Faith in God and Salvation (FFMC 10/2/19)

Faith in God and Salvation

Heb 10:36-11:6,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:8-9)

1.       The meaning of faith

a)      Faith is knowing and accepting

In Heb 11:1 the writer tells is that Faith (Gk. “pisteos”) is not a vague hope. “Assurance” and “conviction” speak of certainty. The KJV translates the Greek word for ‘assurance’ as “substance” and the word  for ‘conviction’ as ‘evidence’.  Faith substantiates the hope we have. If you get lost hiking in the jungle, you can have faith that you are rescued. But if you see a helicopter overhead with people waving at you, that helicopter substantiates your hope. Faith is evidence – it points us to the unseen truth, just as policemen gather tangible things like fingerprints or bloodstains to prove a case. People say, “Seeing is believing”. This means that they know something because of the evidence of their senses. We know spiritual things not through physical senses, but through faith. Faith is spiritual sight of the unseen. Faith is how we connect the realities of God’s promises to our lives. So in v.3 we read, “By faith we understand that the ^[e^]worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”

Faith is not wishful thinking. Faith is not a ‘leap in the dark’. Sometimes Christians look at a verse like, “for we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7) and we think that faith must be something against our physical senses or against reason. Then we would conclude that the lesser the evidence, the greater the faith. That is an unnecessary emphasis. The point of these verses is that faith is more than what we can sense, but not less.  We are never told to believe blindly, “Just have faith”, because...

Faith is based on revealed truth from God. The truth (v.6) is that “He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” So we are told of God’s existence and God’s good character. With faith, we not only know of the truth, but we agree in our minds that it is in fact true. We ‘draw near’ to God based on this truth. We accept as truth what we are told by God.

b)      Faith is longing

Christian faith is never just intellectual assent “even the demons believe – and shudder!” (Js 2:19b). Demons have a perfect theology, but this does not save them. So knowing the truth alone does not save. Heb 11:1 says that faith looks forward to what is hoped for/ desired, not to what is dreaded or what we are indifferent to. So there is an emotional investment to faith. Faith involves looking for joy to come.

c)       Faith is trusting enough to act

Jesus often scolded his disciples for having “little faith” (Mt 6:30, 9:26, 14:31, 16:8, 1&:20; Lk 12:28). At other times, we read that he was pleased with those who showed great faith (Mt 8:10, 15:28, Lk 7:9).  Because of these verses some think of faith as a substance that can be passed on or accumulated to achieve a result. Once a critical level is reached, God is more or less obliged to do what we ask for in prayer. On the other hand, if something desired did not happen, then it must be because someone had insufficient faith.

In one instance (Mt 17:20) he relates their failure to cast out a demon because of their little faith. Here, and in the parallel passage in Lk 17:5, when the disciples ask for more faith. Jesus’ response is, “truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” and “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

Jesus is saying that it is not the amount of faith that is critical, but its presence, its object and our response. It’s not important to know more, or to believe harder in what you want to happen, but to trust in God more. Jesus will not do mighty things because of lack of faith (Mt 13:58, Mk 6:6).

To illustrate this point, consider 2 Israelites at the time of the first Passover. One respects Moses, honours God’s word and thus puts the blood of a lamb on the doorposts and lintels of his home. One doesn’t really like Moses and says, “I’ll do it because every one else is doing it”. Which of these is saved from the angel of death? The answer is, “Both”. Both had enough faith to act, though the faith of one was greater than the other.

Faith is trust. Trust that leads to action proves the strength of the trust. If you don’t live like God is real and that He rewards those who seek Him, you prove that your faith was a sham. James calls this ‘dead’ faith that cannot save (Js 2:17-20). Jesus says, “Trust Me more”.

The French tight-rope walker Blondin was famous for crossing Niagara Falls on a tightrope. He first accomplished this in 1859. The rope was 1100 feet (335 m) long, 3¼ inches in diameter, 160 feet (50 m) above the water. He  carried out the crossing a number of times in front of huge crowds, always with different variations: blindfold, in a sack, on stilts, sitting down midway while he cooked and ate an omelette. On one occasion Blondin trundled an empty wheelbarrow across the rope, and all the spectators cheered. He then placed a sack of potatoes in the wheelbarrow and repeated the feat. Then he asked the crowd, “Do you believe I could wheelbarrow a person across the tightrope?” Everyone cheered and shouted that he could. He then asked for a volunteer. The crowd went silent. No one offered to get in the wheelbarrow. Nobody put their belief in Blondin to the test. Nobody trusted Blondin with their lives.

