Episode 7 - Faith that Moves Mountains - No Half Truths Part 6

In Episode 6, we discussed how we are freed from the bondage and ramifications of our sin and our sin nature; and how that enables us to live a new life fuller and more blessed than we ever imagined! In this episode, Faith that Moves Mountains, we look at the role faith and repentance plays in our salvation and our sanctification. What is faith and how do we practically live by faith? Does a person have to be repentant of their sin in order to be saved?

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Transcript

Episode 7 - Faith To Move Mountains

           Welcome back to the Proverbs 9:10 podcast, No Trash, Just Truth! We’re your hosts and co-founders of Proverbs 9:10 Ministries, Rose Spiller and Chris Paxson. If you were with us last time, you’ll remember that we talked about God’s plan to save His people, and the benefits that come along with being ‘born again’ and adopted into God’s family; things like being a brother or sister of Jesus, and co-heirs of the Kingdom. And we talked about the fact that once we are saved, the chains that held us in bondage to sin are broken, and we are free to live pleasing to God, as the Holy Spirit makes us more and more like our Elder brother, Jesus!

          We also talked about the Great Exchange that takes place – where Jesus takes on our filthy garments of sin and gives us His perfect Robe of Righteousness! 

          I love the mental picture of that! 

          I do too!! And last, but not least, we know that we can be free from the fear of death because when Jesus is our Savior, we’re going to be at His side the second we take our last breath here!  Moving on into this episode, Chris, last time we mentioned that after our hearts are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, at some point we will respond to the Gospel message, by fully surrendering to Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Can you explain that a little more?

          Yes! The response you’re talking about is called “faith,” and that faith is in Jesus, and what He secured for His people,  which was forgiveness of sin and eternal life in Heaven. Our Reformer fathers stated it ‘Solo Fide in Solo Christo’ which means ‘Faith Alone, in Christ Alone.’ Romans 4:3 says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness,.” And later in that chapter it says that, “It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.”

          The word faith gets used in a lot of different ways! What is faith? 

          It’s TOTAL RELIANCE AND FULL TRUST in something. Usually, faith is associated with our religious beliefs, but we have faith in stuff every day! We all live by faith! We have faith when we put our money in the bank that it’s going to be there when we need it. When we order from Amazon, we have faith that our package will arrive, and if it’s damaged you can send it back! We have faith that when we order at a restaurant that the food isn’t going to be contaminated, and that no one is going to spit in it!

          Although, if you send your meal back, you have less and less faith that it’s not going to be spit in!

          Something to definitely keep in mind! And speaking of having a full reliance and trust in something, and the way that the word faith gets used sometimes, we should mention how it’s taken out of context, and when you shouldn’t put your full trust in reliance in something. In Mark 11:23 – 24, Jesus says to the Twelve, “Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”  Rose, why don’t you explain those verses before we get into talking about faith in regard to salvation.

          Well, this doesn’t mean if you ask for a million dollars and have enough faith that you’ll get a million dollars. Or, if you have enough faith, that you’ll be healed. In this passage, just before the verse you mentioned, Jesus is on His way into Jerusalem with the Apostles, and finds a fig tree with leaves, but no fruit. He curses the tree for looking like it should have fruit but doesn’t. This tree was a metaphor for the Jewish religious leaders who certainly presented themselves as men of God but were fruitless when it came to spiritual matters. When Jesus and the Apostles leave the city later, the tree is withered and dying. This is when Jesus talks to them about faith “moving mountains.” The fig tree and the mountains both represent spiritual matters. Jesus is using hyperbole about being able to throw mountains into the sea. When He says “whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours,” He’s talking about spiritual things like perseverance in trials, patience, wisdom, righteousness, discernment – these are the things the Father is pleased to give us if we ask Him, and He will always give us if we ask in faith. Because when we don’t have these things, our spiritual condition withers and dies.

