Whose Faith is it Anyway?

Having fully explored the way of worship, I am moving on to the facets of faith. God says we are to enter worship boldly. We can only do this in holiness. If there is sin present in our lives, we must deal with that first. We can also do that boldly and presently. But how do we maintain the holy life? What are we responsible for, if anything? And what is God's part in all this?

The just shall live by faith. Let's pick Romans 1:16-17 as the text for this for it describes the beginning of our faith.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith."

The question is, whose faith or what kind of faith shall we live by? God answers that in Galatians 2:20:

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

Notice that little word "of" next to "faith". Too often translators and Christians erroneously substitute "in" for "of" here. If it truly were "faith 'in' the Son of God" then it would be a works salvation. It puts the requirement of belief as a condition of salvation upon the sinner. But this is simply not possible. After all, before salvation, the sinner is dead already in God's sight (John 3:17-18). And upon salvation, the newborn Christian is now dead to sin in Christ. As I have said many times before in this blog, a dead man can do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Jesus affirms this in John 15:5.

Therefore it is the faith "of" the Son of God which saves. Only He is worthy and able to save us from our sin. It was His faith without measure as the Son of Man that is able to believe that His Atonement would satisfy His Father.

And yet there is another facet to the statement that the just shall live by faith. We alone are responsible to maintain the holy life by faith, our personal faith. This faith is "in" the Son of God, that His Atonement is sufficient for salvation, justification, righteousness, and holiness. This faith we must exercise when sin arises in our lives and we must take personal responsibility to do the following:

"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." - Proverbs 28:13

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." - I John 1:9

"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." - Romans 6:11

"But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." - Hebrews 11:6

"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" - I John 5:2-5

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." - Hebrews 12:1-2

Finally, I want to share with you a beautiful exposition of the demonstration of personal faith. I heard this in a sermon last week while visiting a church in Japan. It is based on Hebrews 11:13, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

The things that God promises He will do require faith on our part to believe that He will indeed do them. Look at the action words in that verse which demonstrate that kind of faith - seen them, persuaded of them, and embraced them. It is that last phrase which God deeply impressed upon me as I was wavering about the desired salvation of a Japanese friend.

God wants us to embrace His promises. To embrace a promise in faith means (in the Greek) to literally hug it closely and tightly like a hug whether for dear life or a hug for a dear loved one. It is full of affection, emotion, desire, focused attention, and virtue. (Virtue is that very first thing we add to our faith - II Peter 1:5)

This is new to me but altogether precious. What great power flowed through that faith and prayer. I knew right then that my prayer for my friend was right from the throne of God, full of grace, and right from His heart, that none, even this one, should perish, but come to salvation. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." - James 5:16 It was the most powerful hug I have ever felt. It is this kind of faith, I believe, which is represented by Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." That hug was God's tangible substance and evidence that He will do the thing purposed in His heart.

Yo Adrian!

Most mornings driving to work I listen to Adrian Rogers on the radio. This morning his topic was a compare and contrast of faith and works from Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." and James 2. Pastor Rogers wanted to assure us that these two passages are not contradictory. He is correct. His basis for this was pointing out a key to understanding. This key, he claimed, was that Ephesians 2:8-9 speaks of our justification before God (faith) while James 2 speaks of our justification before men (works). To support this claim, we must ask two questions. Why and why?

Why must I be justified before God? That's easy. Because of the atonement of Jesus Christ. Justification cost His blood. That is God's eternal explanation found in Romans 5:9, "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."

Pastor Rogers went on to claim rightly that our faith, our justification, our salvation is indeed based alone on the grace of God - NOT OF WORKS. For how could any man account of his works and declare them sufficient such that he knows he is saved? And what man would accept not knowing, but merely hoping his works were enough, only to find out after death (too late!) that his works were insufficient? What rational man would take on such a religion?

The second question is where we get into trouble. Why must I be justified before men? Pastor Rogers went right to the Scriptures for this one. He pinged Romans 4:2-3, "Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." and James 2:23-24, "And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only." Somehow at this point Pastor Rogers drew the conclusion that Abraham's works justified him before man. Let's examine that claim.

Genesis 15 offers God's Word about Romans 4:2-3. Genesis 22 (30 years later) offers God's Word about James 2:23-24. Two things jump out immediately as we go back to those two passages in Genesis. First, who was there? If Abraham's works justified his faith before men, then who was there to account for it? Nobody. Nobody was there but Abraham, Isaac, and God. Second, what was God's response?

Genesis 22:12, "And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me." God then goes on to declare His blessings to Abraham. But the point here is that Abraham's work of offering Isaac elicited a response from God, not man.

Our faithful works before God are for that very purpose - to obtain His response. What response is that? Justification.

Other Bible teachers have explained the difference between the two key texts of this post this way: Ephesians 2:8-9 speaks of our saving faith while James 2 speaks of our living faith. That's the way I have always heard it until this morning.

But before you start to see Pastor Rogers' point and argue, think about these last two facts from his broadcast. He went on to say that there are many people in his congregation and listening to his broadcast who are not saved. They think they are. But they don't know it. He said (and you've heard this illustration hundreds of times) they have missed salvation by eighteen inches. They know the truth in their heads but they have never asked Jesus into their hearts.

Stop right there. That's works! No one can claim salvation by grace alone and then also say that we must "ask Jesus into our heart". By implication that means if we do not ask Him, then we are not saved. That is works.

Second, at the end of the broadcast, his assistant Chris announces a typical benediction, "If you've never prayed to receive Jesus as your Savior...."

Stop right there. That's works too! No one can claim salvation by grace alone and then also say that we must "pray to receive Jesus". By implication that means if we do not pray, then we are not saved. That is works.

These are unBiblical myths propagated by the church today. They leave sinners in hell and many saints confused and out of their daily right in heaven.

Faith without works is dead. Does that mean we lose our salvation? God forbid! It simply means we are asleep. "Awake unto righteousness and sin not," saith the Lord in I Corinthians 15:34. Our works are for the good pleasure of God as we demonstrate our faith. We believe His revealed Word and will and we do it. There is no greater joy on earth or heaven than this.