At this point, the way we lose our salvation should be obvious. If we enter by faith, we leave by giving up our faith.
As we covered in the last post, faith has three elements.
We even made up a cool chart (perfect for drawing on boards when teaching Bible class) —
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 this what it means to become saved. Undo any of these three, and you fall away and lose your perfected state, free from condemnation. How does that happen? Well —
You can fail to believe in Jesus as Messiah —
(1Jo 4:2-3 ESV) 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
You can fail to submit to Jesus as Lord —
(Heb 10:26-27 ESV) For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
Notice that it’s not mere sin that destroys and damns. It’s the sin of rebellion. The quoted passage is a conclusion drawn by the Hebrews writer from a discussion going back to Hebrews 3. For example,
(Heb 3:14-16 ESV) 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?
The sin of rebellion, or going on sinning deliberately, happens when we no longer try to submit — but rather go our own way without regard to God’s will — not occasionally. We all rebel for a moment here and there. It’s about a change in the direction of one’s life.
(Heb 12:15 ESV) 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
This is a reference to —
(Deu 29:18b-20 ESV) Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, 19 one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. 20 The LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven.
And, this takes us full circle back to —
(Deu 10:16 ESV) 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.
Finally, a failure to trust God’s promises damns. And for the Churches of Christ, this is our greatest weakness. The most prominent such warning is —
(Gal 5:4-6 ESV) 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Did you see it? Paul refers to faith, hope, and love (in that order!) in this key passage on falling away.
Positively, our faith (meaning primarily trust, in this instance) allows us to wait for our hope — through the Spirit, because the Spirit empowers us to trust.
But Paul warns them that they aren’t doing this. They’ve been separated from Jesus and fallen from grace because they seek to be justified by law. And it’s not that law is bad, but that law is not faith — and the only thing that counts (KJV: avails) is “faith working through love.” Law is not faith working through love, and therefore law does not save.
God’s promise, going back to Abraham, is to save by faith. Attempt anything else, and you lose the promise. Trust God’s promises, and you have God’s promises.
And so why does Paul so focus on faith, hope, and love? Because in them, by the power of Jesus’ sacrifice and by his authority as Messiah-King, we are saved.
Five Steps
Did you notice that went through all this material about how to be saved and didn’t mention the Five-Step Plan of Salvation? It’s not that I disagree all that much. Rather, I just think it helps to see salvation in terms of faith — which is how the New Testament teaches it — so that we aren’t constrained by tradition. It helps to sometimes see familiar things from a new perspective. It might even help us understand our traditions better.
For example, in the Five-Step Plan, we manage to get all the way through it and not mention Jesus: Hear, Believe, Repent, Confess, Be Baptized. Not a word about Jesus — not until we take the trouble to define our terms.
What do we hear? Well, “hear” comes from —
(Rom 10:14 ESV) How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
Jesus. We hear Jesus. And yet our preaching often so focuses on “hear” that we forget what we hear. Why Jesus? Because hearing should lead to our believing “in him.” We believe in Jesus and so we must hear Jesus!
Indeed, this is one of the great weaknesses of Michael Shanks’ Muscle and a Shovel
Hearing or reading. The Word of God must be preached (taught and heard) or it must be read by the individual. …
Believing. God’s Word must be believed with the entirety of the heart and mind.
(Kindle Locations 7817-7797). Shanks uses “Word” for the Bible, and so he quite literally replaces faith in Jesus with faith in the Bible. You see, when we rattle off “hear, believe, …” it’s easy to forget the texts on which the Five Steps are based. “Hear, believe …” is quite right but only if we mean those words in the sense in which Paul wrote them. When our slogans get too removed from the text of the Bible, we easily slip into very serious error.
We hear, believe, and confess Jesus. We are baptized into Jesus. It’s all about Jesus, and people were saved by the name of Jesus long before there was a Bible. We are not saved by the Bible or believing in the Bible or hearing the Bible or confessing the Bible!
Repentance is taken from Acts 2:38 and refers to making a change in one’s life. In particular, it refers to a change in loyalty. Rather than being loyal to myself, I will be loyal to Jesus — submitting to him as Lord.
