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Sermon #1: Salvation by Faith

“By grace you have been saved through faith.” Ephesians 2.8.

1. All God’s blessings come to humanity because of grace, because of God’s generosity, because of God’s favor.  And speaking of favor, you can’t earn God’s favor--he gives it to you.  You don’t deserve God’s grace in the least.  Nobody can claim to deserve God’s mercy, and it’s been that way from the beginning.  God freely  “formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2.7).  God freely stamped on the human soul the “image of God” (Genesis 1.27) and “put all things under their feet” (Psalm 8.6).  This same grace comes to us today.  We’re alive and breathing and enjoying the many ways God provides for us.  There’s nothing that we are, that we have, or that we do that can make God owe us anything.  “All that we have done, you have done for us.”  (Isaiah 26.12).  Even what we do we do because God’s free mercy allows us to do it.  And whatever righteousness is found in humanity is simply the gift of God.

2. Can a sinful human being work to earn salvation? No. Whatever we do that is holy doesn’t even come from us but from God.  All the works that come from us are tainted in some way if we look deeply enough, so even our good works need atoning for.  Only bad fruit comes from a bad tree, and be honest—you know you’re not what you should be.  Our hearts are corrupt through and through and we “fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3.23).  What is the glory of God?  That image of God stamped on the human soul at creation.  We are not righteous and we have no good works that make God owe us anything.  So how can we stand up for ourselves before God?  We can’t. 

3. If we sinful people find favor with God, it’s because God is gracious and not because we’re good.  If God still gives us new blessings and gives us salvation, which is the greatest blessing imaginable, then what can we say other than “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9.15).  It’s true.  “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5.8).  “By grace you have been saved by faith” (Ephesians 2.8).  Grace is source of salvation, faith is the condition of salvation.

Now so that we don’t miss out on the blessings of God’s grace, we need to ask:

I. What is saving faith?

II. What is the salvation that comes through faith?

III. What are some objections people might have?

Let’s get down to business.

I. What is saving faith?

1. First, it’s not the kind of faith we share with those of other religions. 

Those who practice other religions have no excuse if they don’t believe certain things.  “Whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11.6).  And seeking God means recognizing that God is God, thanking God for all things, being a decent and moral person, and being fair and merciful and truthful toward others.  Nobody in India, Pakistan, or Siberia has an excuse if he doesn’t believe this much: in God’s existence and in certain characteristics of God, in an afterlife of reward and punishment, and that people are obligated to behave in certain ways.  A lot of people in a lot of different religions believe these things, and this kind of faith is nothing to brag about.  This is barely a generalized faith that any “religious” person might ascribe to.

2. Second, it’s not the faith of a devil, even though the faith of a devil is actually much deeper than the faith of an unbeliever.  Because the devil believes not only that God is wise and powerful, rewarding in grace and punishing in justice.  The devil believes that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ, the Savior of the world.  He states in no uncertain terms, “I know who you are, the Holy One of God” (Luke 4.34).  That miserable character also believes all the words that Holy One spoke, and also those words of ancient holy men.  About two of these he had to give this testimony: “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation” (Acts 16.17).  The great enemy of God and humanity believes this much, and his faith is so strong that he trembles because of this belief (James 2.19).  He believes that God has come in the flesh in the Incarnation of Jesus and that he will make Jesus’ enemies his footstool (Psalm 110.1; Matthew 22.44).  He believes that “all scripture is inspired by God” (2 Timothy 3.16).  The faith of a devil seems impressive, but it’s not saving faith.

3. Third, saving faith (of the kind we will explain below) isn’t just the faith the Apostles had when Jesus was with them, even though they had such faith that they left everything and followed him, even though they had the power to work miracles, to heal all kinds of sickness and disease.  They even had power and authority over the demons, and they were sent by their Master to preach the kingdom of God.

4. So let’s answer the question, “What is saving faith?”  It is faith in Christ—Christ, and God working through Christ, is the focus of saving faith.  This distinguishes Christians from those of other religions, ancient and modern.  And saving faith is different from the faith of a devil in this way: Saving faith is not just speculation, not just an exercise of the mind or a philosophical argument.  It’s not a cold, lifeless, heartless agreement with a certain chain of propositions in the head.  It’s an orientation of the heart. 

