Faith is confidence that actions rooted in good character will yield the best outcome,
Even when I cannot see how.
What Is Saving Faith?
By Steve Withrow
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Faith is recognizing God’s will in a given matter and acting upon it.
Introduction
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Faith is recognizing God’s will in a given matter and acting upon it.
There has been much discussion about faith over the years. Many people claim to have it, or to have it once in a while. Others are not sure whether they have faith or not, and still others would express quite openly that they themselves do not possess faith.
Perhaps the biggest question regarding faith revolves around the question of eternal life. Is there a type of faith that will assure my heart that in the life to come I will be with the Lord for all eternity in heaven? There is a great fear in the heart of many that when they die they will stand before the Lord, and that they will not measure up. There are others who are quite certain they will pass muster and make it into heaven when they die.
If what the Bible says about Hell is true (and the Bible speaks more of Hell than of Heaven), then there are grave consequences to consider. A proper understanding of faith will impact your eternal destiny, not just the 70 years you spend on earth, but your forever will be determined by your understanding of faith. It is a critical issue.
Before we dive into the subject too deeply let me begin by saying that God wants you to know that you have eternal life. He does not want you to leave the issue in doubt, then roll the dice in some kind of cosmic crap shoot when you die. He knows how important it is for you to know your destiny right now, and he has given us the Bible to help us know what saving faith is all about. One of the key passages that should assure us all is found in the fifth chapter of the Apostle John’s first letter (I John). After a lengthy discussion about how we can know if we are saved, John says in verse 13: “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.” God wants you to know what saving faith is, and he wants you to settle your eternal issues with Him right now through faith.
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Faith is recognizing God’s will in a given matter and acting upon it.
The Crux of the Problem
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Faith is recognizing God’s will in a given matter and acting upon it.
The crux of the problem seems to be that there are several different types of faith that a person can possess, but there is only one that saves. If you have one of the other types of faith, you will have high hopes for your afterlife, but no assurance, so the key for you is to have the right kind of faith, and settle these issues once and for all.
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Faith is recognizing God’s will in a given matter and acting upon it.
The Three Types of Faith
Intellectual Faith
Let’s take some time and discuss the three basic types of faith. The first is intellectual faith. Every Christian will have intellectual faith. This is a faith that says, “I believe the Bible. I believe in Jesus Christ, and I believe in God.” Depending upon your religious education you may add a number of things to the list of religious and historical tenets that you believe. But intellectual faith is not enough to get you to heaven. Listen to what James says to those who possess only a head knowledge faith. “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.” Isn’t it a little scary to think that the demons possess even this level of faith? Certainly this type of faith is not enough to save anyone.
You see, it’s not enough to believe things about Jesus. You can believe things about anyone. We believe things about George Washington too: He was the commanding general of the Continental Army, the 1st President of the United States, was married to Martha, had wooden teeth, etc. “But,” I would like to ask you, “what is George doing for you right now?” “Nothing,” you say. “He’s dead.” And that is just my point. Believing in Jesus intellectually is not enough. He is a real person who rose from the dead, and he lives today. Do you know him personally? Do you have a relationship with him?
Temporal Faith
The second type of errant faith is temporal faith. Just as every Christian will have intellectual faith, every Christian will have temporal faith too. Temporal faith is the type of daily faith that trusts God for the temporary events of our lives. We trust God to heal our sick children, but once healed, that faith is no longer needed. We take a trip in the car and pray to God to keep us safe, but once we arrive at the destination, this temporary faith is no longer needed or existent. We pray each month to be able to pay our bills. Once the bills are paid, again this temporal, or temporary faith is no longer active. A lot of people go through life with nothing more than this temporary faith.
What happens when these people die? The temporary is past and the eternal is begun. What faith will outfit them for eternity? Certainly not temporal faith, because all of the temporary episodes of mortal life are past. Listen to what Jesus said to those who exercised temporal faith without a true saving heart change. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:21-23)
How frightening to be involved in Christian ministry, and then find out one day that for all of your good effort, Jesus still doesn’t know you. You are lost, and outside of any fellowship with Him. The simple fact is that while the pathway to eternal life is clearly marked, it is a narrow path. Earlier in this very same passage in Matthew Jesus affirmed this fact when he said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
At this point you may be discouraged, and maybe even a little fearful. You may realize that you have intellectual faith and temporal faith, but that is all you have. Perhaps for the first time you realize that your faith is doomed to fall far short of your goal. Don’t be disheartened. There remains a saving faith that the Lord provides freely to all who will accept it, and while it is not an easy brand of faith, it is quite simple to understand, so simple that even a child can understand it. It is a brand of total surrender, obedience, and trust that we will call saving faith.
