THE IMPORTANCE OF FAITH IN THE PROCESS OF SALVATION
Faith, Love, and Hope have been singled out as significant aspects in Salvation in Christ; we have shared quite a bit on Love and Hope previously.
It is however hard to overemphasise the importance of faith in the process of salvation; this is especially highlighted when we discuss among brethren the Assurance of Salvation, the Confidence of true conversion, and why apostasy and lack of discipleship are so rife even though there seems to be real conversion.
Faith is an essential aspect of conversion, along with repentance; both repentance and faith are necessary for salvation.
Faith is that which God requires of us (John 6:29); believing in Christ is that which God commands us to do (1 John 3:23). John tells us that the purpose of writing the Gospels is “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). So as we study the Gospel of Luke, we must discern that Luke writes to help us to know who Jesus is, and why he came, and that we may believe in him, and receive forgiveness, eternal life, and eternal inheritance as adopted children of God.
In the epistles, faith is the means whereby we are saved (Rom. 10:9), and the way to an assured hope (Heb. 11:1). Until the time of our resurrection we are guarded by God’s power through faith (1Peter 1:5). In the Christian life the only thing that counts, Paul tells us, is faith working through love (Gal. 5:6). Luke further underscores the importance of faith by using a single word to describe Christians “believers” (Acts 2:44).
With reference to God, faith is the conviction that God exists, that he is the creator and ruler of all, and the provider of salvation through Christ. Without faith, the author of Hebrews tells us, it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). We see in the book of Psalms how various ones respond to God in sorrow, emotional upheavals, praise, thanksgivings, and joy – but in all of these, the conviction that God exists and that he is good, merciful, and loving comes through in one way or another, although the cries of despair may come through so strongly that we miss the underlying faith in the midst of the apparent ‘despair’.
With reference to Christ, it means the belief that Jesus is the Messiah through whom we obtain salvation (this comes through very vividly in the Gospels). In Luke Gospel, his purpose is to provide the reader with certainty (1:4) in three areas of understanding: the first concerns the content of the gospel, the second concerns the credibility of the gospel, and the third concerns the communication of the gospel (Luke asserts that the gospel must be declared, and this carries over to his second book of “Acts”). Faith includes more than just believing a message to be true; it also involves trusting in Christ, resting in him, and leaning on him (the object of our faith and trust is Christ).
In Paul’s epistles, he was combating the rabbinical conception of faith as a meritorious good work. Hence we find the following emphases: 1) we are justified by faith alone, apart from the works of the law (Rom. 3:28); 2) our union with Christ is experienced and maintained through faith (Eph. 3:17); 3) faith must express itself in love and godly living (Gal. 5:6). In other words,as there must be fruit worthy of repentance (Matt.3:8), so there must also be fruit that grows out of faith. So if we appreciate what is communicated, we will realise that our works cannot save us (apart from faith); our union and communion with Christ is maintained and sustained by faith (there can be no depth without faith); true faith must be seen in love and godly living in outworking, and true faith would be seen in good, lovely, and godly fruit – so when love and godly living and fruit are starkly missing, there ought to be a pause, and an evaluation whether genuine faith is present.
The danger warned by the author of Hebrews is particularly that of shrinking back (Heb. 10:38-39), of falling away, of slipping back into legalism and unbelief (we see this demonstrated in the lives of the Pharisees and teachers of the law in their response to Jesus in the Gospels) – and this is indeed an expression of a serious lack of faith in God and His provision.
Hence the author of Hebrews points to past heroes of faith (chap. 11) as incentives for the life of faith today. Spurred on by their examples, we must keep on running with perseverance the race marked out for us (12;1). In Hebrews, therefore, faith is pictured as the dynamic of the Christian life, whereby believers are empowered to persevere to the end.
Opposing the notion that faith is a mere intellectual assent to the truth, James insists that faith without deeds is dead (2:26). His blunt words shake us out of our complacency. “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?” (2:14).
The first epistle of Peter ties in faith with hope; it was written “so that your faith and hope might be in God (1:21). Through faith we are “shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1:5). This final salvation is, in fact, the goal of our faith (1:9).
