Real Saving Faith
Notes
Transcript
Key Verse
Key Verse
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
Greek Word Study:
Pistis (Noun): Faith, faithfulness
Pistos (Adjective): Faithful
Pisteuo (Verb): To believe, or to trust
But what are the kinds of faith we can read in the Bible? The noun forms.
240 out of 244 times it is used as faith.
Faith for healing
7 And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”
8 The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!
22 But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.
Faith in healing the blind
Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith let it be to you.”
Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.
Faith that can move mountains - strong asking in prayer
So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done.
And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.
But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”
Here is the usage of the verb form as this is the focus of our teaching today.
In translating pisteuo, 238 of 248 (96%) translates it as “believe”
The remaining 10 translates to entrust or commitment but the context of these points to stewardship of riches, materials, commandments or the truth.
In the Gospels:
Matthew: 11x
Mark: 10x
Luke: 9x
John: 99x
This shows that John is the best gospel to use in evangelizing about saving faith and its requirements. Since John was expressly written for evangelistic purposes (Jn 20:31), the prominent role of faith should tell us something about God’s requirement for salvation.
but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
Reformer’s view
Reformer’s view
Within the people who have their theology set on the Reformed movement, they believe that faith is not only an intellectual assent, but also requires a commitment to obey Christ.
Let’s look at their theologian’s statements first before we go into the biblical view.
Passive faith: mere intellectual assent
Active faith: commitment to obey
Passive Faith: Is faith an intellectual assent?
Passive Faith: Is faith an intellectual assent?
“Faith is nothing else than to think with assent.”
St. Augustine
“For, as regards justification, faith is something merely passive, bringing nothing of ours to the recovering of God’s favor, but receiving from Christ what we lack.”
John Calvin
“We compare faith to a kind of vessel; for unless we come empty and with the mouth of our soul open to seek Christ’s grace, we are not capable of receiving Christ.”
John Calvin
“What stands out in Calvin’s descriptions is the given, intellectual, passive and assuring nature of faith.” R. T. Kendall on John Calvin
“Calvin taught that faith is fundamentally passive in nature, is centered in the mind or understanding, is primarily to be viewed in terms of certain knowledge.” M. C. Bell concurring with Kendall
Yes, Faith (includes) an element of intellectual assent.
Here we can conclude that J. Calvin views faith as an intellectual assent.
The central movement in all faith is no doubt the element of assent; it is that which constitutes the mental movement so called a movement of conviction. B. B. Warfield
But the movement of assent must depend, as it always does depend, on a movement, not specifically of the will, but of the intellect; the assensus issues from the notitia. B. B. Warfield
The movement of the sensibilities, which we call “trust,” is, on the contrary, the produce of the assent. B. B. Warfield
And it is in this movement of the sensibilities that faith fulfills itself, and it is by that, as specifically “faith,” it is formed.
“Saving faith is essentially the reliance of the heart on the promises of God set forth in the gospel.”
F. Pieper, a Lutherian author
Active Faith: a commitment to obey?
Active Faith: a commitment to obey?
“Bare assent to the gospel, divorced from a transforming commitment to the living Christ,
J. I. Packer (Reformed)
is by biblical standards less than faith, and less than saving, and to elicit only assent of this kind would be to secure only false conversions.” J. I. Packer (Reformed)
“reduces the gospel to the mere fact of Christ’s having died for sinners,
J. M. Boice (Reformed)
requires of sinners only that they acknowledge this by the barest intellectual assent,
and then assures them of their eternal security when they may very well not be born again.” J. M. Boice (Reformed)
But in the previous quotes, we can see that the Reformed founder, Calvin, doesn’t view obedience as a requirement but rather only knowledge.
T. Lewellen observes, in Calvin’s view obedience flows from faith and is part of the nature of the Christian life,
and faith itself is reliance on the divine promises of salvation in Christ and nothing more.
If Calvin didn’t start the active faith discussion, then who did?
The answer is the English Puritanism
This is a movement from the late 16th and 17th century that sought to “purify” the Church of England of remnants of the Roman Catholic “popery” that the Puritans claimed had been retained after the religious settlement reached early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Puritans became noted in the 17th century for a spirit of moral and religious earnestness that informed their whole way of life, and they sought through church reform to make their lifestyle the pattern for the whole nation.
