A review of Grace, Faith, & Salvation

Earlier this year a friend of mine told me to visit a website called “The Voice of one Crying in the Wilderness.” I did just that and stumbled across an article titled “Grace, Faith and Salvation” which I would like to review here. Actually, I just want to discuss a few main points that the author brings forth.

Aside from the author saying a few things that just don’t make sense there are some things he says that I believe are worth discussing in this series on Salvation.

One of the first verses he begins with is Ephesians 2:8-10 which says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

What he points to in this verse is the relationship between grace, faith, and salvation. How grace alone is not what saves us but simply what makes us savable. As I read and re-read the article my interpretation of the author’s intention is that he is unsatisfied with the way eternal life is often presented to society. He mistakenly believes that most Protestant Theology teaches that grace alone is all that we need for salvation. Therefore, the intent of his article is (seems to be) to unpack the meaning of faith and show how it brings us into the grace of God.

Now, most of us are familiar with the “Solo” cries of the Reformation—more specifically “Solo Fide” (faith alone). Wherever salvation by solo fide is taught, it is done in such a way that we look not at our own works but upon the work of Christ for our salvation. We are taught (and rightly so) that none of our works will save us and nothing we do will cause us to earn it. The author takes a slightly different approach and though some may be quick to place him under a works theology I will take a rain check on it for now.

Grace is what puts us in a position to be saved and that position he says is what is undeserved. Without God’s grace we would have no hope of salvation. Here is the crux. But just because we do nothing to deserve God’s grace (none of our works have earned it) does not mean we do nothing for our salvation. Faith for him, is much more than just a transaction of thoughts in the mind and heart.

In the author’s rather aggressive opinion, faith can be divided into three parts: hearing, submitting, and obeying. Read how he explains it:

“First and most importantly, they (faith & Believe) require revelation from God. You cannot exercise faith or truly believe anything from a Biblical perspective unless you receive revelation from God. You have to learn to recognize His still, small voice. That’s a real problem for all those religious types who don’t think that God is able to communicate with men today, or that He chooses not to. The second thing involved in the meaning of faith and believe involves surrender. We have to submit to what He says. It’s proof that we agree with Him. And the third aspect of these two words is obedience. We have to do what He says. So, faith includes all of these. We have to hear God, submit or agree with Him, and then we have to be obedient and do what He says.”

My immediate thought was that this definition for faith and belief that he has given sounded a bit cumbersome. And the more I have thought about it the more uneasy I am becoming with it. For several reasons.

The excerpt I quoted from him is what he believes to be an “amplified” translation of faith (pistis) and belief (peitho) from the Greek Language. And my opinion is that he has taken the liberty to elaborate and collaborate his own feelings into the Biblical notion of faith.

I am in complete agreement with him when he says that biblical faith cannot occur without revelation. As I understand Scripture, Biblical faith can only happen in reaction to a revelation of Jesus Christ—God always makes the first move.

Where I become uneasy with his definition is when he begins to say that surrender and obedience are parts of its meaning. Recall with me Romans 10:9-10 where Paul states “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Paul isn’t teaching that if a person doesn’t confess with their mouth that they believe in Jesus that they won’t be saved. I believe that what the Scripture is getting at there is that what one believes in their heart will be made sure/confirmed by the words they speak (as well as their actions). It is a truth that Jesus taught us when He said that “from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Saving faith begins in the heart, and the heart is what God looks at when He looks upon us.

When we hear the gospel and decide to place our faith (trust) in Christ we are responding not to a “submit and obey” call but to the good news of God (to the wooing of Love). We are not responding to a slave master who is looking down from heaven with a stick in one hand and a thunderbolt in the other, but we are responding to the desperate call of God’s Love. When one falls “in Love” what once looked and felt like works of slavery becomes the works of pleasure. When we experience the Love of God, work’s definition changes. It isn’t that the acts of submitting and obeying aren’t happening as we place our faith in Him but it is that to bring such loaded terms into the definition of saving faith brings a lot of confusion.

Imagine telling a friend about the gospel, and you say “to be saved all you must do is place your faith in Jesus, and believe…..” Then your friend’s following question is “so what is faith?” Now here is where I want you to really use your imagination. Imagine telling him/her that to have faith he/her must receive revelation, submit to God, and obey.” Now it seems to me that what you would have done by giving him that definition is contradicted by what you said in the first place—that all you must do is place your faith in Jesus.

In my opinion, when the Bible talks about faith and belief it talks about them as if everybody reading knows what they mean. The reality is, most people do have some kind of understanding. Perhaps this is so because most everybody has a concept (be it weak or strong) of what it means to love and be loved. It is “in love” with other people that we exercise faith (trust) in some form or fashion.

When the revelation of the incarnation of God’s Love for man occurs we choose to either respond by faith in love or to reject Him. By speaking of saving faith in the manner the author has done will eventually confuse people and lead them into the works of slavery. The better way is love. Yes, it is true that submission and obeying are happening when we respond in faith to the Gospel but it is so much more than that. When the love of God grips our heart, submitting and obeying become our pleasure and delight.