We find a rich diversity in the way the Bible writers describe faith. Yet amidst this diversity, there is a basic unity. Though in Old Testament times faith looked forward to the Redeemer who was to come, and in New Testament times faith looked back to the Saviour who had come, in both eras salvation was obtained only through a living faith in Christ. Faith is looking away from self, and leaning wholly on Christ for salvation. It is the personal appropriation of Christ and his merits. It means resting on Christ’s finished work, and accepting what he has done as having been done for us. When we keep looking at self and away from Christ, we fail to rest in his finished work and his merits, and we keep looking at our performance, our failures, and our doubts and fears – hence the lack of the assurance of our salvation.
In the words of the Heidelberg Catechism, faith is “a deep-rooted assurance, created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel, that….not only others, but I too, have had my sins forgiven, have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation.
It should be added that rust also included obedience. This is clear from Hebrews 3:18-19, where those who did not enter the Land of Canaan because of their unbelief are said to have been disobedient. Though it is often said that faith is passive (since we are saved by receiving what Christ has done for us), there is also a sense in which faith is active. Faith is active in obedience.
Faith involves the whole person. Nothing, in fact, is more determinative of the quality of our lives than our faith.
Scriptures teach that ideally, faith should carry with it a full assurance of salvation (Heb.11:1; 1 John 5:13) but also that believers may for a time lack such assurance (Matt. 6:30;8:26; 14:31; Luke 12:28).
There is a need for cultivating greater assurance of salvation (2 Peter 1:10; Rom. 8:16). Assurance of salvation must therefore be both possible and desirable. The Spirit continually testifies (present continuous tense) with our spirits that we are children of God. This is a witness that continues throughout life, which works through the Word, which comes through various types of experiences and trials.
Faith will keep us going in obedience; pray always. Faith will keep us in expectation; hope always. Faith will keep us hanging on to God in prayer despite all the discouragements we feel; grip God’s promises always.
THE PLIGHT OF MAN – GOD’S SOLUTION AND SALVATION PLAN
As we study the Gospels, what comes through is the plight of fallen man, and God’s solution and salvation through the Gospel and salvation plan.
The plight of man is not merely of guilt for sins, but also the pollution in sin and bondage to sin – the state of being wholly dominated by an inbred attitude of enmity to God.
The gospel seeks to expose the sinfulnes that underlies sin, and convince men of their own utter corruption and inability to improve themselves in God’s sight.
Even in today’s world, with all the advancements in science, technology, and related areas, it becomes more and more obvious that sinfulness is still deeply embedded in the DNA and ‘heart’ of man – it does not take much to convince one that this is so – the degree of immorality, corruption, cruelty of man to man, the conflicts and wars (including the two world wars), the falsehood, lies, lust, pride and selfish ambitions; and the predominance of this affecting all societies and communities, despite ‘education’, the pursuit of “Art”, asceticism, peace movements, and the like – all these go to show that the basic problem of fallen humanity is still prominent and ongoing, perhaps in more ugly and terrible manifestations. Occasionally, we see some ‘positive deeds’ and ‘benevolence’ exhibited, showing that man, made in the image of God, still retains some “goodness” within, but it is still tainted with self-centredness and impure motivations in the heart.
The gospel requires faith and repentance on the part of man, although they come about by the grace and gift of God – and before genuine conversion, which is the work of God through His Spirit, there is necessarily the conviction of genuine self-despair and recognition of spiritual poverty (spiritual bankruptcy) that apart from God’s grace, love and mercy offered to us, man still rejects God and even is at enmity towards Him. If we think that the world is progressively getting better and we are heading towards an utopia on earth, think again; the wide-spread preponderance of evil deeds and evil desires in today’s world is no longer shocking – it is becoming a ‘norm’ in today’s world.
The gospel analyses the issue of sin in terms of God’s hostility in the present, as well as His condemnation in the future. The gospel aims to make man realise and feel that to be in a wrong relationship with God is intolerable here and now.
The gospel stresses the sufficiency of Christ; it is not just a matter of trusting a theory of the atonement, but trusting in a living Redeemer, the perfect adequacy of His saving work as the God-Man.
