Automatic Transcript Generated:
Speaker 1
So Lisa is asking, what is the significance of being judged by our actions if all we have to do is believe in God and we are then saved by grace?
Speaker 2
Again, another amazing question. We get such wonderful questions. So thank you, Visa, for this. This is, I think, something a lot of people grapple with. I know I struggle with this. And it’s because most of us just are being told things about the Bible that aren’t true. Because people telling us about the Bible don’t know it. So let’s talk about what is in it in the Bible. So let’s start with John 316. We all know this verse, right? And maybe this is part of our background and why we get confused. So it says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So what does this verse is required to be saved? Tina, Wendy, what does John 316 say we need?
Speaker 3
That we need to believe.
Speaker 2
We need to believe and we’re saved. Right? So is that true or is it not true?
Speaker 3
Well, it’s true. Of course it’s true. But the devils believe, but they tremble. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. We have to believe it into our lives. But I’m sure you can there.
Speaker 2
Yeah, exactly. And that’s the part of it. What does it mean to really believe? And it’s related to what does it mean to really have faith? And a lot of people say, Oh, have faith means you just believe that there is a God. You just believe that God exists. Well, what does the Bible say about that? James two, let’s start at verse 18. But some will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith with my works. You believe that there is one God? You do? Well, even the demons believe and trumble. But do you want to know a foolish man? That faith without works is dead. So is James saying faith is believing God exists? Is that faith?
Speaker 3
It’s halfway there.
Speaker 2
Halfway there. Yeah. Or maybe 1% there. Who knows where it goes?
Speaker 1
To start believing is just the start, just barely scratching the surface.
Speaker 2
Yeah, but what does James say we really need? We need a faith that is what alive and working. That is alive. Yeah. A real, authentic, genuine faith that’s supposed to achieve something, he’s saying. So that is the faith that’s going to save it’s not the works that saves us. But we have to have this real, actual faith. So two Corinthians 13 five, it says, Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you’re disqualified? So if we’re going to have real faith, Jesus is going to be in you, which is interesting because there’s a verse that is related to that. John 15 four to ten. It says, abide in me, and I should say it. This is what Jesus says. He’s saying, Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. So can we bear fruit?
Speaker 2
Can we have a faith that actually brings about good works without abiding Jesus? No. We have to be connected to him. We have to be in Christ. That’s how we have the real faith. This is the real faith that gives real fruit. And so Jesus said, if anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. Wow. So abide in me, and my words abide in you. As seen it said, right? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word. So Jesus says, if you abide in me, my words abide in you. You will ask what you desire, and it should be done for you by this. My Father is glorified that you bear much fruit. How many times have we heard Jesus say fruit in just these few verses? He says, So you will be my disciples. As the Father loved me, I have loved you. Abide in My words, abide in his love. 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.
Speaker 2
So we got to be abiding in the Word. We got to be abiding in God’s love. We have to be abiding in his commandments. And all this is abiding in Christ. And again, it’s not that these things save us, but this is how we bear fruit. This is how we stay connected to Christ and have the relationship that saves that faith. I had a really great description of faith. Faith is that hand by which we reach out and cling and grasp onto the hand of God. So that is the real faith. If we go to Matthew 716, he said, you will know them by their fruits. Jesus says, do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit sorry, we got a helicopter flying overhead. Here it goes. All right. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Well, we just heard that earlier, too, right? Therefore, by the fruits you will know them.
Speaker 2
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Look at that. Isn’t that interesting? Jesus. Not everybody who says, Lord, Lord will go into heaven. So that’s even professed Christians, you could be a professed Christian, you could probably be baptized. And Jesus saying, that’s not what gets you into heaven. You need to be having that relationship with Him, that relationship which causes you to bear good fruit. And what’s the relationship? It’s love. What is his commandments? To love. And so if we have that love of God, we are earnestly yearning for Him, wanting to stay connected with Him, be so close to Him, and then that love is turning around and causing us to love our wives, to love our one wife, love our friends, love our family, love the strangers around us. That is a real faith that is giving birth to fruits. That is showing us we are connected in Christ, that we are saved. We are saved because of what Christ did are actually not going to save us. But that’s showing us we actually really do accept the gift of Christ and wanting it to that gratitude to spring forth into gladness and love to others.
Speaker 1
We had a comment from Landon that I think ties into this well. As an example, Landon commented, if I could just convince my wife that I love my wife without spending any more money on her, I would be rich, but I’d be cooking my own dinners after a while. I love my wife, and it moves me to action. True love will ignite motion to selfless actions of love. And that’s exactly it, that Jesus loves us not so we can just go sit and do nothing with that love, but he loves us so that we can turn around and love other people with it.
Speaker 2
And then Scott has a good point too. He says we can behave well and it looks like fruit. But if we abide in his love that comes through and not ours through Christ and not from ours. Sorry, no. It’s God coming through us.
Speaker 1
But if we abide, then it’s his love that comes through and not ours. From the heart and not just behavior.
Speaker 2
Amen. Exactly. That’s the secret. It should be, as Jesus is right, out of the abundance of one’s heart do we speak, and we bring forth our treasure. Are you treasuring God? Do you have a faith that really loves God?
Speaker 1
And Landon mentioned love is a verb.
Speaker 3
Amen. My mom said the same thing growing up. I would say, Mom, I love you. And she said Love is an action. And I didn’t understand what she meant by that until I was older, when she was like, you tell me you love me, but if you don’t, clean your room when I tell you to clean your room, I don’t feel very loved. And I think that’s true in every relationship. If my husband says, Be faithful to me. And I’m like, Oh, I love you, I love you, but I’m not faithful. Do I love him? No. My actions have to prove my love or have to demonstrate that there’s love for the person that I am saying my heart is set on. When my husband asked me and it comes down to even sometimes the small things with relationships or with whatever opportunity this week my husband said, can you get the carpet clean, please? And I did it right away because I wanted him to know I love you. And I listened to you and I want you to know that what you have to say matters to me. And I think that comes down to those things too, when we’re doing things like loving our enemies, because I think that’s probably the hardest thing too, which Jesus calls us to do.
Speaker 3
And I think that’s not love of this world because that does not pay you back in any way. That’s probably the hardest thing is to love somebody who’s mean to you and abusive to you, not in a way that enables abuse, but in a way that demonstrates that Christ is working in you, that you still want that person in heaven no matter what.
Speaker 2
Exactly.
Speaker 1
I think Cal mentioned here, be kind to those who wrong you. And he also mentioned to forgive and yeah, that’s super important. Both of those components are super important. But I also want to emphasize with tita shared, which is that it doesn’t mean that we just roll over and accept abuse and accept wrongdoing and let people just mow over us. That’s not the way that God intended it to be. We are supposed to.
Speaker 2
I mean, sometimes it is, but only if that’s really clear.
Speaker 1
We are supposed to rebuke inappropriate actions and behaviors, but do it in a loving and gentle way that helps turn the center from their way, not in a way that just makes them shut down and get angry. That’s not the way that God intended it to be.
Speaker 3
Amen. You.
For full episode:
https://youtu.be/6DTxNyy1CVw
READ MORE: Are we saved by grace or by the Law?
https://bibleask.org/are-we-saved-by-the-law-or-by-grace/
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In His Service
BibleAsk Team
