Wonderful Results of Saving Faith - The Blood of Christ Doctrines

“Let There Be Light” – The Wonderful Results of Saving Faith

*This series was taught at North Christian Church, leading up to a marvelous series on “The Gospel, Salvation, and Sanctification.” nccdighton.org

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PART 1:

There is nothing quite as striking as the difference between darkness and light.

When God turns the light on, early every morning without fail, then everything around us becomes visible.

And all it took was a word from God, then the power of God went into action.

When a person chooses with his free will to have saving faith in our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Lord turns the light on in his soul.

And from that day on, that person can see. Spiritual truths can become visible.

And in the lives of believers, so long as they desire to learn Truth, that light becomes brighter and brighter, as the sun continues to rise in their life.

If the believer follows Christ and pursues His Word, he will really begin to see it all as truth, and the light that is in him will overpower the darkness in his soul, more and more.

Eph 5:13-14 “But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. For this reason it says, “Awake, sleeper, And arise from the dead, And Christ will shine on you.”

But, this salvation is totally from God.

Without our gracious God turning the light on for us, we would remain in darkness.

But by His grace, at the moment of saving faith, He says “let there be light”, and it is so, and so we possess the wonderful results of His saving grace. And a good picture of this is seen in Eph 2:1-10

And we begin to shine the wonders of salvation, not only in our own souls, but for the whole world to see.

Eph 2:1-10 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

There we see a picture of man going from darkness to light, in his soul, and it’s all because of the grace of God.

The Spirit has nudged me to be a bit more gentle in our approach in this study.

At first, He had me going over the evidences of true saving faith, and also the harsh evidences of false faith.

And while those still exist, and will be brought to light later in this study, by His grace, He wants me to focus on the positive.

He wants us to focus on the wonderful results of true faith, focusing on the LIGHT in the true believer.

Gen 1:1-5 (as we read the first few verses, just imagine that the earth is our soul. Now this is just an analogy, don’t make a doctrine out of this. Again, as we read, imagine the earth is our soul.)

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.”

This is a picture of what happened in your soul when you became a believer in Christ.

Darkness was covering your soul, but the Spirit was moving over the waters, and when He helped you trust in Christ, you received His light, by His grace!

And God saw that it was good. He separated the light from the darkness in your soul.

He made them two totally distinct things.

As many of you know, God made you a completely new creature, not improving upon the old life, but giving you a new life in Christ.

2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come”

Rom 6:3-4 “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

Eph 5:8 “for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light”

God said “let there be light”, and it was so, in the soul of the believer.

2 Cor 4:6 “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”

Believing in Christ gives God permission to turn the light switch on in our lives. And we say “permission” because God honors our volition.

Once a person says YES to Christ, God can release His full power upon him. And He turns on the light switch for us.

But WE cannot turn the switch on, ourselves. God is the one standing with His finger on the light switch, asking us “would you like Me to turn on the lights for you?”

When we say ‘yes’ to Christ, He is then free to take over and make us new!

Let’s continue our analogy.

As we continue to read, imagine the fact that we believers are now the lights of the world, Mat 5:14. By His grace, we are now an extension of Christ. And He will use us to shine light on the earth.

And remember, the Bible also teaches star differs from star in glory, ultimately depending upon volition, and humility.

Again, imagine that we are now the lights of the world…

Gen 1:14-19 “Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth“; and it was so. 16 God made the two great lights, the greater light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made the stars also. 17 God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. 19 There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

God has graciously granted us the opportunity to shine His light in this world.

First, His light shines in our souls, and then it pours out of us as a ray of hope in this dark world.

This is the power of the grace of God in the lives of believers!

We’ve been seeing over the past year or two that the whole Bible is really about the Gospel in some way; either expounding on it, or defending it. It’s not as complicated as man likes to make it.

We’ve also seen the concept of saving faith; and that it involves not just a mental assent to the facts about Jesus, but a personal trust in Christ as one’s own God and Savior.

And we’ve seen that saving faith is of the heart! It is a heart issue, if one is to believe in Christ and receive the Light.
The act of believing comes from the inner man, his motivation, his will, and not just his intellect.

In Rom 10:9-10, we saw that it is actually with the heart that a person believes, resulting in righteousness!

This may or may not result in an emotional response, but believing with the heart refers to the core of an individual and his motivation, which is a supernatural thing that can’t be fully explained or rationalized by man.

And God looks at the heart, 1Sa 16:7.

That in itself should humble us all, especially those of us that think we have the spiritual life all figured out.

Forget the spiritual life, how about salvation?! How about we keep seeking and learning about THAT?!

And maybe, just maybe, LIVING in the Gospel reality is what brings us to maturity.

Who did Jesus say was the “greatest”? The one with the faith and humility of a child. Mat 18:1-4

Matt 18:1-4 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, “Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, 3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Pastor Collins said something recently that rang true to me:

Abiding in Christ: “You have NO idea the depths of His love until you continue to learn about all that He is and all that He faced and all that He’s already done for you!!!”

And that’s something we will be appreciating in this series, in hopes that we grasp more of the depths of His love for us.

Now back to Romans 10; it’s about what we say in our heart that counts with God.

Rom 10:5-13 “For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. 6 But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), 7 or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).”
In other words, you don’t need to have Christ with you here physically to be made righteous. The righteousness of faith doesn’t say “I need to see Him to believe”, or “I need to touch Him to be saved”.
8 But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
In context, a person who calls on the Lord does so from the heart.

And so…

Saving faith is not a casual acknowledgment that a man named Jesus is part of our religion, or that we were even ‘born a Christian’, so we are ‘saved’. Saving faith is a decision of the heart, from the inner man, to trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.

This is very personal! It’s between you and the Lord God Almighty, who gave up His only Son for you!

This is not about belonging to a certain religion, it’s about personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.

God is after our hearts. He doesn’t accept lip service.

He desires that we surrender to Him as Lord and Savior, admitting our need for His grace and mercy.

We also see the Lord Himself indicate that the heart is involved in saving faith, when He explained the parable of the seed and the sower.

Luke 8:11-12 “Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. 12 “Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.

“the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”, Rom 10.

“Trusting” is a heart issue: The Word must first be in the heart before man can believe. And it is with the heart that a man trusts in the Lord to be saved. Luk 8:12

Once a man has believed in Christ from the heart, the wonders of salvation that he receives are astonishing; including blessings we see and do not see.

They pierce the darkness, not only in a man’s soul, but in the dark world around them.

i.e. – The “position” that God gives the believer “in Christ”, and the promotion that comes with that, is beyond human understanding.

In this message on “The Wonderful Results of Saving Faith”, we will see and enjoy the full wonders of God, which He joyously bestows on the person who believes in His Son.

And this is all by God’s grace.

In Eph 2:8-9, even our faith is not of ourselves, but a gift from God!

How can we possibly boast about anything?!

We simply must turn to Him with the free will He gave us, in humility, but He is the One who turns the lights on, even giving us the faith to believe!

Eph 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

In this series, we will first look at the wonderful, INVISIBLE results of saving faith, then the visible results.

In other words, we will look at the light created in us, as believers, and all its wonder in the inner man. Then, we will see the light that inevitably shines out from us, and what it looks like; its manifestations.

This is all in the word of God, as we read our Bibles in context. Context is key!

God has led me to approach this from a different angle, and part of that is starting with reminders of who we are in Christ.

For those of you who are newer in the Word of God, this will be an invaluable series, to strengthen your faith and your appreciation for what God has done in you, by grace.

By the end I hope you will be truly overwhelmed, and amazed at how He has made you flawless in His eyes, totally 100% by His grace.

Let’s start with a visual aid of the dramatic results in the life of a person who is changed by the Lord.

Go to Zech 3.

And this is an Old Testament example, BEFORE all the wonderful results given to the believer who is placed in union with Christ, our risen Lord and Savior.
If this is true before Christ came, how much more now?

Zech 3:1-7 “Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. 2 The Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” 3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel. 4 He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” Again he said to him, “See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.” 5 Then I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of the Lord was standing by.

(There we see how sin is removed from the believer, by God’s grace, right in front of Satan’s face, and he can do nothing about it, because the Lord is standing by. What an awesome picture of our spiritual reality as believers!)

(Now, notice AFTER being made clean by the Lord, Joshua is given the opportunity to serve the Lord and be rewarded, for “star will differ from star in glory”, 1Cor 15)

6 And the angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, 7 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘If you will walk in My ways and if you will perform My service, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among these who are standing here.

So, the believer is first made clean, and then is encouraged to NOT waste his time in the world’s system, and instead to walk with and serve the Lord, because his treasure is in heaven.

Here we see the guilty sinner, whom Satan accuses day and night, Rev 12:10, is made clean by the grace and power of God, and NOT by his own power or goodness.

The person who humbly turns to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation is changed by God, and made clean in His eyes, as a living testament to God’s grace for all eternity, to Satan’s great frustration.

What an awesome God we have!

We might say darkness is turned into light, forever.

And the darkness cannot bear the light; light always defeats the darkness, by its very nature!

Now let’s look at the wonderful, invisible results of saving faith.

These are the results of God “turning the light on” in the soul of one who believes, by His grace alone.

And we will focus on the Church Age believer; what is done for the one who trusts in Christ AFTER the Cross and the Resurrection.

The Bible doesn’t say God fixes the old man, but instead He makes him brand new.

Eph 2:13-15 “But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man (the believer ‘in Christ’), thus establishing peace,”

Eph 4:22-24 “that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”
You have to possess a “new self” before you can “put on” the new self, amen?

2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Gal 6:15 “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

Rituals are not what’s important, it’s that God, by grace, has made the believer into a new creation!

Here’s another evidence of our new creation:

Jesus Christ is also known as “The Light”, and we believers have been made in His likeness, in our spirit. We have been given a “new self”.

In Genesis, the first man was made in God’s image. But after the fall of man, man was corrupted and disoriented.

But, by God’s amazing grace, man can now be re-created in God’s likeness by a new birth. Joh 3

By trusting in Christ, he is made into a new creature. He is made into the light of the world. Joh 8:12, Mat 5:14-16

In John 8, Jesus said HE is the light of the world…

John 8:12 “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

But in Mat 5, Jesus also said WE believers are the light of the world.

How can that be? It’s only possible by a divine undertaking… and that is part of the wonderful results of saving faith.

The “new man” is Christ in us. Therefore we possess His light, and share in His glory.

Matt 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

As the new man, we believers are an extension of Jesus Christ. He is the light of the world, and He has made believers like the lights in the expanse of the heavens, that shine light on the earth. (Gen 1)

Col 3:9-10 “Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him”

Every day we have a choice, to live in our new creation, or not.

God will always honor the free will He gave us.

But the point is, if you are now a believer, you have the power and light of Christ in you!

John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Jesus goes on to say, this is the man who is “born of the Spirit”, by faith in Him as Lord and Savior.

The “old self” has not been “fixed”, he has been replaced! Thank God!

As a believer, you have been given His light in your soul, and that new, perfect light overcomes the darkness. Praise be to God!

You can now know the truth that sets you free! Joh 8:32

Another wonderful result of saving faith is that the believer now has peace with God, forever!

The Invisible Results of Saving Faith: The believer in Christ has been Reconciled. This means he has been given peace with Almighty God. 2Cor 5:18-19, Rom 5:1,10-11, Eph 2:15b-18, Col 1:20, 1Jo 4:10.

2 Cor 5:17-19 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

God in His grace figured out a way to make peace with sinful mankind.

And notice how all these invisible results and accomplishments in our souls are intermingled. And all of these ‘fruits’ of salvation are intertwined. (just as the fruit of the Spirit is all one fruit, in Gal 5:22-23)

Rom 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”

Rom 5:10-11 “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

Again, Almighty God has offered us peace with Him, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eph 2:15b-18 “so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man (the man ‘in Christ’), thus establishing peace, 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. 17 AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR; 18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.”

Col 1:19-23 “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

The Invisible Results of Saving Faith: The believer in Christ has been Justified in God’s eyes. Acts 13:38-39, Rom 3:21-4:8, 5:1, Gal 2:11-21, 3:23-26, Tit 3:4-8

Acts 13:38-39 “Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses. NIV

Rom 3:21-4:8 “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.

31 Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.

4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

7 “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. 8 “BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.” (quote from David in Psa 32)

As we just read our Bibles in context, we make more and more connections about things like our Justification.

Gal 2:11-21 “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. 13 The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?

15 “We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; 16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. 17 “But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! 18 “For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 “For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. 20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. 21 “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

There we have another wonderful explanation of our Justification. It is not by the Law, but by grace through faith in Christ.

Gal 3:23-26 “But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. 24 Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

Titus 3:4-8 “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.

PART 2: Download PDF

PART 2:

There is nothing quite as striking as the difference between darkness and light.When God turns the light on, early every morning without fail, then everything around us becomes visible.And all it took was a word from God, then the power of God went into action. Gen 1There is a spiritual analogy to all of this:

When a person humbly chooses to receive saving faith in our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, then the Lord turns the light on in his soul. Eph 2:8-10

When someone repents of their sin against God and turns to Christ in their heart, God changes them.

And from that day on, that person can “see” spiritual things. Spiritual truths becomes visible/understandable, because God has turned the light on in their soul.

And in the lives of believers, so long as they seek Him, Matt 6:33,7:7-11, that light becomes brighter and brighter as “the sun continues to rise” in their life.

The Lord Jesus said :

Matt 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Matt 7:7-11 7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

The more a believer follows Christ and pursues His Word, the more he will see it all as truth, and the Light that is in him will overpower the darkness in his soul, more and more.

This is the sanctification of the believer, in time.

Eph 5:6-14 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. 14 For this reason it says,

“Awake, sleeper,

And arise from the dead,

And Christ will shine on you.”

This takes humility and obedience, motivated by love for the Lord that saved you!

But this salvation, and sanctification, is totally from God.

Without our gracious God turning the light on FOR us, we would remain in darkness!

By God’s grace, at the moment of saving faith, He says “let there be light”, and it is so in our souls, and then we possess the wonderful results of His saving grace.

And we begin to shine the wonders of salvation, not only in our own souls, but for the whole world to see.

And this is all the work of God, which He does in us and for us.

So let’s first look at the wonderful, INVISIBLE results of saving faith. These are the results of God turning the light on inside of the soul of the believer, by His grace alone.

And we will focus on the Church Age believer; what is done for the believer AFTER the cross and the resurrection of The Lord Jesus Christ.

The Invisible Results of Saving Faith: The believer in Christ has been made into a new creature/new man. Eph 2:15,4:24, 2Co 5:17, Gal 6:15, Col 3:10, Joh 3:3

God doesn’t improve the darkness in man’s soul; instead He pierces the darkness by giving man the light, by giving man a piece of Himself, making him brand new!

Eph 2:15 “by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man (the man “in Christ”), thus establishing peace,

Eph 4:24 “and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

You must possess a new self before you can put on a new self, amen?

2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Gal 6:15 “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

By faith in Christ, the believer is made into a new man. In fact, he is made into “the light of the world”, according to Jesus. Joh 8:12, Mat 5:14-16

As a new man, believers are an extension of Christ. They are the lights of the world, and by analogy, He has made believers like the lights in the expanse of the heavens that shine light on the earth. (Gen 1)

As a believer in Christ, you are a brand new man with brand new power; perfect power because Christ is in you!

Col 3:9-10 “Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him”

Again, you must possess a new self before you can put him on!

John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Only a person who has placed their trust in Christ will be born again, and able to “see” the kingdom of God.

We’re talking about understanding the supernatural ways of God.

The old self has not been “fixed up”, he has been replaced, thank God!

You have been given His light in your soul, and that new, perfect light overcomes the darkness. It is the very light of Christ.

Another wonderful result of saving faith is that the believer now has peace with God, forever.

The Invisible Results of Saving Faith: The believer in Christ has been Reconciled. 2Cor 5:18-19, Rom 5:1,10-11, Eph 2:15c-18, Col 1:20, 1Jo 4:10.

2 Cor 5:17-19 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from
God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

Notice how all these invisible results in our souls are intermingled.

All these fruits of salvation are intertwined. (just as the fruit of the Spirit is all one fruit in Gal 5:22-23)

Focusing on reconciliation as one of the invisible results of saving faith; this means God has granted us PEACE, in an eternal relationship with Him as believers in Christ!

That’s the Good News of the Gospel!

Even though we were His enemies (Romans 5), God has offered us a peace treaty.

He has offered us complete forgiveness through His Son, AND He justifies those who trust in Him!

Rom 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”

Rom 5:10-11 “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

Notice; reconciliation here is spoken of in the past tense.

It’s already done. Peace with God has already been given to those who trust in Christ.

Eph 2:15b-18 “so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man (the man ‘in Christ’), thus establishing peace, 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. 17 AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR; 18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.”

Through the Cross, our gracious God preached peace to us!

He didn’t have to, but His love is so great that He wanted to!

He wanted to reach out to us, even though we were His enemies.

He wanted this so badly, He sacrificed His own Son on the Cross in our place of judgment.

There’s the greatest proof of God’s love for us.

It truly is beyond words that the perfect God of heaven did whatever was necessary so that we could have peace with Him for all eternity, despite our sin against Him.

Col 1:19-23 “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach — 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

Because God is fully satisfied by His Son’s sacrifice, we now have peace with God forever, as believers.

1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
The believer in Christ now has peace with God!

The Invisible Results of Saving Faith: The believer in Christ has been Justified. Acts 13:38-39, Rom 3:21-4:8,5:1, Gal 2:11-21, 3:23-26, Tit 3:4-8

Acts 13:38-39 “Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.”
NIV

To be “justified” is a judicial decision by the Supreme Court of Heaven.

And God the Father has not only declared us innocent through faith in Christ, but He has also given us the very righteousness of Jesus Christ as a gift!

Let’s read Rom 3:21-4:8, and please remember, there are no chapters breaks in the original manuscripts of the Bible.

Rom 3:21-4:8 “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;

25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. 31 Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.

4:1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.” 4 Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. 5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

7 “BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS HAVE BEEN COVERED. 8 “BLESSED IS THE MAN WHOSE SIN THE LORD WILL NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT.”

The basic message is that God does NOT justify man based on his works, but He justifies the ungodly through faith in Christ. AND He even credits the believer with Christ’s perfect righteousness! 2Co 5:21

Clearly, Justification, just like Salvation, is all by God’s grace.

The person who turns away from trying to be saved by his own works can be justified by faith in Christ, if he repents from relying on himself to save himself.

Again, God’s grace is truly beyond words!

Why does He act as our Best Friend and treat us with such kindness and gentleness?!!

That’s the power of His love! His love is supernatural, perfect, full, and unfailing.

How and why God did this for us is truly not understandable in human terms.

The best we can do, by faith, is to relax and thank Him for His amazing grace.

Justification by faith is available to ALL men, regardless of stature or culture! And this is so important, that one time the apostle Paul had to rebuke the apostle Peter for compromising this truth, in Gal 2:11.

Let’s read the whole passage for a better understanding:

Gal 2:11-21 “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. 13 The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. 14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?

15 “We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; 16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. 17 “But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! 18 “For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. 19 “For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. 20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. 21 “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”

The one thing we must never do is cancel out or add to the grace of God in salvation. Otherwise we are taking the glory away from Christ!

He deserves ALL the glory and honor in our salvation. It’s by His blood alone that we’ve been healed.

Either salvation is a gift, received by faith, or it’s something you have to earn and work for. But it cannot be both.

Are you going to rely on yourself and your own efforts to save your ‘self’, or are you going to receive faith and rely on Christ alone to save you?

It’s a clear choice, and Jesus left no room to compromise and have both.

Remember, it’s the Lord Himself who said “he who saves his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” Mat 16:24-26

One must surrender to the Lord, and give up trying to save himself.

Man cannot have it both ways. We each have to ask ourselves; “Who is our Savior going to be?!! (our self, or Christ?!)

The requirements of God are perfection, and man is helpless in light of that, because we are all born in sin. Rom 5:12

Man has NO HOPE of saving himself, against God’s standard of perfect righteousness.

Titus 3:4-8 “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy statement; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and profitable for men.

The only way man can be justified in God’s eyes is through the perfect blood of Christ.

And by grace, He even gives us the faith to believe in His Son, Eph 2:8-9.

Through the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross, God was free to extend His grace to sinful mankind.

Because the blood of Christ has paid for our sins, God can now treat us with an undeserved kindness, and that kindness is called “grace” in the Bible.

And there we have justification for those who place their trust in Christ. God justifies the believer, by grace through faith.

The Invisible Results of Saving Faith: The believer in Christ has been Redeemed! Gal 3:10-14,4:1-7, Tit 2:11-14, Heb 9:11-15, 1Pe 1:17-21

Redemption means purchasing someone out from slavery and delivering him to freedom. Christ has purchased believers out from slavery to sin and death, and delivered them to a new life as adopted sons and heirs of God! Rom 8:14-17

First let’s see what being a child and an “heir” of God looks like:

Rom 8:14-17 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Once again; The believer in Christ has been Redeemed! Gal 3:10-14,4:1-7, Tit 2:11-14, Heb 9:11-15, 1Pe 1:17-21

First of all, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law; which was that man had to keep it all, PERFECTLY, if he were to satisfy God.

Just look at the 10 Commandments, and you’ll see that’s impossible for any man to keep perfectly without fail.

We saw that in Romans chapters 3 & 4, in our discussion on Justification. Now let’s look at Gal 3.

Gal 3:10-14 “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.” 11 Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” 12 However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us — for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE” — 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

How was Abraham saved? By faith! (Romans 4)

Even though he was the first Jew, he was saved as a Gentile before his circumcision! And that’s another evidence, to both Jews and Gentiles, that a man is saved by FAITH in Christ, and NOT by the works of the Law.

In fact, when Abraham was saved by faith, the Law hadn’t even come yet. It was given to Moses hundreds of years later!

Gal 4:1-7 “Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. 3 So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”

We can confidently conclude that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law.

Christ also came to redeem us from lawlessness!

Titus 2:11-14 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”

There are two main sides to the sin of man; one side thinks he is good enough on his own to keep the whole Law, and the other thinks he can live in sin without any consequences.

Christ came to redeem us from both lies. He redeems those who humble themselves before God and place their trust in Christ alone.

And His redeeming us contains a divine plan and purpose, and that includes walking in the good deeds He has designed for us. Eph 2:10

Consider this: man cannot be saved by his own good deeds, but after he turns to Christ, he now has the power of Christ to perform good deeds for God.

Grace gives us a new life unto God, and the power and freedom to LIVE in His calling for us.

As it says in Romans 1:17; the righteous man shall LIVE BY FAITH.

Christ has delivered us FROM sin and brought us TO righteousness! That’s redemption!

It is a total transformation, praise God!

Through Christ, the Lord has done all the work for our salvation and redemption. He has paid the full price for our sins on the Cross, in order to purchase our freedom once and for all!

For example, in the book of Hebrews, Christ’s blood is seen as the FINAL SACRIFICE for sin. Old Testament animal sacrifices for sins are no longer necessary, nor accepted by God.

The Lamb of God, who is Jesus Christ (John 1:29), came to be sacrificed ONCE FOR ALL, and His blood has attained for us ETERNAL REDEMPTION.

THAT’S why no more animal sacrifices are required to pay for sins.

Heb 9:11-15 “But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; 12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

15 For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Act 20:28 “Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.”

The only Person this could be referring to is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This is one of many scriptures pointing to the fact that Jesus is God in the flesh.

A very important principle emerges:

For redemption to take place, a REAL PRICE must be paid.

And according to God’s Word, death is required as payment for sin! Blood must be shed for the remission of sins!

And thank God, through Jesus’ blood we are redeemed from all our transgressions!

1 Pe 1:17-21 “If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 20 For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you 21 who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

Believers are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; by the blood of the only Holy and Innocent One.

Jesus was WITHOUT sin, as we know from 2Co 5:21, 1Pe 2:22, 1Jo 3:5.

And yet, He volunteered to be judged as though He were guilty.

How great the love God has for us! It’s by the acts of His unselfish love that we can now become children of God!

Which of you, if you were innocent, would die for a guilty man??!

The Invisible Results of Saving Faith: The believer is said to be “in Christ”! Rom 8:1-4,12:3-5,16:3-10, 1Co 1:2,30,12:12-13, 2Co 5:17, Eph 2:4-10, Phil 1:1-2, Col 1:1-2, 1Pe 5:14

This means in union with Christ; that Christ indwells him, and therefore he has an eternal position in Christ.

If you have placed your trust in Christ alone, you are “in Christ” forever!!

This is a POSITION you have been placed into, by God’s grace.

Let’s see some scriptures that reveal this beautiful reality in the believer’s life.

Rom 8:1-4 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Rom 12:3-5 “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”

Rom 16:3-10 “Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles; 5 also greet the church that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia. 6 Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. 7 Greet Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are outstanding among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. 8 Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. 9 Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys my beloved. 10 Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.”

Then we see the baptism of the Spirit in 1Co 12, and He places all believers into one body, the body of Christ.

1Co 12:12-13 “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”

As a born-again believer, you have been “created in Christ Jesus”, ultimately to walk in the good works He has set before you.

But remember, you were first placed “in Christ Jesus” by grace through faith, and not by works. Then, you are changed and made able to perform the works He has planned for you, by grace.

Eph 2:4-10 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Without being “in Christ”, man has no power to please God.

And let’s see how Paul and Peter greeted believers as “in Christ”.

It appears it was the proper way to address someone who had saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ…

1 Pe 5:14 “Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be to you all who are in Christ.”

Phil 1:1-2 “Paul and Timothy, bond-servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Col 1:1-2 “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, 2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.”

Back to the point about spiritual truths intertwining into one spiritual reality…

Notice “saints” are mentioned regarding those “in Christ”.

“Saints” is from the same Greek root as the word “sanctified”; which means the believer “in Christ” is also made “holy”, set apart for Christ as His own possession.

And this leads us right into our next invisible result of saving faith…

The Invisible Results of Saving Faith: The believer in Christ has been Sanctified! Acts 26:12-18, 1Co 1:2,30,6:9-11, Heb 10:10

Having believed in Christ from the heart, he has been once and for all sanctified, or set apart, for God.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of this series for more about this wonderful reality!

PART 3: Download PDF

“Let There Be Light” – The Wonderful Results of Saving Faith Pt.3
*This series was taught at North Christian Church, leading up to a marvelous series on “The Gospel, Salvation, and Sanctification”. www.nccdighton.org
Let’s first do a big picture review! It’s always a very good exercise to step back and look at the big picture!
We are in no rush, but we’re going to enjoy this wonderful subject found in the Word of God.
We know that those who have trusted in The Lord Jesus Christ are granted eternal salvation, and they are now the “lights of the world”, according to Jesus. (Mat 5)
Believers are analogous to the stars above, and by His divine presence in them, they are now able to shine light on the earth, on the darkness below. Gen 1, 1Co 15
And yet, our free will is still involved, by humbly submitting to God’s purposes for us, which are found in His Word.
By relying on His Holy Spirit in us, we can serve the Lord through the good works which He predestined for us to walk in. Eph 2:10
How much light will you shine on the earth for others still living in darkness /deception?
OR… how much will you hide the light by living for yourself?
That’s ultimately our daily choice. He’s already granted us His power, and if we choose to live in it we will bring God glory, and help Him “seek and save the lost”, as Jesus said!
Life is sooooo short! There’s not a lot of time on this earth for any of us, and we only come this way once! So let’s make the most of it by living for the Lord.
We are called by God to live for Christ, and that means living for others, as HE did in His life on earth. John 15:13
John 15:9-14 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 “You are My friends if you do what I command you.
And living and loving like Christ doesn’t depend upon your ability or talent, but upon your volition and humility!
It depends upon your WILLINGNESS to simply be used by God one day at a time, however He desires for you.
This means all believers, regardless of intelligence or ability, can live like Christ and bring glory to God.
If, as a fallen sinner, you have trusted in Christ for eternal life, your life is no longer your own, you are now God’s own possession according to His Word. Eph 1:14, 1Cor 6:19
Eph 1:13-14 “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
1 Cor 6:18-20 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
God has graciously granted us the opportunity to shine His light in this world. First, His Light shines in our souls (His grace and truth; John 1:14), and then it pours out of us as A RAY OF HOPE in this dark world, IF we are willing.
We’ve also talked about Reconciliation as one of the wonderful invisible results of saving faith, and this key point came up…
Reconciliation (peace) was initiated by the innocent party (God). In mercy, He reached out to us sinners. And now we can act like Christ and reach out to others, without waiting for others to “apologize” first.
In other words, just as God reached out to us while we were guilty, we reach out to others who are still against Him.
Now we too can live in the power of His love! We can transcend (rise above) it all because we are now able to live in the Light!
This is all made possible because God reconciled us to Himself through Christ.
Col 1:19-23 “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach — 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.”
Peace was initiated by God. HE LOVED US FIRST, even though we didn’t deserve peace with Him. 1John 4:10,19
1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
1 John 4:19 We love, because He first loved us. True love does not depend upon the worthiness of
others. True love loves anyway. That’s God’s love!!
And we know what true love is because of His example towards us sinners!
As we’ve seen, because God is fully satisfied by His Son’s sacrifice, true believers now have peace with God forever! They have been reconciled, once for all!
We’ve also seen in this series that the believer has been Justified…
Acts 13:38-39 “Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.
NIV
Whoever places their trust in Christ is justified; declared innocent by God!
Amen?!! 🙂
We also saw that Redemption is another invisible result of saving faith.
First of all, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law; which was that a sinful man was required to keep the WHOLE law if he were to satisfy God. Gal 3:10-14
Gal 3:10-14 “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.” 11 Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.” 12 However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM.” 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us — for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE” — 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
Christ also came to redeem us from lawlessness, not only from the curse of the Law. Tit 2:11-14
Titus 2:11-14 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”
And we left off with this wonderful truth…
The Invisible Results of Saving Faith: The believer is said to be “in Christ”. Rom 8:1-4,12:3-5,16:3-10, 1Co 1:2,30,12:12-13, 2Co 5:17, Eph 2:4-10, Phil 1:1-2, Col 1:1-2, 1Pe 5:14
Christ INDWELLS the true believer, and therefore he has an eternal position “in Christ”.
He was placed IN UNION with Christ at the moment of saving faith.
Rom 8:1-4 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
There we see believers are “in Christ Jesus”.
We also see in this passage that:
By operating in the love of His Spirit, we can supernaturally fulfill the requirement of the Law in our lives, bringing glory to God without even knowing all the particulars of the Law. This is because “love never fails”. 1Co 13:1-8,13
And Jesus told us that living in Love fulfills the whole Law! (as seen in the 1st and 2nd Commandments) Mat 22:37-40
Matt 22:37-40 And He said to him, ” ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
This is all possible within us by the power of His Spirit, because of what Christ has accomplished for us at the Cross.
Again, the title of this series: “The Wonderful Results of Saving Faith!”
Sin has been taken out of the way, having been nailed to the Cross! Col 2:14
And we believers were placed in union with Christ forever as His own possession, and now we have the power of His love in us to overcome the world.
The Spirit has shown us that in a couple different ways in this series.
It all begins with a proper perspective of ourselves as believers!
We’ve been made into a new creation, and we DO have His power IN US, and we can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us. Phil 4:13
If you’ve placed your trust in Christ to be saved from your sins, then that should be your perspective about your life as a whole.
By faith, we CAN transcend it all (rise above it all in our spirits), because we know we are “in Christ Jesus”!
Rom 16:3-4,7 “Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, 4 who for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles;…
7 Greet Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are outstanding among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.
Placed “in Christ”: We see the baptism of the Spirit in 1Co 12:13, by which He placed believers “in Christ”, or in His body.
1 Cor 12:12-13 “For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.”
At the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit places the believer in union with Christ forever, and that’s the position of strength the believer now lives from!
He’s been given a brand new life “in Christ”. And he’s called to keep on following Christ, LIVING in this new wonderful position he’s been granted!
“The righteous man shall live by faith”, Rom 1:17.
In Ephesians 2, this phrase “in Christ” is used several times to describe the position of the believer, and even the purpose for his new creation.
Eph 2:4-10 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Now back to the point about the invisible results of saving faith are intertwining into one spiritual reality…
The word “saints” is mentioned regarding those who are “in Christ”.
Saints is from the same Greek root as the word sanctified; which means the believer “in Christ” is also made holy, set apart for Christ as His own possession.
This leads us perfectly into the following:
The Invisible Results of Saving Faith: The believer in Christ has been Sanctified! Acts 26:12-18, 1Co 1:2,30,6:9- 11, Heb 10:10
Having believed in Christ from the heart (Rom 10:9-10), the believer has been once and for all sanctified, or “set apart” for God.
For example, look at Paul’s testimony in Acts 26:
Acts 26:12-18 “While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, 13 at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. 14 “And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ 15 “And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 ‘But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; 17 rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, 18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’
The person who’s willing to turn from the darkness to the Light for the forgiveness of his sins receives the invisible result of being “sanctified,” by their repentant faith in Christ!
God sanctifies those who humble themselves before His Son.
1Cor 6:9-11 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
Notice the “unrighteous”, those without Christ, live in a certain unrepentant lifestyle and they will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the believer has been made “righteous,” as we have seen, and therefore he has been sanctified by God.
God came down to earth to offer peace to the worst of sinners. And the one who humbly turns from the darkness and to the Light of Christ is set apart by God (sanctified)!
If you’re a believer in Christ, you are no longer what you once were!
You are now a new creature “in Christ” and your sins have been washed away and removed from you!
You have been “set apart” for God, sanctified by God as His own possession! Eph 1:14
You are no longer what you once were. Accept that fully, by faith, and be set free!
Gal 5:1 It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
Eph 1:13-14 “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
What AMAZING GRACE that God would do this for us, once for all!!
When God sees us believers, He sees the perfection and purity of His Son, because He SANCTIFIED us and brought us into union with Christ!
If you’re a believer, you can no longer “die in your sins” (Joh 8), as will happen to unbelievers because they remain unrighteous without Christ.
And this is why we must continue to spread the Good News of His Gospel!
John 8:23-24 “And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. (remember the imagery of the light shining down onto the dark earth) 24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
When a person rejects Christ and His payment for their sins, they will have to stand before God on their own merits, and that will not go well for anyone because without Christ they are still “in their sins”!!
But if you’re someone who has repented towards God (Acts 20:21) and trusted in the Lord Jesus to be saved, you have been rescued from sin and its judgment, by the grace of God!
The Bible says believers have been made “holy” by God; which means to be “set apart”, or sanctified.
Heb 10:10 “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Notice it says believers HAVE BEEN sanctified, in the past tense.
We also see a good example of this in 1Corinthians, which also gives us a glimpse into the true believer vs. the pretender.
This is where we begin to see the VISIBLE results of saving faith… and if those results aren’t there AT ALL in one’s life, the Bible tells us there may not have been saving faith to begin with!
First, let’s notice in 1Cor 1 the DESCRIPTION of the sanctified believer, not only that he is sanctified… in other words, what does a true believer look like, spiritually speaking?
1 Cor 1:1-9 “Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours: 3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, 5 that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, 6 even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, 7 so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
First, please notice in vs. 2, this letter was written to those in Corinth who “have been sanctified in Christ Jesus”, in the past tense.
So, we can conclude this letter is written to a church with mostly believers in it.
But we also see in this passage, the sanctification of the believer APPEARS IN HIS LIFE somehow, over time.
Why is that? – Because sanctification is a work of God, and God’s work can only produce good fruit.
In this passage, we see the CHARACTERISTICS of the sanctified ones include “the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you”,…
… and that the true believer’s attitude is “awaiting eagerly” the 2nd coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s a definite, biblical characteristic that believers have, throughout the Word of God!
There’s a glimpse into the VISIBLE results of saving faith.
Then, after Paul reminds the Corinthian believers that they have been sanctified, he gets into their flaws and how they argue over foolish things.
But then, once again, Paul reminds them of how God accomplished their sanctification, among other wonderful results of saving faith…
1Cor 1:30-31 “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”
The Lord Jesus Christ has granted believers all these things by grace!
And this is why the believer can ONLY boast in the Lord!…
… because it’s THE LORD who has accomplished all these wonderful results in him and for him.
They are solely and completely from God, by grace. Our only participation is having faith!
And let me remind you that Paul boldly says all of this about the Corinthian believers, who often fell into various types of carnality!
The Bible reveals that even after salvation we all still sin at times, until the day we die.
And especially for new believers, we must be patient, because it takes time to learn the ways and commands of God.
In 1Cor 3, Paul starts instructing and admonishing them for acting fleshly.
Notice that “being sanctified” “in Christ” does not mean believers cannot act fleshly, and at times fall into loose living, or self-righteousness, or maybe even both!
This is a humble reminder that we all sin and fail, even after our salvation.
BUT it’s the true believer’s heart that has been changed. And therefore, his attitude towards sin has changed.
One key distinction between a believer and an unbeliever is his ATTITUDE towards sin. (what’s the desire of his heart?, Rom 7)
Again, we will still sin at times, giving in to the temptations of the flesh. That’s the ongoing battle mentioned in Gal 5.
But, for those who have been sanctified, their overall desire is for God and His ways!
And when true believers sin, they have a repentant heart, motivated by the “good conscience” they’ve been given in Christ Jesus. 1Ti 1:5,19
Paul is trying to help the young Corinthians “grow up” in Christ and to walk like spiritual men.
And he reminds them along the way about their position in Christ, having been sanctified.
But then, we get to 1Cor 5 where sin turns into evil. It’s one thing to sin after salvation; we all do that and will do that, giving in to the flesh at times.
But it’s another thing to compound sin into evil, not repenting from it, and even boasting in it!
The so-called “believer” who boasts in his sin and isn’t repentant should examine his own heart and even his own faith!
In 1Cor 5, we see the man that has his father’s wife. And Paul calls him a “so-called brother”, which many Bible scholars see as Paul questioning the genuineness of that man’s saving faith.
1 Cor 5:1-5 “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father’s wife. 2 You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.
3 For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
(There’s our first sign that Paul is questioning this man’s salvation. Please notice, he’s not saying he lost his salvation, which cannot happen to a true believer, but Paul is questioning if he ever had saving faith in the first place, even though this man is in their church.)
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? (Boasting in sin leavens the whole lump, making it unclean. Boasting allowed sin to spread to the whole church.)
7 Clean out the old leaven (sin in context) so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. (You, true believers, are unleavened! You are freed from sin, because Christ has been sacrificed!)
8 Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (let’s live in our position in Christ, let’s live in the righteousness He gave us, the new man, etc…)
9 I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; 10 I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. 11 But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler — not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.”
Here we see an UNREPENTANT LIFESTYLE TOWARDS SIN, which makes Paul question this man’s salvation.
And this agrees with what both John and James say in their letters to the Church.
If someone willingly lives in a LIFESTYLE of sin and is NOT REPENTANT, what does that say about their heart towards God?
Hasn’t the heart of a true believer been changed by God, according to Holy Scripture?
If sin doesn’t bother one’s conscience, then maybe his heart was never changed to begin with, thus this man is called a “so-called brother”.
So, Paul called out this man and this church, not simply because of the sin, but because they were unrepentant and even boastful about it!
That’s where sin becomes evil; and it may even be a sign of unbelief.
Again, we know throughout the Bible that believers will sin at times.
But the point is that an unrepentant heart is a sign of unbelief.
We know that David is called “a man after God’s own heart”, Act 13:22, and yet he sinned horribly at times in his life, including adultery and murder!
But what revealed David was a man after God’s own heart?
David’s greatest sins were over a short period of his life, but not only was his overall lifestyle for God, he also repented when he recognized his sin.
David lamented and turned back to God, as he wrote about in Psa 32 and Psa 51.
Granted, for a time David remained silent in his sin, having to be rebuked by the prophet Nathan, in 2Sam 12.
But David never boasted in his sin, as someone with an unchanged heart can do, as we saw in 1Cor 5:1-13.
Ultimately, David did repent, and that’s a sign of a true believer. He knew in his heart that he answered to the Lord.
We will all sin at times, but the heart of a believer is seen in his repentant attitude and his overall desire for the things of God.
For example, the same apostle Paul who judged the “so- called brother” in 1Cor 5 is the same man who struggled with his own sin in Romans 7.
Even though he failed at times, Paul’s genuine faith in the Lord is revealed in his DESIRE to do the things of God.
Read Romans 7 as a good illustration of the heart of God’s own children, despite their failures.
Now, what might we say about a man who refuses to repent, and even boasts about his sin?
We might rightly wonder whether he was truly saved in the first place, as the Apostle Paul questioned the salvation of the man in 1Cor 5.
If the Lord Jesus Christ changes a man’s heart, then his heart cannot go on boasting about sin that His Lord paid for.
The true believer is convicted in his soul when he realizes how he has sinned against God.
He is sorrowful and laments, as David’s heart did in the Psalms.
Sin is not something the true believer can rest in, without his conscience being affected.
If a man can be “at rest” in his sin, and even boast in it, it’s a sign that he may have the old heart, not a new heart from Christ!
Again, this is also because the believer has been given a “good conscience”, which is influenced and led by the Holy Spirit who’s in him.
The baptism of the Spirit occurs in the person who “with the heart believes” in Christ, resulting in righteousness! 1Co 12:13, Rom 10:9-10
This believer then possesses the Spirit of God, and a good conscience influenced by Him. 1Pe 3:21, 1Ti 1:5,19
1 Peter 3:21 “Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you — not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience — through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,”
1 Tim 1:5 “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”
1 Tim 1:19 “keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.”
There we see how a believer in the Lord Jesus as his Savior is CHANGED by God.
There’s a wonderful result to saving faith!
Again, the believer David did some horrible things in moments of weakness, but his salvation was never questioned in Holy Scripture…
… and in fact, he would be called “a man after God’s own heart”.
The Bible teaches that the salvation of a person is in question if he continually lives in sin without a clash of conscience. (read 1Co 5, 1 John, James)
In fact, the Apostle John said the difference between believer and unbeliever was “obvious” in 1Jo 3.
1 John 3:4-10 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
The question is: Where is the boastful person’s heart? Was it ever with Christ in the first place?
Maybe this is why Paul tells us all to examine and test our own faith…
2 Cor 13:5 “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you — unless, of course, you fail the test?”
What’s questioned here is that Jesus Christ may not be in you if you “fail the test”! That’s a salvation issue, not a spiritual maturity issue!
As we’ve just learned, the genuine believer is indwelled by Christ Jesus. It’s a biblical truth that His Spirit lives inside the true believer (i.e.- Joh 14:20, Rom 8:20, 2Cor 13:5, Gal 2:20, Col 1:27).
Notice also, Paul says examine YOURSELF, not others.
But we can encourage others to examine their own faith, as Paul did here, especially if their lifestyle is not a godly one.
And some people may find, upon honest examination of their faith, that Christ is missing,…
… and maybe they’ve been playing a religious game all along.
And it’s between each person and the Lord!
This is a perfect transition to some of the VISIBLE results of saving faith, which includes that a LACK of these results indicates a lack of saving faith.
The wonderful results of saving faith include the visible “miracles” that occur in the lives of believers; changed hearts that result in changed lives, which are totally the supernatural work of God in the believer.
And if God saves someone, by grace, He also promises to sanctify them, by grace!
Therefore, His work will be completed in the life of a believer, by grace, Phil 1:6, 2:13.
Phil 1:6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ
Phil 2:13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Therefore, we can conclude that some good fruits will become apparent in the believer’s life.
This is the analogy that Christ Himself used in the Gospels.
For example, we cannot see the roots of a tree, which is analogous to the invisible results of saving faith,…
… but we can see the fruit of a tree above the ground, which are the visible results of saving faith.
And the quality of the fruit reveals to us whether the roots are good, or not.
The visible results of saving faith are signs that the Light of Christ is in someone. They shine forth because they have trusted in Christ as their Lord and Savior, and are therefore changed by the Spirit of God! 2Cor 4:6-7
2 Cor 4:6-7 For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.
There’s a picture of the supernatural work of God in the believer!
Let’s also read a familiar passage with a beautiful message,…
… and in light of our recent studies, let me know if notice anything different that stands out to you…
Ps 103:8-18 “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. 9 He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. 10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
14 For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. 16 When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, And its place acknowledges it no longer.
17 But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children, 18 To those who keep His covenant And remember His precepts to do them.”
What do you see, that maybe was never as clear to you as it is now?
I can speak for myself, that whenever I went to this wonderful passage I always rejoiced in the fact that the Lord doesn’t remember our sins anymore!
Wonderful, and amen! But… WHO has the Lord done all this for?
What is the characteristic of the person that will see His lovingkindness and grace?
The one who “fears” the Lord (mentioned here 3 times; describing the type of persons who receive His lovingkindness).
And to the one who obeys Him and does His precepts, as in vs. 18.
Why isn’t the word “believer” used here? Why instead is a description given?
Because this is the description of the true believer… he is one who fears God and obeys Him.
In other words, that’s simply what a believer does, and we can tell in this passage the Spirit is describing a believer.
In vs. 13, “as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.”
In other words, His children will properly fear and respect Him as their God and Father.
This is what true believers do; and being saved by faith in Jesus Christ they have fear, awe, and respect for Him as the Lord.
This is one of the characteristics of the life that is now “in Christ”. This is one of the visible signs that someone has received saving faith from the Lord.
The true believer has Fear of the Lord. Psa 103, Mal 3:16- 18, Ecc 12:13-14, Isa 50:10, 2Cor 7:1, Eph 5:21, Phil 2:12-13
And proper fear of the Lord goes hand in hand with the repentant heart of a believer (there’s something for us all to dwell on).
His heart has been changed by God.
Mal 3:16-18 “Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name. 17 “They will be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” 18 So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”
This passage directly tells us that the righteous/saved person serves God, and the wicked/unsaved do not serve Him. (reminds us of 1Jo 3:10)
Fear for God is a consistent characteristic of a believer, often stated plainly in the Word of God.
And this DOESN’T mean we must earn our salvation, may it never be! We are saved by grace through faith in Christ!
This simply means those who trust in Christ will have this type of life manifested.
Please remember, we’re talking about EVIDENCES of true saving faith.
Even though there are growth stages in the believer’s life, notice how plainly “fear” is stated here as a sign of true believers…
… as in Mal 3:17, the Lord will spare them (the ones who fear Him) and make them His own possession.
This clearly speaks of the results of someone being saved.
The true believer will have proper fear of the Lord, for one reason only, because their heart has been changed by Christ.
And then, even after someone becomes saved, fear for the Lord continues in the heart of the believer.
“Why?”, you might ask.
Judgment even begins with the house of God (believers), 1Pe 4:17.
If God’s discipline is upon all believers at one time or another, for our own benefit, should we not rightly fear Him, as we would fear our good father who’s willing to discipline us when necessary?
Here’s a wonderful passage that reveals God’s loving discipline towards those who belong to Him:
Heb 12:3-11 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
This is a good picture of the faithfulness of God towards His children.
I had a pastor friend who once said to me: “I’m not doing that, because the Lord will kick my butt.” 🙂
He had a good and true fear of His heavenly Father, who would “kick his butt” out of love, and it would hurt!
Every good father disciplines his children to correct them and lead them to a better way for them.
Even though we know the tremendous grace of God extended to us, we should not take lightly the discipline of the Lord!
In fact, God’s discipline is another sign of His grace towards His adopted children.
Because we are under grace, that doesn’t take away the need for proper fear and reverence for God.
We must have balance, and believers WILL have fear for the Lord, as the Word tells us.
Isa 50:10 “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.”
Fearing the Lord is like the attitude of repentance; it’s there when someone is ready to trust the Lord Jesus to be saved, and it continues in the heart of the true believer.
Isa 50 is largely prophecies about those who would attack the Messiah and reject Him, but it tells us the way of escape is to fear the Lord and trust in Him for the light of life!
2 Cor 7:1 “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
As the believer continues in God’s plan, the way to mature in holiness is also having righteous fear of God.
Part of the process of our sanctification is having proper fear of God.
Here the Greek word for fear is “phobos”, meaning fear, terror, reverence.
Eph 5:21 “and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” Here again we see “phobos”, which might best be translated “reverence” here.
Reverence bows down in awe, as before a mighty King. It does not take God lightly or get too casually familiar with Him. Reverence includes a healthy fear, which accompanied all those who ever saw God!
Think of all the OT and NT believers that “saw” God or the angel of the Lord and they fell flat on their faces in fear and awe!
They simply could not stand in the glory of His presence.
And that, my friends, is a picture of fear for the Lord. This was not simply ‘respect’, as we know it today.
Phil 2:12-13 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
This passage is addressed to believers, and it does not mean to work FOR your salvation, but to work it out, or to participate in bringing it to completion for your life, as we saw in 2Co 7:1 “perfecting holiness in the fear of God”.
In vs. 13, God is at work in you to complete His purpose for you, and He WILL for those who have trusted in His precious Son.

PART 4: Download PDF

PART 4:

We’ve been discussing all the things that God does for the believer who humbles himself before Him.

Let’s first review some points the Spirit gave us to consider…

We know that those who have trusted in The Lord Jesus Christ as Savior are saved, and they are now the light of the world according to Jesus. (Mat 5)

They are analagous to the stars above. They are now able to shine light on the earth, on the darkness below. Gen 1, 1Co 15

How much light will you give on the earth, to those still in darkness? Or, how much will you hide the light by living for yourself? He’s already given us the power of His grace, but that is ultimately our daily choice.

This led us to the idea of “results”, or characteristics that exist in the life of a true believer.

EVERY believer possesses His light. So if there is NO light, there is not a believer. (see 1John)

Why? Most simply put, because God’s grace never fails.

When God saves someone, He changes someone.

There are wonderful INVISIBLE results of saving faith, such as reconciliation, redemption and justification. And then there are wonderful VISIBLE results of saving faith, which appear in the lives of true believers to some extent.

As our Lord said, you will know them by their fruits. Mat 7

So we will see fruits, of varying kinds, coming forth from different believers.

And if we don’t see any fruit at all in one’s life, Jesus told us to be alert. That is a sign of a false brother, someone who has not surrendered to Christ in his heart… someone who has either been playing religious games for selfish reasons, or someone purposefully infiltrating the church for deceptive reasons.

We don’t go around judging people, but Jesus doesn’t want us to be fooled or deceived.

We also saw in this series that the believer who is now “in Christ” has His light, and therefore the power to live in His love.

Through operating in His love, we can supernaturally fulfill the requirement of the Law in our lives, bringing glory to God without even knowing all the particulars of the Law. Love never fails. ROM 8:1-4, 1CO 13:1-8

For example, you are Sanctified! As a believer, you are no longer what you were! You are a new creature in Christ, and your sins were washed away, removed from you, and you were set apart for God as His own possession! Accept that fully, by faith.

When God sees believers, He sees the perfection and purity of His Son; that’s because you have been SANCTIFIED!

If you are a believer, you can no longer “die in your sins”, as will happen to the unbelievers, because they will remain unrighteous without Christ. They refused to repent and trust in Him for forgiveness of sins. Acts 26:18, JOH 8:23-24

John 8:23-24 “And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. (remember the imagery of the light shining down on the dark earth) 24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

When a person rejects Christ’s payment for their sins, they will have to stand before God on their own merits, and that will not go well for anyone.

No man will be able to justify himself before our holy and righteous God.

As a believer in Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are no longer trapped in sin and its judgment. You have been set apart as holy, or sanctified, by grace.

HEB 10:10 “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

We also saw a good reminder of sanctification in 1Corinthians, which also gave us a glimpse into the true believer and the false believer.

1 Cor 1:1-2 “Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, 2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours”

After Paul reminds the Corinthians that they have been sanctified, he then gets into their flaws, and how they argue over foolish things.

Paul then ends chapter 1 with a reminder of how God accomplished their sanctification, among other wonderful results of saving faith…

1 Cor 1:30-31 “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”

The believer can only boast in the Lord because it is THE LORD who has accomplished all these wonderful results in him. They are totally and solely from HIM, by grace.

And let me remind you that Paul boldly says all of this about the Corinthian believers, who often fell into various types of carnality.

But we also saw another type of boasting that is not godly.

In 1Cor 3, Paul instructs and admonishes them for acting fleshly. Notice that being sanctified does not mean believers cannot act fleshly, and at times fall into loose living, or self-righteousness, or both.

Paul is trying to help them to grow up in Christ and to walk like spiritual men, and he reminds them along the way about their position in Christ as their anchor.

But then we get to chapter 5, where sin turns into evil.

It’s one thing to sin after being a believer. We all do that and will do that, giving in to the flesh at times.

It’s another thing to compound sin into evil because we don’t reject it or repent from it, and might even boast in it!

The “believer” who revels in his sin and does not repent should examine his own heart and his own faith. 2CO 13:5

In 1Co 5, we saw the man that had his father’s wife. And Paul calls him a “so-called brother”, which many Bible scholars see as Paul questioning the genuineness of that man’s faith.

1 Cor 5:5 “I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

There’s our first sign that Paul is questioning this man’s salvation. He’s not saying he lost his salvation (which cannot happen to a true believer), but questioning if he ever had saving faith first place, even though he is in the church.

In vs. 6 “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? 7 Clean out the old leaven (sin in context) so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.” (You, true believers, are unleavened! You are without sin, because Christ has been sacrificed! So act like it!)

In vs. 11 “But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler — not even to eat with such a one.”

Here an unrepentant lifestyle of sin makes Paul question this person’s salvation! This agrees with what the books of 1John and James say.

If someone continues in sin and is not repentant, what does that say about their heart towards God?

Maybe they never did surrender to Christ and receive a new heart.

We saw David in our earlier lessons, how he was a man after God’s own heart, and yet David sinned horribly at times, including adultery and murder!

But what revealed David was a man after God’s heart? That he repented; that he lamented and admitted his sin and turned back to God, as in Psa 32 and 51.

We will all sin, but the heart of a person is revealed in his ATTITUDE towards the sin, and repentance, Rom 7.

As we’ve seen recently, confession is a heart issue; it’s not some ritual we do on automatic pilot, but it’s an appropriate attitude of repentance towards God. God looks at the heart.

So what might we say about the man who boasts about his sin? According to Paul, we might question whether he was truly saved in the first place.

And this man’s attitude poisoned the rest of the church into boasting about gross immorality, even in the church.

If a man has his heart changed by Christ, then his heart cannot go on boasting about the sin that His Lord paid for.

The believer is affected in his spirit when he realizes how he sinned against His God. He is sorrowful and laments, as David’s heart did in the Psalms.

That’s the heart of a believer.

Sin is not something the true believer can accept without his conscience being affected. If he can accept sin and even boast in it, it’s a sign that he may have the old heart, not a new heart from God.

One reason for this reality is the believer now has a “good conscience”, as seen in 1Timothy 1. He is now influenced by the Holy Spirit that lives in him.

The baptism of the Spirit occurs in the person who with the heart believes in Christ, resulting in righteousness, ROM 10:9-10. He then possesses the Spirit of God, and a good conscience influenced by Him; 1PE 3:21, 1TI 1:5,19.

We’ve seen these verses in the past, and this being review, feel free to look those up on your own later on.

The salvation of a person is in question if he claims to be a believer but continually lives in sin and immorality without a clash of conscience. 1Co 5, 1Jo 3-4, Jam 2

Where’s his heart? Was it ever with Christ in the first place?

And that’s why we have verses like 2CO 13:5, so each man can check himself…

2 Co 13:5 “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you — unless, of course, you fail the test?”

NIV

Some people may find, upon honest examination of their faith and lifestyle, that The Lord is missing, and they’ve been playing a religious game.

Either Jesus is your Lord, or He is not, and a person’s heart on this matter is revealed by their fruits.

God’s plan is plain and simple, not complicated. And God is not a god of confusion, 1CO 14:33.

Now we are transitioning to some of the VISIBLE results of saving faith.

The wonderful results of saving faith include the visible ‘miracles’ that occur in the lives of believers; changed lives that are totally the work of God’s grace.

If you are a believer, you know there are things about you that have changed over the years… your attitude towards certain things, the way you treat certain people, and even your attitude towards the Word of God.

And these are things that become visible signs in our lives, as indications of a new heart from the Lord.

We cannot see the roots of a tree of faith, analogous to the invisible results of saving faith, but we can see the fruit of the tree of faith, which are the visible results/proofs of saving faith. The fruit reveals if the roots of the tree are good, or not.

The visible results of saving faith are signs that a person has trusted in Christ as their Lord and Savior.

We left off last time talking about the fear of the Lord, and how that accompanies saving faith.

The believer has Fear of the Lord. PSA 103:8-18, PSA 119:120,161, MAL 3:16-18, ECC 12:13-14, ISA 50:10, 2Cor 7:1, EPH 5:21, Phil 2:12-13. Proper fear of the Lord goes hand in hand with the repentant heart of a believer.

Ps 103:11-18 “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. 14 For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. 16 When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, And its place acknowledges it no longer. 17 But the lovingkindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children, 18 To those who keep His covenant And remember His precepts to do them.”

God gives grace to the humble (i.e. those who fear Him), JAM 4:6, and man is only saved by His grace, EPH 2:8-9.

When God sees one’s humility (fear), He saves them by grace.

MAL 3:16-18 “Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord gave attention and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name. 17 “They will be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” 18 So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”

Do you see how fear of the Lord, along with serving God, are described as characteristics of the saved, and the alternative is to be one of the wicked as opposed to the righteous?

This does NOT mean we must earn our salvation, may it never be! That’s not the point at all. We are saved by grace, through faith in Christ!

This simply means those who believe in Christ will manifest this type of life, because they have a changed heart. These are evidences of saving faith. These are the results of saving faith.

Even though there are growth stages in the believer’s life, notice how plainly fear of the Lord is stated here as a sign of salvation, as in vs. 17 the Lord will spare the ones who fear and serve Him and make them His own possession.

This is what true believers look like.

Just because believers are under grace, that doesn’t take away the reality for proper fear and reverence for God in the heart of His children.

ISA 50:10 “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.”

NIV

Fearing the Lord is like the attitude of repentance, it is there when someone is ready to trust the Lord to be saved.

They realize they are nothing before the Almighty God and Creator.

