For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— (Ephesians 2:8)
Coming by the name "Methodist" honestly, in this sermon Wesley 'methodically' unpacks this doctrine in three parts. The first part is defining what kind of faith is it by which we are saved, second is what is meant by salvation and the conclusion consists of common objections made to this doctrine.
I will proceed by giving a brief synopsis of each of the three parts with discussion questions at the end. I would encourage anyone to read the whole sermon by clicking here. While the older English is tricky at times, I think it is still a valuable resource with great insights.
What is 'Faith?'
In order to explain what kind of faith saves, Wesley talks about what saving faith is not. First, it is not what he calls the faith of a 'heathen.' What he means by this is the assent to the fact "That God is; that he is a reward-er of them that diligently seek him." If he were preaching today, Wesley might talk about vague spirituality. Today many, believe that it does not matter what you believe so long as you are sincere! As popular as this is, it is obviously false. If you do not believe me take this following example given by Pastor Mark Driscroll:Imagine that you are drowning. You try and try to save yourself but no matter how hard you try you cannot. If someone throws you something and says, "Put your faith in this and it will save you," will your faith in that object save you? Imagine that it is an anvil and you have honest sincere faith in that anvil. What will happen when you grasp that anvil with all of your sincerity and faith? It is the object of faith that saves not faith itself! In order to have faith that saves it cannot be in a vague recognition that there is a 'god' and that god may or may not have certain expectations of us.
The next kind of faith that we are told is not saving is what Wesley calls the 'faith of the devil.' As we read through Jesus' encounter with the evil one, it appears that the devil has a good understanding of who Jesus is, and scripture. By not having the faith of the devil Wesley means not having the kind of faith that intellectually assents to all of the 'right doctrine' but that assent does nothing in terms of encouraging us to follow God. Thus Augustine famously said, "We are not saved by faith plus works but faith that works."
The third and final kind of faith that Wesley tells us does not save, shocked me at first. It is the faith of the apostles before the resurrection. This kind of faith is close but not the kind of faith that saves. This is the kind of faith that has the proper object (Jesus Christ) and alters one's behavior (after all, the disciples left everything to follow Him) but it is missing one thing. This kind of faith will change what we are doing but it is missing the change in our being. This kind of faith trusts in one's own merit and ability in following Jesus' way.
The kind of faith that saves is one that trusts in Christ and Christ alone for forgiveness and transformation. this is evident in Peter's post Pentecost preaching. When asked "What shall we do?" Peter responds by saying, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
This is the kind of faith that does not rely on good works to earn salvation but upon Christ's merit, that by His sacrificial death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit enables us to die to our sinful dispositions and experience Christ's resurrection power.
In other words this faith is not just an intellectual assent that Jesus Christ shows us that way to eternal life. Instead it is faith trusting that He IS the way to eternal life in the future and abundant life now. In the words of Wesley, "It acknowledges His (Jesus') death as the only sufficient means of redeeming people from death eternal, and His resurrection as the restoration of us all to life." This kind of faith trusts that in Christ's crucifixion our sin debt is paid. This kind of faith trusts that we can die to all those parts of our selves that do not come from God by participating in Christ's crucifixion and that we can live transformed lives by the power of His resurrection. The difference between the faith of the apostles before and after Christ's death and resurrection is well articulated by C.S. Lewis:
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
Discussion Questions:
1. How could having what Wesley understands as 'saving' faith cause us to live differently that if we had any of the other kinds of faith?
2. Are the first three types of faith easier to embrace and live out? If so what makes 'saving' faith more difficult?
What is 'Salvation?'
Have you ever heard someone ask the questions "are you saved?" These well meaning Christians, I believe, are missing a step. This step is explaining from what do we need saving? The Christian faith is ludicrous for folks who feel as if they have their lives all figured out. Instead, the Christian faith only makes sense if we are creatures in need of saving. The Christian answer is that we need saved from the guilt and power of sin. We, however do not live in a culture that is overly anxious about sin. We are, in contrast, very anxious over the effects of sin, namely, guilt, fear, and death.
Salvation by faith strikes at the core of these effects in two ways. First, in Christ, we find the standard against which we ought to feel guilty for breaking. There is a lot of false guilt or false shame in our culture. Many times we feel guilty of and ashamed of things ought not to feel guilty or ashamed of. For example, we should not be ashamed, or feel guilty, for not being able to 'keep up with the Jones.' Second, when we do feel true guilt over actual sin, fear over it's effects in the future and suffer the literal or metaphorical death that ensues, Christ's sacrificial death frees us from the guilt and power of that sin. Amazingly, we are not only freed from the guilt and power of past sins, but, in Christ's resurrection power, we are transformed from the inside out so that we, by the power of the Holy Spirit, grow into becoming people that no longer do those sinful things.
