Doctrinal Thought #4
Scriptural Focus: Hebrews 11:6
Now, that we know we do not fall short of God’s grace, let’s
carefully consider ‘What faith it is through which we are saved.’
First, it is not the faith of non-believers. God requires of non-believers to believe ‘that
God is and that God is a giver of more gifts to them that diligently seek him’
(Hebrews 11:6), and glorify God by giving thanks for all these blessings (Luke
2:20), and by a careful practice of moral virtue, of justice, mercy, and truth. All philosophers and all otherwise people
have no excuse to not believe. All
people have a sense of God’s existence and attributes, a sense of reward and punishment,
and a sense of the obligatory nature of moral virtue. This is barely the faith of non-believers.
Nor, secondly, is it
the faith of a devil, though this goes actually much further than the faith of
non-believers. For the devil believes,
not only that there is a wise and powerful God, gracious to reward and just to
punish, but also that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ, the Savior of the
world. So we find the devil expressing
specifically ‘I know you are, the Holy One of God’ (Luke 4:34). Nor can we doubt but that unhappy spirits
believe all those words which came out of the mouth of the Holy One (Acts
16:17). Therefore we know that the great
enemies of God and humankind believe and tremble in the believing that ‘God was
made manifest in the flesh’ (1 Timothy 3:16), that God will ‘tread all enemies
under his feet’ (I Corinthians 15:25), and that ‘all Scripture was given by
inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16).
This is all included in the faith of the devil.
Thirdly, the faith through when we are saved is not the
pre-resurrection faith of the Apostles either.
Yes, ‘they left all to follow him’ (Mark 10:28), had power to do
miracles—heal the sick and diseased (Matthew 10:1), power over devils (Luke
9:1), and sent by Jesus to ‘preach the kingdom of God’ (Luke 9:2). Yet after their return from doing all these
activities Jesus called them “a faithless generation’ (Luke 9:41). He tells them ‘they could not cast out a
devil because of their unbelief’ (Luke 9:40; Mark 6:6). And even later on in their journey with
Jesus, they still asked Jesus to increase their faith to which Jesus responded
that their faith does not constitute faith (Luke 17:5-6).
So, what is the faith by which we are saved? It is faith in Christ. This faith is not the faith of the
non-believers, the devil, or even the pre-resurrection Apostles; it is not a
speculative, rational, cold, lifeless assent, a memorized idea, or adopted
thought. It is a disposition of the
heart (Romans 10:9-10).
How this faith differs from the faith of the
pre-resurrection Apostles is in this.
Faith acknowledges the necessity and value of Jesus’ death and the power
of his resurrection. It acknowledges his
death as the only sufficient means of redemption for people from eternal death
and restoration of us all to life and immortality (Romans 4:25). The salvific faith is as assent to the
whole gospel of Christ, a full reliance on the blood of Christ, a trust in the
merits of his life, death, and resurrection, reliance upon him for our
atonement and our life, as give for us and living in us. It is a sure confidence which a person has in
God, and through the merits of Christ his sins are forgiven, and he is
reconciled to the favor of God; and in
consequence it is confidence in the goodness of God, through the Son of his
love, living, dying, and interceding for us.
It is an acceptance of him in all his offices as our Prophet, Priest,
and King. He is our wisdom,
righteousness, salvation, and redemption (I Corinthians 1:30), or in one word,
salvation.
Hebrews 11:6
5-6By an act of faith, Enoch skipped
death completely. "They looked all over and couldn't find him because
God had taken him." We know on the basis of reliable testimony that
before he was taken "he pleased God." It's impossible to please God
apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must
believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who
seek him.
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
Luke 2:20
19-20Mary kept all these things to
herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned
and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and
seen. It turned out exactly the way they'd been told!
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
Luke 4:34
33-34In the meeting place that day there
was a man demonically disturbed. He screamed, "Ho! What business do you
have here with us, Jesus? Nazarene! I know what you're up to. You're the Holy
One of God and you've come to destroy us!"
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
Acts 16:17
Beat
Up and Thrown in Jail
16-18One day, on our way to the place of
prayer, a slave girl ran into us. She was a psychic and, with her
fortunetelling, made a lot of money for the people who owned her. She started
following Paul around, calling everyone's attention to us by yelling out,
"These men are working for the Most High God. They're laying out the
road of salvation for you!" She did this for a number of days until
Paul, finally fed up with her, turned and commanded the spirit that possessed
her, "Out! In the name of Jesus Christ, get out of her!" And it was
gone, just like that.
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
1 Timothy 3:16
14-16I hope to visit you soon, but just in
case I'm delayed, I'm writing this letter so you'll know how things ought to
go in God's household, this God-alive church, bastion of truth. This
Christian life is a great mystery, far exceeding our understanding, but some
things are clear enough:
He appeared in a human body, was proved right by the invisible Spirit, was seen by angels. He was proclaimed among all kinds of peoples, believed in all over the world, taken up into heavenly glory.
