Salvation by faith

Justification by faith.
1) Verses: a) Heb 11:1, b) Heb 11:2-39 c) James 2:14-26, Eph 2:8-9, Acts 16:31, d) More, e) Summary
2) Salvation modeling difficulty: a) Model #1 - submission, b) #1 does not work, c) Model #2 - passive role, d) Reconcile model #1 and new picture, e) True requirement

1) Groundwork verses and comments
a) Hebrews 11:1 - the most straightfoward definition of faith in the bible - "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." This is more than the best guess. The weatherman thinks it will rain tomorrow, but he won't stake his life on it because he isn't certain. The word 'hope' is also not purely mental, it is emotional.
b) To further drive faith into something actionable rather than mental, consider the rest of Hebrews 11 which lists off over a dozen examples of ancient biblical heroes who either did things or had things happen to them 'by faith'.
c) But faith is not works. We interpret James 2:14-26 to mean that only true faith will produce works. Ephesians 2:8-9 "For is it by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God - no by works, so that no one may boast." Acts 16:31 "Beleive in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." - just believe. Or think of the criminal crucified with Jesus who recognized JC as the messiah while on the cross. JC told him "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." Let me tell you, this criminal did very nearly nothing, yet he was saved.
d) Other texts to look at include Luke 17:5,19, John 7:17, 1 Thes 1:9 and Gal 3.
e) Summary: Faith is a gift of God and consists of a solid belief in God and related concepts. Salvation is by faith alone and requires no works or baptism (See Acts 10:47 for people with HS - which is a seal garunteeing inheritance Eph 1:13-14 - prior to baptism). And true faith will naturally produce works.

3) Modeling difficulty
a) Unfortunately my mind has a hard time seeing how mere belief can actually facilitate salvation. I see salvation as coming by being united with Christ, who died to sin and was raised to life. (Romans 5:12-7:6 and Col 2:12 explain this well) We undergo his transformation by proxy if we submit to becoming part of his body (the church Eph 5:23) via marriage (the two will become one flesh Gen 2:24) and servanthood (a wife must obey her husband Rom 7:2, we are slaves to righteousness Rom 6:18, JC is our master Rom 10:9)
b) However, this requires some act of will, a submission to Christ, not just belief.
You can't just convince someone to great certainity that JC died for them and bang! they're saved. They must accept it too. "The fool says in his HEART [not mind] there is no God" Prov 14:1. Actually, this model contradicts Eph 2:8-9 where faith is a gift, for this method requires a submission. So, let's leave my beloved ideas and go more directly off of the bible.
c) Let us look at what are probably the definitive texts on salvation by faith - Romans 3:21-4:25. Romans 3:24-25 "and [we] are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood." Here we have the more traiditonal view of salvation, in which JC takes on our blame and dies for it, like the sacrificial lamb which takes on the sin of Israel and is then killed for it (atonement v25). Other analogies include a ransom like for a kidnapped child (redemption v24 from slavery to sin Rom 6:18, Heb 9:15), the blood of JC covering us (Rom 4:7), JC dying in our place (Rom 4:25, Gal 3:13). These methods of salvation are passive on our part. Jesus does the work. This IS compatible with Eph 2:8-9 faith as a gift of God.
d) Now, how do we reconcile the first model into this second passive one? Or rather I should ask, how do we reconcile the verses of model 1? I think we will explain this by saying that JC rather swept us off our feet and brought us along for the ride. Note the passive role we take in Col 2:12, Rom 6:18 and Rom 7:6. Jesus is truly a master of romance who carries us away. Like in a rescue scene or movie where the hero must carry the herione/victim out of the burning buidling, or shield her with his body, JC brings us along, close to his body and his journey of death and ressurection, and we reap the benefits. Calvinists would love this :P.
e) Now, there still has to be some requirement for salvation, or everyone would be saved, right? This is because relationships go two ways, and you can't just force a damsel to love you by saving her from the dragon (although she would be quite rude and terribly irregular to refuse you). However, her action can be fairly lightweight, like belief. (Ding!)

Now, how belief works to close the deal, I don't know. I'll run across the answer soon as I read more Romans I hope. But as of now I've been working on this post for about 4 hours and I've made a wonderful discovery (the error of the first model), so I think I'll close up shop for the moment. Talk to you soon!





b) [This is something I wrote out before finding a shorter, easier passage.] To further bring faith out of the cold mind, look at the verses preceding it, at the end of Hebrews 10, verses 38-39 which begin by quoting Habbakuk 2:4: "'But my righteous one [or the righteous] will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.' But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved." Habakkuk 2 is an end-times passage (read v1-3) and 'live by faith' means not being damned due to faith (see Rom 1:17 and Gal 3:11 for it's other uses). So there are two paths: living by faith, believing, and being saved, or shrinking back, displeasing God, and getting destroyed. This puts faith in contrast with shrinking back, which is an action. This does NOT prove that faith requires action by any means, but it just pushes our concept of faith into a more rugged shape.

comments on Romans 1-3

These are small oberservations during my readings of Romans 1-3.

1) Romans 1:5 "Through him and for his name's sake we recieved grace and apostleship TO CALL PEOPLE from among all the gnetiles to the obedience that comes from faith."
Unfortunately this only applies to Paul, the people associated with him, and other people called to apostleship. However, the word 'call' just struck me as I thought of the call of election (Romans 8:30). What a strong job we have!

2) Romans 1:8 "...your faith is being reported all over the world." Look at that for a moment. Even in ancient days when communication is hard, a church's faith is being reported across Christendom. We need more of this! Not just Christian publication like The Voice of the Martyrs, but to maybe take 5 minutes out of each service to just talk about other cool churches. Why not? We need community!

3) Romans 1:18-26 "The wrath of God is being revealed...against all the...men who supress the truth. ... Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts...to...the degrating of their bodies with one another." Basically Gods current wrath against wicked people is to give them over to the effect of sin. Feel sorry for those who are under wrath RIGHT NOW suffering under the bondage of sin.

4) Romans 2:1-5: the NIV translations of this passage (judging others when you yourself are wicked) tends to point towards individuals with use of added 'you's and larger phrases. However, the greek has almost none of that. Instead, Romans 2 flows with the preceding section (on God's wrath against ALL mankind), and simply states that none of us should judge because, as humanity, we're all sinful. This also accords with the thoughts of the gospel tracts we hand out, which begin with "All men have sinned..."

Brief explanation of text: Romans 2 continues the idea in 4), Romans 3:1-20 states that Jews are special in some ways but we're all sinners, and our sin exemplifying Gods glory does not justify it.