In the message “The Father’s Will” we saw that not all who do great things for God will enter Heaven, but “only he who does the will of My Father” (Matthew 7:21). We further saw that the Father’s will is “that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life” (John 6:40). We are given the gift of eternal life because of our belief in Jesus, not because of what we do; “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6).
Salvation can never be earned, it is a gift to those who believe. However, we must understand what it means to believe and what changes will occur when we believe. “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder” (James 2:19). A saving belief is much more than just acknowledging God’s existence or even the existence of His Son – even the demons believe this!
Belief in Jesus is never simply an intellectual understanding. Belief implies a humble surrender. We will never “look to the Son” unless we first recognize our eternally lost condition due to sin; and we will never truly “believe in Him” for salvation until we accept our complete inability to save ourselves. A drowning man will never reach up for help until he first understands and accepts his need to be rescued.
To be rescued, we must believe so completely that we abandon all other “rescuers” and cling to the only One who can truly save; “any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:33). Giving up everything cannot save us, but true belief gives up all other sources of hope. It also reveals the trivial nature of our worldly attachments and creates an understanding that everything belongs to God. We see our life as lived for Him and desire to do ALL for His glory.
James 2:14,17
“What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? … In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
Belief must produce a change in our life or we know it is not a true belief – it is nothing more than dead intellectual understanding! At the moment we truly believe, we are “marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 1:13), and we become “a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Belief creates change through the work of the Holy Spirit!!
If we lack the evidence of a changed life, we must not focus on creating the change. This type of change becomes self-righteous “filthy rags.” Rather, we must return to the cross and place ALL our trust in Jesus, truly believing He has paid the penalty for our sin and has granted us passage through the narrow gate to eternal life. As we completely turn over control to our Heavenly Father, fruit and good deeds will abound. Our life will be forever changed, but only when we begin with a belief that saves.
Have a Christ Centered Day!
Steve Troxel
God’s Daily Word Ministries
Steve,
I am concerned about your understanding of the distinction between justification and sanctification. In your message on A Belief That Saves you stated that, “Belief must produce a change in our life or we know it is not a true belief – it is nothing more than dead intellectual understanding!” The Bible says the faith in Jesus SHOULD produce a change in our lives, but the truth is that many believers – people who have trusted Jesus Christ for salvation and are going to heaven when they die – do not undergo change in their lives. Their belief in Christ was a true belief, not simply an intellectual understanding. Where the key distinction lies is that faith unto salvation is a one-time faith and the moment someone trusts in Jesus Christ they are born-again, fully justified, completely saved from condemnation, and receive eternal life – all by grace through faith. But the faith that produces a change in our life is on-going faith. This is the day-by-day faith that results in the experiential sanctification of an already saved believer. When James spoke of dead faith in chapter 2 of his letter, he was not talking about someone who is not saved. He was talking about a believer whose faith is not producing anything. This is a born-again believer (fully justified) who is not abiding in the Vine and is therefore bearing no fruit. Think about how many times Paul, Peter, James, John, etc. exhort their readers to obey God’s commands for those who are already saved. If someone with “true belief” MUST change, then there would be no need for any of these exhortations.
In your most recent message on The Rock of Obedience you stated that, “true believers will strive to be obedient to what Jesus taught.” You then went on to quote John 8:31 which says, “If you hold to My teachings, you are really My disciples.” The key word is that verse is disciples. Many born-again, going to heaven, eternally secure believers are not disciples. A disciple is a believer who follows Christ. Believers SHOULD strive to be obedient to what Jesus taught. Your messages of late sound like the teaching of those who preach Lordship salvation which is NOT the true gospel. Only God knows who has “true belief” and who does not. Many believers show no evidence of their faith – true faith, saving faith – because they are not walking in the Light. I love reading your daily devotions and your exhortations calling for obedience are wonderful, but when you start tying obedience to a “true belief” you are misleading people and blurring the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
—
Pastor Cliff Beveridge
Hi Cliff! You probably already know this but this debate has gone on for many, many years and often becomes quite ugly. If you read some of the stuff between MacArthur and the Profs at DTS you will see very unchristian responses on both sides. To me, this is so sad. My understanding is that we are saved by grace through faith. I do not believe our works, good deeds, or obedience does anything to save us; and I believe I am careful in my messages to make this clear. And yet, I see over and over in God’s Word the need to work, do good deeds and obey. I try to exhort people to get off the salvation couch and really live for Christ. In fact, I probably need to be stronger with this message. I do not see becoming a disciple as an optional road. Saved people are disciples. We may not be very good disciples but we are followers of Christ, by definition, and must be exhorted to live the life for which we have been called. When we are saved we are changed. This again is by definition. Granted, the change in some may be difficult to see, but there is a change. C.S. Lewis has a good explanation of this in that the change cannot be measured by coming up to some standard, but measured by who the person was, or would be, without Christ. We are saved for a purpose. No I do not believe we need to make Christ Lord in order to be saved, but a saved person is one who understands that Jesus is Lord and has called us to live for Him all the rest of our days. This is not optional! And shame on us for allowing people to believe that how we live our life makes no difference. It takes a lot of interpretive gymnastics to read through the Bible and not see that God places expectations, even demands, on all who believe.
Thanks for the comments.
Steve T.
Steve,
Thank you for the response. I pray that my original comment did not offend. It was sent out of genuine concern, not to be contentious. I, too, continually exhort believers to follow the teachings of the Bible and glorify God with their lives. That is why I so enjoy reading your daily devotional. Many of the folks in my church now read you daily devotional as well.
My plea to you is to continue to make every effort to be as clear as possible about the gospel – to draw a clear distinction between saving faith for an unbeliever and the on-going faith of a believer. My concern is that, if that message becomes unclear, believers will begin to doubt their salvation.
Keep up the good work and may God bless…
—
Pastor Cliff Beveridge
Hi Cliff! Thanks for writing!! I wish more people would get into the game and interact the way you have. You definitely did not offend. It is difficult to always draw this distinction in such a short message format; however, you are correct that this is an important issue and we must strive to make our message clear. I’m somewhat comforted in this as I read the letters of Paul and realize that he did not worry too much about this issue. Overall his message is clear; but individual sections, when read as stand alone messages, would probably convey a confusing message. Would you agree? How often when you are preaching do you have to say “Now what Paul really meant was…” because of what you know Paul wrote in other places? The same could actually be said of the words of Jesus. So I guess my hope is that my overall message – give over time through many messages – is clear, even if an individual message is sometimes extra challenging.
Thanks again!
Steve T.
Steve,
You make a very good point. If the Apostle Paul (writing under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit) produced passages that need clarification when being taught, then why should any of us expect our messages to be any different? And I can think of a number of times when I had to clarify something I said (often in passing) during a sermon because I wasn’t clear enough or because someone took it the wrong way. Thank you for taking time out of your busy life to respond…
—
Cliff
Steve.
Thanks for your insights on salvation. I had this same discussion with a group of Christian business owners, about true salvation.
I made the point which was challenged that True salvation is to be found in knowing God. Jesus said, “this is eternal life that you know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He sent.” As a follow up Jesus said that ” in that day many will say to me Lord, Lord but His response is depart from me I never knew you”
It seems to me based on these two passages, knowing God in Christ is the central core of Salvation. Do we KNOW Him based upon our experience of surrender, (confess Jesus as Lord and believe in our heart God…)and seeing God confirm his grace and power in our lives proving ,through answered prayer, Himself God in ways only He is able to? So that with assurance we know that He could never say to us, “I never knew you” as a true friend could never say to us,I never knew you.
My point, are we so close to Him that we KNOW Him with intimacy and therefore are sure of our salvation and if we don’t KNOW Him we may well hear those dreaded words, depart from me. I want those I love to be sure that they know Him by and through experience.
I truly appreciate you thoughts.
Hello Steve.
Just reading article in 2020!!!!
Great read!!
Completely agree.
Hope you are well.
Blessings,
Pastor David