1988 Issue 6 - Who is the Genuine Christian? Part II - Counsel of Chalcedon

7/27/2019 1988 Issue 6 - Who is the Genuine Christian? Part II - Counsel of Chalcedon

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li§ The

Gteinllillfumce CCiburit§lblcaum

Part

II

. IV. The

NatUre

of

Justifying. Faith .

Let's examine further the nature

of

saving faith.

Good

works or obedience

to God's

Law

cannot be separated

from

a faith that leads

to

salvation. Just

as

one is toperformdeeds appropriate tore-

pentance, one is to give evidence that

true faith is present

To

state that wOrks is a necessary

part

o saving faith does not deny the

biblical docttine

of

salvation by faith

alone. f it did, then. we would have to

rip the book of James

out

of the Bible

for

being uninspired. James 2:14,17,18,

21,22,24,26 says, What use is it, my

brethren, if a

rtum

says he has faith, but

he has no works? Can that faith save

him?

Even so

faith,

i f

it has no works,

is dead, being by itself.

But

someone

may well say, you have faith, and

have works; show me your faith. with

out the works, and will show you my

faith by my works. Was not Abraham

our

father justified

by

works, when

he

offered up Isaac his son

on

the altar?

You

see that faith was working with

his works, and as a result of the works,

faith was perfected. You see that a man

is justified by works, and

not

by faith

alone.

For

just as the body without the

spirit is dead; so also faith without

works is dead.

A. Justifying Faith is e m o n ~

strated

by

a Hunger

~

Thirst for God's Word

There is

a close correlation

e t w ~ n

true saving faith and one's attitude . o-

JohnM Otis is

a PCA minister

residing in

Roswell, Georgia.

lby

Jollm

M.

OtJi§

wards and practiceo God's Word. The

Scripture was given to us by God for a

· two-fold pwpose. First, the Scripture re-

. ·veals who God is by revealing His true

nature. His nature is expressed through

allo His glorious attributes or charac- ·

teristics. Second, the Scripture was giv

en

to man

as

the means for man to

know what God expects of him. Scrip

ture, which· is the special revelation

of

God, explains the means of redemption

that God has provided for lost human

ity;

Because the Scripture

is

God-

. breathed, there is naturally a close con

nection between the Scripture and the .

Holy Spirit. In John 16:13, we are told

that when the Holy Spirit comes to the

disciples, He will guide them into

all

truth.

We

are told in John 17:17 that

the

disciples will

be

sanctified by the

truth, for God's

Word

is truth. From

these two passages, we learn an extreme

ly important principle

of

the Christian

· life.

The

Holy Spirit

lw ys

works

in

conjunction with .the revealed Word of

God, never in contradiction With it. In

other words, the Holy Spirit. will

ways lead us to obey the Scripture.

When Jesus said that the Holy Spirit

will

guide us into truth, He was not

saying that the Spiri t leads us in some

mystical way. The Spirit guides us to

obey the revealed truth of God - the

Bible.

The

Bible explicitly states that every

true child of

God has the Holy Spirit

residing

in

his heart (Romans 8:9-16;

Gal. 4:6,7; Eph. 1:13,14). Seeing that

the Holy Spirit guides us in accordance

with the Word

of

God, it should e

obvious that every true child

of

God

would have a hunger or thirst for God's

Word. This is exactly what I Peter 2:2

indicates, Like newborn babies, crave

pure spiritual milk,

so that by it you

may grow up in your salvation. A

newborn baby instinctively desires

milk

·. fat

its growth. Likewise, in the spiri

tual realm, every child of God will in

stinctively crave Godis Word for his

growth.

. One

of

the tntest signs

of

the pre

sence

of

justifying faith is such a hun

ger and thirst David is said to have

been the man

after

God's own heart. It

·is noteworthy that this man loved God's

Word. Psalm 9 in its entirety is an

expression of David's attitude towards

God's Word. Psalm 119:111,112 sum

marizes ;his attitude, Your statutes are

my heritage forever; they are the joy

of

my

heart

My heart is set on keeping

your decrees to the very end. We are

told in Acts 2:42 that those who re

pented and werebaptized into the church

of Jesus Christ on the day of Pentecost

were devoted to the apostle's teaching.

