The Fundamentals Of Faith Series

The Fundamentals of Faith – Captain Erika Hernandez

TSA Doctrine 7

James 2:14-24

http://pomonacorps.blogspot.com/2009/07/fundamentals-of-faith-tsa-doctrine-7.html

We believe that repentance towards God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and regeneration by the Holy Spirit are necessary to salvation.

What this is in essence is a theological road to salvation!

We know the commonly know road to salvation found in the book of Romans.

Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

Romans 6:23a "...The wages of sin is death..."

Romans 6:23b "...But the gift of God is eternal

Romans 5:8, "God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!"

Romans 10:13 "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved!"

- Call out to God in the name of Jesus!

Romans 10:9,10 "...If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

In essences doctrine number seven of The Salvation Army tells us that because of our sins, we must show repentance towards God and no one else. The way we do that is by putting our faith and complete surrender in Christ’s atoning Sacrifice as we learned this during last week’s sermon.

And finally, our transformations our regeneration to a new life is made possible only by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Therefore, doctrine number seven is really a doctrine based around FAITH! And faith is really all we have. Our beliefs in God, in Christ and in the Holy Spirit are all based on faith!

All who claim the title "Christian" will be able to agree on the following two truths: salvation is by grace alone (Ephesians 2:8) and salvation is through Christ alone (Acts 4:12).

The Bible tells us we must have faith in order to be saved (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is nothing more than believing and trusting?

Searching the Scriptures, we see faith also involves being consistent with God’s truth (1 Thessalonians 2:13), obedience to Him (Romans 1:5, 16:26), and it must be working in love (Galatians 5:6).

In fact our scripture for today, James 2:20 says that faith without works is dead. But what does this mean?

Is our salvation somehow connected to our faith or how we put our faith into action? Let’s look into that!

What does the Bible teach about salvation? Abraham was justified by works? Romans four, is that what it says? "Abraham was justified by what...? "Faith." Abraham was not justified by works.

Romans chapter three says, "No man is justified by works. By the deeds of the law shall..." what? "No flesh be justified," none. There is no way that we can be justified. In Romans 3:28, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds or the requirements of the law.”

Salvation is by faith, not by works. Galatians chapter three tells us the same thing, that you cannot be justified by works, you cannot be saved by what you do, in terms of deeds. He says, “…they that are of faith,” Galatians 3:9, “are blessed with faithful Abraham.”

It’s all a matter of faith. The man that is justified, he says in verse 11, “But no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, … The just shall live by faith.” Now the Bible teaches that you are saved by faith, well then you say, what in the world is James saying?

Can faith save him? You see, James is looking at this from the stand point of evaluation. He is looking at a man who says, "I have faith!" And he is saying, all right if you have true saving faith then I ought to see some evidence of it, right? “By their fruits you shall...” what? "...know them.”

He is simply saying, if your faith is genuine then it’s going to manifest itself. “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation, old thing are passed away and behold all things become...” what? "…new.”

There is going to be a manifestation a public representation. And so he says, what kind of faith have you got my friend, I don’t see any evidence?

James is not talking about the works of the Law. He simply says that the faith which saves you will produce works, works of faith. The faith that James is warning us about here is an empty professing faith, that which is phony and counterfeit.

Paul refers to the same idea when he says in 1 Corinthians 15:2, “… unless you believed in vain.” Paul also wrote, “Test yourselves, to see if you are in faith, examine yourselves …” (2 Cor. 13:5).