09 Fruit of the Spirit: Faith

Krisan Marotta: Welcome back to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know it. Today is the ninth talk in my series on the fruit of the Spirit. Glad to have you along. In this series, we are searching for an understanding of the ideas on the list of the fruit of the Spirit. Today we'll be talking about the next item on the list, which is faith. We are exploring Scripture to see what Scripture says about these concepts and therefore what Paul was thinking when he wrote the list. I have been arguing that the items on this list are not feelings that we are given, rather, they result from a profound shift in worldview. As the Spirit of God teaches us truth, our perspective changes, and that perspective changes how we act, how we respond, and how we treat each other. We find this list in Paul's letter to the Galatians. Let me briefly remind you of the context. Paul spends most of the letter refuting the teaching of the Judaizers and arguing that we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone. In chapter 5, he's arguing that freedom from the law does not mean that we are free to pursue sin. He argues that trying to keep the law produces a fake moral transformation. We are only changing our external behavior and not who we are on the inside. However, once we have faith in Christ, God gives us his spirit and his spirit opens our eyes, teaches us truth, and changes us from the inside out, which produces real moral change and the qualities on this list. Today we're looking at faith. Both the English Standard Version of the Bible and the New American Standard Bible translate this word as faithfulness. I disagree with that a little bit. The Greek word here is just the normal, everyday vanilla word for faith. It can be translated faithfulness. There's one time in Paul's letters where he used this word to describe the faithfulness of God, but the vast majority of times that Paul uses this word, he's talking about faith, especially when he's talking about something that's true of believers. I suspect the translators may have chosen faithfulness because it sounds more like a quality. It's a more generic sounding word. Faithfulness sounds more like a quality of character that I have rather than faith. I'm guessing the translators assume that Paul must mean some kind of character quality, so they translate the word faithfulness instead of faith. But I don't think that's what's going on. But let's assume they're right, and we should think of this as the quality of faithfulness. What would that mean? Well, one option is we could mean something like reliable. When we describe someone as having faithfulness, we typically mean they are dependable and they are trustworthy. When the faithful person says they will do something, they do it. It's a good thing to be a reliable and trustworthy person. But there's nothing in the context or in the way Paul uses this word to suggest that he has dependability or reliability in mind. That kind of faithfulness is a fine quality. We should all try to be reliable, but I don't see anything to suggest that that's what he means in this context, and I don't think that idea would work really well. Well, there's another possibility. Faithfulness could have the idea of being steadfast, being loyal or persevering, holding firm. Someone who has faithfulness would hold on until the end. That idea seems more likely in our context, and Paul frequently talks about perseverance. But in the end, if we were to ask the question, what is it we're being faithful to? What is it we're persevering in? The answer would be faith. We persevere in the faith, so we might as well translate it faith. I think when it gets right down to it, the simplest way to translate this word and the one that matches the way Paul repeatedly uses it is to simply see it as faith, as belief. So let's talk about what that means. Faith is a common word for Christians. Faith is so obviously central to the gospel that we kind of take it for granted that we all know what it means. Everyone knows believers are supposed to have faith. But we're not quite clear on what it means to have faith. So what I'm going to do today is define saving faith and explain why it deserves a place on this list. Let's start by talking about what faith is not. I hear the word faith all the time in the media. Even famous athletes, actors, journalists, and people who laugh at the gospel and reject the claims of Christ will sometimes extol the virtue of having faith. But to them, faith means believing in yourself. Believing in yourself is a central theme in many Hollywood movies. We're repeatedly told, you must have faith. Just believe that good things will come your way and then they'll come your way. Just believe that you can do whatever you set your mind to doing and you'll be able to do it. Just believe that some higher power, whoever it is, is looking out for you and you'll be fine. Sometimes we're even told it doesn't matter if what we believe is true. What matters is how sincerely we believe it. Believing in something in and of itself is seen as a good thing, regardless of whether it's true. Well, I hope it's clear that that is not what the Bible means by faith. The Bible repeatedly tells us not to believe lies. There is no virtue in believing something that we have no reason to believe. Believing something without reason is foolishness. It is not faith. The Bible never encourages us to the kind of positive thinking that says, Oh, I'm okay, I deserve good things, good things will come my way if I just keep a good attitude. That is not faith. In the church, we sometimes think of faith as the act of belief at the moment of conversion. In this view, having faith is like throwing a switch. I didn't used to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, I used to reject the gospel, but at a certain point in time I flipped the switch, and now I believe the resurrection happened and I believe the gospel is true. That one-time act of believing is like a switch that makes it possible for me to go to heaven now. I throw that switch once. Now faith is a settled issue, and I could move on to other things. We could think of it as going through the turnstile to the subway. Once I do that, I have access to