Jesus Christ is never less than the divine Son (the second Person of the Trinity), and the measure of His mercy by His majesty is magnified by His love and sacrifice at the cross, and by dwelling on the greatness of the glory which He left behind for the mission to save fallen mankind by His incarnation. God condescends in Christ to become man, to live on earth as a man, to die on the cross as a substitute for fallen man, to bear the wrath of God towards sin and its effects, and to break the power of sin and to destroy the work of the devil, giving fallen man an avenue to be reconciled to God and to one another.
Those who repent and exercise faith may experience regeneration, which is the work of the Holy Spirit renewing the heart and thereby bestowing in embryo the family likeness. Regeneration instills in us a God-centered, God-exalting cast of mind that is inexplicable in terms of anything that was there before, just as the source and destination of the wind are more than any observer can know (John 3:8). Regeneration is an outgoing of the same power that brought this world into being when previously there was nothing there at all – absolutely nothing in existence before God. Hence the famous verse: “For God so loves the world that He gives His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but has eternal life.
The Christian’s sonship to God the Father is also by adoption which bestows the family status. The twin blessings of adoption and regeneration, while not shielding Christians from any of life’s grimmer experiences, do turn us into unique people with unique privileges and a unique destiny, and when the bad experiences come, it is vital that we do not forget who and what we are before God.
THE ESSENCE AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE GOSPEL
As we study the Gospels, it is pertinent that we appreciate and understand the essence and implications of the gospel, following the study.
The Gospel truth can be summarised in the following: God saves sinners. At the heart of God’s reconciling work is the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross and his glorious resurrection from the dead. The Gospel is the good news about the God who has acted in history to save us.
It answers the very bad news about the fallen state of humanity, our alienation from God and from one another, and the declared wrath of God that we must one day face. Any version of the Gospel that does not feature at its very centre Christ’s atoning death for us is simply not faithful to the witness of Scripture.
As we study the four Gospels, we see the ‘arrival’ of the Son of God into the history of mankind to undertake the reconciling work of God as the God-Man, and we notice a great portion of all four gospels concentrating on the atoning sacrifice of the Son of Man on the cross and his subsequent wondrous resurrection – it is a substitutionary atonement that the Son undertook.
He is Prophet (teacher), Priest (mediator), and King (master) to all who are His. He is spiritually present as Saviour, Master and Friend to His followers – He has ascended and is enthroned as the world’s present Lord and coming Judge.
Faith is a frank facing of the above facts concerning Christ that leads to actively adoring, approaching, and accepting Him as one’s living, present Saviour and Lord. By our faith, we not only receive from Him pardon for the past; we also enroll ourselves as His disciples, commit ourselves to follow His leading wherever it takes us, and enter upon a new life of permanent union and communion with Him and with His Father, who now through Him becomes our Father too. It has introduced us into a life of radical change as the indwelling Holy Spirit, through whom we first found faith, now works within us to re-form our character in the moral image of our Saviour, in liberty from the sins that once enslaved us, in loyalty to God and His truth, and in love to Him and to our fellow humans. And it has established in our hearts a peace and a joy that spring from knowing that whatever happens our new relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is eternal. This is the essence of the Gospel.
But as believers, we must not miss the critical implications and applications of the Gospel in daily living. The same cross that reconciles us to God reconciles us also to one another in Christ (Eph.2:11-22). If God has loved us to the point of giving His only Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins then surely we ought to without limit love one another (1 John 410-11). As God has loved us even while we were His enemies (Rom. 5:9), then we must act with justice and mercy toward all our neighbours and love even our enemies (Matt. 5:43-48). Regular communion with the Father and the Son, good works, and kingdom service are meant to be the outcome of the new birth.
We are to live in such a way as to make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive to our neighbours (Titus 2:10). Thus our teaching and preaching must include teaching the godly manner of living that accords with the sound doctrines of the Gospel (Titus 2:1). These then are the implications and applications of the Gospel, which should be seen not only in individual lives, but also in the church.
The Gospel is to be adorned by both sound doctrine and godly living. To set the Gospel before believers and public without these is to preach an unclothed Gospel.
PREACHING AND TEACHING THE COMPREHENSIVE GOSPEL
“I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” (Acts 20:27)
To preach and teach the Gospel means nothing less than declaring the entire economy of redemption, the saving work of all three persons of the Trinity.