Were the Rulers Saved?

Romans 10:9-10 says this “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Having the verse above in mind let us read John 12:42-43, “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; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”

As I stated in one of my previous posts, I am reading through a book that was given to me by a friend in hope of engaging us in some theological dialogue. In the near future I will begin to post an “exhaustive” review of the book but for now I would like to challenge the position the author puts forth concerning John 12:42-43. He argues from this text that Scripture is teaching us that believing in Jesus and thereby receiving eternal life is a separate act from deciding to become His disciple. Such rulers he says could have kept their belief hidden until their deaths, continued to live and do what they had always done and still be completely certain of their salvation.

It is difficult for me to believe that the belief these rulers had was genuine. Though, I will resist the urge to be dogmatic about it due to the fact that I won’t be judging the heart of any man on that great and awesome Day. It is difficult for me to accept for several reasons. Allow me to explain.

Jesus said that from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
Paul says that your belief must come from your heart.
Therefore, what you believe in your heart should come out of your mouth.

Those men believed in Him.
But did not confess Him.
Because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
Therefore, their belief did not come from their heart, and they were not truly saved.

Also, I think it is important to take note (in the third premise) that scripture is pointing to the fact that they were living in sin by having broken the first commandment—Thou shall not have any other Gods before Me.

The second issue I have with Robert Wilkin’s interpretation of this scripture is that he does not consider their silence and love of praise to be a kind of denying—“whoever denies Me before men, him I also will deny before My Father who is in heaven (Matt 10:33)” “If we deny Him, He also will deny us (2 Tim 2:12).”

Jesus is Life

“And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5:11-12).

Following the thread of the last post I want to say a little more on what I feel the Lord has shown me concerning the sufficiency of Christ concerning my salvation. As is revealed in the scripture above, God has given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. It is in the person of Jesus. Not in a scripture about Jesus.

Now this truth is something that the Holy Spirit began revealing to me after my good friend Daniel Sparks shared with me some good thoughts concerning it. As I have been reviewing a book given to me by a friend titled Confident in Christ by Robert Wilkin I have begun to see more then ever the importance of it. What the theology in that book teaches is that we can receive eternal life apart from receiving the person of Christ. All you have to do (and I quote) is “believe that Jesus is the guarantor of eternal/everlasting life and you will be forever eternally secure for heaven.” Believe it or not but a church right up the road from my apartment, teaches the exact same thing.

To promise life without the Son is to promise death. John 5:39-40 I believe speaks perfectly to such delusion, “you search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.”

THE GIFT AND THE GIVER ARE ONE

In agreement with Moses I say “Soul, be still, and SEE the SALVATION of the LORD.” For the Lord Himself has fought for me and given me His peace (Exodus 14:113-14). I want to encourage the weary soul that may be trying to work for salvation by saying, only as you set your eyes on Jesus (who is both our savior and salvation) shall you rest and walk in peace. Consider the old man Simeon who when he took the baby Jesus in His arms blessed God and said, “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples (Luke 2:29-31).”

To avoid confusion and the deception of the enemy it is crucial that we not separate the gift of salvation from the Son of the Father. I say this because I have heard of a good many people speak of being saved while confessing to not being current followers of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not come to give sinners salvation in the form of neatly wrapped packages just for the fun of it. He was sent IN the Love (John 3:16), Will (Galatians 1:4), and Good Pleasure (Ephesians 1:5) of the Father to give us eternal intimacy with Himself and the Father (John 17:3) thus saving us from the wrath to come.

“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life (1 Tim 1:15-16).” “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have Eternal life (John 3:16).” As I understand the scriptures, Jesus does not save sinners and then give them eternal life but He saves sinners as they believe in Him for eternal life. We were saved from wrath unto intimacy. Therefore, to claim salvation in conjunction with eternal security while admitting to not being His follower is very dangerous position to be in.

Let us not ever think of salvation without thinking of Jesus. May we never separate the two. As we saw above, Jesus is the embodiment of our salvation and eternal life is intimacy with Himself. If we think we can have the gift without the giver then perhaps we should examine our hearts to see whether or not we have either.

The Lord has caused me to see that our eternal assurance should never be thought of apart from Himself. For it is in Him that we have believed, in Him that we have been saved, in Him that we have died, been buried, and raised again, and in Him that we now sit at the right hand of the Father. Our life and assurance of it is certain in Him.

I have heard preachers preach sermons that give theological propositions for eternal security/assurance as if all someone needs to do is believe a scripture to be true and then you shall never have any doubts. I believe that the revelation of eternal security can only come by the revelation of what eternal life (intimacy with God) is all about. In my own life eternal security has come as a deeply personal revelation as I have sought the Lord intimately. For a preacher to deliver a theology of eternal security without a theology of intimacy with God, can be, and has been, a dangerous thing.