Where Does Our Faith in Christ Come From?
Sounds like a simple question, but is it?
Many of us have memorized and even frequently quote Ephesians 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.”
We tend to focus on the gift of grace, and sometimes ‘assume’ whatever it we assume about faith. We are told to place ‘our’ faith in Christ to receive the gracious gift of salvation.
So the question for consideration is where do we get ‘our’ faith? Are we born with it, or does the faith we place in Christ originate elsewhere?
Why Does God Save Sinners?
We would love to see a survey of professing Christians in which the above question appeared, either as a stand alone question, or with multiple choice answers.
Does these passages give us a clue to the main reason God forgives and saves sinners?
I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. (Isaiah 43:25)
For your name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great. (Psalm 25:11)
Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake! (Psalm 79:9)
Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you. (Jeremiah 14:7)
We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord, and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you. Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not dishonor your glorious throne. (Jeremiah 14:20-21)
God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25-26)
Your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. (1 John 2:12)
As evangelical Christians, we are charged with spreading the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The manner in which we carry out that charge, the reasons we give for trusting in and receiving Christ as Savior and Lord, will always communicate to the hearers why God desires to save their souls. After all, we all have reasons for why we do what we do and for the decisions we make. We will always give reasons why our hearers should choose Christ.
The challenge for all of us who are carriers of the good news of Christ is to communicate the right WHY. It is even possible to determine if we in fact are communicating the right ‘why’. We can examine how we present the gospel and ask ourselves if our how communicates the why.
Food for thought. . .
The "Ordo Salutis"
Romans 8:29-30 is called The Order of Salvation (Ordo Salutis), as well as the Golden Chain of Redemption (terms not specifically in Scripture). Textually, these two verses are Paul’s logical explanation of why ‘all things work together for those who are called according to His purpose’ (Rom 8:28). Let’s take a look:
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (v. 28)
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” – (vv. 29-30)
Why does everything that happens to us work together for those who love God and are called according to His purpose? Because God determined in eternity past to accomplish certain things on behalf of those who would come to believe in, trust, and love His Son. We just need to read all three verses (vv. 28-30) and not just quote v. 28. The why is in the text – that little preposition ‘for’ is key.
For those He foreknew would become His children, that were ‘called according to His purpose’:
- He predestined.
- He called.
- He justified.
- He glorified.
Without getting into a debate about links in a chain (not the intent here), we know from the text, that God (He) accomplished four things. Note the past tense, it’s important.
Looking at the ‘fabulous four’ things that God did, can we apply a sense of human ‘our time’ ? While God accomplished certain things in eternity past, do any of the ‘fab four’ actually occur in ‘our time’ – during our temporal lifetimes?
We suggest that while God’s choosing (predestining) those who would become His people, for His glory, happened before our world was created (read Eph 1-2), and that our glorification will happen at the resurrection of believers, ‘calling’ and ‘justification’ occur in ‘our time’. We who who hear the gospel and believe in the Son ‘experience’ the call of God and are ‘justified’ before God, because of Christ’s righteousness, from the moment we believe and trust in Christ.
Food for thought………..
Your Changed Life is Not the Gospel Message
It is a ‘given’ that a relationship with God, through the crucified and risen Christ will drastically change one’s life.
It is also a ‘given’ that a life changed life is an important part of what we share with non-believers when pointing them to the Savior.
A changed life, in and of itself, is however not the core message that we must share with those we would lead to Christ. The Apostle Paul declared:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” – Rom 1:16
Paul also declared:
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you–unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,” – 1 Cor 15:1-4
No matter where Paul traveled and preached, he always centered on this core message. The only thing in question is exactly when the core message was delivered during an evangelistic encounter.
Often, we believers make a ‘changed life’ the centerpiece of our ‘gospel sharing’, followed by an invitation to Christ based on personal benefits to be obtained in this life, rather than Paul’s core message of the death and resurrection of Christ for our sin – the message that actually contains ‘the power of God for salvation!
Been there, done that!
Food for thought. . .
On the Atonement of Christ
“The doctrine for which we contend is that Christ hath so perfectly satisfied divine justice for all our sins, by one offering of himself, and not only for our guilt but also for both temporal and eternal punishment, that henceforth there are no more propitiatory offerings to be made for sin, and that though, for the promotion of their penitence and sanctification, God often chastises his people, yet no satisfaction is to be made by them either in this or a future state of existence.”
- Francis Turretin, The Atonement of Christ, page 68.
‘Chosen’ and ‘Predestined’ Before the Foundation of the World- Ephesians 1:4-5
Blogged Bible Study
These two verses present an awesome picture of God’s sovereignty in the salvation of His people. Here are seven translations/versions including a couple of paraphrases (one good and one not so good):
“…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, …” – ESV
“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—…” – NIV
“…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,…” – NKJV
“For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love. He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will –…” – NET
“… just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,…” – NASB
“Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!)” – MSG
“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” – NLT
Questions for the week:
- What does it mean that God ‘chose’ us? For what were we chosen?