5.And here’s how it’s different from the faith the Apostles had while Jesus was on earth.  Saving faith understands that Jesus’ death was necessary for our salvation, that his act of self-giving makes us whole.  Saving faith acknowledges the power of the resurrection of Jesus.  Saving faith recognizes Jesus’ death as the only way of redeeming humanity from an everlasting death, and Jesus’ resurrection as restoring us to life here and now and life eternal.  He was delivered for our sins, and rose again for our justification.”  Christianity is not only about acknowledging the whole gospel of Christ, but totally relying on the sacrifice of Jesus—a trust in what he accomplished through his life, death, and resurrection; an utter dependence on him as our atonement and our life, as given for us and living in us; a clinging to him as our ”wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” In a single word, saving faith acknowledges Jesus Christ as our salvation.

II. What is the salvation that comes through faith?

1. First, whatever else we may say about salvation, it’s a present salvation.  It’s attainable, actually attained, on earth by those who have faith.  This is what Paul said to his first readers in Ephesus, and through these words to believers at all times.  He didn’t say, “You will be saved” (though that’s also true).  He said, “By grace have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2.8).

2. You have been saved, in a word, from sin.  This is the salvation that comes through faith.  This is the salvation the angel talked about in his conversation with Joseph: “You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1.21).  Not here or in any other place in the Bible is there a limit or restriction.  All his people, or as it’s said elsewhere, “everyone who believes in him” (John 3.16) he saves from all their sins.  From the sin inherited from our ancestors to the sin we have committed, from the sins of the past to the sins of the present, from the sins of the flesh to the sins of the spirit.  Through faith in Jesus you’re saved from the guilt of sins past to the power of sin you encounter in the present.

3. Think about that.  Believers are saved from the guilt of all their past sins.  It’s true that all the world is guilty before God, and if God were to hold us accountable for all the wrong we do nobody would survive that accounting.  It’s true that the laws of the Old Testament teach us about sin but don’t deliver us from it.  And we know that “’No human being will be justified in his sight’ by deeds prescribed by the law” (Romans 3.20).  But now we live with the knowledge of Christ: “Now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed” (Romans 3.21).  “They are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.  He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed.” (Romans 3.24-25).  Now Christ has “redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3.13).  He’s gone about “erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2.14).  “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8.1). 

4. Here’s an interesting thought.  If we’re saved from guilt, we’re also saved from fear.  Now there is an appropriate fear: If God is our Father, we still ought to fear offending him because we love him and he loves us.  But we’re saved from other kinds of fear—from all base fears, from those fears that torment us, from fear of punishment, from the fear of God’s wrath.  We no longer see God as a harsh master, waiting on us to mess up so that he can penalize us.  Instead, we see God as a generous father: “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8.15-16).  We are also saved from the fear (though not the possibility) that we might turn our backs on God’s grace and miss out on God’s amazing promises.  “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ… And we boast in our hope of sharing in the glory of God… because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Romans 5.1-5).  And we are convinced (though admittedly there are times when our faith is stronger or weaker) that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8.38-39).

5. Not only are we saved through faith from the guilt of sin, but we are saved from sin’s power over us.  John plainly says, “You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins” (1 John 3.5-6).  Further, “Little children, let no one deceive you… Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil… Those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God” (1 John 3.7-9).  Yet again: “We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them” (1 John 5.18).

6. So the one who is born of God does not sin: (1) Habitually.  All habitual sin controls us, but sin does not control the life of any believer. (2) Willfully.  Our will, while we remain in relationship with Jesus Christ, is dead-set against all sin and is as repulsed by the thought of sinning as by the thought of drinking poison.  (3) In desire.  We continually desire God’s perfect will, and as soon as we sense any other desire arising within us we do all we can to stifle it.  (4) Note that we’re not talking about genuine mistakes, accidental blunders.  Each of us sometimes makes mistakes in our actions, what we say, and what we think.  But these aren’t acts of willful defiance, and they’re not “sins” in the same way as habitual or purposeful actions.  Take all this together, and this is what’s meant when John says, “Those who have been born of God do not sin” (1 John 3.9).  Nobody can say, “I have not sinned.”  But 1 John reminds us that those born of God do not sin. 

7. So this is salvation that comes through faith, even now during our lifetimes.  We’re saved from sin and the consequences of sin.  In a general sense this is what’s meant by the term “Justification”—being delivered from guilt and punishment by the saving work of Christ actually at work in the soul of the believing sinner.  We’re also saved from the power of sin as the life of Christ takes shape within us.  So we who are Justified, or saved by faith, are truly “born again.”  We are born of the Spirit into a new life, which is “hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3.3).  And just like infants, believers drink in the “pure, spiritual milk, so that by it [we] may grow into salvation” (1 Peter 2.2).  We go on in the strength of the Lord, growing in faith, growing in grace, until we come “to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4.13).

