Saving Faith

By: Scott Greenway

Scripture Reading: John 3:16

July 15th, 2007

“This money is counterfeit! It’s no good. Get out of my store.“ I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had never seen anything like this before.


It all happened when my wife and I were spending a weekend in downtown Chicago. We had spent the day visiting different sites and attractions, when we stopped in a convenience store to purchase a few things. We were in line to pay when the man behind the counter, who appeared to be the manager, informed the man just ahead of us that the twenty—dollar bill he was trying to use for his purchase was in fact counterfeit.


The manager had seen counterfeits before. He held the twenty—dollar bill up to the light and recognized something he didn’t like. I’m not sure what it was. Maybe the shade of the ink, or a distinctive line or letter was missing. Whatever it may have been, something indicated that the money was fake. The clerk handed it back to the customer and said, “Your money is no good. Get out.“


Everybody in the store had stopped what they were doing and quietly watched all of this unfold. But nobody was more surprised than the man who was trying to make the purchase. Judging from his facial expression, he did not know that his money was fake. I honestly felt sorry for the man. He was astonished, speechless, for he couldn’t believe this was happening to him. It appeared that somehow this man had received the money from either another person or another store without knowing that the money he accepted was a forgery. He left the store with his head down.


This scene in the store reminds me of another scene that we read about in the Bible. It’s a scene that is depicted by Jesus when He describes what will happen when He returns on judgment day. He will judge all people that have ever lived. Some will be welcomed into heaven, but others will face eternity in hell without God. On that day there will be both shocks and surprises.


We read in Matthew 7:21—23 “Not everyone who says to me,’ Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers!’“


Clearly, when Jesus returns to judge all people there will be both shocks and surprises. Some will be wonderfully surprised and amazed by his power to save people who once were far from Him, but who at some point repented of their sins and confessed Jesus as their Savior and Lord. But others will be shocked to find out that they were not ready to stand before God. They had no one to save them, and their sins had found them out.


The burning question for each of us is, how can I be sure that I will not be shocked on the last day because I am not right with God? Am I ready to meet Him when I die, or when He returns, whichever comes first? How can I be sure that on that fateful day Jesus will look at me and say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.


The Bible does not leave us in the dark on this matter. Its message is clear.


All people are by nature sinners, and all need to be made right with God. All need forgiveness of their sins and forgiveness is through the saving work of Jesus Christ. That is the message which John 3:16 makes abundantly clear. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.


Our Bible lesson tells us that saving faith is what is required to be right with God. More specifically, it is by faith in Jesus Christ that we receive the blessings of forgiveness and eternal life. True saving faith not only acknowledges Christ’s death and resurrection for forgiveness of sins, true saving faith personally trusts Jesus for forgiveness.


This being the case, we need to know if our faith is true, saving faith. Everybody has faith in something, or in someone. But not every faith is a saving faith. How, then, can we be sure that we possess true faith, the kind that God requires, and not a false, counterfeit faith?


Let’s spend the next few minutes reflecting on the difference between genuine faith, the kind the Bible talks about, and its counterfeits. We can more readily understand genuine faith by learning to recognize counterfeits.


The first counterfeit faith is what I would call FAITH—IN—FAITH. This may seem strange to you, but if you think about it you will realize how common this counterfeit is. You hear people say, “Keep the faith.“ But that statement makes us ask, “What kind of faith are they talking about?“ Who, or what, is the object of their faith? For some there seems to be a faith in almost a kind of blind luck or good fortune. As if a person simply believing good things will happen to them, is good enough for God. But we know from the Bible that if their faith is not directed toward God and His Son Jesus Christ, it is a false faith and not worth having. The Bible makes it very clear that the object of true faith is not a fuzzy matter but has as its object the one and only Person worthy of absolute trust.


Now let’s consider another common counterfeit faith. Some people simply believe in THEMSELVES. They have total confidence in their own ability to handle any situation and come out on top.


A few weeks ago I talked to a man whom I had not seen for quite some time. He is a person of tremendous accomplishments. Everything he sets his mind to do, he accomplishes. From business to sports, this man does amazing things. However, in earlier conversations he had made it clear to me that he felt no need for God, or religion, or the church or the Christian faith. I was hoping that his attitude had changed because he had recently been hospitalized due to serious heart problems. In fact, he had almost died. But he came out of it, and now was his usual self—confident self. With a big smile he told me that he was doing just fine, and with a grin added “In case you are wondering, I still don’t need religion.“


This person believes so strongly in himself that even a brush with death does not faze him. He believes in himself and his ability to pass any test and overcome every difficulty. If there is a judgment day, he believes he will get through that as well. He has such faith in himself he feels no need for God. The object of his faith is himself. We may say that he is his own god in whom he trusts.


From the standpoint of the Holy Scriptures, such a faith is disastrous.


Does the person I’ve described sound like you, do you trust in yourself above all else?


A third counterfeit faith is FAITH—IN—ONE’S OWN PERSONAL GOODNESS.


This type of faith assumes that in the end peoples’ eternal destiny will be determined by how much good or evil they have done. God has a scale, so to speak, and he weighs our deeds, good and bad, and everything depends on which way the scale tilts.


Picture in your mind an old—fashioned scale. It has two sides. On the one side are placed all the good things a person has done: they helped the poor; they served their community; they protected the environment as best they could and gave to charities. On the other side of the scale are placed all the bad things they have done: the lies, the things they did that injured others, things they stole and worst of all their failure to worship and honor God. Which way will the scale tilt? Will the good outweigh the bad? Many people believe it will. They readily admit that they are not perfect, but they believe that they are good enough and God will reward them with eternal life.


There is still another kind of counterfeit faith. It is SIMPLY FAITH IN THE EXISTENCE OF A SUPREME BEING, whom most people call “God“. Surveys reveal that more than 90% of the people in the world believe in the existence of God, but they are uncertain about God’s nature and God’s relationship to people. They may wonder about this sometimes, but they never arrive at any real conclusions.


The Scriptures are very clear regarding the folly of this counterfeit faith. James 2:19 directly addresses the kind of people we have been talking about. The Scripture says: “So you believe there is a God. Good for you! Even the demons believe that! And they shudder when they think of the Judgment Day.“


We need something more than simply a generic belief in God. We need to know who He is, what He is like, and how we relate to Him. The Bible gives us answers to these questions and the answers all center in Jesus Christ.


There is an additional version of counterfeit faith that attempts to blend several things together. I call it “GOD AND MY GOOD WORKS.“ It is the popular notion that there is indeed a God in heaven, He is a kindly sort of God, and He is inclined to help us climb the ladder to heaven, but for the most part we have to do the climbing ourselves.


Picture in your mind a common stepladder. At the top of the ladder is God. All of us are at the bottom, at least at the start. God helps us get to the first rung of the ladder, but it is up to each of us to make it the rest of the way. In times of emergency, we may cry out “God help me,“ and we believe He often does. But it is up to us to live the kind of life that gets us to the top of the ladder.


This is the faith of millions, who think they have the real thing, a faith that saves and gains them entrance into heaven, but in reality they are mistaken. The Bible teaches that all our good works, the things we assume acquire some merit from God, are like phony money. When we hold them up to the light of God’s Word, their defects become apparent. They are forgeries, fakes, and useless before God.


This brings us to what the Bible teaches about the nature of genuine saving faith. Saving faith, according to the Scriptures, is the knowledge and conviction that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the one Savior for our sins. Listen again to John 3:16:


For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.“ In plain and simple language, this says that out of love and mercy God gave His Son, Jesus Christ, to save those who know Him, believe in Him, and put their confidence exclusively in Him.


Now we come to the all—important question, a question that each of us must answer, of whether we have this genuine faith that saves, or simply a counterfeit, a copy that looks like the real thing, but in fact is useless. This is a moment for us to do some soul—searching. Who, or what is the object of your faith and mine, too? Is our faith pointed in the right direction?


In answer to that question, I want you to remember three words: Knowledge, onviction, and Confidence.


The first word is Knowledge. Faith requires knowledge. Faith does not begin or end in a vacuum. Faith needs to attach itself to someone, and that someone is Jesus Christ. According to the Scriptures, saving faith attaches itself to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who suffered, died and rose from the dead for our salvation.


The more you know about Jesus, the more you learn to trust Him. The less you know about Jesus, the weaker your faith will be. Think of it this way: Would you trust all that you possess to a person you didn’t know, or knew only slightly? Not a chance. When it comes to the question of life after death and where you will spend eternity, you certainly want to know whom you are trusting and you want to know Him well.


True saving faith begins with a knowledge of Jesus Christ.


The second word is Conviction. Genuine saving faith is also being convinced that what we believe is true. People who possess true saving faith not only believe the basic truths about who Jesus is and what He has done for them, but they embrace all that the Bible reveals about Jesus.


You and I know that it is possible for a person to know a great deal about something but still not believe it to be true. For instance, some people know a great deal about space ships and aliens from Mars. They can tell you about different reports of sightings, and even explain to you why belief in aliens from other planets is plausible. But at the same time, they do not really believe the accounts they tell you about. They do not believe that aliens from outer space are real or that they’ve ever visited our planet.


So it is with some people’s relation with Jesus. They may know a great deal about the Bible and the Christian faith, but in their hearts they do not believe it to be true. True saving faith, on the other hand, knows the message of Jesus and is personally convinced that it’s true. Every day of their lives their faith and conviction increases.


The third word is Confidence. True saving faith passes from Knowledge through Conviction to Confidence. Confidence is built on a relationship between living persons, who know each other, and enjoy a vital relationship with one another.


For example, if you have confidence in an auto mechanic, you turn over your car to him with confidence that he can fix the problem. Likewise, when you have confidence in your doctor, and you know that your doctor has knowledge and skills required to help you get well, you put your life in the doctor’s hands with confidence.


So it is with Jesus. We know about him from the Bible, we are convinced that what the Bible says is true and the relationship we have with Him gives us confidence that He can save us and give us eternal life. We call this faith “personal saving faith“ because it’s more than simply knowledge about Christ, but is a deep personal conviction that all that Christ means, is for us personally, savingly, and forever.


This is exactly what John 3:16 teaches us. It says, “whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.“ Notice the little word “in.“ It is so important.


It reminds us that we need to place our faith, confidence and trust in Jesus and in Him alone.


Think of it this way. If you are on a cruise ship that is sinking, what do you do?


You know you need to get to a lifeboat. You hurry to the side of the ship, and there you see a lifeboat bobbing in the water alongside the ship. You know that this lifeboat is seaworthy and that everyone that gets into it will be saved. But simply knowing this isn’t enough. You may believe the lifeboats are designed and constructed to save you, but that too is not enough. What you need to do is get into the lifeboat.


So it is with saving faith in Jesus Christ. Knowledge about Him is essential but not enough. Even a conviction that Jesus is true and able to save is not enough. True saving faith in Christ means throwing yourself body and soul upon Him, trusting Him to save you for time and eternity.


What about you?


Do you feel like the man in the store who discovered that his money was worthless because his money was counterfeit?


Maybe you are wondering if your faith is genuine, saving faith. Maybe you are wondering what it really means to have saving faith in Jesus Christ.


I challenge you today to bring this issue to closure in your heart and life.


Confess your sins to Jesus, trust Him completely, and He will forgive your sins, He will put His spirit in your heart and you will have eternal life.


There is a line from an old hymn that goes like this:

“I know whom I have believed,
and am persuaded that He is able
to keep that which I have committed
to Him against that day.“

There you have it: Knowledge of Christ my Savior; personal Conviction that He can and will save me and keep me from all evil: and Confidence that in the Judgment Day I will not be condemned but will enter with joy into heaven.


Prayer

Let’s pray together.

Almighty God, help us today to understand the faith each of us has. If our faith today is in your Son Jesus Christ, we praise you for giving us this faith. If our faith is in anything or anyone else, Lord, help us—show us the error of our ways and direct us to you.
Through Jesus Christ, in whom we pray, Amen.

About the Author

Scott Greenway

R. Scott Greenway was born in Mexico City in 1964, as the fourth child of missionary parents. He graduated from Calvin College in 1986, Calvin Theological Seminary in 1991, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in 2002. He and his wife Kelly (De Jonge) have four children. He pastored the Irving Park Christian Reformed Church in Midland Park New Jersey, and currently pastors the Caledonia CRC in Michigan. He enjoys a variety of outdoor sports including hunting and fishing.

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