Salvation by faith

Salvation By Faith
Ephesians 2:8-9

sermon by Paul George Retired Pastor

Church of the Nazarene

All the blessings which God has bestowed upon mankind flow from His grace and favor. We can not lay claim to the least of His mercies. We do not deserve the gifts we receive from the hand of God. Whatever righteousness may be found in us is a gift from God. The greatest gift is salvation; a gift that was given to us “while we were yet sinners.” By grace we are saved through faith. Grace is the source, faith the condition of salvation.

So that we do not fall short of the grace of God we need to know:

I. What faith is it through which we are saved?
II What is the salvation which is through faith?

The faith by which we are saved is not the belief God is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him and that He is to be sought by glorifying Him as God, by giving thanks for all things, and by careful practice of moral virtue, of justice, mercy, and truth toward our fellowman.

Secondly, it is not the faith of demons. Satan and his demonic force believe there is not only 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. We find demons confessing, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God” (Luke 4:34). The great enemy of God and man believes and trembles in belief that God was made manifest in the flesh; that He will “tread all enemies under His feet” and that “all Scripture was given by inspiration of God.”

Thirdly, it is not the faith the apostles has while Christ was upon the earth; though they believed on Him and left all to follow Him. Although they had seen they had the power to work miracles, to heal all manners of sickness and diseases, ever power and authority over demons, and were sent by Jesus to preach the kingdom of God. They were lacking in the faith through which we are saved.
What faith is it then through which we are saved? It may be answered: first in a general sense, it is a faith in Christ and God. It is the faith that is sufficiently, absolutely distinguished from the faith of the apostles while Christ was on this earth and from the beliefs of demons. It is the faith that is not merely a speculative, rational thing, a cold, lifeless assent, a train of ideas as in the head. It is a disposition of the heart. It is written in the Bible, “With the heart man believes unto righteousness” and “if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.”

This is the difference of the faith which the apostles themselves had while Our Lord Jesus Christ was on earth. It is the faith that acknowledges the necessity and merit of our Lord Jesus Christ’s death, and the power of His resurrection. This is the faith that acknowledges His death as the only sufficient means of redeeming man from death eternal, and His resurrection as the restoration of us all to life and immortality; in as much as He died for our sins and rose again for our justification.
Christian faith is then, not only an assent to the whole gospel of Christ, but also a full reliance on the blood of Christ; a trust in the merits of His life, death, and resurrection; a dependence upon Him as our atonement and our life, as given for us and living in us, a relationship with Him.
II What salvation is it which is through this faith?

First, whatsoever else is implied it is a present salvation, not something in the future. It is attainable here on earth by those who are partakers of this faith. Apostle Paul told the believers at Ephesus, and the believers of ages, “You are saved through faith.”

We are saved from the consequences of sin. This is the salvation which is through faith. This is that great salvation foretold by the angel before God the Father sent His only begotten Son to this earth and He was called Jesus because He will save His people from, not in, their sins. Or as it is said in other parts of the Bible, “all that believes in Him.” There are no limitations or restrictions. He will save all who believes in Him from all their sins. All who believe in Him are delivered from the guilt of past sins, for the entire world is guilty before God. The righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ is manifested to all who believe.

Being saved from all guilt, we are saved from all fear. Not from a filial fear but from all servile fear; from the fear that torments, from the fear of punishment, from the fear of the wrath of God, whom we no longer regard as a severe Master, but as an indulgent Father.

We have not received again the spirit of bondage, but the spirit of adoption. The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. We are also saved from the fear of falling away from the grace of God and coming short of the precious promises. We have peace with God through Jesus Christ. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And the love of God is shed abroad in our heart through the Holy Spirit which is given to us. We are persuaded, through there may be times when we let doubt sneak in, that neither death, nor life, nor present things, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in our Lord Jesus Christ. Through this faith we are saved the power of sin as well as the guilt of it. The apostle John tells us, “You know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him there is no sin. Whosoever abides in Him does not sin’ (1 John 3:5). He also said, “Little children!

Let no man deceive you. He that commits sin is of the devil. Whosoever believes is born of God. And whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” And, “we know that no one who is born of god does not sin, but He keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him” (1 John 5:18).

Those who are by faith is born of God does not sin by any habitual sin; for all habitual sin is sin reigning in the heart and sin can not reign in any that believe. Nor by any willful sin; for his will, while he abides in the faith is utterly set against all sin and abhors it as a deadly poison. Nor by any sinful desire; for he continually desires the holy and perfect will of God. Nor does he sin by infirmities, whether in act, word, or thought, for his infirmities have no control of his will and without this they are not properly sins.

This then is the salvation which is through faith even in the present world. A salvation from sin and the consequences of sin, both are often expressed in the word “justification.” In the largest sense it implies a deliverance from guilt and punishment by the atonement of Christ actually applied to the soul of the sinner now believing in Christ and a deliverance from the power of sin through the Holy Spirit who now dwells in his heart so that he who justified or saved by faith is indeed born again. He is born of the Spirit to a new life which “is hid with Christ in God.” And as a new born baby he gladly receives the sincere mild of the word and grows in the might of the Lord from faith to faith, from grace to grace, until at last he comes to “a perfect man, to the measure of the statue of the fullness of Christ.”

Now, thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father and Holy Spirit be blessing and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might forever and ever. Amen.