Belief and Obedience

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We seem to be stuck in the Book of Hebrews. Today’s Sunday morning message (7/3/2005) we spent time discussing the fact that in Chapter Three, verses eighteen and nineteen, unbelief and disobedience are treated as though they are the same thing.

And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. (Hebrews 3:18,19—NIV)

Now, I think that this merging of disobedience and unbelief is significant.

We currently are teaching that if we will believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved. But what do we mean by "believe"?

Each denomination has a statement of faith.

We believe in the verbal inspiration of the original Scriptures.

We believe in the absolute trinity of the eternal God-head.

We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so forth.

The question is, are these beliefs what the Scripture means when it says "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved"?

I don’t think so. From my point of view, the main purpose of a denomination’s Statement of Faith is to define the denomination. I think a person could memorize and believe the entire Statement of Faith and not be abiding in Christ.

Perhaps we do not understand the difference between believing about the Lord Jesus Christ and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we are to believe the third chapter of the Book of Hebrews, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ is the same as obeying the Lord Jesus Christ.

It may be true that most Christians would not disagree too violently that if we believe in Christ we should obey Christ.

But it appears to me that in today’s teaching, the impression is left that after we believe in Christ (whatever we mean by that) there is nothing else we are to do that is critical to our salvation. We are saved by faith alone (whatever we mean by "faith") and any effort we make in addition to our "faith" is works, and this we never must do!

Thus we throw out the bulk of the text of the New Testament.

To say we are saved by faith alone apart from any effort on our part may be compared to an Israelite sitting in Egypt and saying God has promised him a land of milk and honey. There he sits, making no effort to follow the cloud and the fire. I think this is the situation today and accounts for the pitiful moral condition of so many believers.

Do we work for our salvation? Absolutely not, salvation is a gift of God purchased on the cross of Calvary.

Do we earn salvation by trying to be good? Absolutely not. We cannot earn the Divine salvation by anything we do.

What, then, is the relationship between godly behaviour and the Christian salvation, keeping in mind that the Apostle Paul told us on several occasions that if we Christians continue to live according to our sinful nature we will die spiritually; we will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

The relationship between the Christian salvation and godly behaviour is as follows: true salvation always results in godly behaviour. If it does not, we will be cut out of the Vine, our of Christ. Salvation is given to whoever will receive it, but then it has to be worked out patiently each day of our life. It is not a ticket, it is a program of redemption.

Can you think of an explanation more needed in our day in America?

I am convinced that if God pours out His Spirit in our day, the good that is done will not be lasting. Why not? Because we will continue to teach people that all they are to do is believe, and then wait to go to Heaven.

At night we reviewed the relationship of belief to obedience, mentioned the four faces of the cherubim, and then dwelled at length on what Hebrews means when it cautions us about not entering the rest of God.

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