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Wlfu Q)
li§ The
Gteinllillfumce CCiburit§lblcaum
Part
II
. IV. The
NatUre
of
Justifying. Faith .
Let's examine further the nature
of
saving faith.
Good
works or obedience
to God's
Law
cannot be separated
from
a faith that leads
to
salvation. Just
as
one is toperformdeeds appropriate tore-
pentance, one is to give evidence that
true faith is present
To
state that wOrks is a necessary
part
o saving faith does not deny the
biblical docttine
of
salvation by faith
alone. f it did, then. we would have to
rip the book of James
out
of the Bible
for
being uninspired. James 2:14,17,18,
21,22,24,26 says, What use is it, my
brethren, if a
rtum
says he has faith, but
he has no works? Can that faith save
him?
Even so
faith,
i f
it has no works,
is dead, being by itself.
But
someone
may well say, you have faith, and
have works; show me your faith. with
out the works, and will show you my
faith by my works. Was not Abraham
our
father justified
by
works, when
he
offered up Isaac his son
on
the altar?
You
see that faith was working with
his works, and as a result of the works,
faith was perfected. You see that a man
is justified by works, and
not
by faith
alone.
For
just as the body without the
spirit is dead; so also faith without
works is dead.
A. Justifying Faith is e m o n ~
strated
by
a Hunger
~
Thirst for God's Word
There is
a close correlation
e t w ~ n
true saving faith and one's attitude . o-
JohnM Otis is
a PCA minister
residing in
Roswell, Georgia.
lby
Jollm
M.
OtJi§
wards and practiceo God's Word. The
Scripture was given to us by God for a
· two-fold pwpose. First, the Scripture re-
. ·veals who God is by revealing His true
nature. His nature is expressed through
allo His glorious attributes or charac- ·
teristics. Second, the Scripture was giv
en
to man
as
the means for man to
know what God expects of him. Scrip
ture, which· is the special revelation
of
God, explains the means of redemption
that God has provided for lost human
ity;
Because the Scripture
is
God-
. breathed, there is naturally a close con
nection between the Scripture and the .
Holy Spirit. In John 16:13, we are told
that when the Holy Spirit comes to the
disciples, He will guide them into
all
truth.
We
are told in John 17:17 that
the
disciples will
be
sanctified by the
truth, for God's
Word
is truth. From
these two passages, we learn an extreme
ly important principle
of
the Christian
· life.
The
Holy Spirit
lw ys
works
in
conjunction with .the revealed Word of
God, never in contradiction With it. In
other words, the Holy Spirit. will
ways lead us to obey the Scripture.
When Jesus said that the Holy Spirit
will
guide us into truth, He was not
saying that the Spiri t leads us in some
mystical way. The Spirit guides us to
obey the revealed truth of God - the
Bible.
The
Bible explicitly states that every
true child of
God has the Holy Spirit
residing
in
his heart (Romans 8:9-16;
Gal. 4:6,7; Eph. 1:13,14). Seeing that
the Holy Spirit guides us in accordance
with the Word
of
God, it should e
obvious that every true child
of
God
would have a hunger or thirst for God's
Word. This is exactly what I Peter 2:2
indicates, Like newborn babies, crave
pure spiritual milk,
so that by it you
may grow up in your salvation. A
newborn baby instinctively desires
milk
·. fat
its growth. Likewise, in the spiri
tual realm, every child of God will in
stinctively crave Godis Word for his
growth.
. One
of
the tntest signs
of
the pre
sence
of
justifying faith is such a hun
ger and thirst David is said to have
been the man
after
God's own heart. It
·is noteworthy that this man loved God's
Word. Psalm 9 in its entirety is an
expression of David's attitude towards
God's Word. Psalm 119:111,112 sum
marizes ;his attitude, Your statutes are
my heritage forever; they are the joy
of
my
heart
My heart is set on keeping
your decrees to the very end. We are
told in Acts 2:42 that those who re
pented and werebaptized into the church
of Jesus Christ on the day of Pentecost
were devoted to the apostle's teaching.
