Saving Faith
Jesus said to more than one person, “Your faith has saved you.” The term saved you is often translated, made you well. Being saved and made well, or made whole, were one and the same. They had faith, that is, they believed Jesus, so a saving miracle was done in their lives. Faith in Christ saves us. Some use the term “faith alone.” There is no such thing as faith alone. Faith always leads to some sort of action or response. If it is truly faith, the action or response is doing exactly whatever God has said needs to be done at the time.
For example, Adam and Eve were told not to eat of the tree of Knowledge. They ate of it revealing their lack of faith. The serpent had planted doubt in their minds. Had they had faith that God had good reason in what He asked, though they knew not what it was, they would not have eaten of the tree.
Noah believed (had faith) that God had truly spoken to him and was going to destroy the earth with a flood. He obeyed and built a boat. Had he not really believed, he would not have gone to all the work of building a boat. Everyone who had faith that God was really going to send a flood got into the boat. Everyone who did not believe that there was going to be a flood stayed out and drowned. Faith was the key, and obedience was necessary. Of the two, which was more important? Suppose I believed that there was really going to be a flood, but I stayed outside of the boat—I would have drowned. On the other hand, suppose I did not believe, was homeless, and decided to get into the ark just to have a place to sleep. I would have been saved. So, we could say that of the two, obedience was more important than faith.
Had Lot been successful in convincing his sons in laws to leave the city with him as God had said to do, they would have been saved from destruction. Had they gone out simply to amuse Lot, planning on going back when Lot got over it, they would have been saved, provided they also followed the further instructions such as, “don’t look back.” When Rahab and her household were saved from the destruction of Jericho, it was because they obeyed the instructions of putting a red cord out the window. Following this simple instruction was the act of obedience that saved them. It took faith to believe they should do it. That is why the Bible says, “By faith Rahab…”
When the Israelites had disobeyed God, God took away His protection and allowed snakes to come into the camp. Many got sick, some were dying. To foreshadow Christ’s saving death on the cross, God told Moses to make a bronze serpent on a pole and have the people look at it. Everyone who looked at it was healed, or saved from the poison. It took an act of obedience, looking, which came from faith that the look would heal.
God has always tied salvation to a simple, easily doable act obedience. It has always required faith to do the simple act of obedience. God still works with people in the same way. Jesus asked in Luke 18:8, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” Faith is a rare commodity, because true faith leads to obedience. Today, many claim to have faith in Christ, but few obey the simple things He asks them to do. Their actions reveal that they really do not have faith.
Pop theology says that it is a “relationship with Christ” that saves a person. So we have a whole generation of Christians trying to pursue a “relationship,” while living lives of disobedience. A relationship with God is not what saves us. Obeying Him because you have faith that He means what He says is what saves. Adam and Eve had a face to face relationship with God in a perfect environment, but it did not keep them from disobeying and being cast out of the garden. Lucifer had a relationship that no human has ever had with God, but it did not keep him from being the author of rebellion. One third of the angels of heaven had a relationship with god that we can only dream about, but it did not keep them from being deceived and cast out of heaven. Judas had a relationship with Christ that a very privileged few ever had, but it did not keep him from allowing greed to destroy him.
False theology usually appeals to the carnal heart. Salvation by works provides a list of to-do’s, and that is appealing to the human heart. By the same token, being saved by having a “close relationship to God” has the appeal of lifting one above the simplicity of those endeavoring to obey God. It has a nuance of the intangible to it. It makes a person feel good. It is not measurable. No one can judge that relationship.
God has a track record of saving people who obey whatever it is He asks of them, and it is never difficult or ambiguous. But it does take faith to be convinced that it is the right thing to do.
You may ask, “How does this differ from salvation by works? Simple: salvation by works is a list of man-made to-do’s. Obedience is doing what God requires. Humans have always created long lists of to-do’s that have a human origin. Paganism and idolatry are based on human to-do’s. Going back to the flood story, to be saved, a person must get into the ark. Now if I believed that their was going to be a flood just as Noah said there would, and I chose not to go into the ark, but build a waterproof tank filled with provisions, than I would have been destroyed in spite of my faith because I was basing my salvation on my own works rather than on obeying God and using His provision. Obeying God has never been salvation by works. Pagans devised man-made ways of salvation, the Jews devised man-made rules to follow to feel religious, the Christian Church of the Dark Ages devised man-made lists of actions to perform to be saved, yet none of these things can truly save. The Protestant reaction to the Catholic man-made rules was “faith alone.” It was right to throw off the man-made rules, but wrong to believe that actions do not play a part in our salvation. The mistake was in separating faith from obedience. True obedience is a result of faith, and true faith always leads to right obedience, so far as a person knows God’s will.
None of this is rocket science, but my experience has found that because of the popular ways of expressing salvation today, when a person talks about the necessity of obedience, he gets labeled as
a “legalist.” The discrepancy between the fact that millions claim to have faith, and Jesus says that it would be hard to find when He returns, shows that few will have a faith that leads to obedience. It is high time that we understand this before it is too late.
In Revelation 14:12, the Bible identifies those who survive the final test in order to be saved. It says the “keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus.” This is and always has been the combination for salvation—one believes God and does what He says.
Until next week,
Dennis
www.dennispumford.com
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