Faith Foundations: The Christian Life

Introduction

During this course of this study we’ve looked at 9 “faith foundations” including 8 doctrines and the Bible. A quick recap:

The Bible

Doctrine of God (Trinity)

Doctrine of Christ (Identity)

Doctrine of Christ (The Cross and Resurrection)

Doctrine of Christ (Ascension)

Doctrine of Christ (Second Coming & General Resurrection)

Doctrine of the Holy Spirit

Doctrine of the Church

Doctrine of Humanity

For this final lesson I want to try and tie everything together and talk about how can apply it to our lives.

This starts with one important question: Does having correct doctrine matter?

Doctrine matters, but what we do with it may matter more

Our theology (and worldview) dictate how we live our lives. We put into practice what we believe. What we practice usually reveals what we truly believe, rather than what we profess with our mouths.

Poor theology often leads to poor outcomes. Conversely, good theology often leads to good outcomes. So our doctrine does matter.

This also means that we can’t just let “what we believe” stay as simply head knowledge. Paul warns against this in 1 Corinthians 13:2 “And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”

This was the problem with the pharisees: they knew Scripture like the back of their hand. In many cases they had great doctrine. And yet…when Jesus came, they couldn’t recognize Him. They couldn’t recognize Love, because they themselves didn’t have love, despite having all the head knowledge of knowing Him.

The interplay between faith and works

This leads to the bigger picture of the interplay between faith and work. We often consider “faith” “doctrine” and “what we believe” to be interchangeable. But that keeps everything as “head knowledge”, and that’s not quite true.

First, we have to really understand what “faith” is. The Greek word for faith is “pistis”. And the word means “commitment, allegiance, pledge, oath” and so on.

When translated into Latin the word become “fide” from which we get “fidelity”. Notice that none of those words refer to simply “knowing” something. More than anything, “faith” means “trust”. If we trust someone, we’re going to obey them.

One institution in which we still use these words in their truest since is marriage. Infidelity is considered the breaking of the marriage covenant. Marriage itself is a “commitment, pledge, oath” to our partner. And this is what the word “faith” means.

We also see it when we “pledge allegiance” to our country. We are putting our “faith” in our country. (You can probably start to see why Christianity has always had some conflict with saying national pledges to any country.)

So with these concepts in mind, we see that faith isn’t just “knowing” something. When we make a commitment to our spouse, we don’t simply acknowledge their existence (like we often do when we say we have “faith in God” or “believe in God”.) Similarly, when we pledge allegiance to our country and we aren’t simply acknowledging its existence. Something more comes with faith.

Faith is our allegiance to God through Jesus Christ. Just as we are expected to act like good spouses in fidelity to our spouse, and we are expected to act like good citizens in our fidelity to our nation, so too are we expected to act like good children/good citizens/saints in our fidelity to Christ.

This is why James says in James 2:26 “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”

If we cheat on our spouse, or treat them poorly, or only “acknowledge their existence”, people would probably question whether or not we’re really committed!

If we say the pledge of allegiance, but then do act like good citizens or go to another country, people would probably question whether or not we’re actually Americans.

Good works naturally flow out of faith. Entering into marriage should naturally lead you to treating your spouse well and honoring them.

This is why it’s true that faith saves us (our allegiance to Christ, our trust in Him, is what saves us), but if we aren’t living out that faith, then whether that faith really exists is going to be called into question.

And so when we take a step back and understand what this all means in relation to the doctrines we’ve studied, it’s this: what you believe is important, but how you live out that faith matters just as much, if not more.

“Even if somebody believes rightly in the Father and the Son, as well as in the Holy Spirit, if he does not lead the right kind of life, his faith will not benefit him at all as far as his salvation is concerned.” - John Chrystostom

“You can believe what God says, you can believe that God exists, and you can believe in him, which means that you love him so much that you want to do what he tells you. There are many evil people around who can manage the first two of these. They believe that God means what he says, and they are quite prepared to accept that he exists. But it takes someone who is not just a nominal Christian but who is one in deed and in living to love God and to do what he commands. Faith with love is Christian, but faith without love is demonic.” - Bede the Venerable

So how do we do it?

The Christian life is a call to holiness and righteousness. We live out our commitment to God by obeying His commands. And all of His commands can be summed up as this “Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, soul, and mind.” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.”.

So how do we cultivate a Christian life, growing in our faith, and therefore growing in our love for Christ and each other?

Community

Christianity is not meant to be a “solo” experience. We require community, and specifically we require the Church, to aid in our spiritual formation. The Church fosters discipleship, helping one another grow.

Discipleship goes hand in hand with sanctification. The Holy Spirit aids us as we continue grow with other members of the body. Discipleship means being discipled ourselves by others who are further along in their spiritual journey, as well as discipling others who may not be as far in their journey as us. We all have a role to play in this.

We see this process played out in Paul’s command to Titus 2:1-13

Titus 2:1–13 ESV

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us. Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

And again in 1 Timothy 5:1–5 “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day,”

Spiritual Disciplines

The Church has always recognized that spiritual formation requires discipline. Scripture doesn’t give a straight forward list of “spiritual disciplines”, but it does recognize the importance of having them.

1 Timothy 4:7–8 “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”

Many people have proposed various lists, but I like the 12 that Richard Foster gives in his book, “Celebration of Discipline”, which he divides into three categories

“Inward Disciplines”

Meditation

Prayer

Fasting

Study

“Outward disciplines”

Simplicity

Solitude

Submission

Service

“Corporate disciplines”

Confession

Worship

Guidance

Celebration

When we start to put these disciplines into practice, we will naturally begin to grow spiritually.

There is a unique beauty to Christian discipline that sets us apart from other religions. Whereas most religions have strict requirements or rules in order to please their gods, Christianity is the opposite. Since it is by faith that we are saved, there are no hard “requirements”. Rather because of our faith, allegiance, trust, love, commitment (whatever you want to call it) to God, we ought to have a genuine desire to build that intimate relationship with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We do this to increase our love of Him, and our love for others. We ought to want to have a faith that is truly alive.

Conclusion

I hope that after this series you walk away with a better understanding of the “core beliefs” of Christianity, and that it starts (or continues) you on a journey to continue to go deeper in your faith, building your relationship with Jesus. But I hope it doesn’t just stop there. Take this knowledge and use it to grow in righteousness and holiness and love, living a life that glorifies God. People should know you are a servant of King Jesus because of your actions performed in service to Him, and not just because you say, “I believe in Jesus.”

Hebrews 6:1–3 “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.”

Philippians 3:7–12 “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— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”