For the Christian; a hunger and
thirst
for the Bible is no option. The genuine
Christian does not allow the Bible's ad
monitions to take second place to
his
personal opinions. God's Word dictates
his very thoughts and governs his daily
actions. t is a very dangerous sign
when a professing Christian says, I
know what the Bible says but I don't
care, and I will do what feel
is
right
A persistent attitude such as this and a
lifestyle that reflects such disregard for
God's
Word
is indicative
of
someone
who has never been born again.
I John 3:24 succinctly states the rela
tionship between the Holy Spirit. and
obedience to God's coinmandments,
Those who obey his commands live in
him, and he in them. And this
is
how
we know that he lives in us: We know
it by the Spirit
he
.gave us. This pas
sage states that there are two indicators
of those who are genuine believers.
Obedience to God's commands is one in
dicator, and the other is the presence of
the Holy Spirit.
It
doesn't take much
of
a logician to see that it is the Holy
Spirit's presence that enables the person
to obey God's commandments. We
must remember that a Christian has the
· Holy Spirit dwelling within him.
Without the Holy Spirit,
no
one can be
saved. Since the presence of the Holy
Spirit always leads us to obey God's
Law, such obedience from the heart is a
Page 18 ~ T h e Counsel of Chalcedon, June, 1988
7/27/2019 1988 Issue 6 - Who is the Genuine Christian? Part II - Counsel of Chalcedon
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sign
of
true justifying faith. Let's see in
further detail how obedience
to
God's
Law demonstrates the presence
of
justi
fying faith.
B.
Justifying
Faith
is
Demon·
strated
by
an
Obedience
to God's
Law
The book of I John is probably the
best exposition of the nature
of
justi
fying faith in the entire Bible. John
clearly distinguishes the genuine Chris
tian from the counterfeit.
In
1:5 John
declares that
God
is light and that there
is unequivocally
no
possibility for dark
ness to reside with
God
. The terms
"light" and "darkness" are figurative
terms for holiness and wickedness, re
spectively. In 1:7 John says that if we
walk in the light as
God
is in the light,
then we have true fellowship with God.
The tenn "walk" expresses the concept
of
lifestyle. In chapter 2, John gives
some specifics as to what it means to
walk in the light. Verses 3 and 4 are
quite clear: "And by this we know that
we have come to know Him, if
we keep
His commandments. The one
who
says,
I have come to know Him, and does not
keep His commandments, is a liar, and
the truth
is
not in Him." The Greek
grammar indicates that the keeping
of
God's commandments is an ongoing ac
tivity, not an isolated instance. Our as
surance that we are truly Christians is
that we
continually
keep God's Law.
The one who continually disobeys
God's law is a liar, void
of
God's truth.
Why is he a liar? He insists that he is a
Christian, but his lifestyle betrays his
profession
of
faith. Beginning
in
2:29,
John introduces the notion
of
being
born
of
God. John says, If you know
that He is righteous, you know that
every one also who practices righteous
ness is born
of
Him
.
The term "born
again" is a very popular phrase today.
It
is used synonymously with being sav
ed. Yes, a person who is spiritually
born again is a Christian. But notice
that John says that the
proof
that a per
son has been born again is that he con
tinually
pr
actices righteousness. This
truth
is
magnified even further in 3:6-
10, "No one who abides in Him sins;
no one who sins has seen Him or
knows Him. Little children, let no one
deceive you; the one who practices righ
teousness is righteous, just as He is
righteous;
the
one who practices sin is
of the devil; for the devil has sinned
from the beginning. The Son of God ap
peared for this pwpose, that
He
might
destroy the works of the devil. No one
who is born
of
God practices sin, be
cause His seed abides in him; and he
cannot sin, because he is born of God.
By
this the children of
God
and the
children of the devil are obvious; any
one who does
not
practice righteousness
is not
of
God, nor the one who does not
love his brother." John says that the dis
tinction between the genuine Christian
and the counterfeit Christian is ob
vious If
a person is born
of God
he
does no t practice sin. The reason is that
Christ's seed abides
in Him
- there is a
new life principle dwelling within the
true believer. Is this not what II Corin
thians 5:17 says? f we are in Christ we
are a new creation - old things have
passed away and new things have come.
In his gospel account, John recalls
the
very words
of
Jesus concerning who
is the genuine Christian. In John
14:23,24 Jesus says,
If
anyone loves
Me, he will keep
My
word; and
My
Father will love him, and
We
will
come to him, and make Our abode with
him.