For the Christian; a hunger and

thirst

for the Bible is no option. The genuine

Christian does not allow the Bible's ad

monitions to take second place to

his

personal opinions. God's Word dictates

his very thoughts and governs his daily

actions. t is a very dangerous sign

when a professing Christian says, I

know what the Bible says but I don't

care, and I will do what feel

is

right

A persistent attitude such as this and a

lifestyle that reflects such disregard for

God's

Word

is indicative

of

someone

who has never been born again.

I John 3:24 succinctly states the rela

tionship between the Holy Spirit. and

obedience to God's coinmandments,

Those who obey his commands live in

him, and he in them. And this

is

how

we know that he lives in us: We know

it by the Spirit

he

.gave us. This pas

sage states that there are two indicators

of those who are genuine believers.

Obedience to God's commands is one in

dicator, and the other is the presence of

the Holy Spirit.

It

doesn't take much

of

a logician to see that it is the Holy

Spirit's presence that enables the person

to obey God's commandments. We

must remember that a Christian has the

· Holy Spirit dwelling within him.

Without the Holy Spirit,

no

one can be

saved. Since the presence of the Holy

Spirit always leads us to obey God's

Law, such obedience from the heart is a

Page 18 ~ T h e Counsel of Chalcedon, June, 1988



sign

of

true justifying faith. Let's see in

further detail how obedience

to

God's

Law demonstrates the presence

of

justi

fying faith.

B.

Justifying

Faith

is

Demon·

strated

by

an

Obedience

to God's

Law

The book of I John is probably the

best exposition of the nature

of

justi

fying faith in the entire Bible. John

clearly distinguishes the genuine Chris

tian from the counterfeit.

In

1:5 John

declares that

God

is light and that there

is unequivocally

no

possibility for dark

ness to reside with

God

. The terms

"light" and "darkness" are figurative

terms for holiness and wickedness, re

spectively. In 1:7 John says that if we

walk in the light as

God

is in the light,

then we have true fellowship with God.

The tenn "walk" expresses the concept

of

lifestyle. In chapter 2, John gives

some specifics as to what it means to

walk in the light. Verses 3 and 4 are

quite clear: "And by this we know that

we have come to know Him, if

we keep

His commandments. The one

who

says,

I have come to know Him, and does not

keep His commandments, is a liar, and

the truth

is

not in Him." The Greek

grammar indicates that the keeping

of

God's commandments is an ongoing ac

tivity, not an isolated instance. Our as

surance that we are truly Christians is

that we

continually

keep God's Law.

The one who continually disobeys

God's law is a liar, void

of

God's truth.

Why is he a liar? He insists that he is a

Christian, but his lifestyle betrays his

profession

of

faith. Beginning

in

2:29,

John introduces the notion

of

being

born

of

God. John says, If you know

that He is righteous, you know that

every one also who practices righteous

ness is born

of

Him

.

The term "born

again" is a very popular phrase today.

It

is used synonymously with being sav

ed. Yes, a person who is spiritually

born again is a Christian. But notice

that John says that the

proof

that a per

son has been born again is that he con

tinually

pr

actices righteousness. This

truth

is

magnified even further in 3:6-

10, "No one who abides in Him sins;

no one who sins has seen Him or

knows Him. Little children, let no one

deceive you; the one who practices righ

teousness is righteous, just as He is

righteous;

the

one who practices sin is

of the devil; for the devil has sinned

from the beginning. The Son of God ap

peared for this pwpose, that

He

might

destroy the works of the devil. No one

who is born

of

God practices sin, be

cause His seed abides in him; and he

cannot sin, because he is born of God.

By

this the children of

God

and the

children of the devil are obvious; any

one who does

not

practice righteousness

is not

of

God, nor the one who does not

love his brother." John says that the dis

tinction between the genuine Christian

and the counterfeit Christian is ob

vious If

a person is born

of God

he

does no t practice sin. The reason is that

Christ's seed abides

in Him

- there is a

new life principle dwelling within the

true believer. Is this not what II Corin

thians 5:17 says? f we are in Christ we

are a new creation - old things have

passed away and new things have come.

In his gospel account, John recalls

the

very words

of

Jesus concerning who

is the genuine Christian. In John

14:23,24 Jesus says,

If

anyone loves

Me, he will keep

My

word; and

My

Father will love him, and

We

will

come to him, and make Our abode with

him.

