By Faith
Working with the church in Owingsville, Kentucky, I befriended several ladies who worked at the town’s library. Tammy and I tried to study the Bible with one lady, but I had to take a different tactic when she said that she doubted whether or not Jesus was even a historical person. Historians agree that Jesus really walked the earth, so I wanted to establish that fact before speaking about the resurrection and Jesus as the Son of God.
She wouldn’t have it, and she finally told me that she wouldn’t believe anything she couldn’t see. I asked her if George Washington was the first President; she didn’t know—she wasn’t there. I asked if China were a country; she didn’t know—she’d never been there. I asked if she had a brain; she didn’t know—she’d never seen it.
I doubt you’ve met someone that agnostic. Have you talked with someone struggling with faith? How many people have told you, “I don’t believe like you do”? Did you work with someone from a non-Christian faith: a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Buddhist? Did you ever struggle with your own faith? Did you ever struggle with how a loving God could allow tragedy in your life?
Even strong Christians wrestle with their faith, and that’s okay. You, however, must come out the other side with a firm faith, because “Without faith, no one can please God.”
You must understand two essential truths because “Without faith, no one can please God.”
One: Supreme
One must believe in God, the Supreme, to be saved. “And without faith it is impossible to please him” (Heb 11:6). Faith is the most important step—bar none—in coming to salvation.
Why is faith in the Supreme the most important step in coming to salvation?
- Without faith, how can I confess Jesus as the Christ?
- How can I repent if I don’t believe I’ve sinned against a holy God?
- Why would I be baptized if I don’t believe I’ll meet Jesus’s blood by doing so?
- Should I be faithful to a God who I believe doesn’t exist?
One must also believe the Supreme God rewards people who seek him. “Whoever would draw near to God must believe . . . that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb 11:6). God has always rewarded the seeker. Abraham sought God, and God made him a great nation. David sought God, and God established his kingdom. Cornelius sought God, and God sent Peter to preach to him. Paul sought God, and God promised him the crown of life.
Faith is the Supreme God is essential to salvation.
Two: Son
One must believe in Jesus, the Son. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (Jn 3:14-15). A crowd “said to him, ‘What must we do, to be doing the works of God?’ Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent’” (Jn 6:28-29). Someone must believe specific truths about the Son.
Those being saved believe the Son is divine: “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins” (Jn 8:24). The English Standard Version missed the mark here; the word “he” doesn’t appear in the Greek. Jesus literally said, “Unless you believe that I am you will die in your sins.”
The phrase “I AM” first occurs when God revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush. Moses wanted to know what he should say when the Israelites asked who had sent him; God answered, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you’” (Ex 3:14). In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Bible those to whom Jesus was speaking would have known, the translators rendered God’s answer to Moses with the exact same wording Jesus used in John 8:24.
That Jesus said one must believe in his divinity becomes clear in John 8. The Lord said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (Jn 8:58). The crowd understood Jesus’s claim of divinity, for “they picked up stones to throw at him” (Jn 8:59). The people intended to kill Jesus for blasphemy, but the Son truly is divine, the Great I AM.
Those being saved believe the Son was raised from the dead: “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” (Rom 10:9). Why is faith in Jesus’s resurrection necessary for salvation?
- The faith rises or falls on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- 1 Corinthians 15:3-5.
- “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15:14).
- The resurrection established Jesus to be God’s Son: Jesus “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 1:4).
Those being saved believe the Son is Lord: When the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas about salvation, they replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31). People like talking about Jesus as their Lord and Savior. That’s a nice sentiment, but Jesus as Lord is not sentiment.
Jesus as Lord involves putting him above everything else and obeying him. “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” (Lk 6:46). At the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matt 7:24). Jesus is Lord and Master and Sovereign and is to be obeyed.
Without obedience there can be no salvation. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 7:21). Simply acknowledging Jesus is Lord won’t work; believing Jesus is Lord by faith and demonstrating that faith with your life does work.
Do you honestly believe Jesus is Lord? In other words, does your acknowledgement he is Lord reach to every aspect of your life? Do you need to come this morning and claim Jesus as your Lord?
This sermon was originally preached by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.