Paul told Timothy: “In view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you the charge: preach the word in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage – with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:1b-4)
Here we see clearly that not only must we teach and preach the whole counsel of God; we also must realise the urgency of doing so and this time is always the right time to do so, because the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine and will refuse to listen to the truth.
Jesus, in Luke 12, warned: “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: fear him, who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” (Luke 12:1b-5)
Notice that preaching the whole counsel and truth of God involves not just encouraging; it also involves rebuke and correction (and the latter is often not well received). But realise that God does not tolerate hypocrisy; He looks at the heart and He desires to see the reality of truth, honesty, sincerity before Him. Paul also said that in view of His coming and His kingdom, there ought to be the urgency to preach the whole counsel of God, in season and out of season, and that means preaching and teaching God’s counsel and truth all the time, before the time when man would refuse to listen.
The issues involved: Time is running out and eternal judgment and consequences are at stake. No point pretending to be what you are not; do not think you can hide from God what is in your heart – everything would be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ.
Do not think that just because you are bible teachers, scholars, leaders in the church that you would not be judged. God is impartial.
Also, do not fear the negative reactions and responses of man; fear God instead. It is God who has the authority to throw us into hell. The worst man can do to us is to kill the body – they cannot kill the soul and our standing before God!
THE GOSPEL UNDERSTOOD IN TERMS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD (A)
In John’s Gospel, God’s love for the world leads to “eternal life”. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, the same reality is conveyed by the phrases “kingdom of God” and “kingdom of heaven” – the phrases mean the same thing but conveyed in a language familiar to their audiences. The Gospel writers are reporting one reality: God’s love for the world in Jesus Christ.
Jesus came to establish “the kingdom of God” – as the Messiah, the God-Man, he came to fulfil God’s promise to rescue fallen humanity from an oppressive human kingdom which leads to condemnation and judgment, and to inaugurate a new age and to announce the good news of the kingdom of God, open to those invited to repent and to receive by faith God’s offer of salvation in order to enter into this kingdom and to live as ‘kingdom people’.
We tend to think of ‘kingdom’ as defined by geographical boundaries, a place. The kingdom of God refers first not to a place but to power – to God’s rule or reign.
In the Gospels, Jesus establishes and reveals the actuality of the kingdom – Jesus’ miracles of healing, his feeding of four thousand and five thousand, his fellowship with all people, his forgiveness of sins – these acts reveal the actuality of the kingdom of God. The kingdom may begin with an inner work of God in the lives of those who are ‘born again’, but it calls such ones into relationships – relationships with God, with our neighbour, even our enemy. In the words and deeds of Jesus, the reality of the kingdom is established and revealed as everlasting: the kingdom is not something present only during Jesus’ bodily presence here on earth; it is an everlasting reality which begins “now” in those regenerated and becoming ‘new creation in Christ; (2 Cor. 5:17). Once established by Jesus Christ, the kingdom cannot be dislodged from the world.
The kingdom, in its everlasting actuality, is a present reality, rooted in the past and moving toward the future, which we must learn to see and to participate in.
Although everything else in this world is subject to finitude, decay, and death, the kingdom of God is subject to none of these. In the kingdom, we do not have a fading reality; we have an inexhaustible, everlasting reality. Neither the passage of time, nor human resistance, nor demonic strategem can wear down the kingdom of God. Since the kingdom is everlasting, it has a future – as we look to the future of the kingdom we look for the second coming of Jesus Christ and the consummation of the work he has begun. Certainly there is great joy for humanity in knowing that our present struggles with sin and evil of this world have a termination date set by God; but if that time is going to be glorious, then we should be concerned with living like that time here and now. That life is what Jesus Christ makes a reality here and now; the life of the klngdom has already begun in this world. God’s love in Christ establishes that life and calls us into it. The future is now, even though the present does not contain all that the future holds.
There are two great difficulties in our believing and practicing the reality of the kingdom. First, the kingdom Jesus Christ establishes and reveals does not look very much like the kingdom we want. In New Testament times, the people wanted God to establish a kingdom that would liberate them by destroying others, especially other human kingdoms; this is also true today. However, the kingdom comes as a fulfilment and perfection of all creation and is, therefore, open to all. Since the kingdom of God which comes in Jesus does not fit in our expectations, its reality is often hidden from us. We cannot see it because we are looking for the wrong things.
