Question for Reform Christians

[Lycurgus89]

Is it our faith or God's grace that saves us? I've heard faith alone saves throughout my life, and as long as you have faith in Jesus you are saved, but James in the new testament says that even the demons believe and fear one God. Does this mean that grace is what saves christians from hell, because the demons don't have God's grace, yet they have faith or religion as such? So a person can have religion, even believe Jesus is God, but without God's grace we are going to hell?

Thanks.

 

[QvQ]

Sola Fide Sola Gratia, Solus Christus, Soli Deo Gloria
The first two are Faith and Grace so the answer is both but they are not mutually exclusive, rather bound as Christus and Deo are one
The other Sola is Sola Scriptura, which is part of the entirety.

 

[JIMINZ]

Eph. 2:8
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

The Grace demonstrated to you by God, is His giving to you, the Faith needed in order for you to Believe.

Man by himself, does not have the capacity, to have the Faith necessary to Believe.

Therefore it is God by His Grace, and the Faith administered to you by God, that Saves you.

John 6:44
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

 

[Lycurgus89]

Will I know I have God's grace if I have faith in Jesus?

Am I looking for an aha moment?

 

[JIMINZ]

Will I know I have God's grace if I have faith in Jesus?

If you only have the Faith, then you are only at the Believer stage of Salvation.

Mark 16:16
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;

Jesus said you must be Baptized

John 3:3
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 3:5-7
5) Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6) That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7) Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

You need to die to the flesh

Rom 8:12-14
12) Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
13) For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

 

[Andrewn]

Is it our faith or God's grace that saves us?

I agree with the responses you've received.

I've heard faith alone saves throughout my life, and as long as you have faith in Jesus you are saved, but James in the new testament says that even the demons believe and fear one God. Does this mean that grace is what saves christians from hell, because the demons don't have God's grace, yet they have faith or religion as such? So a person can have religion, even believe Jesus is God, but without God's grace we are going to hell?

You refer the following verses:

Jam 2:19-20 You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe—and shudder! But do you want to know, you empty person, that faith without works is dead?

The Greek word commonly translated "faith" can refer to mental knowledge, to deep trust, or to faithfulness. We know the meaning from the context. Believing that you exist is different from believing in you and being faithful to you.

Demons know that God is one. But they do evil works. Their belief is merely mental knowledge. Christians not only know that God is one but they also trust in his salvation and show that faith / trust in our daily living.

 

[Oompa Loompa]

Is it our faith or God's grace that saves us? I've heard faith alone saves throughout my life, and as long as you have faith in Jesus you are saved, but James in the new testament says that even the demons believe and fear one God. Does this mean that grace is what saves christians from hell, because the demons don't have God's grace, yet they have faith or religion as such? So a person can have religion, even believe Jesus is God, but without God's grace we are going to hell?

Thanks.

We are saved by grace through faith. Ephesians 2:8

 

[oldtools56]

I am new to this forum, but I thought I would put in my 2 cents worth about John 6: 44


John 6: 44

44 “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.



Does Jesus mean no one can be saved unless God the Father uses His will to over power man’s natural rejection of God? The key to understanding verse 44 can be found in verse 45, where Jesus tells us the prophets were taught by God. Let’s look at John chapter 1, verse 1, where we find the Word is God is God’s Word or Holy truth.



John 1: 1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

We have the prophets being taught directly by God through the Holy Spirit. God the Father has given us His testimony of how to attain eternal life in 1 John chapter 5, verses 9-12.


1 John 5: 9-12

9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of 3 God which He has testified of His Son.

10 He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.

11 And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

12 He who has the Son has 4 life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have 5 life.


Jesus isn’t teaching that God the Father must over power the natural man we all have to bring us to Christ, but God the Father draws men to Christ through the Word of God. God’s testimony is very simple, God has given us eternal life, and this life is in the Son.

 

[Radagast]

Is it our faith or God's grace that saves us?

Both are true.

Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

However this faith is more than an intellectual assent to the statement that God exists. As you point out, even the demons have that.

 

[Tolworth John]

So a person can have religion, even believe Jesus is God, but without God's grace we are going to hell?

What do you mean by faith in Jesus?
Faith that he died for you and faith that you are trusting only in him for salvation?

Have you never read Matt 7:22-24 about those who prophercised etc yet where told to away, I never knew you!

It is not a case of having a general faith in Jesus.

