Saving Faith

John 3:14-18
P. G. Mathew | Sunday, December 08, 2019
Copyright © 2019, P. G. Mathew
Language [Japanese]

Many Christians of all denominations throughout the world have no true understanding of saving faith. Without saving faith in Jesus Christ, a sinner cannot be saved. In Acts 16, we read that the Philippian jailer brought Paul and Silas out and asked them, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” What was the reply? “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household” (Acts 16:30–31).

Saving faith calls for a worthy object—the perfect God/man, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of all creation, who accomplished redemption for every elect sinner of the whole world. “His name is Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (see Matt. 1:21). Jesus never sinned; yet, he was crucified for our sins. His death, burial, and resurrection was substitutionary, in fulfillment of Isaiah 53 and Psalm 16. So we read:

• Romans 4:25: “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
• Romans 3:24: “[All who believe] are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
• 2 Corinthians 5:15: “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”

Everyone who believes in Jesus will be saved forever.

The theologian Rudolf Bultmann did not believe in Jesus crucified and risen from the dead. This was also true of the neo-orthodox theologian Karl Barth. My professor, Cornelius van Til, wrote books explaining that Barth was not a true believer in Jesus.

A true pastor-theologian is given to Christ’s church as a gift by Christ himself and appointed by the Holy Spirit who applies Christ’s redemption to every sinner who believes in Jesus, the only Savior of the world. Such a pastor sent by God will preach the gospel. So we read:

• Romans 10:13-17: “for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’ But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’ Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”
• 2 Corinthians 2:14–17: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.”

The gospel is the smell of eternal death to those who refuse to believe in Jesus and the fragrance of eternal life to those who believe in Jesus. In Hebrews 11:6 we read, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Saving faith has three elements:

• Notitia: knowledge of the gospel.
• Assensus: agreement that the gospel is truth
• Fiducia (or fides est fiducia): saving faith is trust, confidence, reliance, commitment to Jesus Christ of our entire life.

I. Knowledge of the Gospel – Notitia

What is saving faith? It is not a leap in the dark. It is not optimism or positive thinking. It is not credulity or self-confidence.

Peter writes, “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain” (2 Peter 1:16–18).

Faith calls for knowledge about the true and living, infinite, eternal, triune God, Creator of all things, Sustainer of all things, Redeemer of the elect sinners. This knowledge must come to us from God who is truth, who cannot lie. So we read in the Bible,

• 2 Timothy 3:16–17: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
• 2 Peter 1:20–21: “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit,” under the Holy Spirit’s total control.

The Bible is God’s book. God is the primary author (see the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 1). “The Bible says” means “God says” to you. The Bible is God’s word to us. Without reading of the Scripture, we have no true knowledge. In the Scriptures, we hear God speaking of God, the world, the angels, fallen human beings, the way of salvation through Jesus, his incarnational life of redemption, his ascension, his session, his second coming, his last judgment, and the new heaven and new earth wherein dwells no sin, but only righteousness. This knowledge comes to us when we study the Bible with prayer.

This special revelation is found only in the Bible. The Bible alone is truth. In the Bible, we read of the fall of man and man’s Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was first promised in Genesis 3:15 and then throughout the whole Old Testament, especially in Isaiah 53 and Psalm 16.

The virgin-born Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of man, one divine person in two natures, divine and human. Jesus said in John 5:25–27: “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.”

Jesus lived a sinless life, but he was crucified, died, and buried. And yet he was raised from the dead on the third day as he predicted in Matthew 16:21: “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

The Father planned salvation, the Son accomplished redemption by his incarnational life, and the Holy Spirit applies redemption to every elect sinner through the knowledge of the preached gospel.

In John 5, Jesus declared that there are several sources of special revelation in the saving work of Jesus. They include:

• Moses
• John the Baptist
• God the Father
• The works of Jesus
• The Scripture itself. In Luke 24:25–27 we read, “[Jesus] said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” The Bible in its entirety speaks about Jesus Christ. In Luke 24:45–49 we read, “Then [Jesus] opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high,’” that is, the Holy Spirit.

Who, then, is the resurrected Christ? The following scriptures tell us who he is.