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
1 Corinthians 15:25
21-28There is a nice symmetry in this:
Death initially came by a man, and resurrection from death came by a man.
Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive in Christ. But we have to wait
our turn: Christ is first, then those with him at his Coming, the grand
consummation when, after crushing the opposition, he hands over his kingdom
to God the Father. He won't let up until the last enemy is down—and the very
last enemy is death! As the psalmist said, "He laid them low, one and
all; he walked all over them." When Scripture says that "he walked
all over them," it's obvious that he couldn't at the same time be walked
on. When everything and everyone is finally under God's rule, the Son will
step down, taking his place with everyone else, showing that God's rule is
absolutely comprehensive—a perfect ending!
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
2 Timothy 3:16
14-17But don't let it faze you. Stick with
what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers—why,
you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother's milk! There's nothing
like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through
faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one
way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our
mistakes, training us to live God's way. Through the Word we are put together
and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
Mark 10:28
28Peter tried another angle: "We
left everything and followed you."
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peter
|
Matthew 10:1
The
Twelve Harvest Hands
1-4 The prayer was no sooner prayed
than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into
the ripe fields. He gave them power to kick out the evil spirits and to
tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives. This is the list of the twelve
he sent:
Simon (they called him Peter, or "Rock"), Andrew, his brother, James, Zebedee's son, John, his brother, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, the tax man, James, son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon, the Canaanite, Judas Iscariot (who later turned on him).
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson |
Luke 9:1-2
Keep It
Simple
1-5Jesus now called the Twelve and
gave them authority and power to deal with all the demons and cure diseases.
He commissioned them to preach the news of God's kingdom and heal the sick.
He said, "Don't load yourselves up with equipment. Keep it simple; you
are the equipment. And no luxury inns—get a modest place and be content there
until you leave. If you're not welcomed, leave town. Don't make a scene.
Shrug your shoulders and move on."
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson |
Luke 9:40-41
41Jesus said, "What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring your son here."
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson |
Mark 6:6
4-6Jesus told them,
"A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the
streets he played in as a child." Jesus wasn't able to do much of
anything there—he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that's
all. He couldn't get over their stubbornness. He left and made a circuit of
the other villages, teaching.
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson |
Luke 17:5-6
5The apostles came up and said to the
Master, "Give us more faith."
6But the Master said, "You don't
need more faith. There is no 'more' or 'less' in faith. If you have a bare
kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore
tree, 'Go jump in the lake,' and it would do it.
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
Romans 10:9-10
4-10The earlier revelation was intended
simply to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for
those who trust him to do it. Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using
the law code to live right before God soon discovers it's not so easy—every
detail of life regulated by fine print! But trusting God to shape the right
living in us is a different story— no precarious climb up to heaven to
recruit the Messiah, no dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah. So
what exactly was Moses saying?
The word that saves is right here, as near as the tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest. It's the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—"Jesus is my Master"—embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!"
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
Romans 4:25
19-25Abraham didn't focus on his own
impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could
never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility
and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously
skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready
for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That's why it is
said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him
right." But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets
said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life
when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit
for God, set us right with God.
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
1 Corinthians 1:30
26-31Take a good look, friends, at who you
were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the
brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from
high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and
women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these
"nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the
"somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by
with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking
and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of
Jesus Christ. That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a
horn, blow a trumpet for God."
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
Hebrews
11:6
5-6By an act of faith,
Enoch skipped death completely. "They looked all over and couldn't find
him because God had taken him." We know on the basis of reliable
testimony that before he was taken "he pleased God." It's
impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants
to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to
respond to those who seek him.
The Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
|
Luke
2:20
19-20Mary kept all these
things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders
returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had
heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they'd been told!
The Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
|
Hebrews 11:6
5-6By an act of faith, Enoch skipped
death completely. "They looked all over and couldn't find him because
God had taken him." We know on the basis of reliable testimony that
before he was taken "he pleased God." It's impossible to please God
apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must
believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who
seek him.
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
Luke 2:20
19-20Mary kept all these things to
herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned
and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and
seen. It turned out exactly the way they'd been told!
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
Luke 4:34
33-34In the meeting place that day there
was a man demonically disturbed. He screamed, "Ho! What business do you
have here with us, Jesus? Nazarene! I know what you're up to. You're the Holy
One of God and you've come to destroy us!"