He
who does
not
love
Me
does
not
keep My words and the word which
you hear is not Mine,
but
the Father's
who sent Me."
The faith which justifies a person is
a faith that is evidenced in the way that
a person lives.
It is
absolutely impos-
Our ittle ambs
Need Shepherds
Chalcedon Christian
School,
in
north
Atlanta.
is
seeking teacher aru>lications
for the 1988-89 scllool year. Pre-school,
Early Later Elementary, Middle
High School positions are available.
Applicants must
be
experienced
Reformed ho lding to the systemof
dOctrine taught in the Westminster
Confession o FaiJh)
1
committed to
Christ nd
to
Christi an education
sible to
e in
rebellion against God's
law and still be a genuine Christian.
The Bible emphatically declares such a
person
to
be a liar. Titus 1:16 says,
"They profess to know God, but by
their deeds they deny
Him,
being detest
able and disobedient, and worthless for
any good deed." Obedience to God's
commandments is submission to
Christ's Lordship. The doctrine that in
sists that
it
is possible to have Jesus
Christ in one's life but
yet sinful ego is
still governing one's behavior is a false
doctrine.
t
s a doctrine t hat will literal
ly ruin a person's eternal soul One of
the most solemn passages in the entire
Bible is Matthew 7:21-23 which says,
Not everyone who says to Me, Lord,
Lord, will enter the kingdom of
heaven;
but
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 cast
out
demons, and in
Your name perform many miracles?
And then I will declare to them, I never
knew
you; depart
fr
om Me, you who
practice lawlessness."
Jesus is unmistakably clear that one
can
make a false profession· of faith.
Such professions are worthless
if
there
is no conformity to
God
's will, which
is obviously obedience to His Law. t
is
really unbiblical
to
declare that
all
of
those who make professions of faith are
saved. Yet, this is what many evan
gelists declare.
For
example, if 100peo-
ple carne forward during an "altar call,
H
it is boasted that 100 people got saved
that day.
One
cannot know that
all
of
Chalcedon
Christian School
P.O. Box 888022
Dunwoody,GA 30338
(404)
3 ~ 6 0 9 6 0
Robert T. Lester, Administrator
The
CouDS(ll
of Chalcedon,
June,
1988
Page 19
7/27/2019 1988 Issue 6 - Who is the Genuine Christian? Part II - Counsel of Chalcedon
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thes.e people have b ~ e n truly converted.
All that one can say is tbat 100 people
made
a
Christian profession.
Only
time ·
will tell,
as
to whether these professions ,
are
genuine. Unfortunately; the act
.
of
walking . the aisle and making some
kind
of
response
to
.
the mvitation has .
convinced some that they are eternally
secure for example the prostitute men
tioned earlier.
C. Justifying Faith .
s Demon
strated
in
Lo g
One.s ·Neighbor
Jesus declared that.the proofof being
His disciples was whether his disciples
loved one another. John ~ 3 : 3 5 says,
"By this all men will know that you are
My disciples, if you have love for one
another." Paul
s ~ t e d
t h ~ t God's entire
Law
can
be surn,marized in one state
:-
rneut. G latians 5:14 states, "For .the
whole.Law i f u l f l l l ~ d in one .word, in
tbe s t a t e m e n ~
You
shall love your
n e ~ g h b o r
as
yourself." Love is the heart
of. the Law, Of o u r s ~ bib1ical love is
not merely an emotional feeling. Bibli
cal love is basically
an act
of
the
will
which manifests itself ·in
o b e d i e n c ~
God's commandments. A f t e ~
all,
Jesus
said that we really don't love
Him
if we
are not obedient to all that He com
mands. However, true obedience is de
monstrated through love. This
is
what
~ ~ q l
·
was saying
in
I Corinthians
13. :rrue love ~ v i d e n c e s itself in how
we relate to other people, especially our
brethren in the Lord. Love is
p a t i ~ t
with others; it is kind; i t is not jealous;
it. humble; it is not self-centered; it is
n o ~
vengeful; it looks ,for the best in
others; it is forgiving. These are just a
few
ways that love ·is mimifested. .
Love is
.till:
distinglj.ishing mark of
the genuine Christian.
