I have FINALLY figured out what has been bugging me about this.
We are to exam ourselves to find out if we are in *the faith*, as if faith is something to be in.
Catholics use the term *the faith* as a synonym for Catholicism. Others use it in terms of religion, as in a denomination.
It’s not my being in *the faith* that saves me. I’m not saved because I’m in *the faith*, I’m saved because I’m in Jesus.
It’s Jesus who saves me THROUGH the mechanism of faith. *The faith* is not a thing.
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
So, I am not going to see if I’m in *the faith* because being a religious system does not do anything for me.
bump
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Gal. 2:20).
It is the faith OF CHRIST that sustains my life now. He is IN ME and I am IN HIM. That is why I can have assurance, salvation, redemption, sanctification, justification, and a heavenly hope. If I were depending on my faith, it would most certainly have to be examined. There is a big difference. One will free you, the other makes you a slave to your own abilities.
I agree! I also was rather bothered by the term and the whole attitude of the piece. But you are correct.
I will say since we deal with the “purgatory posse” here on FR daily, we sometimes take sermons as this one as promoting a works based or works mixed salvation.
I never got that impression from JMac’s sermons both Part 1 and Part 2.
I will note we all quote Paul’s epistles quite often on the RF because of the audience we debate. If we examine the epistles of John, we see quite penetrating language on “if” and “then.” Like “if you love Him, then you will obey Him.”
I read and study John’s epistles often. I don’t think he preached a faith+works salvation either. I think those epistles with Peter’s and James epistles are important to examine our walk with Jesus Christ. It is a marriage after all. We who are married love our spouse and we prove it too by our actions.
Thanks for the ping, and although i have not been following this thread, being "in the faith" is like getting with the program. And to be in the Lord Jesus you must be "in" the faith, versus out of it.
What you do is an expression of what you believe, which as regards Christian faith, testifies to what is not seen.
1 John provides for assurance that one has eternal life based on characteristic attributes of a believer. And by which evidence Paul knew the Thessalonians were elect, (1Ths. 1) as they manifested "things which accompany salvation." In contrast, due to the lack of such testimony, and impenitence from things contrary to faith, Paul stood in doubt of such Corinthians.