For Wesley, it was important to emphasize that we are saved from all sins and completely saved from them. In other words, salvation is not just a 'get out of hell' free card for the future. Instead salvation is a total and present rescue from the power, guilt, and fear of sin. To highlight the present reality of this salvation Wesley reminds us that Paul tells the believers in Ephesus "not ye shall be, (although that is also true) but ye are saved through faith." This full and present salvation is evident in much of John Wesley's writings and many of Charles Wesley's hymns. After all, one of my favorites is "And Are We Yet Alive" which says:
"Then let us make our boast of his redeeming power, which saves us to the uttermost, till we can sin no more."Questions:
1. The death that sin brings about comes in the form of separation. This is separation from relationship with God and each other. While the separation of physical death will be overcome when we all share in Chris's resurrection upon His return, His resurrection power enables us to be saved from broken relationships here and now. What does His resurrection power look like when it brings about reconciled relationships with other people and God?
2. Do you feel the need to be 'saved' from something? If so what?
3. Have you experienced ways in which you been saved from the guilt, power, and death that sin brings about?
Objections:
1. Salvation by faith militates against good works: A simple way to characterize this objection is to say, "If you are saved by faith and works, why do good works? After all, if we are not 'earning heaven' why do good things?"
This objection comes from multiple misunderstandings. First, the kind of faith that we are saved by trusts that in Jesus Christ we find the objective good that we are held to and desires to become more like Christ. This faith trusts that, in Him, we will more and more become the kind of people who want to do good works. This objection actually shows that, apart from Christ, 'good deeds' are just an extension of selfishness. Put differently, if one sees no reason to do good deeds outside of reward form humans or God, they are not really 'good people.' Instead they are selfish people who want to get rewards are are using good works to get them. Put more succinctly, when we are saved by faith we do good, not to get good things, but because, by the grace of God, we are becoming good people (this good can be defined as doing that which loves others and God not as means to ends but as ends in and of themselves).
This leads to the second problem with this objection. It does not take into account the enormous gratitude people feel when they are saved by faith. Imagine a father and son are camping. The father tells his son, "do not go in the river it is dangerous." The son is disobedient, and get's caught up in its current. The son loses consciousness and the last thing he thinks is, "Why was I so stupid to disregard my father's words! Now I am going to die and I have no one to blame but myself!" The son wakes up to find himself lying on the bank of the river with his dad lying next to him, half dead from exhaustion from rescuing him. Later on that night, the dad days, "Could get us some firewood?" What kind of ungrateful snot would say, "No, dad, it's not like you have done anything for me lately!" In the same way, when we are saved by faith we realize that we have been forgiven of the sins we have committed and have been freed from their power. If for no other reason, we want to do God's will out of gratitude!
2. Salvation by faith leads to pride: This objection is born out of the unfortunate reality that many people who claim to be saved by faith brag about it. Just think about how prideful the 'church lady' was on SNL!
If you think about it, this attitude and the belief that it flows from is ridiculous! In fact, if we keep reading the text from Ephesians that Wesley chose for this sermon Paul writes this, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 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." In other words, the kind of faith that saves us admits that we need to trust in Christ and Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins past, and the power to not commit them in the future. If we are indeed saved by faith we should boast in Jesus Christ not ourselves!
But what about boasting in Jesus Christ? One of the more modern objections to Salvation by faith is that it is arrogant to claim that Jesus is the only way. To that, I think David Gooding has an excellent response. He writes:
"To ask why must we think that Christ is the only way to God is to miss the point completely. For Christ does not, in that sense, compete with anyone for the simple reason that no one else claims to deal with this fundamental problem. He is the only one in the running. How can it be narrow-minded or arrogant to accept from Christ what no-one else offers?"
3. The final objection I will deal with is "doesn't this encourage people to sin?" After all, if we are freed from the fear of God punishing us than why not sin?
I think folks with this objection view God as a cosmic police officer. When driving through a place that is known to have cops waiting to pull folks over for speeding we tend to be more likely to drive the speed limit. If you are anything like me, you are not driving it because your heart is as their heart and you want to obey out of love. Instead, we obey because of fear of not getting caught. Indeed God can and does use this fear to encourage people back to Him.
However, once we are saved by faith we no longer fear Him because of punishment. Instead of this, what Wesley calls, servile fear we have the kind of filial fear of offending. In other words, we fear God as a loving father, not tyrannical dictator. Initially, children fear their parents because of punishment, but as the children mature that changes. If the parents are loving but firm the children fear disobeying, or disappointing their parents because the love and respect their parents and do not want to grieve their hearts.
In the same way, when we first turn to God for forgiveness it may be because we fear the gates of hell. However, as we mature we begin to love God and see Him as our heavenly Father. In this sense our 'fear' of God comes from loving and respect Him. This objection, like many others, is born out of not understanding the complete transformation that is wrought through Salvation by faith!
I think the apostle Paul put it well when saying:"if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new"
The doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ is indeed:
The greatest story every told
That hardly ever gets told
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