The Westminister Confession of Faith is the document that forms the doctrines of the modern Presbyterianism (England and extends in Korea) and is one of the proof of the Lordship salvationists beliefs in active faith.
Lordship salvation is a belief system started by Theodore Beza, and continued by modern day scholars such as John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, John Piper, etc., that requires a commitment to the lordship of Christ for salvation.
In the Puritan era:
Saving faith = active response to commitment and obedience
In the Puritan era … there was a shift in the definition of saving faith. In the generations following the Reformation, some theologians subtly changed the Reformers’ definition of faith from a passive receptivity to an active response on the part of the sinner, centered in the will and containing both commitment and obedience
Lewellen
The idea that faith is an active commitment, including obedience, is the view of one strand of church history—English Puritanism—which is, of course, a powerful strand. One should not confuse that strand, however, with the “true church.” Calvin disagreed with it; Lutheran theology has always opposed it; even today, some Reformed theologians do not accept it. Lewellen
Both Calvin and Luther didn’t subscribe to the active faith - Lordship Salvation concept, nor is it accepted by other Reformed believers.
So we can see here that Lordship salvation is not even accepted by other Reformed believers because in the first place, Calvin believed in passive faith!
“If faith is the opposite of works of obedience (law) and is the opposite of work, by what mental alchemy can men seriously argue that, while faith is apart from works of obedience, faith itself includes works of obedience?”
J. Dillow in questioning the Lordship Salvation belief
Free Grace View
Free Grace View
Lordship Salvationists accuse us of believing in the intellectual assent.
Free Grace:
Saving faith includes an intellectual assent!
First of, intellectual assent. Zane Hodges supports this with Romans 10:14-15
14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?
15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!”
Here we read that faith comes from hearing the word of God. So it does include an intellectual assent. Our minds should perceive something before believing in it.
But it is simply an intellectual exercise? No!
“To describe faith that way is to demean it as a trivial, academic exercise, when in fact it is no such thing.
What faith really is … is the inward conviction that what God says to us in the gospel is true.”
Zane Hodges
“firm conviction”
“childlike trust”
an “act of appropriation” of the truth of the gospel
an “act of trust.”
Psychologizing Faith
Psychologizing Faith
L. Berkhof relates faith to the three compartments of the psyche of man:
L. Berkhof’s elements of Faith:
1) Notitia, the intellectual element, which is the understanding of a proposition;
2) Assensus, the emotional element, which is the conviction and affirmation of a proposition; and
3) Fiducia, the volitional element, personal trust in Christ as Savior and Lord
J. MacArthur modifies the third element: “determination of the will to obey”
“The biblical concept of faith is inseparable from obedience.”
John MacArthur
When Berkhof said trust, he meant:
“a personal trust in Christ as Savior and Lord including a surrender of the soul as guilty and defiled to Christ and reception and appropriation of Christ as the source of pardon and spiritual life.” L. Berkhof
In fact, “fiducia” in Latin means “confidence, trust, reliance, assurance.”
“Faith … involves an intellectual element—knowledge of the Gospel, an emotional element—feeling the sufficiency of Christ’s grace, and a voluntary element—trusting Christ as Savior and Lord.”
Demarest
But possible, or even inevitable, consequences of faith are not to be equated with faith itself.
Faith does NOT mean “to obey.” It is NOT “the determination of the will to obey the truth.” Faith is “reliant trust.” Dillow against J. MacArthur
… to import notions of obedience into the word “faith” is contrary to the teaching of the apostle Paul.
In Summary, we can adhere to the three elements of L. Berkholf:
Faith has an intellectual, emotional and volitional element.
1) Notitia, the intellectual element, which is the understanding of a proposition;
2) Assensus, the emotional element, which is the conviction and affirmation of a proposition; and
3) Fiducia, the volitional element, personal trust in Christ as Savior and Lord
A simpler definition would be:
Faith is simply trust!
Saving faith is a personal trust in Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Biblical Saving Faith
Biblical Saving Faith
But we need to expand that by asking ourselves:
What is the object of our saving faith?
Hebrews 11:1 gives us a clue and a biblical definition of faith.