- What does it mean that God ‘predestined’ us? For what were we predestined?
- Who are ‘us’ in the above passages?
- Why did God choose and predestinate ‘us’?
- Would God choose and predetermine anything that He would not, in his divine sovereignty, bring to pass?
NOTE: That men are responsible to believe is not in question. ‘How’ we come to believe is also linked to God’s sovereignty, and is another worthy discussion.
What is the Gospel Sermons – #1
It seems that these days you can ask any amount of Christians/Christ followers/believers “What is the Gospel?” and get a lot of different answers, I thought I would post sermons/teachings that focus specifically on that question. Here is the first, by D. A. Carson. Click the link below to listen with Quicktime. Right Click and select “Save As” to download the file to you computer.
NOTE: You might end up just listening the first time and listening to it while taking notes the second time. I did.
Gospel Definitions – R.C. Sproul
“There is no greater message to be heard than that which we call the Gospel. But as important as that is, it is often given to massive distortions or over simplifications. People think they’re preaching the Gospel to you when they tell you, ‘you can have a purpose to your life’, or that ‘you can have meaning to your life’, or that ‘you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.’ All of those things are true, and they’re all important, but they don’t get to the heart of the Gospel.
The Gospel is called the ‘good news’ because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness – or lack of it – or the righteousness of another.
The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.
The great misconception in our day is this: that God isn’t concerned to protect His own integrity. He’s a kind of wishy-washy deity, who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody. No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead – so that Christ died for us, He was raised for our justification. So the Gospel is something objective. It is the message of who Jesus is and what He did. And it also has a subjective dimension.
How are the benefits of Jesus subjectively appropriated to us? How do I get it? The Bible makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith – and by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Christ’s life and death is by putting your trust in Him – and in Him alone. You do that, you’re declared just by God, you’re adopted into His family, you’re forgiven of all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity.”
Who Saved You?
A small group of believers I know here in Blogland engage in discussion about certain portions of scripture and are currently blogging through Paul’s letter to the Galatians, with it’s central theme of Justification by Faith. One of the two Monday contributors made a couple of comments that simply beg for thoughtful consideration. Thanks Dale! I encourage you to read Dale’s blog post.
The thought provoking comments that invite serious thought and discussion are these:
“I am not saved because I accepted Jesus. I am saved because Jesus died for my sins!!! I was saved 2000 years ago!”
We are not saved because we made a decision to accept Jesus. We are saved because Christ died for our sins. The death and resurrection of Christ is the core of the gospel message (1 Cor 15:1-4), and it was Christ’s death 2000 years ago, in our place, that secured the salvation all those would believe in Christ and become the true children of God spoken of in John 1:12-23.
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” – Jesus
So we have the fact that 2,000 years ago Jesus paid the price for our sin, as well as a point in time when a person comes to faith in Christ and is “born of God”. We also have John 3:16 that tells us that those who believe will inherit eternal life.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” - Jesus
Here we have a picture of both the sovereignty of God in salvation and our responsibility to believe and make a decision out of our human will. We are not “born again” because of our decision, but it is only from the moment one believes (requiring an operation of human will), that we are truly a child of God.
How is it that we are not saved because we accepted Christ by an act of human decision/will, yet we must believe, (a real decision is involved) in order to be born of the Spirit of God and become His children? Assume both halves of the question to be true.
This is an open discussion. If you read this and have a question, even if it’s “What does it matter, as long as we are saved?”
Belief in Predestination is not Optional
This word is properly used only with reference to God’s plan or purpose of salvation. The Greek word rendered “predestinate” is found only in these six passages, Acts 4:28; Rom. 8:29, 30; 1 Cor. 2:7; Eph. 1:5, 11; and in all of them it has the same meaning. They teach that the eternal, sovereign, immutable, and unconditional decree or “determinate purpose” of God governs all events.
This doctrine of predestination or election is beset with many difficulties. It belongs to the “secret things” of God. But if we take the revealed word of God as our guide, we must accept this doctrine with all its mysteriousness, and settle all our questionings in the humble, devout acknowledgment, “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.”
For the teaching of Scripture on this subject let the following passages be examined in addition to those referred to above; Gen. 21:12; Ex. 9:16; 33:19; Deut. 10:15; 32:8; Josh. 11:20; 1 Sam. 12:22; 2 Chr. 6:6; Ps. 33:12; 65:4; – (from the Easton Bible Dictionary)
Below are the above referenced six uses of the Greek word ‘predestinate’ found in the ESV New Testament.
Acts 4:27-28 27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
Rom 8:29-30 29 For those whom he foreknew (loved) he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
1 Cor 2:7 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages (predestined) for our glory.
Eph 1:5,11 5 he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
It’s not a matter of whether or not ‘predestination’ is found in scripture, the above passages declare that it is. It’s a matter of whether or not we believe what scripture teaches us about predestination.
