NT Framework - Saving Faith or just Faith?

Don't qualify, distort or otherwise pervert what the Bible teaches, and be very careful when complicating Biblical terms with modern terminology. God never uses terms like 'true faith', 'genuine faith' or 'sincere faith'. It is either faith or it isn't. 

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Transcript

Welcome And Series Context

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Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.

Lordship Salvation In Plain Terms

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And dispensationalism says no, salvation, salvation is a purpose, but the chief purpose is the glory of God. But in their discussion of salvation, usually they say, just like we would say, salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. But then they would also say that the faith that saves is not alone, it is always accompanied by work. And by saying this, what they're saying is that there are different types of faith. And only saving faith is real faith, and it bec that type of faith produces works in the Christian life. And so what they've done is something that is called what is called lordship salvation, sometimes called mastery salvation or discipleship salvation, which has been around for many, many centuries, but has had a resurgence since the late 80s.

A BSF Daniel Lesson Example

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So someone sent me something, a document that comes from uh BSF, which material that's sometimes used for teaching and things like that, Bible study, fellowship. So they were concerned that this was lordship. So I wanted to walk you through this document very quickly so that you can see, like in a practical real-world example, as you read what you're reading. Um the Doctrine of Faith in the BSF study on Daniel, it says Daniel lived with consistent and courageous faith. True. By the way, don't forget that throughout the whole book of Daniel, Daniel's a believer. Uh there's nothing in there that discusses when he became a believer. He was just marched down to Babylon, probably about 16 years old, right? And the rest of the story picks up from there. He was already a believer. It says he believed God and lived for him while exiled, even when standing strong in faith put his life in jeopardy. What is faith? Okay, so now

When Faith Gets Redefined As Action

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it backs up. What is faith? Well, most simply they say faith means believing God and acting upon what he has declared as true. Now, first of all, when you define something, you should try not to use the word that you're defining. In other words, if somebody says, what is a contrast? A contrast is a contrast between two things. Um, you should try not to use the word uh that you're defining in the definition. Um, what are apples? Well, apples are they're these red things, these they're apples. You you shouldn't do that. So when you say faith means believing, well, faith and believing are actually the same from the same Greek root. And you know, it's not so helpful. Trust could be more helpful, but anyway, you shouldn't do that. But they say faith means believing God and acting upon what he has declared as true. Acting. Uh that means doing something. This is incorporating works. Okay, more than passive agreement with facts, true faith produces action. Um, I mean, in a way, but this is not, let's, let's, let's, let's let's not get confused here. Um, they want it to not mean just passive agreement with facts. Well, I mean, like, when you believed in that Christ died for your sins and rose again, what what action was there other than you were convinced that that was true and you appropriated it as true for yourself? Like Christ died for me and rose again. Like, and he's the one who produced the action of saving me. I didn't produce any action, I just believed this promise of God that if that Christ died for my sins and rose again. Um, what they want to do then is tag along after that some action that has to happen. My question always is, how much action? You know, like what if I fail one day? Uh has anybody ever failed in the Christian life? Well, did that mean that you are not really a believer? Well, we'll see.

"Saving Faith" Plus Repentance And Surrender

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Saving faith involves three essential elements. First of all, they say saving faith embraces specific truth or content. Now, I have no problem with this. Yes, you have to believe content. Like, what are we believing? Uh faith that saves stands on the essentials of the gospel, the truth about salvation in Christ. Okay, fine. Second, saving faith leads to conviction. Now, first of all, it's the other way around. Um, you're convicted, and that's what leads you to faith. They're calling it saving faith again, but that's implying that there's non-saving faith. Um, not really. You either believe it or not. I mean, you either sat down in that pew this morning or you did not. You either believed it would hold you up or you did not. There's nobody who is partially having faith in the pew right now. You either fully believe it and sat on it, or you didn't sit at all, which means you don't believe it'll hold you up. There's no partial, we'll see, faith. It's either you have faith or you don't. So the idea that saving and non-saving faith is just a complete distortion of biblical reality. Um, but they say saving faith leads to conviction. Again, wrong order. A personal trust in and response to Christ's personal love and offer of salvation. Third, say, and this is where the big problem comes in. Saving faith, they do it again, saving faith, brings commitment, an active choice to repent from sin and surrender to Christ. Well, first of all, repent doesn't mean that, but okay, it doesn't refer to sin. By the way, God repented several times in the Bible. God repents. Let me ask you a question. Therefore, does repentance have to deal with sin? No, it has to deal with whatever is in the context. God never has to repent of sin because God's not a sinner. Um, so repentance just means a change of mind about something. It may be sin, but usually it's not in the biblical context. Usually it's not. Usually it always refers to a change of mind. So saving faith brings us commitment, they say. They're trying to bring commitment into faith. Now, faith means that you're you're receiving something that's a free gift. You're not making a commitment. He's making a commitment to you. God is the one who's committed to us. When we believe in Christ, he's committed to do what? To save us. We don't make a commitment to him in order to be saved. We believe in the only begotten Son of God. This it says this over 198 times in the Bible, that it's just believing. But no, they've always got to add this other stuff. Okay, the surrender and so forth. As Daniel demonstrated true faith, and yes, he was a believer. He he was exercising faith as a Christian, not to go to heaven as a Christian. Okay, go on, go on. Okay, people often wrongly equate faith with hopeful optimism or their commitment to a religious system. Yes, and I agree with that. Mental agreement with the Bible without heart commitment to Christ also falls short of true faith. There they are. Now they're really getting into it. Okay, true faith, see.