And so, hear, believe, and confess speak to the element of faith (pistis) I call belief. “Repent” speaks to the element of faith I call faithfulness. And so we have faith and we have love. What are we missing?
Hope. Trusting God’s promises. Relying on Jesus to save us by faith. It’s just not in the Five Steps. Even though faith as trust goes back to Abraham, we’ve left trust entirely out of our formula. Why?
Well, in part because trust is not explicitly in Acts 2:38 or Roman 10:9-11, which are the proof texts for the Five Steps. But it’s more because, well, we don’t really trust God to keep his promises. Despite God’s repeated assurances that we are saved by faith and not works, we keep insisting on being saved by our works. And so it’s not surprising that we haven’t noticed that we teach a faith that requires no trust — and hence a faith without much in the way of hope.
To go back a couple of posts, when we refuse to define when our sins are continuously forgiven and when our sins damn, we leave our members with precious little hope — and leave them miserable in their uncertainty. After all, how do we know that we’ve gotten every single solitary rule about worship and the use of the church treasury and church cooperation and fellowship halls and kitchens and on and on and on exactly right? And if we get one of the inferences from silences wrong, how do we know it’s not one of those salvation issues? How do we know? It’s a religion without hope.
What’s the solution? Well, believe God’s promises.
(Rom 8:1 ESV) There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
(Heb 4:16 ESV) 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
(Heb 10:21-22 ESV) 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
(Heb 13:6 ESV) 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
(Joh 5:24 ESV) 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
(Joh 6:47 ESV) 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.
(Joh 11:25-26 ESV) 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
We should be able to read these and respond from deep within “Of course! Praise God!” But we’ve been trained to point out the exceptions, the limitations, the caveats, the howevers, so much so that we find those who actually believe these passages to be hopelessly ignorant. But we are the ones who are hopeless.
This is excellent. Thank you.
Jesus told Nicodemus that entry into His Kingdom was by way of new birth. This excellent article on faith is commendable except that it fails to notice that the new birth is of WATER and spirit, and speaks only of a spiritual change of masters.
Jesus commands baptism for every NEW believer. Baptism INTO CHRIST is part of the new birth. In baptism the “old man” who loves sin is replaced by a “new man” who is trusting in Jesus as LORD and now enjoys life with HIM. The apostle Paul points to this truth in Galatians 3:26,27.
It’s not clear to me why some who love Jesus are so willing to ignore His teaching on the subject of conversion. Good for Jay to encourage faith in JESUS as LORD and SAVIOR. But it’s not good to write a lesson about conversion and omit the ONE THING Jesus says is essential in new birth in addition to faith. I surely agree that it’s possible to change our minds about who Jesus is and lose our salvation which is based on faith in Jesus as Lord.
The lesson is excellent except for its implication that salvation is by faith alone.
Ray, so the pendulim swings. There are some that focus almost solely baptism and then soley on faith/grace. It is not enough to just look at what the apostles did in Acts and what they taught and how the people responded when they converted to get an idea of what was taught by Jesus to them. I posted elsewhere that the only time “faith alone” is used in scripture is in James to say “not faith alone.”
I will be the first to admit that I have heard many more lessons on baptism than I have heard on faith in the coC, but going to the other side as Jay seems to be doing isn’t the answer either. I think we should really just preach Christ and then people will have faith and they will respond in baptism if we teach them what is in the scriptures and follow what the apostles did.
Yes, Dwight! We need to preach about Jesus and His promises and His deeds and His appeals. When asked what response is appropriate, we need to answer as the apostles did in Acts 2:38. But I have no right to complain when others imply that faith alone saves, for they are calling for people to believe in Jesus, and that’s GOOD. Salvation is IN CHRIST. How right you are.
I sent a brief reply to Dwight, but it didn’t show up, so I’ll repeat it. If you find two saying the same thing, it will be because the first was not shown prior to this note. Thanks, Dwight! I agree that it’s good to tell others about JESUS and His offer of salvation to those who choose to be born again of water and spirit.
Thank You Ray!
