April,
2003
When we think of faith, we think of some kind of
belief system; and yet, many of us do not realize that faith is like breathing:
we never think about it, but we use it daily.
Before I sit down, my mind makes a judgment about the chair. I either believe that it will support me, or I
doubt its ability to support me. If my
mind makes the judgment that it will support me, I will sit in the chair
without a second thought about it.
However, if I doubt its ability to support me, I might make a cognitive
decision as whether to trust it or not.
Last month we discovered that our faith is not a product of ourselves;
our faith comes by grace through Christ:
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter
of our faith, (He.12:2)
God
does not give us faith because we are worthy by some merit of our own. He gives us faith because it is through our
unworthiness that He receives the glory after we are saved:
Do not think of yourself more highly
than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith
God has given you. (Ro.12:3)
Each one has a different amount of faith; some will
live by faith while others will attempt great things for God. Nonetheless, when we share the gospel, each
person will either accept it by faith of refuse to accept it through
doubt. Those who accept the gospel by
faith will have eternal life:
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for
God’s wrath remains on him." (Jn.3:36)
We do not receive God’s wrath because we doubt the
gospel message, for we were already under the wrath of God because of our sin. The gospel message that is preached today is:
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will go to heaven. Modern
Christianity has reduced the gospel message to future benefit, when the Gospel
message is Christ came, died, rose from the dead, and wants to live in you,
empowering your life:
I pray that out of his glorious
riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts
through faith. (Eph.3:16-17)
The church has reduced Christ to a statement of faith
with rituals when the Bible speaks of receiving him in your life by faith. To believe in him is to believe he lives in
you:
I have been crucified with Christ
and I no longer live, but Christ lives
in me. The life I live in the body, I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Ga.2:20)
John wrote his gospel not chronologically, rather theologically
to combat the trend that was already present in his day: to believe that Jesus
died for your sins, accepting him as Savior, and not believing that he rose
from the dead to live in us. In fact,
John’s is the only gospel that records over and over the concept that Christ
must live in us to possesses eternal life: Jn:
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will
come in and eat with him, and he with me. (Re.3:20)
You, dear children, are from God
and have overcome them, because the one
who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1Jn.4:4)
Christ lives in us and is greater then Satan as He
promises to keep us safe from Satan:
We know that anyone born of God
does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one
cannot harm him. (1Jn.5:18)
To be born again is to have Christ live in us, giving
us hope that our lives will be different with him:
No one who is born of God will
continue to sin, because God’s seed
remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. (1Jn.3:9)
Paul pleads with the Galatians, trying to explain the
concept of rebirth: Christ being born in man.
My dear children, for whom I am
again in the pains of childbirth until
Christ is formed in you, (Ga.4:19)
Eternal life does not begin when we die; eternal life
is now!
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on
earthly things. For
you died, and your life is now hidden
with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then
you also will appear with him in glory. (Co.3:1-4 note Eph.2:6-7)
The gospel message is not: believe that Jesus died
for your sins and you will go to heaven. Rather, the Biblical concept is: Christ in you
the hope of glory
To them God has chosen to make
known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
(Co.1:27)
Therefore our faith is in the fact that Jesus lives
in us. And because he does, our lives
will be changed; and we can hope in the glory that is to come.
When
we share the gospel message, we share words, concepts, and ideals. The people
accept it apart from any experience of their own. They usually do not have anything tangible,
except for the fact that they knew their hopeless state as sinners and that could
not save themselves.
Anything else was a matter of believing:
Now faith is
being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (He.11:1)
When we share the gospel, we must share the difference it made in
our lives. Therefore, those who have not
experienced God will believe, in the hope to share in the experience of Christ living within them.
For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no
hope at all. Who hopes for what he
already has? But if we hope for what
we do not yet have, we wait for it
patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. (Ro.8:24-25)
Faith is based on hope. The gospel is a message of
hope for the hurting:
But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be
prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. (1Pe
As you walk through life, does your life and
conversation inspire hope, a confidence that you can thrive tomorrow? Does your life cause others to say, I want
that peace, I want that _________
We continually remember before our God and Father your work
produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Th.1:3)
Do you inspire hope?