 

[BrotherJJ]

Is it our faith or God's grace that saves us? I've heard faith alone saves throughout my life, and as long as you have faith in Jesus you are saved, but James in the new testament says that even the demons believe and fear one God. Does this mean that grace is what saves christians from hell, because the demons don't have God's grace, yet they have faith or religion as such? So a person can have religion, even believe Jesus is God, but without God's grace we are going to hell?

Thanks.

I believe the answer is BOTH.

Rom 6:23 the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord

Rom 3:23 all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
(NOTE: Everyone is a sinner therefore deserves heaven's sentence/DEATH)

KJV Dictionary Definition: GRACE:

1. Favor; good will; kindness; disposition to oblige another; as a grant made as an act of grace.

2. Appropriately, the free unmerited love and favor of God, the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from him. And if by grace, then it is no more of works. Rom.11.

3. The application of Christ's righteousness to the sinner. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Rom 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

4. A state of reconciliation to God. Rom 5:2 Through Jesus Christ we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Strong's Concordance; charis: Definition: GRACE Usage: (a) grace, as a gift or blessing brought to man by Jesus Christ,

Ok, we all deserve to die, due to our sins. GRACE is grant/gift given by God to humanity.

Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
(NOTE: God's gift of grace has a name. Jn 3:16 God so loved those in this world he sent His Son Jesus)

God has provided the GRACE. Now comes FAITH.

Hebrews 11:6 without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

You must have FAITH in the gospel (Good News) about Jesus Christ:

1 Corinthians 15:
1 Moreover, brethren, ""I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you"", which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

2 ""By which also ye are saved"", if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how ""that Christ died for our sins"" according to the scriptures;

4 And ""that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day"" according to the scriptures:

Verses 1-4 Recap: The Apostle declares the good news/gospel by which also ye are saved is:

Christ died for your sins (paying your sin debt), that he was buried (proof Jesus died) & that he rose again the third day (Father's receipt, sins payment received & accepted)

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
(NOTE: 1st, we need God's gift/grant of GRACE. When we apply FAITH in Jesus sin payment & resurrection. Jesus fills us seals us with His Holy Spirit whereby we are saved)

 

[Lycurgus89]

What does real faith in Jesus feel like, when you know you have God's grace? I think I've felt God's grace but the feeling goes away, and for the past five years at least I haven't felt any faith in Jesus. That was when I told my church I didn't believe anymore, and I stopped going.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Is it our faith or God's grace that saves us? I've heard faith alone saves throughout my life, and as long as you have faith in Jesus you are saved, but James in the new testament says that even the demons believe and fear one God. Does this mean that grace is what saves christians from hell, because the demons don't have God's grace, yet they have faith or religion as such? So a person can have religion, even believe Jesus is God, but without God's grace we are going to hell?

Thanks.

I should point out that I'm not Reformed, but Lutheran. But there are some similarities between the Reformed and Lutheran traditions on this topic, as the Reformed tradition sprang from individuals who were at least partly influenced by Martin Luther's original Evangelical reform movement.

Are we saved by faith?
Saved by grace?
Or saved by Christ?

The answer is yes to all these.

God alone saves through what He has done and given (known as monergism, i.e. the "alone-work" of God). In the sending of Jesus Christ and what He has done He has accomplished the entire perfect work of saving us, of justifying us, of reconciling us to God. He has done this of Himself, for us. Now the difference between the Reformed position and the Lutheran position here is that in the Reformed position what Christ did was only for the elect (those whom God predestined to salvation), whereas the Lutheran position is that what Christ did was for everyone, without exception. This is, at least in Lutheran thought, known as Objective Justification, Christ's work objectively justifies everyone, Christ died the death of all men, and thus all died with Christ, and thus all are made alive in Christ.

The question then is how does Christ's perfect, objective, already finished work now come to an individual person? And that is through what are known as Means of Grace, i.e. the preaching of the Gospel and the Sacraments (this is, again, a very Lutheran way of speaking, though from what I understand many Reformed also would agree with this language at least in part, or at least the preaching of the Gospel). So that when I hear the Gospel, God Himself acts to give me faith, as a pure gift, that comes from outside myself. And it is through faith that God's gracious work and gifts are applied to me, namely, Christ's perfect work is applied to me as an individual, and I am therefore freely justified by God's grace, through faith, and I receive the imputed righteousness of Jesus Himself who makes me just before God.

