The Believer has Saving Faith

We saw this morning that the Christian is routinely described as being a believer, as having faith, as having a set of beliefs. Now this evening we want to consider the nature of true faith. Indeed we are only interested in saving faith as all other types of faith will let us down sooner or later.

 People like at times to joke about questions of faith and of belief – one way to avoid the seriousness of thinking about important matters is to make light of them. A good laugh and the whole question is disarmed – a bit like that child’s definition of faith as being “believing something you know isn’t true”. But the question before us is too serious make light of it.

A simple acquiescence in the existence of certain things eg. That Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 + 54 BC.

This type of belief may concern a genuine fact or an error but whether or not I hold such a belief it does not have a profound influence on the way I live my life.

According to Jas.2:19 the demons have this kind of “faith”. They believe that God exists but this does not lead them to stop seeking to oppose him – the only effect on them is o make them tremble it does not save them in any way.

To believe, like them, that God exists but not to take any serious steps to seek to be reconciled to him is surely ludicrous. This kind of “faith” has no benefit for he who possesses it.

It may well be particularly difficult to distinguish such faith from genuine saving faith at least at the beginning. How can we recognise the real McCoy? Well simply put temporary faith does not produce any lasting fruit as it remains only a superficial adjunct or addition to the person’s life. Temporary faith involves no fundamental or profound change in the person concerned.

True saving faith is not a capacity inherent to man! Man is capable of historical faith and he is capable of temporary faith but he is totally incapable of producing saving faith within himself!

Now the natural man does not like to hear of such things and wants to argue. Tell a man what he must do and he is flattered in his natural pride but tell him of his incapacities and he is offended.

How do react to what I’m saying? Do you think this is unfair or impossible? Perhaps it makes you angry? But this is just what the Bible teaches:

Eph.2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

If as we’ve just said that saving faith is beyond man but comes from God as a gift we must be prepared to come to an end of ourselves and humble ourselves before Almighty God. He alone is able to grant us saving faith and happily this is what he loves to do.

Have you received this gift? Has your possession of it turned your life upside down and inside out? Such is the nature of saving faith – the old passes away and all things become new. As we saw last week:

2Co 5:17  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Then rejoice! Let your life be characterised by praise and thankfulness toward the God who has been so gracious to you.

But what if such faith is not yet yours? How does God grant us this saving faith?

Well once again the Bible is very clear on this point:

Rom.10:17  So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (or the word of God).

God has determined that he will communicate faith to men and women, boys and girls as they hear his word. As we listen to his word he sends his Spirit and what seemed confusing, unclear and irrelevant becomes – sometimes suddenly sometimes gradually – clear and obvious! As J.B. Phillips the Bible translator put it the Bible message has the ring of truth to it. It sounds right. It fits with our experience of reality. It’s explanations correspond with things as we see them and the solutions proposed satisfy us.

So we must listen to the Word of God, read and preached. This Word of God is the word that proclaims the absolute centrality of our Lord and Saviour Jesus-Christ – his person, his character, his perfect sinless life, his sacrificial death as a substitute for sinners, his resurrection from the dead as the Father’s outward sign of his total approval of all that his Son has accomplished

Saving faith is a faith that transforms and includes crucially the idea of trust. Not only do we believe certain things that we maybe didn’t believe before but we count upon then, we build our lives upon them.

Australia illustration. I may well think that Australia exists but that really does not affect my life until the day I decide to act upon this belief. When I buy a ticket, pack my bags and head off to the airport. At that moment my belief in the existence of Australia really does start to affect my whole life as I count on its existence.

A.       In first place man’s intellect is spoken to. Real faith involves believing in certain very precise truths – biblical faith is never vague. The believer may not be able to explain in detail every aspect of the articles of faith but he is nevertheless persuaded of their truthfulness. A the same time he in persuaded that these truths are pertinent to the way he must lead his life in relation to God and his fellow man.

While it is dangerous to concentrate upon a strict minimum of things to be believed it would nevertheless be impossible for a man to be a Bible Christian without out firm belief in the following areas:

i.                       That God exists and is holy, honest, good and just

ii.                      That man is a sinner and thus incapable of saving himself

iii.                    That the Lord Jesus-Christ thanks to his nature and the quality of his work, his death and resurrection, is alone able to save us! 

B.       True saving faith does not leave us emotionally indifferent. Although the Christian must never be defined in terms of emotionalism nevertheless true Christian faith always has a greater or lesser effect upon our emotions. The heart – the centre of our whole being and the seat of our emotional life – is not left unaffected by the wonderful truths believed!

1Jn.4:19 We love because he first loved us.

1Pe.1:8-9 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1Thess. 2:13 And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.