One of my favorite thoughts is in Acts 2 Peter converted many in just about 17 verses. That is all it took. He preached Jesus crucified and as the saviour. Of course as Jews they probably knew some of the quotes within and heard of Jesus, but not in this way. All about Jesus. They were convicted. They asked what must they do, “Repent and be baptized.” Simple lesson on what Jesus came for and what He did, simple question by the lost, simple answer by the apostles and the people simply responded in faith. Then they were simply saints living in Christ, not perfect, but willing and set apart in the faith.
I surely agree with Monty. I also agree with the emphasis Jay puts on faith as essential for salvation. I hear Jay pointing out that what removes us from the Lamb’s Book of Life is not some reversal of baptism, but instead is a change of what we believe. Surely Jay is right!
If we trust JESUS, we’re in. If we no longer trust JESUS, we’re out. But we don’t want to in any way seem to disparage the baptism commanded by Jesus. It’s not that it’s MORE important than love. It’s simply the one physical act which is commanded by our Lord for entry into His Kingdom, which makes it important indeed.
I sent a reply to Monty which didn’t show up immediately as is usual. So I’ll comment further, and that will make two comments. Jay is pointing out how salvation is LOST. Jay is exactly right. Those who no longer believe in Jesus as Lord are surely not going to be saved by Him. Baptism is a one-time response to the gospel. Salvation depends upon it. Only those who trust Jesus as Lord should submit to baptism. Jesus commands baptism for each new believer. That makes baptism essential for new birth of water and spirit. So we who love Jesus shouldn’t imply that salvation comes prior to the baptism Jesus commands as entry into His Kingdom. We who are IN CHRIST (Galatians 3:27) are on the road to eternal salvation. A first step is hearing the gospel. A second step is believing the gospel. Essential for entry is turning to Jesus as LORD and being baptized as He commands. To LEAVE and turn our back on salvation, all it takes is no longer believing that Jesus is LORD.
1 John 5:11-13 says, ” And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Other passages confirm that eternal life is a present possession. If you have the Son you have life. John wrote 1 John “that you may KNOW that you have eternal life”. John gave the purpose of the gospel that bears his name saying in John 20:30-31, ” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”.
Jesus own words are worth reading and thinking about. The last section of that chapter includes these words. ” My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” The teaching Jesus gave would not fair well in our churches of Christ would it?
Ephesians 1:11-14 , ” In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory”. Should I believe what Paul wrote? I believe the God who promised will keep his word. I am glad that my faith and salvation are rooted deeply in God’s failthfulness to do what he has promised. If it depended on my I would have been gone long ago.
BTW, to many people personal “faithfulness” is attending church 3 times a week, not drinking or swearing and committing any of the big sins like adultry, stealing, etc. In my view people who do not treasure Jesus above all else and everything else are only putting in a performance that will not be rewarded. Will I finally be saved because I have been pretty faithful for more than 50 years or will I be saved because Jesus was faithful? I choose Jesus!
Jay speaks well to point out that if we lose Jesus we’ve lost eternal life. Faith is essential. As for entry INTO His Kingdom, we can believe forever and never get in, for He specifies that new birth of water and spirit is essential for entry. We enter because of faith. We live and enjoy being IN CHRIST because of faith. The one command about entry that some want to ignore is that we who love Jesus are to tell others about Him AND TO BAPTIZE each new believer.
Two commands in the “great commission.” Tell. Baptize. The convert is not expected to KNOW about baptism by osmosis. We who tell about Jesus are to baptize the new believer. If we love Jesus we will obey Him. And we’ll surely not encourage anyone to believe they’re saved prior to submitting to Jesus as Lord and being baptized as HE commands.
We do well to believe that EVERY CHRISTIAN is called to obey “the great commission.” WE are to tell others about Jesus wherever we go, and WE are to baptize each new believer. The Spirit is God’s gift to each newly baptized believer in Jesus, as is remission of sins. Both remission and the Spirit-gift FOLLOW obeying the gospel by being baptized into Christ.
Royce is surely right that we do not save ourselves by perfect obedience. Should we then NOT obey Jesus and still expect to receive a reward as a “good and faithful servant”? If we love Jesus, and if we trust Jesus, we will OBEY every apostolic command, and do our best to live in love as Jesus calls for us to do.
