Salvation
What Happens to Our Faith When God Disappears?
Christian faith is often brittle.
It’s often punctuated with moments of doubt. Persecution. Isolation. Fear.
We can sometimes spend entire nights staring at the ceiling or pacing the floor praying, “God, I cannot do this unless I know you are with me. Where are you? Don’t hide. Please. I need you.”
It’s as if God’s gone AWOL.
Michael Patton confessed he felt God first went AWOL when his sister died.
It was a devastating buzz kill to a man who was a seminary superstar on a spiritual high, always optimistic when everyone else was in the dumps…
Always seeing the good in the evil.
However, this tragedy caused enormous confusion. And he couldn’t shake it.
Spiritual Loneliness and Our Circumstances
Since that time he’s had his ups and downs. Exhausted from ministry and struggling to provide for his family, you could easily say that when he wrote that post he’d spent an extended period in the downs.
But don’t count him out.
In the midst of his painful post he writes:
Those of you atheists and former Christians who suspect that they are about to have another Christian cross over to the dark side, put up your party hats, blowouts, and (ahem) cake. I am not close. One thing that I have learned, believe, and teach with great conviction is that my circumstances do not have a vote in truth. Nothing that I go through can alter or affect the cardinal issues of my faith. Jesus Christ either died and rose from the grave or he did not. It is upon this that the entirety of my faith rests.
Here’s the deal: Our faith will be assaulted…and then weakened. But true saving faith will always prevail because it’s not dependent upon our circumstances.
It’s dependent on something more concrete.
What Does Spiritual Growth REALLY Look Like?
The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints doesn’t mean our Christian life is one of steady upward growth without failure.
Yes, it’s upward. But it looks more like a saw-tooth than a gentle slope toward the sky.
Any Christian can relate: We can go from an acute sense of holiness and the presence of God to very bad sin and feelings of isolation all the way back to a so-called intimacy–within weeks…or even days.
Being born again doesn’t mean we won’t sin or experience despair. Nor does it mean we won’t sin or despair GRIEVOUSLY. Truly regenerate Christians can commit murder, adultery and even publicly reject Christ.
They even can live in depression. But NEVER persistently. The Bible is clear: A Christian can fall. And fall hard. But not fully or finally.
Spiritual Growth Involves War
Our faith is weak. And we will naturally be bruised as we fight the good fight of faith. The Bible promises us a war.
Thing is, we’ll never be abandoned during that war. Even when it feels like God has gone AWOL.
Martin Luther stood alone at the Diet of Worms against the most powerful men of his time. He spent the prior night praying in agony. He knew he could not do what he was going to do unless God was behind him.
In his second letter to Timothy Paul writes:
My persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
In the same letter Paul uncovers his own despondency when he declares: “No one came to stand by me. All deserted me…. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me. …The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.”
We are in good company when we experience despair and pain. Furthermore, we also know that we will be victorious. God will rescue us because Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith.
And what is our faith? Hebrews says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for.” Our hope in Christ is the anchor of our soul.
What Faith Is and Isn’t
This is not faith AGAINST the evidence. But a faith of substance. Nor is it a faith in skimpy evidence…and we’re told to believe anyway.
It is not ephemeral and wishful, but rooted in the historical life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s based upon the manifold evidence that Christ is God’s son.
And that he came to redeem the world.
Faith is a gift from God. He is the author of that faith. He’s also responsible through the Holy Spirit to nourish that faith. And we have God’s promise that he will not abandon that work–but finish it.
And that’s why in the midst of doubt or trials Michael Patton, Martin Luther, the Apostle Paul and even Demian Farnworth can say, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.”
What Is True Saving Faith?
When the Apostles proclaimed the gospel in the first century, it had a certain content.
People could reject that content. But they could also accept it as true.
They could even believe in it.
Yet, that still left them with out true saving faith.
Listen: Accurate content and sincere belief in that content doesn’t amount to saving faith…
Those are necessary elements–but not sufficient elements. There’s one more element.
Let’s address the first two elements before we get to that last one.
Notitia–the First Element of Saving Faith
One, we must make sure that content is accurate. No use believing in something that isn’t true or heretical.
As you probably know, there’s something dreadfully wrong with this statement: “It doesn’t matter what they believe–as long as they are sincere.”
Joseph Kony was sincere in his belief that he was called by God to abduct children, murder entire families and displace over a million Sudanese so he could establish a theocratic kingdom.
Sincerity can go awfully wrong.
The same is true for Christians: It’s meaningless to be sincere in our belief but not know whether our belief is accurate or not.
We risk heresy if we do otherwise. Thus, the first element of saving faith is accurate content–notitia. Let’s look at the second.
Assensus–the Second Element of Saving Faith
Second, we must believe that content is true. We must assent to it. This is assensus.
But it’s still not enough to redeem us.
I believe that Augustine wrote the City of God. However, that doesn’t redeem me. There has to be something more.
Fiducia–the Third Element to Saving Faith
The third element to saving faith is fiducia–personal trust and commitment in the accurate content we believe.
This is when a Christian accepts, receives and RELIES on Christ alone.
Granted, the message of that content is important. I could put my trust and commitment in Augustine–but it wouldn’t do me any good.
He’s not offering salvation. Only Jesus Christ is.