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
Acts 16:17
Beat
Up and Thrown in Jail
16-18One day, on our way to the place of
prayer, a slave girl ran into us. She was a psychic and, with her
fortunetelling, made a lot of money for the people who owned her. She started
following Paul around, calling everyone's attention to us by yelling out,
"These men are working for the Most High God. They're laying out the
road of salvation for you!" She did this for a number of days until
Paul, finally fed up with her, turned and commanded the spirit that possessed
her, "Out! In the name of Jesus Christ, get out of her!" And it was
gone, just like that.
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
1 Timothy 3:16
14-16I hope to visit you soon, but just in
case I'm delayed, I'm writing this letter so you'll know how things ought to
go in God's household, this God-alive church, bastion of truth. This
Christian life is a great mystery, far exceeding our understanding, but some
things are clear enough:
He appeared in a human body, was proved right by the invisible Spirit, was seen by angels. He was proclaimed among all kinds of peoples, believed in all over the world, taken up into heavenly glory.
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
1 Corinthians 15:25
21-28There is a nice symmetry in this:
Death initially came by a man, and resurrection from death came by a man.
Everybody dies in Adam; everybody comes alive in Christ. But we have to wait
our turn: Christ is first, then those with him at his Coming, the grand
consummation when, after crushing the opposition, he hands over his kingdom
to God the Father. He won't let up until the last enemy is down—and the very
last enemy is death! As the psalmist said, "He laid them low, one and
all; he walked all over them." When Scripture says that "he walked
all over them," it's obvious that he couldn't at the same time be walked
on. When everything and everyone is finally under God's rule, the Son will
step down, taking his place with everyone else, showing that God's rule is
absolutely comprehensive—a perfect ending!
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
2 Timothy 3:16
14-17But don't let it faze you. Stick with
what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers—why,
you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother's milk! There's nothing
like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through
faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one
way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our
mistakes, training us to live God's way. Through the Word we are put together
and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
Mark 10:28
28Peter tried another angle: "We
left everything and followed you."
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peter
|
Matthew 10:1
The
Twelve Harvest Hands
1-4 The prayer was no sooner prayed
than it was answered. Jesus called twelve of his followers and sent them into
the ripe fields. He gave them power to kick out the evil spirits and to
tenderly care for the bruised and hurt lives. This is the list of the twelve
he sent:
Simon (they called him Peter, or "Rock"), Andrew, his brother, James, Zebedee's son, John, his brother, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, the tax man, James, son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon, the Canaanite, Judas Iscariot (who later turned on him).
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson |
Luke 9:1-2
Keep It
Simple
1-5Jesus now called the Twelve and
gave them authority and power to deal with all the demons and cure diseases.
He commissioned them to preach the news of God's kingdom and heal the sick.
He said, "Don't load yourselves up with equipment. Keep it simple; you
are the equipment. And no luxury inns—get a modest place and be content there
until you leave. If you're not welcomed, leave town. Don't make a scene.
Shrug your shoulders and move on."
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson |
Luke 9:40-41
41Jesus said, "What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this? Bring your son here."
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson |
Mark 6:6
4-6Jesus told them,
"A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the
streets he played in as a child." Jesus wasn't able to do much of
anything there—he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that's
all. He couldn't get over their stubbornness. He left and made a circuit of
the other villages, teaching.
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson |
Luke 17:5-6
5The apostles came up and said to the
Master, "Give us more faith."
6But the Master said, "You don't
need more faith. There is no 'more' or 'less' in faith. If you have a bare
kernel of faith, say the size of a poppy seed, you could say to this sycamore
tree, 'Go jump in the lake,' and it would do it.
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
Romans 10:9-10
4-10The earlier revelation was intended
simply to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for
those who trust him to do it. Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using
the law code to live right before God soon discovers it's not so easy—every
detail of life regulated by fine print! But trusting God to shape the right
living in us is a different story— no precarious climb up to heaven to
recruit the Messiah, no dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah. So
what exactly was Moses saying?
The word that saves is right here, as near as the tongue in your mouth, as close as the heart in your chest. It's the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—"Jesus is my Master"—embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!"
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
Romans 4:25
19-25Abraham didn't focus on his own
impotence and say, "It's hopeless. This hundred-year-old body could
never father a child." Nor did he survey Sarah's decades of infertility
and give up. He didn't tiptoe around God's promise asking cautiously
skeptical questions. He plunged into the promise and came up strong, ready
for God, sure that God would make good on what he had said. That's why it is
said, "Abraham was declared fit before God by trusting God to set him
right." But it's not just Abraham; it's also us! The same thing gets
said about us when we embrace and believe the One who brought Jesus to life
when the conditions were equally hopeless. The sacrificed Jesus made us fit
for God, set us right with God.
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
1 Corinthians 1:30
26-31Take a good look, friends, at who you
were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the
brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from
high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and
women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these
"nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the
"somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by
with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking
and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of
Jesus Christ. That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a
horn, blow a trumpet for God."
The
Message (MSG)
Copyright
© 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene
H. Peterson
|
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