III. So let’s respond to some objections people might have.

1. Preaching “salvation by faith” keeps people from striving for goodness and doing good works.  The short answer to this objection is, “That might be true if we were talking about a faith that’s separate from good works, but that’s not what we’re talking about.  We’re talking about a faith that, when born in us, makes us people who do good works and want to reflect the holy character of God.”

2. But we probably need to go farther than the short answer, because this objection has been around since the time of St. Paul.  Even Paul himself responds to such an objection: “Do we overthrow the law by this faith?” (Romans 3.31).  Our answer is that not everyone who preaches faith “overthrows the law.”  People might “overthrow the law” directly and with impunity, by explaining away everything and talking about how the text must mean something quite different from what it actually says.  A less direct way of “overthrowing the law” involves failing to point out the only way we can actually keep the law.  But as for us, “We uphold the law” (Romans 3.31) by showing its true and spiritual meaning and by calling every person to live “so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Romans 8.4).  Those who live in this way trust in the blood of Christ alone and use all the gifts Christ has given us (worship, prayer, Holy Communion, study, service, etc…).  “For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life” (Ephesians 2.10).  In our thoughts and attitudes and how we go about living in the world, we want to share the same mind as Christ Jesus (cf. Philippians 2.5).

3. Couldn’t preaching faith in this way make people proud?  It might.  That’s why every believer needs to keep in mind that it’s only by grace that we’re a part of what God is doing in the world, and that if we fall into pride and unbelief we’re in trouble: “Because of their unbelief” the first branches “were broken off… but you stand only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe…

For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off” (Romans 11.17-22).  And while we’re keeping this in mind, remember that Paul himself answered that objection himself:  “Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law?  By that of works?  No, but by the law of faith” (Romans 3. 27).  Look at the context, before and after.  Context agrees.

“But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-- by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:4-8). 

Neither your faith or your salvation comes from yourself.  “It is the gift of God.”  The free, undeserved gift—both the faith through which you were saved, as well as the salvation God links to it of his own good will.  Your believing is a result of God’s grace.  Your being saved through faith is another act of God’s grace.  “Not the result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2.9).  All our good deeds, anything right we did before believing, earned us no brownie points.  We deserve nothing but condemnation.  No goodness on our own part makes us deserve faith.  Faith is given apart from anything good we did.  Nor does salvation come from the works we do after we believe; salvation is from God who works in us.  Our reward comes from only what God works in us—this shows the riches of his mercy and leaves us absolutely nothing to be proud of.

4. “Won’t saying that we’re saved by faith alone encourage people to sin?”  It could and probably will.  Many will “continue in sin in order that grace may abound” (Romans 6.1).  But they bear responsibility for what will happen to them.  The goodness of God should lead them to repentance, and it will lead those who are sincere to repent.  When they know that God still forgives sins, they will cry out for God to forgive them through faith in Jesus.  And if they cry out earnestly, without ceasing… If they seek him in all the ways God has given us… If they will not be comforted until the Lord comes to them… “The one who is coming will come and will not delay” (Hebrews 10.37).  And God can do a lot in a person in a very short time.  Look at all the examples in Acts, examples of God working in people’s hearts like lightning falling from heaven.  As soon as Paul and Silas began preaching, the jailor repented, believed, and was baptized.  On the day of Pentecost three thousand came to faith when Peter preached.  And thankfully, there are still at this moment many living examples of how God remains “mighty to save.”

5. Oddly, to this same truth (salvation by faith) sometimes people make the opposite objection: “If a person can’t be saved by what can be done, this will drive people to despair!”  True.  To despair, not being able to be saved by their own works, their own goodness, their own righteousness.  And it should, because a person can’t fully trust in Christ until that person stops trusting self.  Any person “seeking to establish their own righteousness” (Romans 10.3) can’t receive the righteousness of God.  The righteousness of faith can’t be given to a person who trusts in his or her own goodness.