What Saving Faith Does to Our Lives
We look to Jesus [not Augustine nor any man] for justification, sanctification and eternal life.
With saving faith, we tremble at the commands of God…yield in obedience to the mandates of Christ…and put our trust in the promises of God for now and for the future.
In essence, it radically rearranges our lives. Christ becomes our object of delight. Our obsession.
And we long to do nothing more than please him. [We don't always succeed, but that's another story.]
Here’s the core content we we confess as true, deserving of our belief and worthy of our submission:
That Christ was born, willingly and perfectly lived under the law of God and died as an atoning act. We believe he was dead, buried and rose again.
Only when we believe that information is accurate and trust it holds the power to save us can we safely say we are born again. Anything less and Jesus is not saving us.
What Does It [Really] Mean to “Call Upon the Lord”?
For all the talk of God’s sovereignty, election and spiritual bondage, the Bible unequivocally clamps down on our reaction to the gospel…
There’s no missing it: We are responsible for exercising our faith.
We are, in the end, held accountable to “call upon the Lord.”
Here’s Peter and Paul’s take on it:
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Acts 2:21
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13
But what does “call upon the Lord” mean? More importantly, is it the same thing Jesus described in Matthew 7:21 when people came to him saying “Lord, Lord”?
No, it’s not. It’s way more complex than that.
When Peter was asked what one had to do to be saved, he commanded, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.”
Paul said that this calling upon the Lord can’t happen until a sinner hears the gospel. A sinner cannot “call” until after he has heard the Word of God–and believed it.
So then, every non-believer who wants to obtain salvation does not get it by simply praying to God or saying, “Lord, Lord,” but by submitting to God’s authority.
Ultimately, a genuine Christian, among other things, obeys God’s commands, reject this evil world, longs for Jesus’ return, loves other Christians and discerns between truth and error.
Only when a person submits to the will of God can he accurately be described as “calling on the Lord.” And only then can he enjoy great confidence in his eternal salvation.
There’s no short-circuiting that process. At all.
How Faith Is Created in Your Soul
Ever wonder how you got the faith necessary to believe Christ is the Son of God?
Some people would tell you that God’s grace assists a believer to exercise his faith…
A faith that’s native to his being.
That’s the so-called semi-Pelagian view.
And on this view, everything depends decisively on a person’s response.
But this was not the view of Augustine, Luther, Calvin or Edwards. Nor is it the teaching of the New Testament.
The New Testament tells us that we are spiritually dead and blind rebels and unless the Holy Spirit raises us from spiritual death, God’s offer of grace would be like giving water to a dead man.
Dead men don’t drink water.
Neither do dead men respond to offers of grace. At least not until they are raised from the dead.
This view is spelled out in Paul’s letters. For instance, Paul writes, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
What is NOT our doing? Paul is clear: the origination of our faith.
The Killer Blow to Semi-Pelagianism
Yes, it becomes our faith. We exercise that faith. Nobody else does it for us. But we can’t exercise what we don’t have, so God, through salvation, gives us faith to accept his grace.
Paul’s simple statement is a deathblow to all forms of semi-Pelagianism. It affirms that the faith by which you are justified…by which you are united in Christ…and that is the instrumental cause of your justification…did not originate in some activity or decision of your will.
It did not come from unregenerate flesh. It came from God. Decisively.
God made a promise to save every person who responds to the gospel with faith:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16
Fortunately for us that response doesn’t depend on our self-absorbed, wretched will.
No. It depends on God. That way our faith is eternally stable and secure. Our preservation is a promise that can’t be broken.
In all things–from creation to redemption to glorification–he remains the sovereign, provident and all-powerful God.
And that is a God worthy of our adoration.
10 Hard Truths about Being Born Again
What does it mean to be spiritually dead? And why is the new birth so precious?
The following nine posts unpack the hard truth that we are dead apart from the new birth…
Spiritual Death
What does it mean to be spiritually dead? A biblical answer. With a little help from my friend John Piper.
Hard-Hearted Ignorance
On the surface our problem–that is, our condition apart from the new birth–looks like ignorance. But it’s something deeper.
Resist Christ as Lord
Did you know that new birth draws you AWAY from your lusts TO Christ? Yet, the drawing is not moral persuasion. It’s something different. And superior.
Spiritual Blindness
People who reject Christ are blind. And there’s only one cure. Fortunately, these people who follow this blog know the secret and aren’t shy about it.
Bondage to Worldly Wisdom
Intellectual discussions deserve exchanges of argument and counter-argument. The only problem is, sin is not an intellectual problem. It’s something else.
Children of Wrath
Why do you need to be born again? Because you are a child of wrath. And how you got to be that way may surprise you.
Enemy of God
The person dead-set on embracing all the world has to offer can never please God. And that’s a dangerous thing.
Hates the Light
Two things essentially arise from an abandonment of Christianity: Your sense of morality and your bitterness towards God. This is what it means to love the dark.
Slaves to Sin To be a slave to sin is a terrible thing. But enslavement to sin doesn’t mean one struggles against it. Quite the contrary.
Slaves to Satan
The path to new birth is strewn with opposition. And as if that wasn’t enough to discourage or depress you, let me add another one.
Update: Added Slaves to Sin on Thursday, January 7, for a total of ten hard truths about being born again.
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