          The Father IS pleased to give us these things, and that truth is reiterated by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount when He talks about asking, seeking and knocking – verses also talking about praying for spiritual help, and in addition, James says the same in chapter 1 verses 2 – 8. 

          So, getting back to talking about faith in regard to salvation, we need to have faith that Jesus’ death on the cross, as payment for our sin in our place, was enough to satisfy God’s wrath against us. 

          Yes. And like I said, it’s total reliance and trust in what Jesus did. It’s like trusting all your weight on a parachute as you fall through the sky. At that point you couldn’t do anything to save yourself – your arms couldn’t flap fast enough to keep you up (no matter how much floppy upper arm skin you have! Underneath your triceps) – so, you’re totally relying on the parachute! And you can and should totally rely on what Jesus has done for you!

          It’s also having faith He was resurrected after three days, and that was enough to defeat Satan, sin and death! At its core, faith is believing everything the Bible says. If you don’t believe and know what the Bible says, even if you’re claiming to be a Christian, you’re definitely going to have a faith crisis at some point.

          That’s why the Reformer fathers added Sola Scriptura – which is only using the Bible as our authority on all things - to Sola Fide in Solo Christo, Faith alone in Christ alone. We need to have faith that the Bible is true.

          Exactly.

          It makes all the difference in the world! Without total reliance on what Scripture says and  total reliance on Jesus, we’re left wondering if God is happy with us, mad at us, or disappointed in us! 

          Yeah, people worry themselves sick sometimes wondering if God is disappointed in them. While we should always strive to be more and more like Jesus, and since we have the ability to not sin, we should be trying not to; but we need to remember, when God looks at us, He sees Jesus. Remember, there was an exchange that took place, and a believer has Jesus’ robe of righteousness. Since God the Father could never be disappointed with Jesus, He is never disappointed with us if we belong to Jesus.

          Exactly. You mentioned that we should be striving to not sin. That leads me to a word we sometimes hear coupled with the word faith in regard to salvation, is repentance. Repentance is the act of asking forgiveness from God for our sin, and then turning from it. 

          John the Baptist called people to repent!  It’s preached by Jesus in Matthew 4:17:  which says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And, we see it preached by the Apostles, and we see it again, in Revelation 3. Repentance is important!

          Right. And true repentance leads you to a 180 degree turn from sin, to Christ. Faith and repentance are two words we hear together. In fact, there’s sometimes debate whether a person needs faith alone or faith and repentance. But it’s kind of a moot point. The truth is, repentance is a fruit of faith. So, if you have true faith, you will repent! If believers were fig trees, we’d have faith figs and repentance figs! 

          A consequence of not thinking that repentance is part of faith is the danger of falling into antinomianism. 

          The dictionary definition of Antinomianism is “believing that once you are under grace, the moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation.” In other words, you keep on sinning because you ‘re under grace and forgiven through the blood of Jesus. Paul deals with that in Romans 6:15 when he says, “Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!” A Christian who continues to willfully sin is like a fig tree with leaves, but no fruit. Hebrews 10:26-27 says, “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgement and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”

          So what you’re saying is, if you are willfully continuing to sin, thinking it doesn’t matter because you are under grace, you aren’t a believer.

          The Puritan, John Owen, says that we need to mortify our sin – in other words, we need to be killing our sin. I think he uses the quote, “be killing sin or it will be killing you.” 

          That’s a great quote! It’s kind of sobering!

           He bases his book “The Mortification of Sin” on Romans 8:13, which says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death [mortify] the deeds of the body, you will live.” And, as a Christian we’ll will begin to hate our sin more and more as the Holy Spirit works to make us or more and more like Jesus.

          That’s true repentance, but there’s a kind of repentance that isn’t true repentance.

