The Trust Factor

Luke 5:17-20

 

The main doctrine to come out of the reformation was that dealing with the issue of justification. Reformed fathers taught that salvation comes by faith alone in Christ alone. Article XI reads; "We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by faith only, is a most wholesome Doctrine, and very full of comfort…."

The question I put to you today is this, if all God wants from us is to trust Him, why does man add so much more to what Scripture seems to be teaching? And is it justified? Let’s look at our lesson for today and see if we can find some answers.

On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.

And when he saw their faith, he said, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."

I’m sure that you are all familiar with this passage and may have even heard me preach on it. The main teaching of verses 17-26 deals with the ability of Jesus to forgive sins, thus declaring His divinity, to the dismay of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. But today I want to look at the simplicity, if you will, of the saving grace of God.

There are many phrases used today that tend to confuse the roll of the sinner in his or her salvation. Terms like:

Can you hear the common thread running throughout these terms? In every one of them it is man that is doing the work, not God. Ask, commit, give, pray, accept. Is that what Jesus taught us? On the contrary, all he asks of us is to trust Him.

I spent a lot of time with Jack before his confirmation. We studied the Lord’s Prayer and the creeds and I tried to make sure he had a working understanding of them. When I talked to Bp. Grote about his visit and asked him if I had covered everything I needed to, he only had one question, "Does Jack love Jesus?" Another way to put it is "Does Jack trust Jesus" That’s all that matters.

There are three essentials that the evangelical church has always agreed on when it comes to salvation. The person must have knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ, agree with the bible about his person and works, and trust in Him alone to save them. These are the minimum requirements.

You may recall the story of the Samaritan woman that Jesus met at the well and how she could not understand why a Jew would want anything to do with her.

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water…a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:10, 14

She then went into the village and told the people about this stranger she had met and how he knew all that she had done. And they went to Jesus.

And many more believed …They said to the woman "it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world." John 4:41, 42

You can bet that the guys that got up on the roof that day and lowered their buddy down through it knew who Jesus was. It was their faith in who Jesus was that He commended.

 

Tim. 2: 4 tells us that Christ "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." So the first thing we must have is knowledge of the person of Christ.

The second element is that we must agree with the bible about the person and works of Christ. This is where the creeds are invaluable. They explain, in a few sentences, who God is, who Jesus is, including His person and works, who the Holy Spirit is and what we can expect when Christ returns. What the creeds don’t tell us is who we are.

Romans 3:23-24 tells us who we are, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." If we don’t come to an understanding of who we are, sinners, we will never realize that we are in dire need of salvation because of who we are. Every one of us is convicted of this fact in a different way.

At the Good News Jail and Prison Ministry training last week, there were four of us who were candidates for chaplains. Part of our assignment was to include our testimony in a devotional. It always fascinates me how God can work the same miracle in so many different ways. Three of us were converted in our forties and the other in college.

If hearing their testimonies wasn’t blessing enough, I had the privilege of sitting beside a young single mother on the flight from Denver the other night and she shared her testimony with me. There is no need for me to go into detail but all I can say is that there is no limit to the grace of God.

Once we are convicted of the fact that we are sinners, we must agree that we are in need of salvation "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."Rom. 6:23

Do we deserve to die an eternal death? Yes we do! Why? Because that is the wages, the payment if you will, for our sins. Let me put it another way, we deserve to spend eternity in hell!

 

 

The good news is that we don’t have to if we accept the fact that,"…God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."Jn.3:16

God sent his Son to die so that we could live. He died on a cross at Calvary, was buried in a tomb and three days later rose from the dead so that we could spend eternity with Him.

Listen to the words of Jesus taken from St. Johns gospel;

"…the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me…. for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins…I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

Do you believe this? If you do, St. Paul says "by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

This leads into the final element, trusting in Christ alone for your salvation. Let’s go back to the text. The four men have just lowered their friend, brother, whatever, through the roof and he is lying on his bed in front of Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."

Who’s faith is Jesus talking about here? I cannot think of a single time that I have heard this passage preached on, that the faith of the four on the roof was not emphasized. What about the faith of the man lying in front of Jesus?

Notice that not a word was spoken by any of these guys. Christ looked into the heart of that man, saw the trust that he had in Him, and gave him the gift of eternal life.

He didn’t ask Jesus into his heart; he didn’t ask for forgiveness; he didn’t accept Christ; he didn’t give his heart to Jesus; he didn’t pray to receive Jesus; and he didn’t commit his life to Christ. He had faith that Jesus could save him, and trusted that he would.

 

Jesus told Nicodemus that, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

In John. 6:40 we read, "For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."

At this point you may be wondering why I am going back to the most basic teaching of the gospel? The reason is twofold. First of all, someday I am going to stand before God, and when I do, I do not want him to have to ask me why there were some under my care that did not fully understand how to get to heaven. If there is anyone in this room that I do not get to spend eternity with, I will not be responsible.

Secondly, sometimes I have a tendency to emphasize what could be construed as works salvation. It is a pastor’s duty "to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God." Eph. 4:12, 13 What I preach on Sundays is for our sanctification not our justification. The more we understand about how God wants us to live, the more He will be glorified by us.

If you are trusting in anything outside of Jesus Christ for your salvation, ask your heavenly Father to forgive you. If you are adding anything to the finished work of Christ for your salvation, turn back to Jesus, trusting Him and Him alone.

In John 5:24 Jesus said "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." I have taught this before and you will hear it again, if you trust in Christ and Christ alone for your salvation you will not be judged. Jesus paid the penalty for you, trust Him. Your life depends upon it.