Faith motivated by Love

Over the years I’ve heard thousands of messages on faith. We have a whole chapter in the bible that starts with the phrase… “Faith is…”

So I am not going to try and repeat or build on what I’ve heard before, just share some simple thoughts I have on faith from a biblical perspective that maybe you've not heard before.

My first one is: Faith is a response.

Let me explain. The gospel is called the good news. Some preach a gospel that is pretty good news but not really. It’s usually something like this; Jesus + a life of good works + confession of every sin and retribution if possible. Most will NOT see this as good news at all because they feel trapped in a guilt ridden life and feel inadequate, and this comes as a command of try harder, do better, stop sinning, love more, pray longer, read your bible longer. And most know they will fail and it will make their life more miserable and unhappy, so that’s bad news. In fact anything that makes my salvation dependent on me is very bad news indeed.

If it’s not incredibly good news, it’s not the gospel. But when the incredibly, fantastic, wonderful news of the gospel is delivered it is such good news that it creates a response in the human heart that say YES, I believe that; this is faith. Most all of us had that when we first believed. Because even the folks that preach that bad news I described drew you in with some good news first. And then, the bait and switch…So NOW that you’ve accepted Christ, you need to get busy… DOING. And all this "doing" is to try and get you to BE what God has already made you in Christ.

Some people will say... John, what’s so wrong with doing? Nothing as long as you are not doing to become what God already made you. One day I am going to write a message called, “good work, dead work, or fruit” because most do not understand the difference. We do NOT produce fruit; we bear fruit, the Holy Spirit works in us to produce fruit (love, peace, joy etc…). When YOU try (by self-effort) to produce fruit it becomes a dead work. You see the opposite of Faith is Works. So if Faith is a response, then works is “trying” to produce what only the Spirit can produce in you. Works can only produce external behavior modification, ONLY the Spirit produces true heart transformation.

Faith is a response and this is why the bible says Faith comes by hear and hear by the word of God (Actually says the word of Christ). When we hear the word of Christ that “the work” for your complete forgiveness and salvation was finished by Him, the response is faith. Faith that allows the Holy Spirit to work in you both to will and to do His good pleasure.

I believe that understanding that faith is a response to some very good news is important and the other two points I have on faith feed off it.

Faith has a good opinion of God.

Imagine if someone provided you a million dollar home, a couple brand new cars, clothing and food for a lifetime and a credit card with no limit. Would you have a good opinion of that person? Could anyone convince you that this person didn’t have your best interest in mind or that they weren’t being extremely generous to you? The serpent convinced Eve of just that.

The bible says that Eve was deceived. What was her deception? God said eat FREELY of ALL the trees in the garden but this one tree don’t eat it because if you do, you’ll die. God did NOT say… I will kill you, but it’s not good for you because it will result in death. Her deception was that although God was so exceedingly generous that He was still withholding something good from her. She was so deceived that she didn’t see His generosity but that He was being stingy. This is a bad opinion of God. Before we start judging Eve too much, where have WE not had a good opinion of God? When something goes wrong in our life and we face adversity, some in the church would preach, examine your life for sin. The apostle Paul had a very different method. He said in 2 Cor 13:5 Examine yourself that you be in the faith; do not examine yourself for sin but to make sure you KNOW Christ is IN YOU. Examine your faith today this way; by asking, do I have a good opinion of God in the situation I am facing? Do I believe that God made me sick or God made me well? Do I believe that God’s presences has left me or the promise that he will never leave me or forsake me? Heb 11 says that faith brings a GOOD report. A good opinion of God knows that the same one who spared not his own son but delivered him up for us will FREELY (not stingily) will give us ALL things (Rom 8:32).

A good opinion knows that God’s grace is sufficient (an over payment) for us and He is able to make all grace abound toward me in ALL things (2 Cor 12:9 & 2 Cor 9:8). And by the way when we think of sufficient, we think “just enough” but God NEVER gives just enough. When he fed the 5000 and the 4000 everyone ate all they wanted and were satisfied and in addition to that there were leftovers! The finished work of Jesus is an OVER PAYMENT!! A good opinion believes that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all I could ask or think (Eph 3:20). It believes what the angel said to the shepherds announcing the arrival of Jesus, behold I bring you GOOD TIDINGS, GOOD WILL toward men. Born to you this day in the city of David is a SAVIOR (not a judge). Jesus came not to condemn you but that you might have life. A good opinion of God is that He came to earth as a man, lived a perfect life and died for us and as us and finished the work, and did not leave us as orphans, but came and made HIS mansion in US (John 14:23).

Faith works by Love.

For years I had heard this and read this but did not fully understand what it meant. We see that Love works by response as well. The bible says that WE LOVE HIM because HE FIRST loved US. Sounds like a response to me. In 1 John 4:10, it says here in is love, NOT that WE loved God but that HE loved US and sent his SON to be the mercy seat for our sins. We love Him because he first loved us and this is what gives us the power to love others, to forgive others. Before the cross, Jesus said UNLESS you forgive, you will NOT be forgiven. After the cross and because of the cross the new covenant says FREELY you’ve been forgiven, FREELY forgive. The truth is in KNOWING PERSONALLY the magnitude of God's LOVE and GRACE toward you and that you've been unconditionally forgiven, that empowers you to LOVE and FORGIVE others (especially the unlovable).

Jesus gave us a principle that those who know they have been forgiven much, will love much, if they believe they have been forgiven little, they will love little (Luke 47-50). When you know you are forgiven of all your sins (past, present & future) and that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are IN CHRIST, your faith will be motivated by LOVE. In the story of Luke 7 where Jesus made the statement about forgiven much, love much, forgiven little, love little, He makes an astonishing statement to the women at the end of that story. He just finished saying that SHE LOVED MUCH because she had been FORGIVEN MUCH and he turns to her and tells her that her sins are forgiven. But in Luke 7:50, the last line of this story he makes this statement to her, YOUR FAITH has saved you.

Let me draw it up like this:

When we know that we have ALL been FREELY forgiven MUCH --> His LOVE gift to US.
RECEIVING HIS LOVE & FORGIVENESS --> Motivates me to LOVE much (both HIM and others)
Jesus describes ALL this as FAITH! Not only Faith, but Faith that saves.

Earlier I spoke about “doing” and I also mentioned that the opposite of Faith is Works. Some have been taught that the opposite of faith is fear but it is not, however there is a connection. The opposite of FEAR is LOVE. 1 John 4:18 says that perfect LOVE casts out FEAR. The only perfect love is God’s love and ONLY PERFECT LOVE casts out fear. So if you DO NOT know the great intensity in which GOD LOVES YOU, you will have fear. When we FEAR (absence of LOVE) we get impatience and our flesh says, I’ve got do something and it produces dead works.

Galatians 5:4-6 show this impatience. Verse 4 is the very familiar verse that says if you try to be justified by the law, you’ve fallen from grace. Verse 5 says But WE through the Spirit WAIT … but the impatient don’t wait and get into works. And verse 6 says In Christ circumcision or uncircumcision don’t count for anything (in other words, YOUR WORKS don’t count) BUT Faith which works by LOVE.

Just as FAITH & LOVE are tied together likewise WORKS & FEAR go together.

These are the two motivators, LOVE and FEAR. Those motivated by FEAR believe they have to work to obtain God’s love and acceptance or else God will come and blot them out. Those motivated by LOVE are the ones who KNOW GOD’s LOVE for them and this LOVE produces FAITH (and good works).

Faith is a response (to the good news)
Faith has a good opinion of God
Faith works by Love

Grace & Peace