1 Corinthians 13: Faith, Hope & Love, Part 3 (Salvation)

So we are saved by grace, and so long as we’re saved at all, we’re entirely saved.

(Heb 10:14 NIV) For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

So how might I fall from this state? Having been saved, what would make me no longer saved?

I think the answer is as simple as this: We leave the kingdom by the same path by which we entered. If we surrender those things that brought us into right relationship with God, we lose our salvation. The way out is the same as the way in.

So that brings us to much more familiar ground. What is the way in? Well, faith in Jesus. The Greek word is pistis, and pistis carries three related, overlapping meanings.

The one that gets the most emphasis in Protestant preaching is belief that Jesus is the
Messiah —

(Mat 16:16-18 ESV)  16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”  17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.  18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

“Christ” is from the Greek for “anointed,” being a translation from the Hebrew “Messiah.” “Son of …God” is taken from Psalm 2, where it refers to God’s Anointed (Greek Christos and Hebrew Messiah). Peter is declaring Jesus to be the long-promised king of the God’s long-promised kingdom — the Anointed One. This is kingdom language.

Paul, writing to a Gentile audience, speaks in terms of an even more audacious
confession —

(Rom 10:9-13 ESV)  9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.  11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”  12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him.  13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

“Jesus is Lord” borrows from the Septuagint’s translation of YHWH. The Septuagint translates YHWH as kurios, that is, Lord. To confess Jesus as “Lord,” is to declare him not only king of your life and king of universe but God — in this case, God the Son, but nonetheless God.

And this confession points us toward a second definition of faith (pistis): faithfulness. In fact, in nearly every case where you read “faithfulness” in the New Testament, it’s pistis in the Greek. Sometimes we translate “faith” and sometimes “faithfulness” and the context tells the difference. It’s the same Greek word.

N. T. Wright explains,

Before we can consider this evidence, however, there is another point about Jesus’ context which is of great significance, and which has been, I think, more or less universally overlooked. If ‘repentance’ carries the overtone of ‘what Israel must do if her fortunes are to be restored’, it can also have a much more down-to-earth ring: to abandon revolutionary zeal. This is found in a setting strikingly reminiscent of the major introductory passage in the gospels (Mark 1:15/Matthew 4:17). The setting is a passage in Josephus’ autobiography.

Josephus is describing an incident which took place in Galilee in around AD 66—that is, roughly when some of the synoptic traditions may have been achieving a settled shape. Josephus has gone to Galilee to sort out the turbulent factionalism there. A brigand chief called Jesus (there are twenty-one people by that name in the index to Josephus’ works; originality in naming children was evidently not prized highly among first-century Jews) makes a plot against Josephus’ life. Josephus manages to foil it. Then, he tells us, he called Jesus aside and told him

that I was not ignorant of the plot which he had contrived against me …; I would, nevertheless, condone his actions if he would show repentance and prove his loyalty to me. All this he promised …

‘If he would show repentance and prove his loyalty to me.’ The translation is accurate enough, but could just as well have been rendered ‘if he would repent and believe in me’. Josephus is requiring of this Jesus that he give up his brigandage, and trust him (Josephus) for a better way forward. ‘Repentance’, in this sense of abandoning revolutionary inclinations, is found elsewhere in the same narrative; so, for that matter, is ‘belief’, in the sense of trust in and loyalty to a leader.

… This is what those words meant in Galilee in the 60s; by what logic do we insist that they meant something rather different, something perhaps more ‘personal’, ‘inward’ or ‘religious’, in Galilee in the 20s and 30s? Why should we use that ‘religious’ sense as the criterion for assessing whether Jesus of Nazareth could have said such a thing? He may well have meant more than Josephus; that must be seen by further historical investigation. He is highly unlikely to have meant less.

N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, Christian Origins and the Question of God (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1996), 250–251.

In other words, “faith” (pistis) means “prove his loyalty [faithfulness] to me.” Josephus used pistis to refer to trust in and faithfulness/loyalty to a leader. Josephus wasn’t insisting that the rebel believe that he, Josephus, existed! He wanted the man’s loyalty!

And so, when we confess Jesus as Messiah/Christ, Son of God, and Lord, we are saying not only that we believe these things to be true (Amen!), but that we submit to these things, that Jesus is our King and our Lord. Our faith is a pledge of faithfulness.

Hence, faith (pistis) carries these three essential elements —

* Belief that Jesus is the resurrected Messiah.

* Trust in Jesus to keep his promises.

* Faithfulness to Jesus as Lord.

We in the Churches of Christ feel uncomfortable with “trust” as an element of faith because, well, it sounds Baptist — but the Baptists are right. For example,

(Gen 15:4-6 ESV)  4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”  5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”  6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. 

What was the nature of Abraham’s faith? At this moment, it was trust. He believed that God would keep his promise to give him a son. He long-before believed in the existence of God. The new thing that brought him to “faith” was his trust.

Just so,

(Heb 11:1 ESV) Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

And why do I have faith in “things hoped for”? Why am I convicted of “things not seen”? Because I trust God to keep his promises.

Therefore, if we are saved by faith (and we are), then these three elements define saving faith. It’s not enough to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. The demons believe and tremble! No, we must submit to him as Son of God, Lord, and Messiah. The demons don’t do this! And we must trust him to keep his promises.

Hence,

Believe: Believe Jesus is the Son of God:     Jesus is Messiah
Trust:    Trust Jesus to keep his promises:  Jesus is Savior
Repent: Be faithful to Jesus:                          Jesus is Lord

Make sense? We need to add just one more piece to the puzzle. You see, when we make Jesus Lord, we commit to honor his commands. Right?

(Gal 5:14 ESV) 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

(Rom 13:8-10 ESV) Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.  9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. 

And so, if we take Paul at his word, faithfulness to Jesus is subsumed within a single command: love.

We can now expand our chart with one more column —

Believe: Believe Jesus is the Son of God:      Jesus is Messiah:   Faith
Trust:    Trust Jesus to keep his promises:   Jesus is Savior:       Hope
Repent: Be faithful to Jesus:                           Jesus is Lord:          Love

So why are faith, hope, and love at the core of Paul’s preaching? Because they are the path into salvation. They define our relationship with Jesus and God the Father. They are our natural response to who Jesus has been revealed to be.

And surrendering them is the path out, just as submitting to them is the path in.