the track and all the trains. Well, under this view, faith is solely determined by whether or when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Having done that, faith becomes a settled issue. We don't have to think about it anymore. Instead, we need to concern ourselves with how to improve as disciples of Christ. I would argue that it's not a biblical picture of faith. The Bible does not present faith as a done deal. It is not an issue that is completely settled at the moment of conversion. And I'm going to explain that more in a little bit. Before I do that, I want to look at a third view of faith, which is a variation on this idea that faith is a done deal. This view says the issue of having faith is settled at conversion, but now you've got to deal with daily life. Under this view, I threw the switch at conversion. I believe that Jesus is the Messiah and he rose from the dead. So I've got my eternal destiny taken care of. But now I've got to work on today. Under this view, God has promised to bless me now, but I can only lay hold of those blessings if I believe hard enough. I have to believe that I'm going to be healthy. I have to believe that I'm going to prosper or succeed in ministry and have a happy life. Now, this understanding of faith divides the Christian life into two kinds of people. No one uses this terminology, but it essentially boils down to the haves and the have-nots. You may have heard the term carnal Christians. They're the have nots. Under this view, the carnal Christians will be saved because they threw the switch, but they will not be sanctified because they have not learned to appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit. And there's different language people use, but that's the basic idea. So the carnal Christians have been saved, but they don't know how to live their life on a daily basis because they aren't accessing the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, spiritual Christians have God's blessings in this life because they believe enough. They have reached out and grabbed them and they have appropriated the power of the Holy Spirit. The carnal Christians lack those blessings because they have not exercised their faith. And this view would teach you that you need to believe that something you don't have will come your way, and if you believe it sincerely enough, then you'll get it. If you don't get it, it's because you don't have enough faith. I would argue that is not a biblical picture either. I would argue there is no such thing as carnal Christians in that sense, and the Bible does not teach that God will bless me in this life only if I have enough faith. I would argue that Paul would reject those concepts of faith. He's not talking about sincerely believing what I want to be true without any reason to believe it. He's not talking about flipping a switch once to get to heaven, and he's not talking about appropriating God's blessings today, this idea that I must believe hard enough or I won't get them. I would argue the Bible teaches that faith is a set of beliefs which transforms the way I look at the world and therefore changes how I live. To have faith is to believe the gospel and to live in light of those truths. God has told us how reality works, God has explained why we exist on this earth and how the story of history is going to end. If God didn't reveal that information to us, we wouldn't be able to figure it out. But He has revealed that information through His prophets, His apostles, and most of all through Jesus Christ. And that revelation has been collected into the book we call the Bible. If you're new to the Bible, here's my brief overview of its message. The Bible tells us that all humanity has rebelled against God and rejected him. Our rebellion brought evil, corruption, and death upon ourselves and into the world. The world that we live in is now tragic, difficult, and unfulfilling. It is ruined by death and decay and futility because of our rebellion to God, which we call sin. God is patient with us now, but one day we will face his judgment. We are guilty and we will be condemned unless God is merciful. At a certain point in history, God reached out to a particular nation, the children of Israel or the Jewish people. He revealed some of his plans and purposes to them, and he made promises to them. He promised to forgive their sins, to conquer death, and to give them an inheritance and an eternal kingdom. He promised to send a king who would conquer evil and rule in righteousness forever, and that king would bring about all the purposes of God. God made it clear that in addition to the Jewish people, all the nations of the earth had a place in these promises. Jesus Christ is that king. He died and rose again to pay the penalty for our sins and to reconcile us to God. Now that we are reconciled, God forgives us and adopts us into his family. He is at work in our lives, he is teaching us, and he is working for our good and leading us into eternal life forever. Now I've left out a lot of stuff, but that's the basics of the gospel. When we say we have faith, what we're saying is that story makes sense to us. We believe that is true. Faith is believing what God has said is true. And we could go into great detail about all the things we're supposed to believe are true, but for understanding saving faith, I would summarize that into four core convictions. By saving faith, I mean the essential truth that you must embrace to be saved, forgiven by God, and enter heaven. When Jesus returns and begins separating his people from those not his people, on what basis is he going to decide? Saving faith. The clearest teaching of these four convictions, I think, is found in the Beatitudes, which are in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel, and I have a whole series of podcasts on them if you want to go into more detail. I'm just going to give you an overview here, but I would summarize that teaching into four core convictions. These are the things we must hold to be true to be considered to have saving faith. Conviction number one, we know we're sinful and we want to be holy. The Bible teaches that every human being is a sinner because we all start out rejecting and disobeying God. Now we typically think of sin