Head Versus Heart And "Fully Trust"

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So now you've got to have, now they've done another thing, mental agreement versus heart commitment. They've separated the mind from the heart. Biblically, you can't do that. These are not two separate types of ideas in the Bible. That is post-Kantian humanistic philosophy. That's what Kant did. Are we gonna go with Kant and neo-Orthodox view of the Bible? No, we're not gonna do that. We're gonna let the Bible define its own terms. And you don't separate, as so many people do, head knowledge from heart knowledge. That is not biblical thinking. That is pagan philosophy forced on the Bible. Go read Immanuel Kant again if you really want to learn all that stuff. Um the Bible doesn't separate it. Only when sinners realize the depth of their own sin and fully trust. Now, again, is there such a thing as partial trust? Like I either believe you or I don't. There is no in-betweens, but by putting that qualifier in their fully trust, they have done something. Okay, so let's read this sentence and I'll I'll spend a moment on this one. Only when sinners realize the depth of their own sin and fully trust the finished work of Christ does a true journey of faith begin. What did Jesus say about the faith of a mustard the size of a mustard seed? Didn't he say it was able to move mountains? Did he have to did he say you had to have this enormous full faith? Or did he have to say did he say you have to have the faith the size of a mustard seed? Well, I'm gonna go with Jesus over whoever wrote this curriculum. For a believer, genuine, genuine faith, here we go again. Genuine faith. Does it ever, by the way, does it ever say this in the Bible? You have to have full faith, you have to have genuine faith, you have to have true faith, you have to have more than mental agreement. Have you ever read any of that ever in the Bible, even one time anywhere? Anyone? No, the reason you'd have it is because this is not biblical, this is. So you have to read this stuff. Then he adds this it always propels every step in

Discipleship Follows Salvation

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following Christ. Now we're talking about another Greek word, akaluthheo, which is a follower, which is a disciple. Discipleship comes after salvation. When you, as a child, are sitting there seven years old, and you hear the gospel and you believe in Jesus Christ, you're not promising to follow him all the days of your life. You're thanking him that he saved you from the penalty of sin. That's what you're thanking him as a little seven-year-old, right? It's only later as you grow in the Word that you learn, oh, we're supposed to follow him. So Akalutheo to follow is not the same thing as having faith, nor is it required to go to heaven. This is not biblical. Trusting their father's unshakable promises, even when challenged by desperate circumstances, God's children find refuge in him that cannot be shaken. Of course we do. Daniel did not rely on human strength alone, but believed and acted upon what God said was true. Amen. Does your faith give you hope for eternity and strength for today? Not really. Does your faith give you hope for eternity and strength for today? Not really, but his promises do. His promises are what give me hope for eternity, and they give me strength for today. Not my faith. My faith falters. I don't always live by faith. If I depended on my faith, one day I'd have hope, the next day I wouldn't. One day I'd have strength, the next day I wouldn't. See, it doesn't work like that. He is the object of our faith. His promises are the object of our faith after we believed in Christ. So, no, don't let people write these types of things that just confuse. You know, if you if you have to fully trust, then a person's going to be questioning all their life if they really fully did or not. And that's why they start looking at their works and trying to evaluate if they've got the right works to prove that they had full trust or true faith or genuine faith. And that's not the right focus. That's all looking in to try to find out if you really had the right kind of faith or not. By the way, there's so there's not different kinds of faith. What did Jesus say? He who believes in me has everlasting life. That's it. It's not any more complicated than that, is it? So these types of things make me mad. I'm not mad at you. I get mad at this. I love you. Okay. These types of things are distortion.

Where To Find Visuals And Closing

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Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.