I ran across this old hymn just today that made me think of your post. It is by Ednah Chaney.
At first I prayed for light:
Could I but see the way,
How gladly, swiftly would I walk
To everlasting day!
And next I prayed for strength:
That I might tread the road
With firm, unfaltering feet, and win
The heavens’ serene abode.
And then I prayed for faith:
Could I but trust my God,
I’d live infolded in His peace,
Though foes were all abroad.
But now I pray for love:
Deep love to God and man;
A living love that will not fail,
However dark His plan.
And light and strength and faith
Are opening everywhere!
God waited patiently until
I prayed the larger prayer.
Why call you me Lord,Lord, and do not the things I tell you? Of course he doesn’t mean we never sin. I don’t always love my neighbor as myself, but God is faithful. I don’t get every interpretation right. But I do need to believe Jesus came in the flesh( I think we’d all agree we need to get that one right.). Does that mean we are basing our salvation on right interpretation? Well if we must get that right ,then yes, at least to some degree. DOes that displace JEsus and grace? No. DOEs the new birth require water baptism? It appears to me it does. Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. DOes that mean I need to get that one right? If it is required , then yeh. If so, does that displace Jesus and grace? I think not. No one argues about repentance, or belief, or confessing JEsus(if you deny me before men then I will deny you before my father in heaven), no one argues faith, but for some reason baptism is the bone of contention when it comes to salvation. DOes a man have to be born of water? Yes or no?
We often seem to focus on the things we want on focus on…if faith, then faith…if baptism, then baptism…if grace, then grace, often to the exclusion of one or the others. The only real focus in Jesus, then all of the other things happen or should happen as a result…we gain the grace that is offered, we have faith, we act in that faith by repenting (turning)…confessing…being baptized, then living a life that reflects Jesus to the best of our ability growing in hope and grace and faith.
II Peter 3:18 “grow in grace and knowledge” we often think of grace as a one time thing put out there by God, but it is a continual thing that we must actively work and grow in.
All the things of God work together for our benefit, until we start excluding things as not needed or not part of the plan.
It is troubling that some folks only mention Jesus as a means of supporting some other view. I think that if someone read these comments on some of Jay’s posts they would conclude that some believe baptism is the saviour and Jesus is is only important because he commanded believers to be baptized.
http://www.zianet.com/maxey/reflx641.htm
Royce, Ray is only pushing for baptism, because Jay had already pushed for faith. Sometimes we can see only a section, like a blind man feeling an elephants trunk and thinking that he is holding a snake, but not realizing that a much bigger animal is attached, when we are presented with only the trunk. To often though you are right in that we teach or emphasize one thing so much that our real belief in the other gets drowned out. This happens when we teach the response to Jesus, such as faith and/or baptism, over Jesus himself. We often put the cart (faith and baptism) before the horse (Jesus), so to speak.
Royce and Dwight,
I have heard the message repeatedly that (faith and baptism) can be taught without really teaching Jesus. Yet, I have never encountered someone teaching that we must have faith and belief in the Bible (a document), (in the action of baptism) or (the preacher, the organization, the church) apart from Jesus being the basis of all. I have heard many say when asked if they believe in Jesus, will respond that they are members of so and so church. Which leads me to believe that they view the church as their savior. I also know many teachers, preachers and churches that feel comfortable being placed between the believer and Christ, much like we are the door to Christ.
So a question I will ask, have you experienced churches or members of churches teaching Jesus is not important?
Leave you with the thought, as Philip was instructing the Eunuch about Jesus, what brought the Eunuch’s attention to baptism? Notice, that belief and faith was not well established until the Eunuch had committed to desire baptism. Conclusion, if you are teaching Jesus and those whom you are teaching are not exposed to baptism, then you have not Jesus as Philip did.
I would ask that those who claim “faith” in Jesus Christ, express that faith in their own words. Just what does faith in Christ mean to you. Do you have faith/belief that if you confess Jesus as your leader/lord, that is all there is to faith and you are safe for eternity ? Do you think Jesus sat on that mountain for all those hours preaching , had no purpose. Sounds to me as if some here think that sermon had nothing to do with salvation.
