A REAL FAITH IS AN OBEDIENT FAITH

 

 

The Scriptures often warn that a real faith is a fruitful and obedient faith:

 

·       What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? (James 2:14 ESV)

 

Consequently, obedience is not an additional requirement for salvation but a picture of what a real faith looks like:

 

·       ...the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed...(2 Thessalonians 1:7-10)

 

Upon His return, He will bring “eternal destruction” upon “those who do not obey the gospel,” on those who refuse to believe. There is no indication anywhere in the Scriptures of a second chance. Why not? Because they will respond to a “second chance” as they had the first! If they had rejected the Light of the evidence in this life, they will certainly reject Him in the next, as His Light penetrates even deeper into their souls to expose their darkness.

 

If we continue to walk in the darkness, it means that we are bereft of saving faith:

 

·       If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:6-7)

 

A real faith will bear good fruit, as Jesus had taught:

 

·       “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matthew 7:15-19)

 

Good deeds do not save us but serve as signs of a saving faith, as apples bear witness that they come from an apple tree.

 

Nevertheless, we need to be very hesitant about passing judgment. From all appearances, it didn’t seem that Lot had been walking in the light. His two daughters had even gotten him drunk to get impregnated by him. Yet, the NT informs us that he was a righteous man:

 

·       ...He rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard). (2 Peter 2:7-8)

 

But, according to Jesus, we must judge someone calling himself a teacher or a prophet. He must be able to demonstrate that he is bearing good fruit.

MY YEARS IN CHRIST AS A LEGALIST

My first number of years in Christ was as a legalist. I believed in “grace” but also believed that I had to be worthy of it. However, it was becoming apparent to me that I was unworthy. This realization tormented me. I had given myself to the Lord, but I had no assurance that He had given Himself to me, an unworthy sinner.

I therefore sought to make myself worthy of Him. However, the harder I tried, the more it became apparent that I was unworthy. Even if He did save me, I couldn’t help thinking that He didn’t like me very much. Instead, it seemed that He liked others better, since He was blessing them more than He was blessing me.

As result of this thinking, I resented the very ones I was supposed to love. I even secretly resented God but wouldn’t admit it to myself.

This led to utter despair. I was so broken that hope became a rare luxury. However, in the midst of my brokenness, Christ made His grace real to me. I began to see that none of us are worthy. That’s why Christ had to die for me, the Worthy One for the unworthy.

Afterwards, I no longer could tolerate the “do better, try harder sermon,” which had so afflicted me. I just wanted sermons that would tell me that it is all about what Christ had done for me and not what I must do for Him.

However, as I became more confident in God’s grace, I began to see that the Christian life was more than just receiving Christ’s grace. A healthy lake must be stream-fed, but it must also surrender its water. Of first importance, I had to receive grace, but I also had to pass it on, responding obediently to it.

Immediately after affirming grace – “the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21; ESV) – James launched into describing our necessary response to grace:

·       But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. (James 1:22-25)

Being “doers of the word” isn’t an option. A true faith is an obedient faith, while a fruitless faith is a faithless faith, an imitation of the real thing. A real faith is a tree that bears good fruit (Matthew 7:17). If we trust in Christ, we will do as He instructs us.

As we grow in our understanding of grace, we become assured that if we confess our sins, He will forgive, cleanse, and readily appoint us a fresh start (1 John 1:9). This gives us assurance and gratefulness so that we can gladly serve Him, not because we fear that He will damn us but because we are confident that He won’t.

However, when we show no interest in being “doers of the Word,” we are deceiving ourselves if we claim that we know the Savior. According to James, a barren faith is a bogus faith:

·       What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. (James 2:14-17)

Grace doesn’t relieve us of the moral requirements of the law, now called “the perfect law, the law of liberty.” We still mustn’t kill, and we must love our neighbor as ourselves (Leviticus 19:18). Instead, we “uphold the law” (Romans 3:31), but in a new way:

·       You also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code [of the Mosaic Law]. (Romans 7:4-6 )

To not uphold what the law is to damage ourselves and those around us:

·       By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. (James 3:13-16)

We all have such temptations. Jesus was tempted in every way that we are, except without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He didn’t give in to the temptation, and we must not.

Being a “doer of the word” is more than just an indication of a true faith. It is also a source of blessing, as James had written: “He will be blessed in his doing” (1:25, above). We will also suffer if we turn back from the Word.

Grace is the good soil necessary to bring forth the crop. However, good soil without a crop is useless, while a crop without good soil is a fantasy. We were saved and endowed with God’s grace for a reason – “that we may bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4, above).

Consequently, I think that we need those “try harder, do better” sermons, but they all must rest on the solid foundation of knowing the grace of our Lord. Without this foundation, we will be pierced by many discouragements and despair.

DID JESUS GIVE US A BLANK CHECK WHEN IT COMES TO PRAYER?

Many insist that Jesus literally promised that we'd receive whatever we'd request in prayer. Let's look at an example of one of His "whatever" promises:

·       “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask WHATEVER you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.” (John 15:7-10)

While this might seem like a "whatever" promise, it certainly isn't. The promise contains many conditions. First of all, His disciples must “abide in me, and my words abide in you.”

What does this mean? Jesus subsequently explained: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.” This means that we will only reap if we sow by keeping His commandments.

In fact, Jesus taught this in many ways. Look at this example:

·       “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

This teaching suggests that if we don’t honor Him above all else, God will not honor us by meeting our needs. Why not? Well, one purpose of God honoring our requests is that these provisions will bring glory to our Lord:

·       “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”

Consequently, God’s gracious provisions must glorify Him. But isn’t this “work theology,” and won’t this lead to boasting? It shouldn’t! Why not? Because we have to give God the credit for even our obedience, our sowing, as Paul confessed:

·       But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

(If you have questions about this, ask!)

WE CANNOT SEPARATE DOING FROM BELIEVING AS MANY WANT TO DO

In the Myth of Certainty, Daniel Taylor makes the absurd claim that:

• “Faith in God, then, is not a belief system to defend but a life to live out!”

Taylor is half-right. Christianity is a “life to live out.” However, we cannot live this life out without instructions and the rationale or reasons to believe in these instructions – the Word of God.

For Jesus, bearing fruit – living the life – had to begin with embracing the Word of life. In His Parable of the Sower, Seeds and Soils, He highlighted the primacy of His Word for bearing fruit in His conclusion:

• “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.” (Luke 8:15; ESV)

In order to bear, they first had to hear and then adhere:

• “Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away… My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:18, 21) 

According to Jesus, loving Him and living out the life He prescribed wasn’t possible without keeping His Word:

• “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

Therefore, for the Christian, love isn’t a matter of living a “virtuous” life but rather, through faith, the life that He had commanded. Therefore, Jesus parting words commissioned His Apostles to “to observe all that I [Jesus] have commanded you.”

• “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

Clearly, this is not Taylor’s commission!