The disappointment of the people’s expectation in the NT times played a significant role in their call for Jesus’ crucifixion. The same disappointed expectations are present today.
Jesus establishes and reveals the kingdom in the midst of spiritual and material poverty, in the midst of suffering, in the midst of evil; he proclaimed the presence of the kingdom in the midst of this world. The evil events, the negative sin and corruption – these are not the kingdom, but neither do they count against the kingdom. The kingdom is present and actual wherever and whenever someone is redeemed to relationship with God, the enemy is loved, the hungry fed, the sick healed, and God is glorified.
The second reason we have difficulty with the reality of the kingdom is that we have untrained eyes and have not submitted ourselves to the discipline necessary for learning to see the kingdom that is present and active in our world. We need to learn what distracts us from seeing and living in the kingdom; this is the purpose of Scripture: to teach us what the kingdom of God looks like and how to look for it.
God willing, we will share further on the gospel understood in terms of the kingdom of God.
THE GOSPEL UNDERSTOOD IN TERMS OF THE KINGDOM (B)
When Jesus Christ established the kingdom of God, he shows us what human life is supposed to be – he exposes the corruption of human desires and longings which actually distort and destroy our lives, and he shows us what human life is meant to be from God’s point of view and from His intention for humanity.
Life is meant for perfection, but that perfection is not one of moral faultlessness achieved by our own efforts; rather it is perfection of life as God intended it to be lived, and as God makes possible for that life by his grace and enabling. In other words, we become truly human as when we were first created, and as what we ought to be eternally. Therefore the perfection of the kingdom is also the redemption of creation. God comes in Jesus Christ, not to rescue us from creation but to redeem creation and those who believe in him, as part of the creation.
When Jesus came as the Messiah and God-Man, he shows God’s concern for creation in the miracles that correct what has gone wrong in creation such as healing he deaf and the blind, raising the dead, calming the storm and exercising authority over nature and the forgiveness of sin – all these as foretaste of what is to come finally when the new kingdom is fully established in the new heaven and new earth. His miracles are signs demonstrating a foretaste of the ultimate restoration of creation that is God’s kingdom.
In taking on flesh, becoming incarnate, God began to heal the breach between God and creation. Our flesh, our materiality, is something not to be despised; by taking our flesh, the matter of which we are made, God honoured and sanctified that which had already been declared “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Christ suffered in our place so that our bodies may be made righteous; and after his death, Christ’s body was raised from the dead. In the resurrection of Christ’s body we once again see that God’s kingdom is the perfection of creation, for his resurrection is the firstfruits of the resurrection of all who are in Him.
When our longings for creation are corrupt, we seek to preserve creation, not out of the peace and joy that come from participating in the work of God’s kingdom but out of fear that human survival depends on our power and ability.
Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom is good news not bad news because he proclaims it as a reality, as something present, actual, and everlasting. The kingdom is revealed to be a gift, a work of God, not an achievement of humanity. Jesus does not announce a new demand to be met or a postponement of the fulfillment of the promise. Rather, he announce that God’s own action has met the old demand and fulfilled the promise; God’s demands have been met by Jesus’ own life of obedience – God in Jesus Christ meets the demands – Jesus proclaims the absolute demand of God’s holiness and announces that this demand has been met in himself; he has fulfilled God’s promises to carry out the eternal plan of salvation.
God, in love with us, refuses the compromise that would simply perpetuate or readmit sin into our world – Jesus’ reaffirmation of God’s standards tells us that God meets them through God’s own actions.
When God works, God does not come to fit into our preconceived notions. God comes in Jesus to fulfill God’s own promise, that is, to fulfill God’s promise with God’s own meaning and purpose, not to meet our expectations. The kingdom of God is not the fulfillment of any human political vision; it is not the achievement of economic aspiration; it is not the attainment of psychological stability – it is the fulfillment of God’s promises. In Luke 9:23-25, the cost of the kingdom is evident.
