True Faith
Heidelberg Catechism • Sermon • Submitted
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And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in 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 coming ages 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, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-10
Sermon Title: True Faith
It has been a few weeks since I have preached in the evening—there have been some changes at home. It is good to be with all of you again tonight. The last time I preached we were looking at Isaiah 53. Taking our cue from the Catechism Lord’s Days 5 and 6, we encountered Jesus as the only possible mediator and deliverer for us, sinners. This evening we build upon that as we look at how salvation comes to individuals. We are going to do that by meditating on Ephesians 2:1-10. What Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus here is really a 10 verse summary of our sin, God’s salvation, and the opportunity we have to serve. At the core of his message is this truth, “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith. As we consider what faith is, we will be paying special attention to verses 4 through 9.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, during my final year of seminary I had to take a philosophy course at Calvin College. I chose one called “God and Philosophy,” and part of the class was to write a term paper on any of the topics we had touched on throughout the semester. For whatever reason, I decided to write on universalism—the view that everyone will be saved.
As I researched that topic, I came across a wide variety of ideas. Most of them are based in the most generous understanding of God’s love, mercy, and grace. Many Universalists struggle with the idea of a loving God being willing to punish—their arguments are simple, and Scripture typically lacked in their arguments. I came across a few well-researched theologians though. The most compelling argument for everyone being saved to me was summed up in this statement, “If our origin is ultimately in God, so is our destiny.” If God is the only eternal and all of life is caused by him, then shouldn’t all of our ends also be with him. This perspective came with the view that a hell can exist, but it is meant to function as a temporary punishment and purifying location before everyone eventually enters into life with God.
That seemed pretty reasonable to me, but I always drew me back to our traditionally accepted view of limited atonement. What drew me back is how the Bible talks about faith. In John 3:36, one of the core verses for answer 20, we find these words from John the Baptist: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” As we looked at in Corsica this morning, there is only one way to the destination of life with God, which is through Jesus Christ in this world. We can only be saved by having a genuine or a true faith in God.
We want to ask ourselves, what is faith? Answer 21 told us that it involves knowledge, a “head” understanding that what God reveals in Scripture is true. It also involves conviction, a “firm believing,” that they are true. But faith is not just about rational thinking—it is something that the Holy Spirit enables to make its way to the hearts of believers—faith works to assure us—it is a confidence of the promise. If we have true faith, if we believe, then we can be confident that our sins are forgiven, that we are forever right with God and can never fall out of his redeeming work, and we also are granted salvation—that makes it possible for us to look towards eternal life rather than eternal damnation. Faith is a mixture of knowing, giving recognition to truths, and having our lives transformed—faith changes us.
Back in Ephesians 2, Paul stated the case—all of us were dead, all of us have lived in the ways of the world and of the devil who makes us disobedient. We used to live in the way of gratifying our sinful nature with its thoughts and desires. “Like the rest,” like everyone else verse 3 says, “we were by nature objects of wrath.” If we were able to look at who we were before faith in Christ, there would be no difference between any of us and any of our neighbors who continue to lack faith.
But then comes verse 4, “But because of his great love for us, God…” Right there we see that God alone has done something for us—he has changed us from what we are “by nature.” The faith he willingly gifts to us, makes us alive because of what Jesus did. Just like that—the dirty feeling that we had while we were studying section one of the Catechism—how great our sin and misery are— the ashamed feeling has been done away with. Not because we helped ourselves, not because we decided that we had better seek God on our own terms—but the rich, merciful God took us from death and breathed life into us. He took us from being killed by our wrongdoings, and put us on the road to obeying him.
For Paul writing to the Ephesians, this is what grace in action looks like—the resurrection that takes place in this life when the Holy Spirit applies Christ’s works to individuals. Once faith takes hold and begins to grow in our lives whether at a young age or at a later time, we move out from death, out from disobedience, out from gratifying sin to gratifying God. True faith completely changes what our day to day lives look like.