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
This is one of the few times the Scriptures gave us a definition of a concept. Here we can see that there is no element of commitment but merely hoping for, trusting for things that we cannot see yet. So this object that we cannot see yet is what we trust we will receive or we will experience in the future.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Before we look into scriptures let’s also lay down the most basic doctrine of salvation: It is a gift!
But if we read Paul’s words here it would appear faith is the gift? That’s not true.
Faith = Feminine gender
This = Neuter
Therefore, “this” doesn’t represent “faith” in the verse
In Greek, words have genders (M/F/N). And pronouns it represents should follow the gender. The common mistake is to attribute the “this is a gift of God” to mean “faith is a gift of God”. But faith is a default feminine gender and the “this” that was use uses a neuter gender. Thus, the pronoun doesn’t refer to the “faith” in the statement. So what is the gift? In the context of the verses preceding, we can understand that the whole salvation process is a gift by God. We are just to receive that gift thru free will.
Real vs False Saving Faith
Real vs False Saving Faith
False Saving faith (Misquoted Verses)
False Saving faith (Misquoted Verses)
Let us look first on some verses that are used by many believers to say that even if you have faith, you are not a believer at all from the start.
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?
17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Key words: profit, dead, and brethren
The key words to understand these verses are: profit, dead, and brethren. If you say profit, you are working for something to gain it. But isn’t salvation a gift from God? so there is nothing to earn?
How about dead? does it make sense if you say to a doll it is dead? No.
How about if you say to a man lying in a coffin if it is dead, does it make sense? Yes.
Same goes with this. James addresses them as brethren. So these are already believers that have faith and that faith was alive. But along the way, they experienced trials which weakened their faith until it died. So the whole context of the letter of James is to help believes awaken their faith again so that they can save their soul - their life here on earth.
19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;
This is the summary of how to awaken our faith in the mind of James.
22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back,
20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
I’m emphasizing this because there is a megachurch since last month that has been teaching that the letter of James gives us requirements for real faith. Even telling believers to test if they are of the faith by persevering until the end. But we cannot read in the book of James any mention of believing nor the result of believing - eternal life. Thus, they are misquoting the Bible to instill fear in the lives of believers.
“Persevering until the end”
“fruit inspection”
“fruit as proof of faith”
Note that “Persevering until the end”, “fruit inspection” and “fruit as proof of faith” are all concepts used by the Reformed Lordship Salvation people to add commitment to obedience as a requirement of saving faith. Yes, fruits and good works are results of salvation. But how many works or fruits should you produce to say you are really saved? well at least one! And in your lifetime I can vouch that you already produced one. That is already enough. The Holy Spirit is in you that produces that fruit!
5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
6 But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.
This is another verse that gives us fear if understood out of context. The key word here to unravel the mystery is “disqualified”. Remember the basic doctrine of salvation - it is free. So if it is free, then why do I have to be qualified? then you will tell me I’m disqualified if I don’t work? so it’s not free at all and Paul just contradicted himself if we compare with Ephesians 2:8-9. Thus, the qualification he’s saying here is on the rewards. Test yourselves if you trust Jesus that He will give you rewards in the Bema seat of Christ. If you don’t trust that, then you may be disqualified from the rewards. And one way to be disqualified is that you’re not working for the Lord.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
Let’s clear the air with another misquoted verse where the Reformed people will say you have false faith! Here Jesus says to someone that they cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven and He never knew them because they practiced lawlessness. This is true if you are a FALSE PROPHET! Read every verses before and after the confusing verse before concluding!
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.
16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
The key word is “prophet” and “prophecy”. When a word is repeated in a closely compacted set of verses, that means we should read these verses as one message. Therefore, the fruit inspection here is not to believers but to false prophets! Unless you’re a false prophet, you should be scared. But if you’re a false prophet that is also a believer, we’ll still see you in Heaven, but you just can’t enter the Kingdom. You will just stay outside the Kingdom as an eternal missed opportunity because you falsely prophesied.
Remember, Paul said that in the body of Christ, there could still be prophets gifted by God.
28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.
29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?
29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.
So these are still believers but they may have falsely prophesied against God.