as breaking one of God's rules, and that is a sin, but sin also includes failing to do what is right. We can sin against someone both by mistreating them and by failing to act for their benefit. Further, the Bible teaches that sin is a state of being that rejects God and races towards selfishness. Almost every sin reaches for something of value like security, comfort, pleasure, knowledge, prosperity, but sin reaches for those goals selfishly, at the expense of others and out of rebellion to God. So believers recognize sin for what it is and long to be freed from it. That is, we long to be made holy or morally beautiful, or good in the way God is good. So the first conviction of saving faith is a genuine desire for holiness. We long for the day when God will make us holy and free us from sin, selfishness, and all forms of death. Conviction number two, we cannot save ourselves. We recognize that we can do nothing to solve our problem with sin. We are slaves to sin and we can do nothing to free ourselves. Resolving to stop sinning changes nothing because the thing inside us that makes us choose, good or evil, selfishness or selflessness, is broken and we will always choose sin, evil, and selfishness. Trying harder, acting religious, seeking to be obedient will not free us from sin. We are trapped and we need a savior. Conviction number three, God is not required to save us. We recognize that God is not obligated to save us. He owes us nothing. We are guilty and deserve punishment. God is not required to make us holy because of anything we've done, because of who we are, we can't keep the law enough, we can't go to church enough, no amount of obedience is going to earn God's favor. There's no divine spark in a corner of our being that requires God to save us. His saving anyone is purely an act of grace and mercy on his part. So we know that we're sinful, we long to be made holy, we know we can't save ourselves, and we God is not required to save us. Then conviction number four, God will save us because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We have a firm trust that God will forgive us, make us holy, and grant us eternal life in heaven because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We believe Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sins. His death removes our guilt and reconciles us to God. One day God will send his Messiah back to bring both judgment and mercy, and on that day God will conquer sin and death and establish his righteous rule over all creation through the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Those who have trusted in the promises of God and the mercy bought by the cross will be saved. But we need to do more than make a claim to faith. This has to be more than how we would vote on a theological test. Genuine saving faith necessarily changes our lives. Every day we face situations that force us to choose between what God says is right and what the world says is right. If we consistently reject what God says is true, then our claim to faith is in doubt. Eventually we need to repent and seek to follow God. So I would argue that faith is not a switch that I throw once so that I can obtain salvation, and it's not believing that there's a set of daily blessings I can tap into, and it's not believing without reason. Faith is this lifelong journey of living out what I believe to be true. Faith weaves itself into the fabric of our worldview so that we see the world the way God sees us and we act on that belief. Now I do believe that saving faith itself is a gift of God and that once he gives it, he does not take it away. So I do not believe if we are genuine children of God that we can lose our faith, but I'm not going to go into that today. For our purposes and understanding faith as a fruit of the Spirit, I want to focus on this aspect of faith as a lifelong journey. The Christian life today is all about working on our faith because every day confronts us with choices over how and whether to live like the gospel is true. And our primary goal in this life is to stand firm in the faith and grow in the faith. Let's look at a few passages that make this point. The first place I want to look at is Ephesians 6, verses 10 through 17. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. I think people go wrong with this passage because they think that faith is a settled issue. They think that faith is that prayer I prayed way back when and that's all settled now. And so they think, well, if I'm going to put on my armor and battle spiritual forces, then I need to find a battle that's worthy of the challenge. Like I need to end poverty or crime in my city, or I need to bring about racial reconciliation, or I need to solve all the problems of the homeless. If I'm going to put on my armor and go to battle, the battle must be to accomplish some grand new plan that changes the world. Now don't misunderstand me, all those causes are worthy battles to fight, and Christians should bring the light of the gospel to bear on them. The problem with that perspective is it ignores what Paul actually says repeatedly in this passage. What is the battle that we're fighting? The battle is to stand firm. Notice how he starts 6.10, finally, be strong in the Lord. 611, stand against the schemes of the devil. 613, stand firm. I think by standing firm he means persevering in the faith. To stand firm is to not be pushed aside or knocked off the path. We stand firm where we are, we will not be moved. We will hold on to the promises of the gospel and we will not deviate. Even if all the forces of darkness line up against us, we will not be moved. That's what it means to stand firm. We are in a battle with the powers of evil for our souls. Satan hits. us with every lie, temptation, and deception that he can to draw us away from the truth. We can't escape this battle and we can't pretend that it's not happening. The battle we face is over whether we will stand firm in the faith or abandon the faith. That's the issue in Ephesians 6. Paul is not saying now that the question of heaven is settled, let's go out in the world and kick Satan in the shins and win a few victories in the marketplace. I don't think that's what's going on. The battle is over your soul. Are you going to stand