Saved By Faith

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, March 12, 2023.  The Bible verses used are Romans 3:19-31.

            We say that we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  That’s one of the basic Christian beliefs.  Our salvation cannot come by anything we do.  It can only come through faith in Jesus Christ.

            But why is that?  Why did God set it up that way?  What does it mean for our lives that God did set it up that way?

            In Old Testament times, this was not the way people thought at all.  In Old Testament times, salvation came through the law.  The religious law, of course.  Starting from the Ten Commandments, then going through all the law that came down from Moses, then all the decisions of the rabbis and so forth.  All law was considered to have come from God.  So if you followed all the law, then God would reward you and you would be saved.

            The trouble was that no one could follow all the law.  At least not perfectly.  Maybe some of the Pharisees thought they did, but probably not even them.  That’s why there were all those offerings and sacrifices in Old Testament times.  People knew they had not followed the law, so they would make these sacrifices as a way of asking God for forgiveness.

            That’s why, as the Apostle Paul says in our reading for today, “no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.”  The law was a standard no one could meet.  The law could demonstrate for you all your shortcomings.  The law could tell you all the times you messed up.  But it could not lead you to salvation.

            And so, God sent the Savior.  Jesus Christ.  As Paul says, the righteousness of God made known.

            Paul says that, when it comes to sin, we’re all in the same boat.  It does not matter who you are.  It does not matter where you’re from.  It does not matter who your parents are or what your background is.  It does not even matter how hard you’ve tried to be a really good person.  None of that matters.  We are all sinners.  Each and every one of us.  We fall short of the glory of God.  Probably pretty far short.

            That’s why our salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ–because it could come no other way.  We could not do it by ourselves.  We needed someone to do it for us.  And who could do it for us?  Only a Savior.  Only God Himself, come to earth in the form of a human being.  Jesus Christ, God the Son.  He’s the only one through whom we can get salvation.  It is faith in Jesus Christ that gets us salvation.  Nothing else.

            We say that.  We believe it, as Christians.  And yet–a lot of times, there’s a part of us that thinks that cannot possibly be enough.  That cannot be all there is to it.  We think, well, yeah, but we must have to be good people, too.  We must have to do enough good things.  It cannot just be that if we have faith in Jesus Christ, we get into heaven, with no other questions asked.  Surely, we think, God must be keeping track of what we do.  And God must be weighing our good things against our bad things, to see if we get into heaven or not.  It just, somehow, seems too simple to believe that we get to heaven through faith in Jesus Christ, without having to do at least some minimum number of good things, too.  

            But it’s not too simple.  It’s just simple enough.  You know, that’s the thing about faith–it really is simple.  That’s why Jesus said we need to have faith like little children–children have a simple faith. The reason our faith seems complicated as adults is because we complicate it.  It just seems to be human nature to complicate things.  

That’s why, in Old Testament times, the people of Israel started out with Ten Commandments and ended up with so many religious laws that no one could remember them all.  That’s why the United States started out with the constitution and ended up with so much law that it would not all fit in this sanctuary.  That’s why the United Methodist church’s Book of Discipline started out with a book that you could fit in the palm of your hand to one that’s as big as the hymnal, and then had to add an even bigger Book of Resolutions on top of that.  Human beings love to complicate things.

            But God does not.  God says, just have faith.  Just believe.  As Paul puts it, God “did this to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished–He did it to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

            God knows us better than we know ourselves.  And God knows that righteousness is beyond our ability.  And so God sent Jesus to earth to demonstrate His righteousness.  When we have faith in Jesus as the Savior, God makes us righteous.  God justifies us, because of our faith.

            Now, does that mean it does not matter what we do as long as we have faith in Jesus?  Well, yes, but here’s the thing.  If we truly have faith in Jesus, if we truly believe He is the divine Son of God, then we’re going to try to do what Jesus told us to do.  We’re going to try to live the way Jesus told us to live.  Not because we’re trying to earn our way into heaven, but simply because we want to please God.

            After all, if we believe what we say–that we are all sinners, but are still saved by faith in Jesus Christ–then we realize what an incredible thing God has done for us.  Giving us salvation and eternal life even though we don’t deserve it and can never be good enough to earn it.  And if we realize that, if we truly take it to heart, then we will be incredibly grateful and thankful to God for doing that.  And we will want to try to live lives that are pleasing to God out of our gratitude and thankfulness.  So yes, we can do anything we want to if we have faith in Jesus, but if we truly do have faith in Jesus, then the things we want to do will be things that are pleasing to God.

            Our faith in Jesus Christ makes us want to live lives that are pleasing to God.  But there’s another aspect of this, too.  In Hebrews Chapter Eleven, Verse Six, we read this:  “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”

            We all know people who we would consider “good people”.  People who do good things.  People who work hard, who love their families, who contribute to their community, who help people when they can.  And many of those people, maybe most of those people, do have faith in Jesus Christ.  But do they all?  Do we know?  Because if they don’t, they are not pleasing God.  And they are not going to heaven.  

Not because I say so.  Not because I don’t want them to go to heaven.  I want everyone to go to heaven.  If you really take hell seriously, you would not want your worst enemy to go there.  But what I say, and what I want, is irrelevant.  God has said that we cannot live lives pleasing to Him without faith.  And God has said that without faith in Jesus Christ, we will not go to heaven.  Period.  No exceptions, and no appeals.  

I assume that everyone here has faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  I assume that everyone watching the livestream has faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.  If you don’t, or if you’re not sure, please talk to me.  I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I’ll do what I can to help you with your faith.  Because I do want you to go to heaven.  As I said, I want everyone to go to heaven.  And if I can help even one person to get to heaven, that’s about as good as it gets.

But if you do have faith, don’t worry about whether you’re “good enough” to get to heaven.  Just do your best.  That’s all God asks.  Do your best to live a life that pleases God.  Again, not because you’re trying to earn your way to heaven, but just out of love for God. 

And if there’s someone you know who does not have faith, or if you’re not sure about their faith, ask God to help you reach them.  It’s not easy.  I know that.  It’s not even easy for us to get ourselves to try.  But it’s an incredibly important thing for us to do.  In fact, I cannot think of anything more important.  I mean, it comes down to someone spending eternity in heaven or eternity in hell.  I cannot think of anything more important than that.

We cannot earn our way into heaven.  We only get there through our faith in Jesus Christ.  So let’s keep our faith strong, and out of love and gratitude do our best to live lives that are pleasing to God.  And let’s try to reach those who don’t have faith, so they can be in heaven with us.  We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  But even so, salvation and eternal life can be ours, by our faith and because of God’s incredible love for us.