If a Christian life shares the same discouragements, the same defeats, the same fears, the
same meaninglessness, why would anyone want what you have? Would anyone want to buy into the
experience? Think of a used car salesman,. “This is one
pretty classic car, the fenders are 80% body filler, the engine burns oil, the
muffler is about to go, the seats have beautiful seat covers because the
upholstery is shot, but it is still a bargain for what we are asking. Want to buy it?” I am not telling you to lie, but rather share
the difference God has made in your life, so they too can have hope.
May the God of hope
fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Ro.15:13)
When we share the gospel, we need to inspire hope,
that God is the all in all
And God is able to make all
grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. (2Co.9:8)
Yes, we can share all the facts: Man is a sinner and
cannot save himself,
God is absolute justice and love. Christ is both God and man. He offers you grace which is undeserved favor:
“God’s riches at Christ’s expense.” However,
unless it inspires the hope that He will make a change in their lives, why
should they except it?
The gospel message is a message of hope:
But now he has reconciled you by
Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without
blemish and free from accusation— if you continue in your faith,
established and firm, not moved from the
hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has
been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have
become a servant. (Co.1:22-23)
However, it is more than believing that Christ lived
on this earth, it is believing that I am a sinner, and
He is the solution to my sin
The Scriptures declares that the whole world is a prisoner
of sin, so that what was promised, being
given through faith in Christ, might be given to those who believe. (Ga.3:22)
When we accept the Gospel message, we are saved by
faith. Since faith is being sure of what
we hope for, the gospel is more then words.
It is sharing the hope held out in the gospel. Therefore, the first side of faith is intangible, it is based on what we hope for.
We
are saved by faith. But how do I know if
you believe? If I said that the
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.
(Ja.2:19)
The demons saw God but were thrown out of heaven for
their rebellion. Faith without an appropriate
response of obedience is dead:
You see that his faith and his actions were working together,
and his faith was made complete by what he did.
And the scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God,
and it was credited to him as righteousness," and he was called God’s
friend. You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith
alone. (Ja.2:22-24)
To say that one believes in Christ yet does not
respond in the manner which Christ commanded is incongruent. Can we know if someone believes? Obviously at Pentecost they knew how many
believed:
Those who accepted his message
were baptized, and about three thousand
were added to their number that day. (Ac.2:41)
Common sense teaches us that we can know that someone
believes what we say when their actions are altered to an appropriate
response. Our faith in Christ is clearly
seen by our obedience to Christ:
Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and
apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.” (Ro.1:5 note 2Co.9:12-13)
We can say that many believed in
Christ, or we can say many people obeyed the gospel.
So the word of God
spread. The number of disciples in
The writer of Hebrews supports the
necessity of an appropriate response of faith when we read:
Although he was a son,
he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who
obey him. (He.5:8-9)
Obviously, baptism was part of the gospel message: for
Phillip shared the good news with the eunuch; however it was the eunuch who
responded appropriately by asking to be baptized:
As
they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said,
"Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" (Ac.8:36)
The Biblical response to accepting
Christ was to be baptized into the name of Jesus. However, far too often we condemn those who
pray the sinner’s prayer. The person who
prays the prayer is not the problem, as they have a sincere faith manifested in
an appropriate response; the problem is with those who presented the gospel
misrepresented the command of Christ:
For
there is no difference between Jew and Gentile-
the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him,
for, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ (Ro.10:12-13)
Baptism is the Biblical way to call on the name of
the Lord:
And
now what are you waiting for? Get up, be
baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name. (Ac.22:16)
The new covenant states that we must
be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins:
Repent
and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of your sins. And you
will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Ac.2:38)
Refusal to be baptized is a refusal
to call on His name, proof that one has not accepted the gospel of Christ:
This water
symbolizes baptism that now saves you also-- not the removal of dirt from the
body but the pledge of a good conscience towards God. It saves you by the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, (1Pe.3:21 note
Mk.16:15-16)
Water baptism is but the first step of a life of
obedience and the second side of faith: an appropriate response. Therefore, faith has two sides: one is based
on hope in something that is intangible, while the other is an appropriate
response which manifests itself in tangible obedience.