Saving Faith
The 1st Thing You Need to Know
God Is Sovereign and Requires a Firm Commitment
Saving faith involves three things that you need to know and one thing that you need to do. It begins with a basic knowledge of God. In a nutshell we need to understand that God is Sovereign. He created the universe and He is its reigning monarch. When someone is accepted into His kingdom it is important for that person to understand that he must become a humble subject who will be submissive to the uncontested authority of God. God reveals his will for us through His word, so surrendering your prerogatives to God means submitting and committing both to know and to obey His word. This surrender to follow the Lord and his word is what we call repentance. Repentance is a 180-degree turn from a lifestyle that serves self to a lifestyle that serves the Lord.
It sounds radical doesn’t it? We don’t like to hear terms like submission, and surrender, and uncontested authority. These words don’t resonate to our sophisticated ears because they sound too much like the words doormat, lobotomy, and low self-esteem. I’m going to ask you to set aside your prejudices and preconceptions for a moment. Please don’t be offended that God desires a hard commitment. He knows that life is so twisted and confused, and that there are a thousand other voices out there calling for your allegiance. Making this kind of firm commitment is the only way to mute the world’s distractions, so that you can hear God’s voice throughout your life. God won’t yell to get your attention. If he wanted to He could roar like a tempest and shatter the competition like so much window glass. But He knows that people won’t and shouldn’t surrender to a bully. So He speaks softly, and the words He whispers are “follow me and I’ll save you.” Listen and follow, and make the firm commitment. It is the only way.
The 2nd Thing You Need to Know
You Cannot Save Yourself
The second thing you need to understand is that there is no way you can possibly save yourself through any good works that you do. The view that most people have of the afterlife is a picture of a giant set of merchant’s scales. On the one side God puts all the bad stuff you’ve ever done. On the other side you deposit all the good stuff from your life. If the scales tip your way, you’re in. If they don’t, you should have invested in an asbestos coffin. If you think about that picture for a moment, once you get past the superficial comedy of the scene you realize that this is a horrendous way to try to get to heaven. First, you don’t know what the standard of measure is. You don’t know how heavy your sins are compared to your good works. You haven’t even been given a good sense of how good a good work must be in order to count. You have no vision throughout your life of how the scales are tipping, so when you get there your fate is essentially sealed without your even knowing how it got to be what it is. Plus your life may end suddenly and cut you off just when you were getting ready to do your best work. That kind of system is an abomination and a total miscarriage of justice, and it makes God an ogre.
God’s system is different. God’s system says this. “You can’t possibly get to heaven through your good works. I am perfect and have a perfect standard, so you’ll never measure up; even your good is corrupted. You’re in an impossible situation, and we both know you’re doomed. So the only way you can meet the standard and make it to heaven is if I do it all. So I am going to make a way that is totally free. If you will accept My provision, I will personally tip the scales in your direction and secure your destiny. My provision is my Son, Jesus Christ.” That is the condensed and paraphrased version of these verses that follow.
As it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one: There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God: All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one…” for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:10-12 & 23)
But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently…” (Titus 3:4-8a)
And you were dead in you trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked… But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that (salvation) is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. (Ephesians 2:1-2a & 4-9)
The 3rd Thing You Need to Know
Jesus is the Only Way to Eternal Life
The final thing you need to understand has already been said in these verses, and that is the truth that Jesus is the only way to the Father and Heaven. He alone bore your penalty and judgment when He died on the cross, and it is his righteousness alone that will tip those giant scales we talked about. We talked before about the narrow way and the narrow gate. We said that though the way was narrow, it was well marked. Well, here is that way, here is that gate; it is Jesus, and He marked it with some huge marquee statements.
Jesus is the way to the Father.
“Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places: if it were not so I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.”
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
Philip said to Him, “Lord show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:1-9a)
Jesus is the gateway to eternal life.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep… I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture… I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep… I am the good shepherd; and I know My own, and My own know me… My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.” (John 10:7, 9, 11, 14, 27-28)
To sum it all up, these are the three things that are essential to know to experience saving faith:
- God is Sovereign, and He requires a hard commitment of repentance from you in order to save you.
- You cannot possibly save yourself, so God had to make a way.
- Jesus is the way to salvation and eternal life, and He offers it as a free gift.
It’s pretty simple isn’t it? Even a child can understand it. There’s no mystery, no tricks or hocus pocus, just a straight message that God fully intends for you to understand. But there is one more thing. As we mentioned before, there is yet one thing you must do to be saved.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in his name. (John 1:12)
What then Should I Do?
You must receive Christ. You must receive His free gift of salvation. You must exercise saving faith. To put it simply, saving faith is nothing more than transferring your trust from yourself to Christ to secure your eternal destiny. Where before you worked for your salvation in the hope that the good would outweigh the bad, now you abandon that course because you see its pride and futility. You reach out to Christ and pray, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Lord, save me. Transfer Your merit to my account and wipe my record clean of sin. Make a residence for Yourself in my life, and by your Holy Spirit begin to live out your life through mine.” Pray to Him, and in that moment transfer your whole weight of trust to Him for your eternal destiny. To transfer your whole confidence to Christ for your eternal destiny, to commit your whole life to His Lordship and direction, and to receive as a free gift that which He has done on your behalf, that is saving faith.