6. Some people just say, “This makes people uncomfortable.”  The devil, speaking shamelessly in lies, would like to suggest it.  But it’s the only doctrine that brings comfort—It brings comfort to those who know they’re in the grip of sin and headed for destruction.  “Whoever believes in him shall not be put to shame” (Romans 9.33).  The Lord of all is generous to all who cry out to him.  This brings a comfort that’s as high as heaven, stronger than death.  Think about it!  Mercy for all—for Zacchaeus, a tax collector who took advantage of people, for Mary Magdalene, an ordinary prostitute.  Go ahead, say it!  “Then even I might hope for mercy.”

Yes, yes you may hope for mercy.  When nobody else has been able to comfort you, God won’t turn away from your prayer.  No, he may even say to you, “Take heart… Your sins are forgiven!” (Matthew 9.2).  So forgiven that you don’t have to bear the guilt and shame of them anymore.  And God can bring to pass within you a deep experiential knowledge of what the phrase means, “that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8.16).  This is good news of great joy that God is sharing with all people. 

“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55.1).  “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1.18).  Though your sins outnumber the hair on your head, “return to the Lord, that he may have mercy… and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55.7). 

7. When there aren’t any more objections, some say, “Well this shouldn’t be preached as the most important doctrine, and it certainly shouldn’t be preached to everyone because some people might not understand.”  But the Spirit says, “No one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3.11).  “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3.36).  This is and must be the foundation of our preaching, and this must be preached first.

“Well, but you shouldn’t preach it to everybody.”  Who’s to be left out?  Should we leave out the poor?  No, they have a special right to have the gospel preached to them.  Should we leave out the uneducated?  No, God has revealed himself to ordinary people from the beginning.  What about young people?  "Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs” (Matthew 19.14).  How about sinners, should we leave them out?  Least of all.  “I have come to call not the righteous but sinners” (Matthew 9.13).  And why shouldn’t we preach to the rich, the educated, the reputable, the moral crowd?  True, they often choose not to hear.  But as for us, we must speak the words of our Lord whether they choose to hear or not.  And the Lord says, “"Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” (Mark 16.15).  If people resist the message, the problem is theirs and they will have to answer for it.  But as for us, we will preach the Lord’s message.

8. So the point is, “By grace you have been saved through faith” (Ephesians 2.8).  Never has it been more important to preach this.  Nothing but this can prevent us from following the delusions of the Church of Rome.  We could go on and on trying to respond to all the errors of that Church.  But salvation by faith strikes at the root of these problems, and once we’ve established that salvation comes by faith then we’ll be on the right path.  It’s the doctrine of salvation by faith, that doctrine the Church of England rightly calls “the strong rock and foundation of the Christian religion,” that first drove the Church of Rome out of England.  It’s the doctrine of salvation by faith that will keep it out.

Nothing but this can stop the immorality that’s everywhere.  Can you empty out the ocean drop by drop?  If so, then maybe you’ll make us good people by warning us about particular little things we ought to avoid.  But embrace “the righteousness of God through faith” (Romans 3.22) and you’ll build a seawall that can stop the ocean’s waves.  Nothing but the truth of salvation by faith can silence those who brag about things that they should be ashamed of and deny the Lord who bought them.  When you’re talking about the law, those with legalistic mindsets can talk as eloquently as those who have it written on their hearts by God.  To hear them speak you’d think they were not far from the Kingdom of God.  But take them out of the law and into the territory of the gospel, begin with the righteous of faith and the truth that “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Romans 10.4), and those who seemed Christian enough suddenly reveal that they don’t really know anything about Christianity.  They are as far from life and salvation as heaven is from hell.  God have mercy on them!

9. This is why the devil gets so bent out of shape when “salvation by faith” is preached.  This is why he stirred up heaven and hell to destroy those who first preached it.  Knowing that the doctrine of salvation by faith alone can overturn the foundation of Satan’s kingdom, the devil brought all sorts of lies and slander against Martin Luther to prevent him from preaching it again.  As it’s said, “It would surely enrage a proud, strong man to be stopped by a little child coming against him with a reed in his hand.”  Especially when it’s assured that little child would win.  That’s what it’s like with you, O Jesus!  Your “power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12.9).

So go out, you little child who believes in Jesus, and his right hand shall teach you dread deeds (cf. Psalm 45.4).  Even if you’re as weak and helpless as a tiny infant, the strong man won’t be able to stand against you.  You’ll win, subdue him, overthrow him, and trample him under your feet.  You’ll march forward under the command of the Captain of your salvation, conquering and conquering again until all enemies are gone and “death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15.54). 

“Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15.57) to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might—forever and ever.  Amen.