          There is – it’s called attrition or “false repentance.” It’s a mere acknowledgement that sinners deserve to be punished without any true appeal to God for forgiveness. It shows it’s ugly head when there’s no intention of turning away from sin and striving against it. One example of this is with Esau in Genesis. Esau didn’t seem to mind giving up his birthright for a bowl of stew until he realized the earthly consequences of his actions. He was only sorry because he was going to be missing out on the blessings that went with that birthright. 

          Like siblings when their parents make them apologize to one another when they’ve been fighting. You send them to their room until they’re sorry and ready to apologize and, although it may take a while – sometimes even hours – they eventually will apologize, but most of the time they’re not really sorry for the fighting, they just want let out of their room!

          That sounds like my daughter! 

          Jesus didn’t make atonement for that kind of repentance! This manifest itself today in ways like saying the “sinner’s prayer” just to buy fire insurance against Hell—thinking those words will protect you—or by running to the altar call or the baptism service over and over again so God’s won’t be mad at you. 

          When I think about those things happening, I can’t help but wonder if the person has a false sense of security. 

          That’s a good point. Actually, that’s a sad point, because someone might have a false sense of security about their salvation.

          That was exactly what I was thinking! We need to understand the complete Gospel message and realize that it’s faith alone in Jesus alone, and we can’t add anything. Our faith should be in just Jesus, not Jesus plus (anything)! It’s not Jesus plus going to church, or Jesus plus our tithes or offerings. 

          Exactly. There are things people think they must add to faith to be saved. Like baptism, for example. Baptism is not required for salvation. But baptism is a means of grace – a holy, visible sign and seal that strengthens our faith by reminding us what Christ has done and focusing our faith on that. But it isn’t necessary for salvation! 

          Another thing that added is good works. But good works are the expression of our faith; they’re not needed in order to be saved. The thief on the cross never had time to do any good works!

          No, he certainly didn’t! And, Ephesians 2:8-10: “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.”

          Right! And the last thing that comes to mind when I think about people trying to add something to faith for salvation is speaking in tongues. Rose, can you elaborate a little about what speaking in tongues actually is? 

          At the time of Pentecost, we get a small picture of a reversal of Babel. At the tower of Babel, people were scattered through the world, and their language was confused as punishment by God. At Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit comes upon the Church, people speak in tongues which means they could supernaturally communicate in the languages of all the people there; languages they didn’t know prior to that. This was done so that all the people who were in Jerusalem at the time, many who didn’t speak the same language of the Apostles, could hear the Gospel message in their own language and believe.

          Right! The word ‘tongue’ is defined as “the language of a different people group.” It was a supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit, but it’s not the kind of babbling that gets passed off as “speaking in tongues” today, and it certainly isn’t something that you do by picking a word and repeating it over and over and faster and faster, like I heard an online pastor trying to teach his congregation to do recently.

          You’ve heard people being taught how to speak in tongues? If it was a supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit, why would you need someone to teach you? 

          Good question, Rose. Like you often say – think something through all the way to the end to see if it makes sense! 

          Getting back to the main point, nowhere in the Bible does it say that speaking in tongues is needed for salvation, or for proof of salvation. People get this idea from the 16th chapter of the Gospel of Mark, and these verses have caused some serious issues in the Church because they’ve been misinterpreted abused and have led to some questionable practices.

          Like the one we’re talking about now – people who have faith but are being told that they have to speak in tongues as proof that they’re truly saved. Spiritual gifts are for the use of building each other up the Church, not for proof of your own salvation or any other personal use. This is the opposite of what their purpose is!

          Good point.

          The answer to whether any of the things we mentioned is necessary for salvation is “No!” Faith alone (sola fide) in Christ alone (solo Christo) is the response to the effectual call of the Gospel. Regeneration of the heart leads to faith, which leads to repentance, which will lead to good works. Every bit of our salvation is a gift from God. There is absolutely nothing we can do to earn it. And there is nothing we can do to lose it—a controversial subject that we’ll talk about in an upcoming episode

          Thanks for joining us today! If you have any questions or comments, we would love to hear from you.

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