By Living Faith Alone [Sola Fide(s) Viva]
Brother Eric 10/17/24
Today I’d like to talk about one of the most important subjects of Christianity, and that is faith. We appropriately even refer to Christianity as the “Christian faith” more so than calling it a religion. Faith is talked about (or at least referred to in some way -as in 2 & 3 John) in every single book of the New Testament. So I am hardpressed to limit this talk to a single scripture reading and will instead be referencing many thoughtout.
Faith is the means by which we are justified, which means to be declared just and righteous before God. “Just-as-if-I’d” never sinned. Paul says in Rom. 3:28, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” And in 4:3, “For what do the scriptures say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” The Roman jailer asked Paul and Silas how to be saved, and they reply in Acts 16:31, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” So, our part in the process of salvation is just to believe – we don’t have to do anything else.
It is by faith that we claim the promises of God as our own. When Jesus withered the fig tree by a word, He told His disciples, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea’, it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (Matthew 21:21-22 ESV)
Faith is the conduit by which God acts in the world. It is by faith that Jesus performed miracles. When the woman with the bleeding problem was healed, He told her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” (Mark 5:34). He told blind Bartimaeus outside Jerico and the leper who returned to Him after being healed the same thing. And in Luke 7:50, Jesus said to the sinful woman who anointed Him and washed his feet with her tears, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
We also see that the reverse is true when the disciples could not cast out a demon “because of their little faith” (Matthew 17:20), when Jesus did not do many mighty works in Nazareth “because of their unbelief (Matthew 13:58), and when Peter tried to walk on water and sank, Jesus told him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31)
Faith basically just means to trust and believe in something. But the faith that the Bible talks about goes deeper than that. It results in a change within but can be easily seen by others without (externally). Martin Luther referred to the true faith that justifies as “fides viva,” a “living faith.” The Reformers of the church have a saying: “Justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone.” It yields an immediate fruit of repentance – to turn away from our past lives of sin and move toward God through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Without the presence of repentance, faith is not genuine. John equates belief with obedience (or faith with repentance) in John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God remains on him.” Genuine faith in Christ means we accept Him as both our Savior and our Lord. In James 2:18, 19, & 26, he says, 18“Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 19”You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder!” … 26”For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”
Living faith produces in us repentance and gratefulness that inevitably results in good works … or the outpouring of God’s love through us to others. When someone catches the flu, they show symptoms. Similarly, when someone “catches” true, living faith, they show symptoms. They sneeze God’s love all over other people! They’re incurably infected with the Holy Spirit, called to spread the germ of the gospel to those around us. If you show no symptoms, you obviously didn’t catch the flu. So it is with faith: if you show no symptoms, you don’t really have it.
When you have faith in something, it’s more about the strength of what you have faith in than it is about the strength of your faith itself. So, when we place our trust in The Almighty God, we can do no better.
I once heard a preacher illustrate this by using the analogy of walking across a frozen lake or river. It doesn’t matter how strong your faith is. What matters is how strong the ice is. All you need is just enough faith to take that step. Notice also that you can have all the faith in the world that the ice will hold you, but unless you actually “walk by faith”, what good does having that faith do you if you need to get to the other side? As James would say, that’s a dead faith. Having living faith is something more tangible and can be seen by our actions (like taking that first step onto the ice). When the paralyzed man was lowered through the roof by his friends for him to be healed, Luke 5:20 tells us that Jesus saw their faith … and because of it, forgives the sin of the man before healing his paralysis to demonstrate His authority to do so.
When we have true, living faith, it results in us being declared sons of God, heirs of God and His promises, along with eternal peace with God, and access to His presence. Romans 5:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God thought our Lord Jesus Christ.” Through Him we have also obtained access by faithinto the grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
It is my hope that each of you here have true, living faith and not a superficial, dead faith. God looks at the heart, so as Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” Those of you who are not yet true believers, as long as you’re still breathing, it’s not too late to accept Him as your Savior and Lord. I think brother Pat will lead us in a prayer a little later if you choose to do so.
Let us pray …
Heavenly Father, we thank You that all we need to do to spend eternity with You is trust fully in the work You have already accomplished through Jesus’ life for our righteousness and through His death on the cross to pay the penalty we deserve for our sins. By faith You cleanse our hearts and give us peace. Be with the brothers here; grant us strength each day to walk by faith. And be with our families on the outside; grant them peace, hope, and health.
In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen.