Luke 6:46–48 – “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
THEME OF THE DAY. THE VALIDATION OF OUR FAITH. How would we define Christian faith? What does genuine saving faith really look like? What would make us assured we had the right type of faith? In defining the faith of Christianity, we are given two specific objects which are to be the direction our faith takes; the Person of our God and the revelation of that God through His two means of revealing Himself; creation and His written Word. But it is important we understand what true faith in this self-revealing God really looks like in the reality of daily living. Here is a helpful study to do in the Gospels. Go through and find all the occasions the Lord Jesus recognized true faith toward Him by individuals. One will find they each involve a profession of confidence in Christ and personal actions verifying this confidence. Basically, a profession and an action, but not always in that order. Allow me to give one example. It is found in LUKE 18:1-9 and The Parable of the Persistent Widow. The lesson of the parable is persevering prayer. Jesus closes His teaching with the words, “I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8). This is profound. Christ states an evidence of true faith in God is a life of persevering prayer. It involves a trust in the God prayed to and the action of praying to this trusted God. We will find the Lord repeatedly acknowledging that true faith in Him includes both trust in His Person and acts of obedience to His Word. In today’s scripture, we find Jesus telling us this truth. Let’s consider two applications from His words.
First, we must profess Jesus as Lord and if we are His, we will with delight and conviction – “You call me, ‘Lord, Lord’”. In this proclamation is the knowledge and understanding of what salvation did. It was a change of kingdoms for the individual. We are transferred from the kingdom of Satan into the glorious freedom of living in the Kingdom of King Jesus and under His supreme Lordship – “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13). However, to validate the profession of a change in kingdoms, there must be evidence, active evidence that our profession is real or our faith is real. This leads to application two.
If our faith in Christ is real faith, it will contain tangible acts of obedience to His Word. In the opening of today’s scripture, Christ clearly implies the incompatibility of professing Him as Lord, but not living life as He is Lord – “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?” Don’t misunderstand the Lord. We don’t obey God to gain His favor or salvation. We obey God out of gratitude for His favor and for Him granting us salvation. It will always be true; a genuine Christian will have a desire to obey God that produces a life of seeking to actively make that desire reality. That is what Biblical faith does; it professes and it practices. Yes, we struggle and stumble, but we will obey and that increasingly in our lives. True faith always produces obedience.
As we think on the definition and application of faith, may the Lord help us to ensure our definition and practice of faith is aligned with His as given to us in His Word.
PRAYER: “Lord, teach me that faith goes beyond just believing facts about You and Your Word.”
QUOTE: “True faith is never just acknowledging facts. It is alive and makes God’s promises real.”