Those
who do
not love their neighbor, especially
those
of
the household
of
faith, are yet
lost in their sins. John
atteSts
to this
truth in his
ft:tst
epistle, ·Note the
severity of not loving·one's brother
in
I
John 3:10,14,15: "By this the children
of
God and the children
of
the devil are
obvious; any one who does not practice
righteousness is ·not Of God, nor · he
one who does not love his brother.
We
know that we hf,lve passed out
of
death .
into
life, because we love
the brethren
.
He who
does
not love abides in
death
.
Every one who
hates his
brother is a
murderer; and you know that no mur-
derer bas eternal life abiding
in him."
l
John 4:7-8 says, "Beloved, let
us
love
one another, for love is from
God;
and
every one who loves is
born
of God and
knows
God.
The one who doeS; not love
does not know God, for God is love ,"
By the way, t h ~ verbs in these verses
convey the idea of
3Jl
ongoing activity .
Love is tbe con( t..ant lifestyle of a
gen
uine Christian.
Is
there any doubt that .
the practice of love is a necessity
if
we
are truly children of
God?
There are several ways
in
which we .
hate.
our brother. One of the most
com
mon_
ways
is by harboring bitterness _
n
our hearts and maintaining .
an
unfor
giving spirit. Not only do .these
traits
destroy us physic.ally, but tl1ey will
surely .destroy ·our souls in Hell.
In
Matthew
6:14-15
Jesus said that if we
a(e not willing
to
forgive others,
God
will not forgive our
~ i n s . The_
Chris
tian, in several places, is exhorted to for
give just as Christ forgave
him
The
person who harbors bitterness and re"
fuses to forgive others is simply
demon
strating that they have never been
born
again. The new man in Christ does not
practice such hatred. f you, as the
rel .der,
are
harboring such attitu9es you
bad better examine your heart and repent
of
your sin; otherwise,
yol).
will be
Concluding the series
of taped sermons on
The Revival
of the Church
by Joe
Morccraft,
IJI
Revival of he Church
Under Elijah,
I
i m ~ s
1
7)
Revival o f h ,hurch
Under Elijah, II
I Kings
Ill
16ft)
Revival of the Church
lhuler 1\lijah, J/1
(I Kings
18:19fl)
54.00
per
tape
(casseuc),
$11.00
for set of3
Order from:
Specialty Media Services
P.O. Box 28357
Atlanta, GA 30358
rejecte4 by.Christ on
the
day of judg
ment f
you ~ o w other professing
Chri.stians
who are
like
this
,
you
have a
scriptural responsibility
to
admonish
them of the spiritual danger that they
are
in. .
We
show hatred to our brother
if
we
are racists. It is impossible for a racist
to be a.genuine Christian Racism is
the practice of sin, which VIe have seen
is the evidence of
those
who
are
not
born
of
God. This author attended Semi
nary
in.
Mississippi. It .was appalling to
him
to learn there
were
.still church
es
that refused to even
allow
a black per
son to attend church services. One
thing
can be certain.Those churches
are
Chris
tian in name only.. They ·surely
will
bear the judgment of God. It is equally
appalling. o iearn that
members
of the
Ku
Klux Klan
try
to appeal
to
the
.
)3ible
to
substantiate their racist attitudes.
'lt
is impossible
to be
a genuine
Christian apd not p r a c ~
the love of
Christ. This is a sober fact that
many
professing believers need
to
ponder.
Submitting to Christ's Lordship is the
constant obedience to God's conunand
ments, and this ·obedience is
demon
strated in
our
love for others. Observe
what I John 5:2-3
says
, "By
this we
know that we love the children of God,
when we love God and observe His com
mandments. For
this
is
the
love of
God, that we keep His.commandments;
and His commandments are not burden
some."
[To be continued
with
~
Relation-
ship
of
Justification
to
Sanctification
and
The Necessity
of
Spiritual Fruit
next
month.]
Teacher
Admiriistrator
· ee e
Trinity
Christian
School
is
looking
for a
teacher to teach
sixth
grade
and
handle the day to day-administrative
needs
of
the school.
Write: Trmlty·Christian Schoool
P 0. Box
2364
Statesboro, GA 30458
or Call
1-(912)-489-1375 or
489-8186
Page 20 ----- .--. . - .------------. . . . . .--------The C9uosel of Chalcedon, June, 1988