• He is Jesus. “‘Who are you, Lord?’ Saul asked. ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied” (Acts 9:5).
• He is the Lord. “The Lord told him” (Acts 9:11).
• He is the Lord Jesus. “Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, ‘Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you’” (Acts 9:17).
• He is the Son of God. “At once [Paul] began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God” (Acts 9:20).
• He is the promised Christ. “Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ” (Acts 9:22). That means Jesus is the Priest, the Prophet, and the King of kings and Lord of lords.
• He is the Son of God, who is the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he is God. He is the Word. He is knowledge. Jesus is God speaking to us.
• He is the Son, the Creator of all things. “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3).
• He is the Sustainer of all creation. “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb. 1:3). We live and breathe because Jesus Christ sustains us. And when he decides, we must die.
• He is God-with-us (Immanuel). “‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’—which means, ‘God with us’” (Matt. 1:23, from Isaiah 7:14).
• He is the one who obeyed perfectly the will of God and is the Savior of all who obey him. “Although he was Son [my translation], he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (Heb. 5:8–9). In fact, our obedience is the proof that we have trusted in Jesus Christ savingly.
• He was the first to rise from the dead. Paul preached that “the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:23).
• He is Mighty God. Isaiah declared, “For to us a child is born . . . . And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God” (Isa. 9:6). He is Mighty God, God-with-us, God who created all things and sustains all things.
• He was raised from the dead by eternal God. Paul asked, “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” (Acts 26:8; see also Acts 25:19; 26:24).

Paul believed in the historical resurrection of Jesus and preached Christ’s substitutionary death and resurrection from promises in the Old Testament (see Isa. 53 and Ps. 16). In Pisidian Antioch, Paul declared, “But God raised him from the dead. . . . We tell you the good news: What God promised our fathers he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm: ‘You are my Son; today I have become your Father’” (Acts 13:30, 32–33; see also Acts 13:34, 37, 48).

Paul spoke of these things also throughout his epistles:

• 1 Corinthians 15:3-4: “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
• Romans 4:25: “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
• Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
• 2 Corinthians 5:19: “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” Rather, he counted them against Jesus.
• 2 Corinthians 5:21: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” This is called double transaction. He took all our sins and all our guilt and all our punishment and all our hell, and Christ gives us his perfect, unimpeachable righteousness forever and ever and ever.

Jesus Christ risen from the dead saves sinners. In Acts 4:12 we read that there is no other savior but Jesus. Our money cannot save us, our degrees cannot save us, our brilliance cannot save us, our beauty cannot save us. Why? All are conceived in sin and born as sinners to only practice sin.

Only Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, can save sinners. And he saves the worst sinners, like Saul of Tarsus, who wrote: “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:15–16).

Jesus saves sinners who are foolish, weak, lowly, despised, zeroes, powerless, ungodly, enemies of God. Knowledge of the gospel of eternal salvation comes only in the Holy Bible because the Bible alone reveals the Savior of the world: Jesus Christ, the God/man. This gospel comes to us in apostolic doctrine in propositional form. We read in Acts 2:42, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” And in Romans 10:13–17 we read about God-sent pastors, who preach the gospel without fear, that we might be saved.

II. Agreement – Assensus

First, then, we must have knowledge of the gospel. Second, we must agree that this knowledge is truth. We must agree that the entire Bible speaks of truth, for the entire Bible is the word of God. In John 17:17 Jesus said, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” We cannot pick and choose. We cannot say that Jesus died but he did not rise from the dead. We must believe the whole Bible. All Scripture is God’s word.

Knowledge of the Bible must move us into conviction that the whole Bible is true, including every miracle—including the virgin birth, the physical resurrection of Christ, and the creation of all things by the word of God. Creation is the result of God’s command; it is creatio ex nihilo, creation out of nothing, not of chance. The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks the question, “What is God?” (question 4). The answer is, “God is Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” The God of the Bible is infinite, eternal, and triune. This infinite God performs miracles.

Jesus is God/man, the promised Messiah, the Prophet, Priest, and King, the only Lord and Savior of the whole world. He is coming again to judge, and he is coming again to make a new heaven and new earth wherein dwells righteousness, as we read in Revelation 21:1-4:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Assensus is agreement that everything the Bible says is true. It is cognitive conviction. Without it, one’s faith is sheer mysticism, subjectivism, emotionalism. But if you cannot articulate your faith as something objective, you are a mystic. You must cry out to God to be saved.