firm? Will you persevere in the faith? Well the only way you're going to stand firm is to put on the armor of God. And I think that metaphor is just a different way of describing what it means to live as a believer in this life. What's important in this list is not the armor. The armor is just a metaphor. The important thing is what the armor represents. We are to embrace the gospel. We are to seek justification through faith in Jesus. We're to hold fast to the truth. We're to live out our faith we're to believe the truth the gospel proclaims. We're to remember the hope of our salvation and we are to count on the Spirit of God who teaches us the word. Paul's concern in this passage is not get out there and claw back a piece of the kingdom for Christ. Paul's concern is you're in a battle for your eternal soul. Either you're going to stand firm in the faith or you won't. It's essential that you stand firm. It's essential that you hold fast to the truth believe those truths remember the salvation you've been promised seek after God's kingdom and fix your hope on the gospel. It's easy to lose sight of the big picture. It's easy to get distracted and forget that that is the real battle. Instead we start thinking oh my real problem is whether or not I get a new job or I save enough money or I improve my health or I win all the family squabbles with my siblings. We all get distracted by our circumstances and we get emotionally overwhelmed by the problems in this life and then we forget that there is a bigger battle going on. Behind all the troubles and the hardships that come our way is this battle for our souls. All that suffering, all the trials and temptations are tempting us to give up on God and forget what's really important. Have you noticed how many times scripture encourages us to stay alert, stay awake that's because we're in a battle for the truth. We're in a battle over whether or not we will continue to fix our eyes on the big picture and put our hope in the gospel. That's the struggle the battle that we're in Let me take you to another passage. This is 1 Thessalonians chapter five verses one through eleven Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you for you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night while people are saying there is peace and security then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief, for you are all children of light, children of the day we are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep sleep at night and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing Paul is talking about the return of Christ and he borrows language that Jesus himself used to describe his return. Jesus will come like a thief in the night well what characterizes a thief? You don't know when he's coming you go to bed thinking tomorrow will be a day just like yesterday and just like the day before that and the day before that but in the middle of the night the thief comes and steals everything of value. But you were asleep you didn't see it coming. When Jesus uses this analogy he says if the owner of the house had known when the thief was coming he would have locked up. He would have been ready for him. Thieves count on the element of surprise. Thieves don't make an appointment they don't send an announcement saying hey I'm going to be there tomorrow night around midnight I'm going to come in the back window so you don't have to worry about the other windows. Just pile all your valuables under the back window for me that'd be great. The whole idea is they show up when you least expect them. To nonbelievers the return of Christ will be like a thief in the night they'll go to bed thinking tomorrow is just another day but then everything will change. But for believers the return of Christ does not come like a thief in the night and it's important to understand what he's getting at. The difference is not that we know the exact day or the hour he is returning. It's not that we can read the signs and we know oh it's going to be next month or next year. No one knows the day he's coming but that's irrelevant to this metaphor because the fact is I know he's coming so I'm prepared. I know that he's coming as a judge and I know that he has offered a path to mercy. Therefore I have taken steps to secure his mercy before he gets here. I've asked for mercy and the pardon that he freely gives when he comes I've already confessed my crimes and received a pardon. When he comes as a judge he's not going to be my judge because I prepared for his coming so he's not coming like a thief in the night to me. That's the metaphor the world around us is in darkness and it's asleep. What do you do at nighttime? You get drunk and you go to sleep. If you're going to get drunk you come home from work and you drink yourself to sleep and that's what the night is for metaphorically he says we are not like that. We are not of the night we are living in the light of day meaning we understand. We have heard and believed we are waiting for the return of Christ so by contrast we are sober we are not drunk we are awake not asleep our minds are clear and we see the truth. Once again Paul uses this image of the armor the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet which is the hope of salvation why are we not asleep? We are awake we are ready we are alert with our armor on and what is that armor? It's the hope of salvation we have heard the gospel and believed it. We have faith and we're standing firm in it and we're looking for the hope of our salvation. Therefore what are we called to do? How should we spend our time? We should encourage each other and build each other up we're to keep reminding each other what is true and what really matters. We are to come back to each other again and again and say remember what is true. Stand firm in the gospel embrace it don't hide from it act on it instead let's go to Philippians chapter one verses twenty three and twenty five Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians from jail. At this point he does not know whether he will be released from prison or be executed but he thinks he's going to be released and we know from history he was in fact released. This is Philippians one twenty three I am hard pressed between the two my desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is better, but to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again. So Paul is writing and he's saying you know if I'm executed I get to go and be with Jesus but if I'm not executed then I get to keep preaching the gospel and I I'm kind of torn between the two but I think I'm going to be released because God still has a job for me to do. And what is that job? He says I shall remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith. Paul describes his job as continually reminding them what they believe so that their faith might progress, so that they might gain more understanding, more joy. And as we talked about earlier joy results from increased understanding. The more I firmly believe the gospel is true, the more I rejoice despite my circumstances. Paul is confident that in this particular situation he will be found innocent and released from prison, but Christ will be exalted either way. He thinks it would be better for the Philippians if he stayed around a bit longer and he thinks that's what God is going to do. And he sees his continued existence in this world as an opportunity to encourage the Philippians and to help them mature in the faith. For their sake he wants to keep living in order that he might teach them more truth and their faith might progress. Let's go to 1 Thessalonians 3 verses 1 through 3. Paul is speaking in the third person plural here but I think he means himself or the first person I've talked about Paul's peculiar pronoun use in other podcasts so I'm not going to go into that here I just think when I read we here think I Paul. Therefore when we could bear it no longer we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone and we sent Timothy our brother and God's co-worker in the gospel of Christ to establish and exhort you in your faith that no one be moved by these afflictions for you yourselves know that we are destined for this. Here Paul describes Timothy as doing the same sort of job he just described himself as doing in Philippians. Timothy's job was to establish and exhort them in their faith. Paul sent Timothy to the Thessalonians to remind them what faith is all about, to strengthen that faith to encourage them and to give them courage based on what they believe to be true. Again this is showing that faith is a battle it's a lifelong journey it is something we are to persevere in it's not a switch that we can throw and then forget about it's a journey we start at conversion and it keeps growing in us I would argue the central challenge the goal of this life is to mature and stand firm in the faith. Let me try to wrap this up I would argue that like all the rest of the fruit of the Spirit faith is something that grows and matures in us over time. We start with a fledgling understanding the first time we embrace the gospel but then our faith needs to grow and mature into something vibrant and life changing and the Spirit of God brings all that about strong mature faith is an amazing miraculous gift from God which he gives us through the work of the Spirit. And still we're called to believe even as Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit he also calls the Galatians to pursue the fruit of the Spirit the Spirit of God is working this fruit in our lives but at the same time we confront the question daily will we stand firm? Will we rejoice in trials? Will we strive to be at peace with other believers? Will we continue believing? From God's perspective he knows he's going to get us across the finish line but from our perspective we still need to hang on tightly to his hand and stand firm. One of the issues we have to overcome is our tendency to misdiagnose our own problems. We tend to think our problems are out there somewhere outside of ourselves we think well if I'm struggling it's because other people aren't treating me the way I deserve to be treated or if I have issues it's because life has knocked me down. But if we're honest we are our own biggest problem the biggest problems in my life result from my own sin. And this is where we go back to the four convictions of saving faith. I need to keep my eyes on the fact that I am a sinner. I need to keep my eyes on the fact of how valuable and wonderful holiness is I need to keep my eyes on the fact that I cannot free myself from sin or solve the problem of my guilt. God is not obligated to save me but he offers a path to mercy and holiness in his loving kindness through the cross of Christ. The struggle in this life is to firmly believe that is true and then live like it. And that is a lifelong task. But the further good news is that we have an ally on our side who will make sure we succeed. God has graciously given us his spirit and his spirit is teaching us what's true and his spirit will not fail us. If I am looking for stability for peace to find calm in the middle of the storm there's only one place to find it that is to stand on the rock of the gospel and believe that it is true. That's why faith deserves to be in this list on the fruit of the Spirit. It is a profoundly significant fruit that the Spirit is producing in us. He takes rebels, mockers and scoffers like us and opens our eyes so that when we hear the gospel we recognize that it's true. And then each day he teaches us to stand firm on that truth and let it change the way we live our daily lives. You've been listening to the Wednesday in the Word podcast my mission is to explain not only what a passage means but how we figure it out. The blog post version of this podcast is at Wednesdayintheword.com slash fruit dash spirit dash faith I don't accept advertising on my website and I don't ask for donations but I do love your ratings and positive reviews and I really like hearing from you. Please leave me a positive rating on your favorite podcast platform and drop me an email telling me what you've learned. But most importantly tell a friend what you learned and if you can tell him where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coates. You can find his music at heartfeltmusic.org All the episodes in this series are on my website Wednesdayintheword.com Thank you for joining me today I'm Krisan Marotta and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word