Salvation
Lordship Salvation – What is Saving Faith?
March 10, 2013 | 
Author What is Saving Faith?
by Theophilos on Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:37 am
We know God does the saving, but what is our part? We repent and believe. Does repenting mean we must make a commitment to make Jesus the Lord of our life before we are saved?
Listen to this seven minutes of a sermon on why a Pastor thinks that a man he is talking to can’t be saved. Click on Sermon to play audio.
That is a classic example of “Lordship salvation”.
Our problem is not our sins. How can we ignore the many scriptures which say that the sin issue was removed from the world by Christ’s death on the cross? Our problem is that we are spiritually dead. We need spiritual life. We are saved by the life of Christ, not the death of Christ.
8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Romans 5:8-10 (KJV)
What we repent of is unbelief. What we believe is.
1 John 4:1-2,4-6 NIV
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. [2] This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, [4] You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. [5] They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. [6] We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
What we receive is a new life in Christ.
Copyright © 1996 – 2008 Theophilos and gflstudy.org web site. All rights reserved.
Let Scripture Tell You The Plan
True Christianity must be based on correct interpretation of the meaning and message of Scripture as enlightened by the Holy Spirit in the heart of a true believer. Thus, any systematic christianity taught by seminaries and churches is by definition a pseudo christianity or simply a christian philosophy of life. Anyone espousing a legalistic form of christianity is most likely presenting his or her own ideas based on their conscience. Conscience is not how God speaks to us. Quite the contrary, conscience is that part of a fallen nature which allows humans to think that they can be; like God, apart from God.
Much of the Bible is about a particular legalistic system, knowledge and use of this part of the Bible, to promote fear, without understanding and explaining God’s purpose and Grace in the New Covenant is a gross misunderstanding of the Bible. Have you ever noticed, that people with a strong conscience, usually want to tell other people how they should live.
Here is the plan. Read the rest of this entry »
The Gospel
What is the Gospel?
I asked this question in a Bible study group with about twenty people. I gave them time to write out their answer. The answers were unexpectedly varied indicating that there is little common understanding of what the gospel is. Can “the gospel” have different meanings? Paul said, there was one gospel which is the death burial and resurrection of Jesus. 1Corinthians 15:1-4
The term is frequently used in preaching, teaching and Bible studies and many times seems to imply more than Paul’s statement. When used in this way, it is a term which people will define by projecting their particular idea into it, similiar to the terms “hope” and “change” which politicians use.
How many passages in the Bible can be considered the gospel, or “good news”? Many denominations preach the “Sermon on the Mount” as applicable to Christian living.
17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matt 5:17-20 (KJV)
Was that “good news” for the Jews He was teaching?
Here is what Jesus said to Martha in Chapter 11 of John’s Gospel.
21 Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. 22 But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. 23 Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. 24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. 25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? John 11:21-26 (KJV)
So what do you say the Gospel is?
John MacArthur’s book “the Gospel According to Jesus” is about “Lordship salvation” and “making” Jesus Lord in our life. Is that “Good news”?
Jesus is Lord of our life; we don’t make Him Lord of our lives.
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Copyright © 1996 – 2008 Theophilos and gflstudy.org web site. All rights reserved.
What is Saving Faith?
We know God does the saving, but what is our part? We repent and believe. Does repenting mean we must make a commitment to make Jesus the Lord of our life before we are saved?
Listen to this seven minutes of a sermon on why a Pastor thinks that a guy he is talking to can’t be saved. Click on Sermon to play audio.
Posted in Grace, Faith & Life, Life Study Series, New Covenant, Salvation, Saving Faith, The Blog | 
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How do We Increase in Faith?
Christian faith is not our intellectual resolve and commitment to something, this is just religious belief.
Faith is not our hope in a promise.
Faith has to do with our experiencing the object of our faith in our heart.
God has never spoken to me, or anyone I’ve ever known, verbally, or through any means of direct revelation. He has spoken to us in His written Word. But, I know Him through a “spiritual” communication in my heart. (It is not our conscience; I will cover that in a later topic.) I believe God speaks to us spiritually with a still small voice deep in our inner being which is also sometimes called our “heart”, when we come to understand the “Truth” of His scripture for all areas of our life.
If this is true, then I understand faith to be “responding to what God puts into my heart“.
What is Growing in Grace?
There are several terms used for essentially the same process in a Christian’s life, “increasing faith”, “growing in grace”, “spiritual maturity”, and “sanctification”.
Increasing Faith 2Peter 1:5-12 Eph 4:14-24
When we talk about increasing our faith, we are talking about spiritual maturity in terms of “putting on” something new. When we were “born again”, we didn’t get a new old (old being the Flesh). We were not made righteous in the Flesh. By the grace of God, we are being changed from the image of Adam into the image of Christ. This change comes by responding to what God puts into our heart by the Holy Spirit enlightening us as to the meaning of Scripture. He is not looking for “sacrifice” but a contrite heart. The Psalms 37:4 “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart”. I think this means He is changing the desires of our heart, not giving us what we want.
New-Life Plan
Our problem is not our sin.
Our problem is that we are spiritually dead.
GUILTY and DEAD
From a Biblical perspective, everyone is born in the image of Adam, born without the Spirit of God in them. This means that we not only have the distinction of having the same basic fallen nature of Adam, but we are also dead spiritually.
If we are guilty and dead, we not only need to be forgiven, but we need life. Jesus not only came to pay the penalty for our sins, but to give us life. Romans 5:10
Chapter two of Genesis explains how Adam was created in God’s image. And that God breathed the breath of life into man.
The soul consists of the MIND, EMOTION and WILL. Animals have this, but animals don’t consider where they came from or how they came to be. Animals don’t have the “breath of life” which God gave man.
The Bible and our experience indicates that man is BODY, SOUL and SPIRIT. Man was created by God, in the image of God. Created with free- will, the ability to choose.
An unanswerable truth, for natural man, is “how are we here” and “why are we here”? These are spiritual questions which reveal the difference between spirit and soul (man and animal).
Lack of understanding of the difference between the spirit and the “flesh” is the major misunderstanding of Christianity today. Scripture talks about the contention between the spirit and the flesh. Scripture also says God is spirit and “speaks” to us Spirit to spirit.
Posted in Christian Life, Grace, Faith & Life, New Covenant, Salvation, The Blog, The Gospel | No Comments »
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