Assensus, conviction of the truth of the Bible, has to do with objective reality of the triune God—infinite, eternal Creator/Redeemer. Agreement means we believe in every biblical miracle as the work of infinite, eternal, triune personal God.

Yet agreement is not trust. Knowledge of Jesus must advance to conviction, and conviction must advance to commitment, steady confidence, reliance, trust in Jesus Christ for both now and forevermore.

III. Commitment – Fiducia

The third element of saving faith is commitment, fiducia. Commitment is taught especially in these Scriptures:

• 2 Timothy 1:12: Paul writes, “That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” What did Paul entrust to Christ? His whole life. And God is able to guard our lives.
• Matthew 16:24: “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’” We must say “No” to ourselves and take up our cross and follow Christ to death. This is the cost of discipleship. It is not saying, “Believe in Jesus and you will make a lot of money,” or, “You will have your own plane,” or, “You will have many houses and unending health.”
• Luke 14:33: Jesus said, “In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”
• Acts 16:30–31: The Philippian jailer cried out, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” What did he want to be saved from? God’s wrath. Paul and Silas replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Praise God! The promise is for us and our children.

Yet one can have knowledge of the Bible and Jesus, but not be saved. There are many professors of theology, many priests and pastors, who know the Bible, but they are not saved. One can even agree that the Bible is totally true, but not be saved. Such conviction of truth must move to commitment to Jesus now and forever. We must rely on Jesus, confide in Jesus, commit ourselves to Jesus, rest on Jesus, and entrust ourselves to Jesus with our whole being to be saved. And he will take care of us. Throughout the New Testament, Jesus tells his disciples, “Do not worry.” In other words, when we entrust our lives to him, it becomes his responsibility to take care of us, and he is quite able to do so.

When we entrust our lives to Christ, we must abandon all trust in anything else—in ourselves, in our money, in our family, in our beauty, in our brilliance, in our degrees. (PGM) None of these can save us. God looks at the heart, whether we trusted in Christ alone to be saved.

We must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus to death. Jesus is truth. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). He never lies. He cannot lie. He is revealing the cost of following Jesus: “Deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow me to death.” The cost of true faith.

Love Jesus more than your own life. Surrender all to Jesus. “Trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

We must surrender all to Jesus, including our life. Remember, Peter was crucified for his faith in Jesus. Stephen was stoned to death. Paul was beheaded for his faith in Jesus. Many Christians are killed today for their faith in Jesus.

When we trust in Jesus, he gives us eternal, indestructible life. Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). Paul wrote in Romans 8:35–39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” Then he lists seventeen things. “Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is true faith. God himself will take care of us. He is infinite and eternal.

Peter wrote before his crucifixion, “Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall” (2 Pet. 1:10). He made sure of his calling and election before he went to be crucified. Yes, Peter denied Christ three times, but he was crucified because of his love for Jesus.

How do we know that we are truly saved, that we have saving faith? After all, saving faith is a gift, as is true repentance. And we live by repentance and saving faith. How, then, do we know we have saving faith? The answer is, we will obey Jesus, whom we received as Lord and Master and confessed as Lord in our baptism.

Most Christians in this world are antinomians. Their destiny is away from God’s presence, as Jesus himself told us: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matt. 7:21–23). We cannot deceive Jesus. Such people confess Christ, but they do not obey God.

But Jesus also said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matt. 7:24). Who is the rock? Jesus Christ. Stable, steady, because it is built upon the foundation of Christ. Many antinomian professors will say that we do not have to obey, that we can receive Jesus as Savior now and Lord later, if we want.

Consider the following scriptures:

• Romans 1:5: “Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.” Obedience is the proof that we are saved, that we confessed truly, “Jesus is my Lord.” Obedience that comes from faith. If you do not obey, then repent, and God will forgive you. We live by repentance and faith all of life.
• Romans 15:18: “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done.”
• Romans 16:19: “Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.”
• Philippians 2:12–13: “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”
• Titus 2:11–14: “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”
• Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God’s people will obey God.
• Hebrews 11:19: This is a very serious test of obedience. God told Abraham to take his son, the son he loved, only son, Isaac, and sacrifice him. Abraham obeyed, and the book of Hebrews gives this reasoning: “Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.” This is how God may test us. Are we going to obey him, even through martyrdom?