The first part of grace through faith taking hold is that we are made alive. The second part that Paul reveals in Ephesians 2 shows that God is not quite done with us yet. Verses 6 and 7, Paul writes, “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages,” so that in the future, “he might show the incomparable riches of his grace;” this will be an expression of kindness in Christ Jesus. We are to be raised up and seated with Christ.
Philippians 2:9 tells us that after Jesus gave himself up and because he was willing to die, “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name,” he gave him the title, the rank, the authority, “that is above every name.” Paul is telling us that not only was Jesus lifted up and glorified, but those of us who have faith will also be lifted up.
I have yet to run into any farmers in our area who are living as kings on the side—I have seen some comfortable tractor cabs, but I have not seen any thrones. Neither have I found any queens dwelling here in central South Dakota, yet Paul tells us that something to that extent is to happen. To be raised up, seated with Christ, in view of God’s grace—that is the vision and the calling that all who believe will have. We are not to lord that over others, and we should not think more highly of ourselves than we ought—but understand this is one of the ends of having faith. The sheer grace of God through Christ makes us alive and promises us seats of glory—we will reign with him when he returns.
We are seeing that faith is not something that only rescues, but it also increases our value. It does not only bring us back from the dead, but it also gives us a purposed future. While it might seem like this is over-spiritualizing what faith is in the lives of believers, I do not think there is any other way to understand the magnitude of God’s wonderful, saving grace in our lives. There is nothing else out there that can do this, and there is nothing else worth spending more time building up than what God gives us in the knowledge, conviction, and assurance of him.
Now we come across that core doctrine that is the most beautiful sight for weary sinners, the sweetest sound for ears that have yearned to hear something pleasant. Ephesians 2:8, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—” that faith is not something that you came up with on your own, “it is the gift of God.” Nothing any of us have done has earned it—“so…no one can boast.” There is a short phrase in answer 21 that I invite you to keep in mind. “True faith is…a deep-rooted assurance, created in me by the Holy Spirit through the gospel.”
Brothers and sisters, this is a great comfort to many of us. When it comes to being a Christian, what is most influential on our decision is not whether or not we have to make the choice. I have talked to other believers who have told me that in the worst times of their lives, they tried as much as they could to leave God behind. To leave God out, to block him from their lives—yet they were not able to do it. If we have been given grace through saving faith—then we will never be able to put the Holy Spirit’s work to shame.
At the same time, it also can cause great anxiety when we think about the faith or lack thereof in others. We might wonder if it would be better for it to be completely a human choice—if a child, a friend, or another loved one could simply decide to have faith like they make any other decision—yet God’s Word teaches us that is must be initially created by the Holy Spirit. It is grace through faith that justifies us—it is not us who do that work, but it is wholly the work of God. When he decides to prepare the heart so that the seed may be planted and nurtured—he will surely do it. All he has called will respond by embracing his benefits, his salvation.
True faith is active. It is not something that is merely present in our lives, but it is moved by increasingly putting our hope in God’s promises as we find them in his Word. What a wonderful gift it is that God has not made us to have to go on a wild goose of trying to figure out what is right and wrong, what is his plan and what is he against—he has spoken through prophets and apostles by his Spirit that we might know and believe!
As we conclude our time tonight, let that sink in as you listen to these words from Reformed theologian, Eugene Osterhaven, “Trust is more than knowing and different from it. A person may know another but not trust him. The better he knows some people the less he may trust them. Of God the opposite is true. The better he knows God, the more he will want to trust him, to give him his heart and to lean on his Word.” Wholehearted trust, or a deep-rooted assurance is more than knowing, and it is different from it. When we have true faith, not only do we want to know God and honor his promises, but we want to give him our hearts. A desire grows in us to give him everything that we are, and to lean on his Word.
It is my hope, brothers and sisters, that when we profess our faith together, be it through the Apostles’ Creed or any statement of faith, we would recognize it is something greater than simply reading words on a page. I hope that when we say together, as a body, that we believe in God—that we realize how great a statement that is, and that our confession is evidence of what God has done in each of our lives. As we grow our faith, may we more and more come to know the benefits of being saved by Jesus. Amen.