We must give up our lives in order to live in the kingdom. This makes sense if we recognise that there is another kingdom, against the kingdom of God, into which we are born and in which we live. We are born into the kingdom of ‘this world,’ a kingdom of sin and death. We can only enter into the kingdom of God by giving up our lives in that other kingdom. Hence, we must die to ourselves – the ‘selves’ that live in that other kingdom; when we enter into the kingdom of God, we die to that other kingdom; whether it is sex or money or power or self-righteousness or something else, and begin the lifelong process of erasing the habits and memories of that other life. Such a process, however, is not something by which we earn the kingdom; rather, it simply is the way we live in the kingdom.
Denial of the self that is sinful and dead in Luke 9 should not be confused with denial of our humanity; in fact, the kingdom is the good news that our humanity, which is shriveled and dead in the world, is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. The kingdom is about living the way Jesus loved – in his love, and joy, and peace. And this way of life is what it means to be fully human!
FEELING HUMBLE AND NEEDY ENOUGH
As we study the Gospels and realise how much God has loved us and sacrificed for us to bring us back to Him, what should come forth in our lives and hearts is the feeling of being humble and needy enough.
We need to remind ourselves that God is great, transcendent, thaty He loves us and wants to reveal Himself to us, even as we speak time in communion with Him. We also must recall that we are the original sinners, the perverse and abominable who miss God’s ways constantly. We have many mistakes in our lives and will make a lot more today and tomorrow if we do not keep in touch with God and with Christ, our Lord and Saviour.
The correct notions about God do not say anything about our relationship with Him. A lot of theology and biblical knowledge do not mean that our relationship with God is right or is going to be right. There is a great difference between knowing notions, even true notions, and knowing God.
We owe God thanks for our entire Chrisstian life – for the fact that we have been converted no less than for the fact that there was a Saviour for us to turn to. The doctrine of election teaches us humility, the humility which acknowledges every spiritual benefit as God’s gracious gift to us. It prompts doxology, praise to God for the greatness of His grace to us.
JESUS’ EMPHASIS ON THE REALITY OF THE ‘INNER BEING’
“See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you” (Luke 11:35-36)
In the gospel of John, the Lord also referred to ‘light’ and ‘darkness”. He said that ‘light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. All those who do evil hate the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But those who live by the truth come into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.’ And when Jesus referred to the light that has come into the world, we are reminded that He was referring to Himself – “In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
So we see the contrast between light and darkness with the parallel of the contrast between evil and righteousness ( the life of God in Jesus).
But, with reference to Luke 11, Jesus was emphasising that we should take care that the light within us is not darkness.
And He went on to elaborate this meaning in citing the examples of the Pharisee and the experts in the law.
Note: With regards to the Pharisee, the Lord Jesus said, “You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness”….you neglect justice and the love of God…you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings….you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it.” (vv,39-44)
To the experts of the law, Jesus said, “you have taken the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.” (v.52)
So what is obvious is that the Lord Jesus emphasises the importance of inner reality of truth, righteousness and the life of God (represented by ‘light’) and the sadness and woes of having ‘darkness’ in our inner beings (manifested by unrighteousness, evil, hypocrisy, and lack of reality).
So the Pharisees and experts in the law looked ‘good’ on the outside, but within them is ‘evil’, ‘darkness’ and spiritual death.
It is pertinent that what we see on the outside of persons is a true reflection of what is inside – we need discernment to recognise this.What is displayed on the outside, including apparent knowledge in teaching, preaching and communication, may appear as ‘light’ but the reality is – it is plain darkness, negative, and evil. Jesus is warning us about this!!
THE TRIUNE GOD IN THE TOTAL PLAN OF SALVATION
Today, many churches observe Reformation Sunday, commemorating the Reformation which occurred some 517 years ago.
Five “Solas” are noted in what came about from the Reformation:
“In Christ Alone”; “Through faith alone”; “By grace alone”; “In Scripture alone”; “God’s glory alone”.
Often, we look at each “sola’ individually to understand what are the significant “theological teachings” that have been restored and affirmed from the Reformation for the Church of God.
But it is helpful to remember that this restoration and affirmation came about from God’s total salvation plan for fallen humanity – it is the plan of the Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Even before the creation of the world, the Triune God decided and determined to implement this total plan of salvation to bring fallen creatures back to Him, back to the fold, forgiven from the penalty and guilt of sin, raised again to eternal life, adopted as God’s children, with the hope of Godly inheritance, to be God’s new people in the new heavens and new earth – restored humanity and people in a restored cosmic creation!
