QUESTIONS/ANSWERS ON FAITH

QUESTION #74 -- Why base your salvation on good works? "Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:9). "O foolish Galatians,... Are ye. so foolish? having 'begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:1-3). "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).

ANSWER #74 -- There is only one merit for salvation and that is the blood of Jesus Christ There is only one prime condition for salvation, and that is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is just another way of saying we are not saved by works. We are saved by faith only as the condition. But faith has prerequisites; that is, there are certain things that must be done before faith can and does function. Repentance, for example. Does anyone teach that an impenitent sinner can have faith for salvation? I trow not. But that is not saying we are saved by repentance. We are saved by faith, but we must repent of our sins before we can have faith for salvation. We are sanctified by faith, and by faith only, as a condition. But faith for sanctification has the prerequisite of consecration. Does anyone hold that he can be saved from all sin and yet not be fully consecrated to the will and service of God? I trow not. And yet this is not saying we are sanctified by consecration. We are sanctified by faith. But faith for sanctification will not function until we fully consecrate. We overcome continually and finally reach heaven by faith. But faith for continual victory and for final perseverance is conditioned upon obedience. Does anyone believe that he is victor over sin if he daily yields to the temptation to sin? Does anyone think he will find a home in heaven with God while he still sins against God and refuses to obey His Word and His Spirit? Well, if he does think this, he thinks it without sanction from the Bible. That is not saying we are saved by obedience. We are saved by faith, but we prove our faith by our works and we condition our faith by obedience. This is in strict harmony with the texts you give in connection with your question, and in strict harmony with the whole tenor of the Holy Scriptures. It is also in strict harmony with what has been believed by orthodox Christians in all the ages. If you hold that one can be saved without repentance, sanctified without consecration, and glorified without obedience, then you belong to that class of dangerous people that Martin Luther, and John Wesley after him, called "Antinomians," that is "people who are against the law."

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QUESTION #75 -- I can see faith in the instance of the woman who came up and touched the hem of Christ's garment. But I am unable to see faith in Abraham's offering up of Isaac. Where does faith come in in this act? The Holy Spirit came to me in such tenderness and sweetness and asked me to go all the way with God, and I was not conscious of exercising faith; I just obeyed. Consequently I have often doubted whether I was sanctified. Please clarify this matter for me.

ANSWER #75 -- Remember that God had promised a good many things which were to be fulfilled through Isaac. Then He commanded Abraham to make an offering of Isaac. Abraham's faith was in the fact that he believed God and would do all He had said, and would do it through Isaac, as He had said He would do. This involved the resurrection (Hebrews 11:19) of Isaac, but even this Abraham believed. But you should not be worried because you were not conscious of exercising faith. That is, you were not conscious of an effort in believing. But the best grade of faith is effortless, anyway, and obedience is the basis of faith. And if you will read Acts 5:32, you will see that God has especially promised the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. Why should not one obey gladly and believe without pain and effort, seeing God is "too wise to err and too good to do wrong"?

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QUESTION #76 -- We are saved by grace through faith, but rewarded according to our works, how then can we explain Matthew 20:12 where all laborers received the same pay whether they wrought one hour or twelve?

ANSWER #76 -- This Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard should be read in close connection with the 19th chapter, where there was just the barest peeping out of a commercial spirit in the words of Peter who was anxious to know what they who were first both in time and in the duration of service should receive. And the parable shows that one may be a Christian for a long time and then, because of a mercenary spirit or a murmuring temper, fail to qualify for more than just the minimum which the latest coming Christian will receive. But in the 19th chapter the Master makes it clear that all who deserve will be fittingly rewarded.

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QUESTION #77 -- In Psalm 56:3 we read, "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." Would you infer from this that the psalmist trusted in God only when he was afraid?

ANSWER #77 -- No, I do not make that inference. Rather, the psalmist picked out the most difficult time there is and says, even then I will trust. And that is in keeping with my experience. In the times when my fears are strongest, when death has threatened and then actually has taken my loved ones, and my heart is crushed with fear and anguish, I have yet trusted in God. And having trusted in such times, I find it but proper that I shall trust Him at all other times. Having escaped the ravages of the mighty ocean I refuse to be drowned in a ditch.