He

who does

not

love

Me

does

not

keep My words and the word which

you hear is not Mine,

but

the Father's

who sent Me."

The faith which justifies a person is

a faith that is evidenced in the way that

a person lives.

It is

absolutely impos-

Our ittle ambs

Need Shepherds

Chalcedon Christian

School,

in

north

Atlanta.

is

seeking teacher aru>lications

for the 1988-89 scllool year. Pre-school,

Early Later Elementary, Middle

High School positions are available.

Applicants must

be

experienced

Reformed ho lding to the systemof

dOctrine taught in the Westminster

Confession o FaiJh)

1

committed to

Christ nd

to

Christi an education

sible to

e in

rebellion against God's

law and still be a genuine Christian.

The Bible emphatically declares such a

person

to

be a liar. Titus 1:16 says,

"They profess to know God, but by

their deeds they deny

Him,

being detest

able and disobedient, and worthless for

any good deed." Obedience to God's

commandments is submission to

Christ's Lordship. The doctrine that in

sists that

it

is possible to have Jesus

Christ in one's life but

yet sinful ego is

still governing one's behavior is a false

doctrine.

t

s a doctrine t hat will literal

ly ruin a person's eternal soul One of

the most solemn passages in the entire

Bible is Matthew 7:21-23 which says,

Not everyone who says to Me, Lord,

Lord, will enter the kingdom of

heaven;

but

he who does the will of My

Father, who

is

in

heaven. Many will

say to Me on that day, Lord, Lord,

did

we

not

prophesy in your name, and in

Your name cast

out

demons, and in

Your name perform many miracles?

And then I will declare to them, I never

knew

you; depart

fr

om Me, you who

practice lawlessness."

Jesus is unmistakably clear that one

can

make a false profession· of faith.

Such professions are worthless

if

there

is no conformity to

God

's will, which

is obviously obedience to His Law. t

is

really unbiblical

to

declare that

all

of

those who make professions of faith are

saved. Yet, this is what many evan

gelists declare.

For

example, if 100peo-

ple carne forward during an "altar call,

H

it is boasted that 100 people got saved

that day.

One

cannot know that

all

of

Chalcedon

Christian School

P.O. Box 888022

Dunwoody,GA 30338

(404)

3 ~ 6 0 9 6 0

Robert T. Lester, Administrator

The

CouDS(ll

of Chalcedon,

June,

1988

Page 19



thes.e people have b ~ e n truly converted.

All that one can say is tbat 100 people

made

a

Christian profession.

Only

time ·

will tell,

as

to whether these professions ,

are

genuine. Unfortunately; the act

.

of

walking . the aisle and making some

kind

of

response

to

.

the mvitation has .

convinced some that they are eternally

secure for example the prostitute men

tioned earlier.

C. Justifying Faith .

s Demon

strated

in

Lo g

One.s ·Neighbor

Jesus declared that.the proofof being

His disciples was whether his disciples

loved one another. John ~ 3 : 3 5 says,

"By this all men will know that you are

My disciples, if you have love for one

another." Paul

s ~ t e d

t h ~ t God's entire

Law

can

be surn,marized in one state

:-

rneut. G latians 5:14 states, "For .the

whole.Law i f u l f l l l ~ d in one .word, in

tbe s t a t e m e n ~

You

shall love your

n e ~ g h b o r

as

yourself." Love is the heart

of. the Law, Of o u r s ~ bib1ical love is

not merely an emotional feeling. Bibli

cal love is basically

an act

of

the

will

which manifests itself ·in

o b e d i e n c ~

God's commandments. A f t e ~

all,

Jesus

said that we really don't love

Him

if we

are not obedient to all that He com

mands. However, true obedience is de

monstrated through love. This

is

what

~ ~ q l

·

was saying

in

I Corinthians

13. :rrue love ~ v i d e n c e s itself in how

we relate to other people, especially our

brethren in the Lord. Love is

p a t i ~ t

with others; it is kind; i t is not jealous;

it. humble; it is not self-centered; it is

n o ~

vengeful; it looks ,for the best in

others; it is forgiving. These are just a

few

ways that love ·is mimifested. .