From the moment man sinned, God the Creator began to show himself a God of grace (note sola gratia), accepting responsibility to do all that was necessary to restore human beings to himself. In addition to making redemptive provision for sinners (note sola Christus), God must speak to them (sola scriptura), to teach them his character, aims, standards, and proposals. He must explain to them what his purpose is for themselves as individuals, and also for the church, the redeemed community, and the whole cosmos, so that they may know his mind at least in principle regarding every issue and situation with which they have to deal, and in which has to deal with them
Only as God addresses us directly, and works on and in us in conjunction with his message, can our activity take the form of rational, personal response to himself. Therefore a revealed Word from God to mankind, embracing a wide range of instruction, was necessary from the start. Such a revealed Word cannot avoid being complex if it is to deal adequately with the complexity of human life, “that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work”(2 Tim. 3:17). The heart of the knowledge which God seeks to impart is knowledge of the risen Jesus, understood in terms of the trinity of God, incarnation of the Son, the mediatorial office, and saving union with Christ – perhaps the most complex and elusive concepts in the whole history of human thought.
God the Father sent the Son to carry out this plan of salvation and from the Gospels, we are knowledgeable about the mission of the Son, His rejection by the nation of Israel, His death at the cross, His resurrection, and HIs ascension. We are also aware that God the Father is always with His Son, pronouncing on several occasions His delight in HIs Son; and we also are aware of the Person and ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of Jesus on earth as the God-man.
But what is not so clear to some of us is that Jesus’ ministry did not end after his ascension: the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit to carry on the ministry of the Father and Jesus in the lives of His people and the Church.
As Jesus ushered in the new age (the new wine in the new wineskin), the Holy Spirit is the gift of the new age, guaranteeing what is to come (Rom.8:23;
Ephesians 1:13-14).
In relation to the individual Christian, the Spirit’s ministry is fourfold. He enlightens, giving understanding of the gospel so that the “spiritual person” has “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:15-16). He indwells as the seal and guarantee that henceforth the Christian belongs to God (Rom. 8:9-11; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19). He transforms, producing in us the ethical fruit of Christlikeness: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,self-control (2 Corin. 3:18; Gal. 5:22-24), plus prayerfulness and hope (Rom. 8:26-27; 15:13). And he assures, witnessing to our adoption by God, our eternal acceptance, and our future inheritance (Rom. 8:15-25, 31-39, which is a transcript of the Spirit’s witness; Gal. 4:6).
In short, as the Christian’s whole life is life in Christ in terms of its meaning, centre, and direction, so the Christian’s whole life is life in the Spirit from the standpoint of his knowledge, disposition, and ability to love, and serve. Putting off the old man and putting on the new man, which God renews (Eph. 4:20-24; Col. 3:-1), and being newly created in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), corresponds to Paul’s writings to new birth in John’s, and though Paul nowhere says this explicitly, it is plain that the initial inward renewal is the Spirit’s work, as the living that expresses it. All that we ever contribute to our own Christian lives, according to Paul, is folly, inability, and need. Everything that is good, right, positive, and valuable comes from Christ through the Spirit as a gracious gift from the Triune God, to His glory!
So we can see the five “solas” in the affirmation of the Reformation as the work of the Triune God – in the grace and love of the Father in sending His Son, in the mission and work of the Son to carry out the salvation plan, and the application of this plan, to those who repent and believe (sola fide), by the Holy Spirit – and the continual work of the Triune God as the Father and Son at His right hand, overseeing the plan of salvation, and the continual work of both Father and Son in the Person and ministry of the Holy Spirit in individual Christians and the Church! Indeed, God so loves the world that He gives…..is it too much that we are asked to give back to Him and to fellow humans this love and this wondrous plan of salvation (which does not stop at regeneration but continues in sanctification and glorification at the second advent of the Lord Jesus)?
The Spirit operates (together with the Father and Son) intellectually, by imparting understanding of Christ and of the Scriptures as witness to him, and motivationally, by engendering trust in Christ and sustaining within us a purpose of cleaving to revealed truth; and in addition behaviourally, by inducing the Christlike pattern of action that flows from this state of the soul – and all these aim at a life that truly honours and glorifies God (sola gloria)!!