2.       The salvation of faith

 Faith is central to salvation. The call of Habakkuk 2:4 to live by faith is so central that it is quoted in the NT three times, as if God was expanding the meaning of it for our understanding:

•          For the righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel from faith to faith, just as it is written, “the righteous by faith will live” (Rom 1:17) tells us the answer to the question, “How do we become righteous in the sight of God?”

•          Now it is clear no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous one will live by faith (Gal 3:11) makes the point that “The righteous shall live ONLY by faith”.

•          For just a little longer and he who is coming will arrive and not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, I take no pleasure in him. But we are not among those who shrink back and thus perish, but are among those who have faith and preserve their souls (Heb 10:37-39) tells us what a life of faith looks like, in Hebrews 11.

When you die, and you stand before God, and God asks you - why should I let you in heaven (this is bad theology), what do you say? The reason cannot be because you attended regularly, or gave generously to the building fund, or even because you served in church. It will not be because you “were sincere” and “tried your best to live a good life and not to harm others”. We are not saved even simply because we said “the Sinner’s prayer”. Unlike in every other major religion I can think of, we cannot earn our way into heaven. We can never tell God, “Because I have done this and that, you should let me in”. We have no rights to heaven. We can never be good enough. Only faith saves.

Paul said that there were certain facts that we need to know, that are necessary for salvation: “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared (to witnesses)”  (1 Cor 15:3-5). When we share the gospel with someone, we need to share certain spiritual truths.

But as we have seen, knowing these truths does not save us. It takes acceptance that they are true, and it takes desire and trust. We are saved when we let go of all our own good deeds , successes and qualifications “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith “(Phil 3:7-9). We trust only on the saving work of Christ. We trust that His death paid for our sins. We trust that we obtain the perfect righteousness that He demonstrated throughout his life. The We are saved because we are united to Christ by faith. God sees in us the innocence and righteousness of His Son, obtained through faith alone. (2 Cor 5:21) “Everyone who would obtain the righteousness of Christ must renounce his own." (Calvin)

That’s why it is hard to become a Christian - the requirement to give up all our own righteousness and merit, depending only on someone else’s work, is difficult. We naturally tend to think we should give something in order to receive something in return – very Asian. We don’t want to think that we are freeloaders or parasites. We feel we must bring something to contribute. And we carry over this sense of wanting to pay back our salvation into our relationship with God. Hear the words of Jesus: “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 18:3-4.

But saving faith does not depend on any merit or goodness within us, because saving faith comes by grace. We can never deserve salvation because of any goodness within ourselves. Grace is undeserved favour. We did nothing to earn our salvation. We were not wiser or more educated or more responsive or more fortunate (“right place at right time”) than someone not saved. The kind of faith needed to save, to turn away from all we have depended on and to trust in Christ alone – is a gift of grace by God, so that no one can take any credit for his or her salvation (Eph 2:8)

 Conclusion:

Let me close with 2 points:

How does this sermon relate to family discipleship? Nobody is saved by faith of their family members. Each individual must make a commitment to follow Jesus. The greatest joy for a parent is to know that their child is saved. It is meaningless for the children to be in an elite school or university, to be talented in the CCA or to have a high-paying job, if they are not in heaven. It is also the greatest sorrow for any child when his or her parents are unsaved and we cannot fulfil our filial impulses for them because we know they are unsaved. To pass on our faith to our family members, we must know that is at stake. We need to teach truths, to let them see our longing for God and to show in day to day things that we trust in God for everything in our lives.

Did I say that nobody trusted Blondin to carry them? Well, nobody except his manager, Harry Colcord. With Colcord clinging to his back. Blondin gave his manager the following instructions: “Look up, Harry.… you are no longer Colcord, you are Blondin. Until I clear this place be a part of me, mind, body, and soul. If I sway, sway with me. Do not attempt to do any balancing yourself. If you do we will both go to our death.”  This is a beautiful picture of trust in and oneness with Christ. Martin Luther put it this way: If someone comes to my house and asks, ‘Does Martin Luther live here?’ I ought to answer, ‘Martin Luther has died and Jesus Christ lives here now.’ When we are tempted, we tell the Devil: Christ lives here. When we are afraid we say, Christ lives in me.  When we face different kinds of trials – sickness and difficult family relationships, crushing disappointment and sorrows, we cling to Christ.  This is the faith that saves. And this is the faith we must all have.

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