Sola Fide: What is Saving Faith?

Scripture Text: John 6:22-40

The true work of God is simply to believe in the One God has sent. We cannot “do the works God requires” at all. Our only hope is to rely on what Christ has done.

Larry Richards

We have much more to receive, but God has no more to give than he has given in Jesus Christ.

John Stott

There are no good works except those that spring from a living, loving, lasting faith in God through Jesus Christ our Lord! How To Please God, Volume 43, Sermon #2513 - Hebrews 11:6

Charles Spurgeon

Jesus Christ never died for our good works. They were not worth dying for. But he gave himself for our sins, according to the Scriptures.

Martin Luther

Ordinary bread only sustains physical life, but Jesus as the Bread of Life not only sustains spiritual life but even gives us this life. Hence also he is not merely “bread” or “bread of life” but actually “living Bread” (v. 51), i.e., Bread full of life, the reception of which gives and sustains life.

Richard C. H. Lenski

Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014) Behold, Believe, Be Raised

Even though they had seen him feed five thousand, this was another day, and their stomachs were not full any more. They remembered that in the wilderness Moses gave God’s manna every day. They didn’t just have miracle bread one day. But every day, for forty years. So Jesus, if you want us to see and believe, keep on working. Keep on doing your signs.

Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014) Behold, Believe, Be Raised

this verse has defined two massive realities in my life. One is the object of my hunger and thirst. And the other is the nature of saving faith.

Jesus—Jesus himself and all that God is for me in him—is what I hunger for and thirst for. He has been merciful to me—and to most of you—to reveal himself as the supreme Treasure of our lives. “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” That doesn’t mean hunger and thirst in our souls does not rise up every day. It means now we know what it’s for. Now we know where to turn. Now we know what to drink and what to eat. We drink down Jesus. We swallow the glory of Jesus. And there is a never-ending supply. This is what we were made for. All other treasures, all other pleasures point to this. Jesus is the all-satisfying end of every longing.

Saving Faith: Satisfaction in Jesus

And the other thing this verse has shown me is the nature of saving faith. Notice the parallel between coming to Jesus to be satisfied and believing on Jesus. “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger.” That’s the first statement. We come to Jesus to have our hunger stilled.

Now parallel to that, and repeating the meaning, is the next statement: “And whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” Coming to Jesus to be satisfied in him and believing on him so as not to thirst are the same. So I define saving faith as being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus.

Themes: Commitment; Scripture

“My conscience is bound to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is … dangerous to act against conscience. Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me! Amen.”

—Martin Luther

Martin Luther

English Standard Version (Chapter 6)

22 On the next day the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. 23 Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. 24 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus.25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Sola Fide: Faith Alone

Historical background of the Reformation and the 5 Solas

Commentary on the Gospel of John Book Three (John 6:1–8:59)

It was only right that they would follow in the tracks of those whom they called fathers who, after receiving what had appeared to them to be so uncommon, should have been able to recognize the greatness of the one who was to come. But the ingratitude of those who came before and those who now come later is one and the same: both dared to criticize the gift they had before them by comparing it with what they were missing.

“If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is not part of the Christian faith.

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

– C. S. Lewis in “The Weight of Glory”

Commentary on the Gospel of John Book Three (John 6:1–8:59)

So they said to him, “What sign are you going to give us then, so that we may see it and believe you? What work are you going to perform?” Great is the arrogance of the Jews! When that magnificent miracle was still before their eyes, and while the crumbs of the food which they had enjoyed were still between their teeth, they asked him for a sign to confirm his power.