Hebrews 3:14-16 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the
beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is
said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden
your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who, having heard, rebelled?
Our Wednesday night small
group Bible Study is entering the ninth week in the Bible Fluency lesson
sessions with an overview of the books of Hebrews, James and 1 John, focusing
on the topic of “True Faith”. Kenneth Berding, a biblical scholar and college
professor @ Biola University asks: How do you and I know that our faith is
‘true faith”? We know it, and everyone knows it because true faith shows up in
the way that we live ... there is evidence of it. True faith will show itself
to be true in what we do.
Have you ever heard this
scenario question: Suppose that you were arrested for being a Christian and
they put you on trial; would there be enough evidence to convict you? Meaning,
is there enough evidence in the way that we live, that in fact, we truly do
know Jesus Christ? Are we truly a Christian or just say that we are a
Christian. Professor Berding gives us a simple memory hook in a poem: “I think
that there’s a way to show our faith is true. It’s less in what we do.” But be
sure about this, the Bible clearly teaches that salvation (the redemption of mankind from the bondage of sin and
liability to eternal death, and the conferring on them everlasting happiness)
is given by God’s grace alone, being access and received by faith alone in Christ
alone. The gospels emphasize that we are saved by the death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ, by faith in His name. We do not come into a “right” relationship
with god by the things that we do; we enter through the gate of faith.
Salvation is not by ‘works” whatsoever. We are saved because we believe by
faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross alone for our
salvation. But how do you and I know that it is “true faith”?
James 2:14, 20, 24, 26 What does it profit, my
brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save
him? But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith
without works is dead? You see then that a man is justified by works, and
not by faith only. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith
without works is dead also.
There
are three emphatic keys points about “true” faith given in Hebrews, James and 1
John: (1) People with “true” faith continue to believe. They believe in Jesus
and faithfully face adversity. People who believe are people who continue to believe,
not people who are not continuing to believe, which is a lack of evidence for
faith. (2) People with “true” faith show it in what they do. They show it in
their lives and it is seen in what they do (a) by counting their trials as joy
for the lessons gained, (b) by doing the
Word and not just hearing the Word, (c) by showing no partiality over people
based upon power, prestige, position or financial status, (d) by controlling
their tongues, (e) by seeking true wisdom, (f) by avoiding unrighteousness, and
(g) by praying in faith. Not just claiming to be a Christian, but showing it in
their good works. They do not work to get saved, but work and do “good works” because
they are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. (3) People with “true”
faith live it out in community. They are walking in the light of truth and
purity, they are loving their brothers and sisters in Christ, they are not
loving the lawless God-rejecting world system, and the are always testing the
spirits to be sure that they are from God. Never avoiding the organized church
(the body of Christ) and trying to live out their faith on their own, outside
the brotherhood of Christ. Not being one of those who want a personal faith and
relationship with the Lord, but do not really want to be a part of the faith
community, especially when there is leadership and submission to leadership
involved. This idea that one can have a personal faith that does not have any
interaction with other people is not what the Bible teaches about true faith. Real true faith is lived out in
Christian community by the citizens of heaven for the kingdom of God
1 John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for
if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they
might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”
In Christ, Brian
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