Love is

.till:

distinglj.ishing mark of

the genuine Christian.

Those

who do

not love their neighbor, especially

those

of

the household

of

faith, are yet

lost in their sins. John

atteSts

to this

truth in his

ft:tst

epistle, ·Note the

severity of not loving·one's brother

in

I

John 3:10,14,15: "By this the children

of

God and the children

of

the devil are

obvious; any one who does not practice

righteousness is ·not Of God, nor · he

one who does not love his brother.

We

know that we hf,lve passed out

of

death .

into

life, because we love

the brethren

.

He who

does

not love abides in

death

.

Every one who

hates his

brother is a

murderer; and you know that no mur-

derer bas eternal life abiding

in him."

l

John 4:7-8 says, "Beloved, let

us

love

one another, for love is from

God;

and

every one who loves is

born

of God and

knows

God.

The one who doeS; not love

does not know God, for God is love ,"

By the way, t h ~ verbs in these verses

convey the idea of

3Jl

ongoing activity .

Love is tbe con( t..ant lifestyle of a

gen

uine Christian.

Is

there any doubt that .

the practice of love is a necessity

if

we

are truly children of

God?

There are several ways

in

which we .

hate.

our brother. One of the most

com

mon_

ways

is by harboring bitterness _

n

our hearts and maintaining .

an

unfor

giving spirit. Not only do .these

traits

destroy us physic.ally, but tl1ey will

surely .destroy ·our souls in Hell.

In

Matthew

6:14-15

Jesus said that if we

a(e not willing

to

forgive others,

God

will not forgive our

~ i n s . The_

Chris

tian, in several places, is exhorted to for

give just as Christ forgave

him

The

person who harbors bitterness and re"

fuses to forgive others is simply

demon

strating that they have never been

born

again. The new man in Christ does not

practice such hatred. f you, as the

rel .der,

are

harboring such attitu9es you

bad better examine your heart and repent

of

your sin; otherwise,

yol).

will be

Concluding the series

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IJI

Revival of he Church

Under Elijah,

I

i m ~ s

1

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Under Elijah, II

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Ill

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lhuler 1\lijah, J/1

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54.00

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for set of3

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P.O. Box 28357

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rejecte4 by.Christ on

the

day of judg

ment f

you ~ o w other professing

Chri.stians

who are

like

this

,

you

have a

scriptural responsibility

to

admonish

them of the spiritual danger that they

are

in. .

We

show hatred to our brother

if

we

are racists. It is impossible for a racist

to be a.genuine Christian Racism is

the practice of sin, which VIe have seen

is the evidence of

those

who

are

not

born

of

God. This author attended Semi

nary

in.

Mississippi. It .was appalling to

him

to learn there

were

.still church

es

that refused to even

allow

a black per

son to attend church services. One

thing

can be certain.Those churches

are

Chris

tian in name only.. They ·surely

will

bear the judgment of God. It is equally

appalling. o iearn that

members

of the

Ku

Klux Klan

try

to appeal

to

the

.

)3ible

to

substantiate their racist attitudes.

'lt

is impossible

to be

a genuine

Christian apd not p r a c ~

the love of

Christ. This is a sober fact that

many

professing believers need

to

ponder.

Submitting to Christ's Lordship is the

constant obedience to God's conunand

ments, and this ·obedience is

demon

strated in

our

love for others. Observe

what I John 5:2-3

says

, "By

this we

know that we love the children of God,

when we love God and observe His com

mandments. For

this

is

the

love of

God, that we keep His.commandments;

and His commandments are not burden

some."

[To be continued

with

~

Relation-

ship

of

Justification

to

Sanctification

and

The Necessity

of

Spiritual Fruit

next

month.]

Teacher

Admiriistrator

· ee e

Trinity

Christian

School

is

looking

for a

teacher to teach

sixth

grade

and

handle the day to day-administrative

needs

of

the school.

Write: Trmlty·Christian Schoool

P 0. Box

2364

Statesboro, GA 30458

or Call

1-(912)-489-1375 or

489-8186

Page 20 ----- .--. . - .------------. . . . . .--------The C9uosel of Chalcedon, June, 1988

Documents

1988 Issue 6 - Who is the Genuine Christian? Part II - Counsel of Chalcedon