Thus we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, on Christ's account alone.

Grace is God's superabundant kindness toward us which accomplishes and does all this for us and makes all this happen for our benefit, because He loves us.

Faith is the gift and work of God by which we are flipped inside out, turned toward God in trust, trust in Jesus Christ and His work, and thus are no longer estranged from God, but found in and with God because of Jesus Christ.

Again, I am speaking as a Lutheran here, so it is possible my answers might not match a Reformed answer, but I think broadly speaking both Lutherans and Reformed would be in agreement on much of this language.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[ViaCrucis]

What does real faith in Jesus feel like, when you know you have God's grace?

There is no special feeling. I can't speak for Reformed thought here, but from the Lutheran POV our assurance is always understood to come from outside of ourselves. We can never look inside to find our assurance, we can never look inside ourselves to find grace--we have to look outside of ourselves, to external and objective reality: The finished work of Christ, the preached word of the Gospel, our Baptism, the Holy Eucharist. Faith does not come from within us, but from outside of us, as a gift from God. And God's word and promise is found in these works of His.

We are not active agents, but passive recipients. Faith is not found by looking to our feelings, or to our reason, or to our intellect, or to our works--but in the outward, external, objective promises and word of God. Baptizatus sum, I am baptized, I belong to Jesus Christ. Jesus' word and promise to me is that I belong to Him, and so I trust Him that He is faithful in keeping His word, even if I am here flailing about in all the uncertainty of life.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[hedrick]

I’m not sure most of the answers have actually been Reformed. I’m going to try to give you an answer from a moderately liberal Reformed perspective.

First, I wouldn’t say we are saved by faith. We are saved by God. The problem with saying we’re saved by faith is that it makes it up to us, whether we have faith or not. But Reformed theology denies that. It maintains that salvation is entirely the work of God. Faith is how we respond to being his children.

Jesus called God Father, and he used the parental analogy heavily e.g. in Mark 1013-16. A parent loves their children because they’re his, not because of anything they do. “Faith” is a word with a broad range of meanings. For the Reformers the primary meaning was trust. As in Mark 10, children trust their parents. They certainly don’t always obey, and even the trust may be imperfect, but in the end they rely on their parents.

Paul didn’t say we are saved by faith, but that we are justified by faith. Justification is another word that has a range of meanings. Sometimes Paul seems to use it to say it’s how we know someone is in Christ. But typically he used it to talk about God’s setting us into a proper relationship with himself. As in Mark 10, that relationship isn’t based on perfect obedience, but on faith, our reliance on God as our Father. So "justification by faith" means our relationship with God is based on faith. And faith, in my understanding, is something that is naturally present in those who are God's children.

Of course God expects obedience, and Jesus talks a lot about what happens if we don’t, but that’s not what makes us his children in the first place. That’s entirely his decision. We can trust it, that he will never abandon us, even when we sin.

There are difficult questions hiding here: why isn’t every one saved? What determines it? Calvin and traditional Reformed thought would say that that’s entirely God’s choice. He chooses us, and our faith is a response to that, not the cause. Those who aren’t saved are those he doesn’t choose, and he intentionally leaves some people out.

My part of the Reformed tradition is not so willing to say that God intentionally rejects people. The later Luther, and Karl Barth, think it’s a mystery, the impossible possibility, and that the attempt to explain it tends to result in turning God into the source of evil. I don’t have a good explanation, but I do think there are people who are just broken, who are opposed to God and what he stands for. (This is not to deny that all of us are broken as well.) I’m not so sure that God sets out to make specific people that way, but it may turn out to be part of his plan.

 

[Hawkins]

Is it our faith or God's grace that saves us?

We are saved through a legal process known as the Final Judgment which is carried out by Jesus Christ and God. The judgment is carried out lawfully in accordance to a covenant applied to us, which specifies that we need to believe Jesus Christ to be saved. We are thus said to be saved by God's Grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

 

[Albion]

Is it our faith or God's grace that saves us?

It's faith, but it is possible only if God makes it possible, so we use the word grace to refer to his gifting us with faith.

I've heard faith alone saves throughout my life, and as long as you have faith in Jesus you are saved, but James in the new testament says that even the demons believe and fear one God.

Notice that "faith" saves but the demons "believe."

The Demons know who God is, but faith is more than belief. It is a commitment, a whole-hearted trusting in Christ.