Saving faith is not lip service. Saving faith produces good works by the Holy Spirit’s power. Faith without works is the devil’s faith. The Reformation formula says, “We are justified by faith alone in the righteousness of Christ alone, but not a faith that is alone.” There is obedience of faith. James said, “Faith without good works is dead.” You cannot receive Jesus as Savior and not as Lord. You cannot divide Jesus Christ.

We cannot receive Jesus as Savior and not as Lord. Our good works are never perfect, yet God rewards our good works. Where there is justification, there is sanctification.

This saving faith is a gift of God. Paul writes, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph. 2:8–9). He also says, “For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him” (Phil. 1:29). “It has been granted” means gifted. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Assensus (agreement) must result in trust, and trust is our entrustment of ourselves to Jesus forever. We abandon all our trust in anything else. Your health will fail. Your money will fail. But he will take care of you. That is why we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” So we read:

• 2 Corinthians 11:23–27: “Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.”
• 2 Corinthians 12:7–10: “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
• Hebrews 11:35b–38: “Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.”

True faith in Jesus speaks of vital union with Christ whose life flows into us to produce fruit, more fruit, and much fruit (John 15:1–8). Fruitless branches lack true faith in Jesus Christ. Such branches are in the visible church. In due time, the fruitless branches will be cut off, thrown out, dried up, gathered up, and thrown into the fire. It is a divine passive. That means God is doing it. It is speaking about hell.

But those who trust Jesus by faith:

• Died with Christ
• Were buried with Christ
• Were raised with Christ
• To live a new life, not the old sinful life. Children of believers must obey their parents. New life of obedience in the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God (Rom. 6:1-4).

In the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter XI, section 2, we read, “Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification: yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love.”

Consider the following scriptures:

• James 2:17: “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
• James 2:19: “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”
• James 2:22: “You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.” Abraham believed and sacrificed his son Isaac (Heb. 11:17–19).
• James 2:26: “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”
• Galatians 5:6: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
• 1 John 3:16–17: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” Christ loved the church and died for her. Love obeys.

Application Questions

Do you have saving faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, whom you confessed as your Lord in baptism (Rom. 10:9)? Do you obey him immediately, exactly, and joyfully, by the power of the Holy Spirit?

The proof of justification is sanctification. That means obedience. Our obedience is never perfect, but without obedience, we are false professors.

Jesus is the Savior of all who obey him, as we read in Hebrews 5:8–9: “Although he was Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” If you are not obeying Jesus Christ, your faith is false. True believers live by repentance and saving faith.

Do you have all three elements of saving faith?

• Knowledge of the gospel
• Agreement that the gospel is truth
• Trust, that is, commitment to Christ of your entire life.

If this is true of you, rejoice in your eternal salvation! You are saved, you are being saved, and you will be saved by Jesus on that day.

But if you have never trusted in Jesus Christ, the only Savior of the whole world, know that Jesus came to save only sinners. What sinners? Worst sinners like St. Paul, like the publican, like the legion-demon man. He loved sinners, and he came all the way from heaven to save sinners.

God loves sinners and wants to save them. And everyone who trusts in Christ will be saved (Acts 16:30–31). The wages of sin is eternal death, but Christ died our death and was raised for our justification. Paul writes, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Christ took our sins, our guilt, and our eternal punishment. He gave us his perfect righteousness. Every sinner who trusts in Jesus is justified forever.

• Romans 4:25: “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
• Romans 5:1: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
• Romans 8:1: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

So I am speaking to those who are outside of Christ. Why are you here? God brought you here so that you may be saved by true faith in Jesus Christ. So confess and pray now. Here is a prayer:

“Lord Jesus, I am a sinner, the worst sinner in the world. I am in need of salvation that is found only in Jesus. No one else is perfect God/man. No one else died in my place for my sins. I trust in you. Forgive all my sins. I deny myself, take up my cross, to follow you. I entrust myself to you forever.” And you can go home justified, walking and leaping and praising God. Hallelujah!