Isa 50 is largely about prophecies of those who would attack the Messiah and reject Him, but the way to escape the darkness is to fear the Lord and trust in Him for the light of life.

And fear of the Lord will be a continued lifestyle for the believer, just like repentance.

2 Cor 7:1 “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

As the believer continues in God’s plan, the way to mature in holiness is having fear of God.

Part of the process of sanctification is having proper fear of God.

Here the Greek word for fear is “phobos”, meaning fear, terror, and reverence.

EPH 5:21 “and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”

Here again we see “phobos”, which might be translated reverence here.

Reverence bows down in awe. It does not take God lightly or get too casually familiar with Him. Reverence includes a healthy fear, which accompanied all those who ever saw God!

Think of all the OT and NT believers that saw God (or the angel of the Lord) and fell flat on their faces in fear/awe. They could not stand. This was not just ‘respect’ as we know it.

Phil 2:12-13 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

This passage is addressed to believers, and does NOT mean to work FOR your salvation, but to work it out or participate in bringing it to completion for your life; as we saw in 2CO 7:1 “perfecting holiness in the fear of God”.

In vs. 13 God is at work in you to complete His purpose for you.

So we see there an appropriate fear for the believer to have for his Almighty God; a deep reverence, knowing that your very Creator is working out His plan in your life!

What the Spirit has been revealing to us is the seamlessness between genuine faith and an obedient lifestyle.

The scriptures teach these two things will agree overall, as a lifestyle, despite the sin that creeps into our lives from time to time.

In fact, the scripture teaches another VISIBLE result in the lives of true believers is Obedience. ROM 1:5; ROM 16:25-27, JOH 3:36, 2CO 9:13, 1PE 1:1-2

If you don’t see ANY obedience to the Lord in a person who claims to believe, you might rightly wonder about his faith.

We can’t see the entire lives of others, so we aren’t to judge, either. But we certainly can pray for them, and ask God for an opportunity with them if He deems it necessary.

ROM 1:5 “Through Him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles (rep. unbelievers) to the obedience that comes from faith for His name’s sake.”

NIV

There IS an obedience that comes from true faith!

Notice we’re not talking about perfection, or sinlessness. Every believer will sin and fail at times in his life, as Paul intimated his struggle in Romans 7, and the Corinthians revealed to us over and over, even though they were already “sanctified” as we saw in 1Corinthians 1.

But one thing that’s clear in the Bible is the inescapable change that takes place in the heart of a true believer.

And the believer will have a DESIRE in his heart to obey God.

ROM 16:25-27 “Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles (rep. unbelievers) might come to the obedience that comes from faith— 27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

NIV

Paul says that unbelievers are called to the obedience that comes from faith. Obedience accompanies true saving faith because surrender to Jesus as Lord, not just Savior, is involved.

2CO 9:13 “Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.”

NIV

Notice how obedience is tied to the Gospel itself.

The true believer cannot help but obey God and His righteousness, at least to some degree in his life, because he is a new creature. It’s inescapable because his heart has been changed by the Spirit of the Lord.

And he cannot help but have some fear of God, if he is a genuine believer, because that’s what faith produces.

Faith is a gift from God (EPH 2:8-9), AND all perfect gifts are from the Father of lights above (JAM 1:17), and therefore faith must produce goodness in the lives of those it is granted to.

And true repentance is the same, also a gift from God (ACT 11:18, 2Tim 2:25), and therefore it does not come back empty. Repentance will produce good results for sure.

When one admits their guilt and sinfulness before our Holy and Almighty God, there is a healthy fear of their all-powerful Creator.

This has been the Spirit’s emphasis lately, and I believe the Lord has many reasons for this, not just one.

Only He knows what He is working out in each of our souls, and in the local community that we come in contact with.

Continuing with VISIBLE results of saving faith…

The genuine believer also has the Love of God, at least to some degree in his life. Love is a sign that the Light of the Lord exists in a person. 1Jo 3,4, 1CO 13:1-8

Does our flesh get in the way at times in our lives? Absolutely, it happens, and God understands.

But the true believer has the love of God in his heart, and what is in the heart comes out of the mouth, and even in their lifestyle. Jesus said we will know them by their fruit.

1 John 3:14 “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.”

For further evidence of love in the lives of believers, read 1John 3 & 4 in context… the believer will have God’s love, the one who doesn’t have love is not a believer.

Another VISIBLE result of saving faith is the believer will live in Righteousness, at least to some degree, also stated clearly in 1Jo 3 & 4. The believer has a lifestyle of doing the right thing, because God’s law is now written on his heart.

The obedience of faith is a beautiful thing, because it reveals a heart that submitted to Christ.

The believer honors Him, in reverence and love.

The fruit of righteousness is a beautiful eye-catching thing to behold in this corrupt world, and it is evident in the lives of believers.

1 John 2:29 “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.”

1 John 3:7-10 “Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”

Visible Results of Saving Faith: The point the Spirit is making is that characteristics such as fear of God, obedience, righteousness and love are products of genuine saving faith. It is seamless, from the same piece of cloth; it is the very fabric of faith.

In other words, this is what faith looks like. This is what faith produces, because it’s a perfect gift from God.

There was a man named Zaccheus who climbed a tree so he could see Jesus coming by, and when Jesus called to him, he basically melted… surrendering to Him and His righteousness.

He received a changed heart, as seen in Luke 19. The fruit of his faith was seen in his willingness to give away his belongings, bring right to those he wronged, and to serve the Lord.

LUK 19:8-10 “Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

What did the Lord say to Zaccheus? “Today SALVATION has come to this house, for he too is a son of Abraham.”

There’s a picture of the wonderful results of saving faith, by the grace and power of God that enters the believer’s heart.

A man cannot truly believe in Christ and not be changed in some way, according to the scriptures.

I’m convinced if people continue reading their Bibles IN CONTEXT, this will become plainly apparent to them. But that takes humility.

Even if a true believer doesn’t yet realize the importance and power of the Word of God, God’s law is now on the heart of the person who turned to Christ in humility, EZE 36:26, just as it was written on the hearts of the Gentiles who didn’t know the Law, ROM 2:15.

I’ve met some beautiful believers who do not regularly study the Word of God. How is that? Because with sincere faith in Christ, there is a heart change, and their life reflects their love for Him.

There is a certain righteousness that appears in their life, but a lifestyle of unrighteousness reveals that maybe they weren’t saved to begin with,.. maybe they never did have trusting faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, and are possibly playing religious games with God.

I think of people I know from a certain large ‘Christian’ religion in our area. Some of them have a fear of God, even though they may not be totally into His Word. And they have God’s love, and live in His righteousness to some degree.

The faith of a child can see this simple evidence of genuine faith in Christ; it can witness the signs in the life of true believer, whose heart has been changed.

Then I know others that follow that religion, but to them it seems to be a ritual, the right thing to do, but they have no love and live however they want, often boasting in unrighteousness.

These are signs that even a child can recognize, and it’s not supposed to be difficult to see; it’s as simple as seeing good or bad fruit on a tree. That’s how Jesus put it in Mat 7, and the apostle John said it just as clearly in 1John 3.

Now again, we are not called to judge others, but we are called to be on guard and to discern false prophets.

There is an inescapable change in the life of a person who has come to saving faith in The Lord Jesus Christ.

There is a change of heart that will be evident. There is a certain level of humility that will appear. There is a certain obedience of the faith and some type of desire to please their God and Savior.

But how about the person who claims to be a believer, but has no love and no righteousness in their lives? Maybe they have a cold heart and are always selfish, or even directly live against the commands of God without flinching?!

If you asked them, they might say they believe, but their hearts are far from Him. MAT 15:1-20

The Pharisees honored God with their lips! But their lives were unrighteous, evidenced by them not honoring their parents, because their hearts were far from God.

They “acted” righteous, but did not live in God’s righteousness.

They had no heart change, because they would not convert over to Christ in humility.

Jesus said that His sheep will not only hear His voice, but also follow Him. JOH 10:27

Following the Lord, at least to some degree, is an indication of a changed heart towards Christ; of a heart that has surrendered to Him for eternal life.

And it is that person who receives the promise of security in JOH 10:28-29.

John 10:27-29 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

If someone does not follow Jesus at all in their lives, they might not be one of His sheep, but instead a goat, or a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Again, we are not saying a believer will live in perfection. We will all sin and make mistakes in this fleshly body, even as true believers.

But there is a certain obedience that is sown into the same fabric that comes from faith.

In other words, they are one and the same.

You will know them by their fruits. Mat 7

These are some of the wonderful results of saving faith.