13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
15 “Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand),
Then here is another famous false faith verse that is misquoted. They say if you don’t endure to the end, you don’t have real faith at all. You’re not a genuine believer. But they always miss reading the whole chapter. This is a prophecy about the abomination of desolation, or the Great Tribulation. Jesus is telling Israel to run to the mountains so that they will not experience the Great Tribulation. Note Jesus is still protecting those Jews who at the time of the Tribulation didn’t believe in Him for salvation. Jesus wants that there still be a remnant of the Jews to survive and enter the Kingdom after the Great Tribulation.
7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.
11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.
Real Saving Faith
Pisteuo Eis
Real Saving Faith
Pisteuo Eis
Pisteuo eis = I believe in… I trust in...
"eis” = “personal relations”.
In understanding faith, we need to look at the preposition that it uses in its verb form. This “eis” means: to, into, towards. This is unique in the Gospel of John, but twice in Matthew 18:6 and Mark 9:42.
According to A. Oepke (Kittel, 2:431–33), the construction is used to indicate a personal relationship.
Pisteuo Eis: John uses it over 30x between Jn 2:11 and 17:20.
Free Grace Soteriology Pisteuō Eis
it is believed by almost all expositors that this construction was “coined” by NT authors to express the belief in Jesus which establishes a personal relationship with Him.
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.
24 But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men,
Here we have Jesus after preaching to the crowd. This is the first year of His operations. And at that time, many had believed in Him already. These people who have believed already has eternal life at that point. Note Jesus never asked them to repent nor did He require them to obey or even follow Him. He even said that He didn’t commit Himself to them because at that particular situation, He is looking for disciples. This chapter then leads to the discourse of Jesus with Nicodemus.
31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
Free Grace Soteriology Pisteuō Eis
There is nothing at all between
1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Note that I used NASB here because NKJV has a mistranslation. It shouldn’t be “doesn’t believe”, but doesn’t obey. The Greek for not obeying is used instead of pisteuo. This simply means if you believe already, but don’t obey the Son while a believer will not experience the benefits of eternal life here on earth. He doesn’t abide in Him. Abiding and seeing are words used by John to believers only.
All these verses in chapter 3 is an invitation by Jesus to Nicodemus to just believe in Him. There is no invitation to repent for sins, but impliedly a call to change his mind of who Jesus is.
But later on in the Gospel we learn that Nicodemus believed in Jesus. We can even call Him a “secret service Christian”.
42 Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue;
This is our first supporting verse showing Nicodemus believed. We can presume he was one of the rulers who believed. Yet because he loved his position in the Pharisees, he didn’t openly declare himself as a believer. He was a believer by heart, a secret one. Yet, he is still a believer even if he was not a follower.
38 After this, Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus; and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus.
39 And Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.
This is our next proof. Nicodemus, the person who came by night in John 3:1, is here again and he went with Joseph to bury Jesus. This shows that he is a believer. Yet he still did this in secret for fear of the Pharisees because of his work and position.
Read the book of John in your devotional time. Look at all the mentions of “believe”
I’d encourage everyone to read the book of John again and focus on those parts that has believe in Jesus. See there that there are no other requirements needed but mere belief.
Saving faith:
- Believe / trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior
- Receive / appropriate the gift of eternal life
Believe / trust that He is God (Lord)
31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.
Believe / trust He forgave our sins (past, present, future)
Receive / appropriate the gift of eternal life
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
What is next?
What is next?
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:
Sanctification activities:
Discipleship = Kingdom rewards / Evangelism (Matt., Mark, Luke)
Bond servant (doulos) = freedom from sin (Paul)
Sanctification activities:
Submission to Jesus’ Lordship = battle sin (Paul)
Ambassadorship = Evangelism (Paul)
Sanctification activities:
“Salvation of your soul” = life on earth, holiness, work for Christ in the midst of trials
(Peter & James)
Summary
Summary
We don’t adhere to the Reformed teachings, nor the Lordship Salvation theology
Saving faith is a personal trust in Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Salvation is simple. Even a child understands receiving a gift. There is no conditions attached to it. Just simply believe in Him.
Faith, then, is taking God at His Word. Saving faith is taking God at His Word in the gospel. It is nothing less than this. But it is also nothing more. - Zane Hodges
Hodges, Zane C. Absolutely Free: A Biblical Reply to Lordship Salvation (p. 31). Grace Evangelical Society. Kindle Edition.
