover the truth. God knew that there was enough faith in the name for this to happen. So God gave Abram a new name—Abraham. Every time he approached someone and introduced himself, he said, “My name is Abraham,” meaning, “I am the father of nations,” or, “Thus says the Lord: I am the father of many nations.”
Can you imagine how many times a day Abraham was called by name? The people who worked for him and lived with him would approach him and say:
“Abraham, how do you want us to repair the fence?” or “Abraham, what should we do with the sheep?” or “Abraham, where should we graze the flock?” “Abraham…” “Abraham…”
But what he heard was not Abraham, but “father of many… father of many…”
I like to use my imagination. I picture Abraham as an old man with a cane, moving slowly, but constantly repeating: “I am the father of many… father of many…”
Finally, he throws the cane aside and says, “Praise the Lord, I believe it is so!” And he begins to walk faster and more steadily because he believed God.
That is why it was credited to him as righteousness
Romans 4:22
An Example of God’s Method
The Bible contains many examples of people who believed God in a similar way.
God said to Joshua:
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may carefully do everything written in it; then you will prosper in your ways and act wisely.
Joshua 1:8
We see that God changed Abram’s name so that he could declare what God had said as well. Through these examples, God shows us how His principle of faith works. What you speak is what you believe. Then what you believe is what you constantly speak about. That is why you must be very careful about what you say.
You have probably noticed that Abraham and God called nonexistent things as though they existed.
Abraham did not go around constantly telling himself, “I am not old. I am not old. I am not old.”
If he had spoken that way, he would have been lying. Some people have never understood the difference between lying and making a confession of faith. A confession is based on the Word of God. It may seem untrue to the world, but God said it, so how can you be lying when you say what God has said?
I am glad that some people I know did not live in Abraham’s time. They would have done everything they could to talk him out of believing God’s promise. They would have said to him, “You ate too much chili. You really didn’t hear anything from God. You’re just an old man. It was only a dream.”
But God knew how faith works. He planned everything so that Abram had to say, “I am the father of many nations.” Every time he said his name, he heard the Word of God. It was a Word from God personally for him. And as he heard that Word, faith came. Faith comes by hearing.
Faith came many years before the promise was fulfilled. I want to draw special attention to this point. Do not expect your faith to grow overnight. It does not happen that quickly. This process takes time. It is a process of learning and applying God’s principles.
We need to be especially careful here. People get into trouble thinking they can go to a seminar and come home three days later as some kind of miracle. But they will actually surprise you. “What happened to them?” you will wonder. They return to their church doing all kinds of incomprehensible
things and calling them faith. Then the pastor has to bring them back to their senses simply because they did not understand the whole teaching, but only part of it.
Abraham did not deny the facts by saying, “I am not old.” He spoke the way God spoke, and by doing so he rose above the facts.
You probably know that 25 years passed from the time God promised Abraham a son until that promise was fulfilled. We are mistaken when we think everything will happen within a few days.
Growing in faith is a process. Today, you are the sum of everything you have practiced in the past. You can change this, but it will take more than one night. It will take a lot of time. You need to learn how to use God’s principles.
I learned to fly an airplane 30 years ago. I could say, “There is a Boeing 747 at the airport, and since I am a pilot, I suppose I can fly it.”
If I tried to do that, it would surely end with the plane crashing somewhere. I do not know how to fly a Boeing 747. I can fly small airplanes, but not a Boeing 747; that is beyond my capabilities in this area.
Some people try to exceed the level of their faith in terms of their abilities and capabilities. Would you agree that it would be foolish to buy a brand-new truck, then buy a yacht and load it onto that truck? As soon as the yacht was loaded onto the truck, it would simply split in half. It would be foolish then to say that the whole problem was that the truck was defective.
The problem is not the truck. The problem is that it was overloaded. It was not designed to carry that kind of load. The truck’s capacity was overestimated. This happens to some people who overestimate the level of their faith and fail because of it.
You can overload your faith. You need to learn to recognize the level of your faith and then act at that level until you move on to the next level.
Practice God’s principles so that they begin to work in your life. For God’s promises are so close to you that all you need to do is speak them with your mouth. Speak aloud what God is telling you so that your faith may come. For in it is the righteousness that is of faith.
End of lesson.
Author: Charles Capps
Source: The book “Faith and Confession.”
