Chapter # 5 Paragraph # 2 Study # 9
April 19, 2021
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis:   There is a significant complication in the actions of "faith" of the woman who differentiated, to her own advantage, the various biblical revelatory texts in respect to her situation to which we must give thought.

Introduction:   At the end of our last study we addressed the issue of the woman's intentional, and deliberate, contravention of a biblical text that addressed her situation directly: Leviticus 15:19-27. I made the argument that Jesus, Himself, recognized, and taught, and highlighted the fact that there are often situations in the complexities of the lives we live that put various texts of Scripture in tension with one another. Perhaps the greatest example in all of Scripture that highlights this reality is the one Paul addressed in Romans 3:26. This desire of God to be demonstrably both "just" and "justifier" pushed the conundrum to the most extreme limits of the divine glory of which man could conceive: the Cross. Add to that, the issue of Romans 9:22 that, unlike the Romans 3 text, gives a very large number of men serious cases of heartburn, proving that when men benefit from the divine "solution" they make no complaint, but as soon as "men" will carry the weight of the divine solution into a decidedly negative eternity, the eruptions of objections are easily anticipated. Often "John 3:16" is seen in the public square and most people don't give it a second thought; however, I have never seen a sign held up at a sports event that read "Romans 9:22". The reason is not hard to discern.

My point is this -- given such a "theological" tension, men invariably go with the text with which they are most comfortable. This is what the woman did. But, what she did is commended by Jesus. This means that He was saying, "she got it right".

This evening we are going to look into this issue in this text a bit further.

• I. To Begin, Consider The General Biblical Consensus That "Faith" Always Has Its Roots In A Divine Revelation.
  • A. That men will invariably appeal to some biblical text to "justify" their claim that a certain "belief" is legitimate is easily demonstrated.
    • 1. This exposes the universal awareness of the basic principle: divine revelation is always at the root of anything called "faith".
    • 2. "Universal awareness" does not, however, mean that there is "universal agreement".
  • B. In all cases of "faith" in the Bible, there is a prior "revelation" from God in some form, be it "promise", or "statement of fact as truth", or some such communication of truth from God to men.
    • 1. If we consider "Abraham" in his role as "the father of all who believe", we are forced to consider the "faith" he exercised as the "required pattern" for all who would afterward be called "believers".
      • a. In his case, his "faith" is invariably tied to "promises" God made to him.
        • 1) Sometimes this tie is in the from of a direct promise made in a certain situation (as is Genesis 15:6).
        • 2) Other times, his "faith" is tied to a "process of reasoning" that is tied to the previously given "promise" (as in Hebrews 11:17-19).
        • 3) But in every case, his "faith" was rooted in a divine commitment made by God.
      • b. In the extension of his case to the level of "father of all who believe", John made the issue of "commitment" a specific "promise" by saying, "This is the promise which He Himself made to us: Eternal Life" (1 John 2:25).
        • 1) By this John revealed that everything else that comes up to the standard of "divine commitment" to fall under this umbrella.
        • 2) And by this he goes this far: "faith" is the effective power of victory over all things involved with "this world" and its attempts to undercut our lives before Him (1 John 5:4).
    • 2. Thus, we are forced by "biblical revelation" to assume that the woman in the record before us had an understanding of a "commitment by God" that was associated with her inner reasonings.
      • a. The text tells us that "she was continually repeating to herself that..." (the verb is an Imperfect Tense, Indicative Mood, Active Voice).
      • b. The content of the "that...".
        • 1) If I should "touch" (Mark 7:33 indicates a "touch", not a "grasp") His garments, "I shall be delivered".
        • 2) She never intended to grab hold, and Mark does not tell us something both Matthew and Luke did tell us: she only intended to "touch" the fringes of His outer robe: she intended to merely brush her hand over the fringes.
• II. Thus, We Have Another General Biblical Consensus: That "Faith" Always Has In Its Roots In A Divine Illumination.
  • A. This is a well-established biblical factor: Paul's often recorded prayers that his brethren will be given by God a deeper perception of biblical "revelation" than is on the surface of the words (such as Colossians 1:0-12 and Ephesians 3:14-19).
  • B. In the case of this woman before us, our question is this: what divine illumination caused her to keep telling herself this?
    • 1. We have two factors to consider.
      • a. The most significant one is "T"heological.
        • 1) Men see, as a root thesis, God in a dominating way (their view of Him determines what they expect from Him: Luke 19:21-22) and God typically fulfills their expectations along that very line.
        • 2) The two "big ticket" views men have of God is that of "Holy Justice" and that of "Compassionate Love": few are able to keep them together in tension.
      • b. The other significant one is "revelational".
        • 1) Men either seek "revelation" in respect to an objective standard: Scripture.
        • 2) Or men seek "revelation" in respect to some inner "vision" that comes out of their own wishes.
        • 3) This woman had both involved, with this exception: she was rooted in the "objective" but she was living in the "subjective" (she desperately "wanted" but she also could not go beyond the words of the prophets).
    • 2. If the woman had a "root" comprehension of God is terms of "Compassionate Love", which is an issue of "illumination", coming out of what "she had heard of Jesus", she would have automatically elevated Leviticus 6:27 over Leviticus 15 as well as the downside verses of "touching unto result" such as Haggai 2:12-13.
    • 3. Thus, we have a "Compassionate Love" "T"heology combined with the hopefulness of Leviticus 6:27 to produce "faith" within her own reasonings.
    • 4. Additionally we have several New Testament texts that reinforce the idea that this concept was alive in the first century culture: Matthew 9:20; 14:36; Mark 6:56; Luke 8:44 and Acts 19:10-12 (and effectively called "faith").
• III. Third, We Have Another General Biblical Consensus: That "Faith" Always Has In Its Roots In A Divine Persuasion.
  • A. This is one step beyond "illumination".
  • B. This is a critical necessity as Romans 1 clearly reveals since in the wrath of God He has given both "revelation" and "illumination", but absent "persuasion".
  • C. Thus, the woman "kept on telling herself" -- a dead give away that she "believed" but needed a greater faith to not have to "keep on telling herself" something.

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This is article #220.
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