No, I have not experienced churches or members teaching Jesus as not important, but I have heard a few, not many, purposely place the church in between Jesus and the person, but sometimes I have seen the converted people do that themselves without prompting, even placing the preacher as the point of salvation and when the preacher goes so does thier faith. None of it is a good scenario with good results. I think part of the problem is converting people within the assembly as there is an immediate association with the church and salvation. In Acts people were converted to Jesus, then they found those who were also converted and they gathered together.
The teacher is a conduit…Jesus is the Lord and savior…the church is the saved.
My thought, do what they did in Acts 2- teach Jesus, who He is and what He did and why He did it, then teach what He wants us to do and then when the person reaches their point they will be moved to respond in thier conviction and have the moving faith.
Larry, I think you are correct, somehow from them reading Isaiah and Philip talking about Jesus, baptism was introduced into the conversation, otherwise the eunuch wouldn’t have had a reason to ask about it.
NIV 1Pe 3:20
to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,
NIV 1Pe 3:21
and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
Larry asks “So a question I will ask, have you experienced churches or members of churches teaching Jesus is not important?”
Sadly yes, I have set in CoC churches that for months talked about how we should live, what we should do, teach moral lessons, talk about short comings and urge baptism. Not once mentioning Jesus, his sacrifice, his position as King, his love, his shedding of his blood.
Yep I heard lessons on living a good moral life but not on who the King of Kings is, and what he did to insure that I had the opportunity to end the rift that sin had caused between God and man. They didn’t say Jesus wasn’t important, they just never discussed him.
If that isn’t a works based gospel I do not know how else to describe it.
Will Jesus save us, if we don’t do what he commands us to do on at least some basic level? Believe in him, pretty basic stuff right? When people say they believe on (in)Jesus, we are commanded to baptize them. Pretty basic stuff, right? Peter commanded those on Pentecost who believed to be baptized, and 3000 were that day. Paul was commanded to be baptized(immediately), and he complied. Peter commanded Cornelius and family to be baptized(immediately). The Philippian jailor and family were baptized within the same hour of dressing Paul and Silas’ wounds and then they shared the good news with them. They were baptized immediately. The Eunuch sought baptism immediately upon seeing a body of water big enough to accommodate being baptized. Again, urgency is shown. WE have the direct command by Jesus for teachers and preachers to baptize those they are converting. We have the direct command given by teachers and preachers in scripture to those who they are teaching when they come to believe on Jesus, to immediately “be baptized.” There doesn’t seem to be any other option, “like at some point you need to get it done.”
Jesus said, “he that believes on me has eternal life.” Other places mention belief and baptism. If Jesus or one of the apostles didn’t mention baptism in every context does that rule it out as being “part of man’s salvation responding by faith? We don’t do that with repentance if it’s not mentioned, or with confession. But find verses that don’t mention baptism and it’s out the door. God is the one who put it in the house to start with.
It’s not enough IMO to say everyone teaches baptism at some point, or that “you really should be baptized at some point-wink-wink-but it isn’t necessary. That’s like saying “you really out to have brakes in your car, but they aren’t necessary. ” Brakes aren’t the whole car, but they are necessary. And if someone is saying,” hey don’t be so hung up on breaks, will get you some breaks at some point”,then that’s when someone needs to say, hang on a second, breaks aren’t something can be added on down the road.
Jesus is our savior, we are saved by his atoning work in his death on the cross. We can’t, by our own goodness, save ourselves. We have to put our faith in Jesus. When Jesus gives us the command to believe in him and immediately on our belief be baptized, what other choice do we have in the matter? Is it faith, to teach it and instruct it some other way?
Laymond, we discuss conversion separately from living for Jesus. If our discussion is on how to ENTER the Kingdom, Christian living (as saved sinners) is not in dispute. I do not, and I’m sure others do not intend to say that conversion is the end of learning about Jesus and living for Him. We feel it’s the START of living for Him. Living for Him is not conversion, however. Two separate topics.