“As someone who has spent most of my lifetime reading the Bible and trying to understand it, I will admit that the Bible can be very difficult at times to understand. Specifically, when it comes to what God is trying to tell us…it just sometimes seems to be so confusing”. – Bob Barney
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2000 years ago, a newscaster that we know of as Jesus Christ warned us about false Christianity. The warning was not against the devil but against false Christianity…about people who come in His name and deceive many.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO BOB BARNEY’S 7:11 AM BROADCAST: Biblical Misconceptions: FAITH
As someone who has spent most of my lifetime reading the Bible and trying to understand it, I will admit that the Bible can be very difficult at times to understand. Specifically, when it comes to what God is trying to tell us…it just sometimes seems to be so confusing.
Hello, this is Bob Barney with The Plain Truth Today, and I wanted to get into one subject that the Bible talks about and a topic many people think they know everything about. If that happens to be you, then you’re better off than me, because I certainly do not. The subject is…faith.
You know, most Christians believe if you have faith alone then you are saved and you’re going to go to heaven when you die. I don’t believe any of that but those that do can give you many quotes from the Bibles supposedly proving this belief. Most of those quotes however are from the Apostle Paul, not from Jesus Christ or any of the other Apostles. The very famous Ephesians, the book of Ephesians, which you can find in the New Testament. The scripture I am referring to is from Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. It says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing. It is a gift from God, not a result of good works, so that nobody can boast.
As a result, you have many people that say they have faith in God and faith in Jesus Christ and because of this faith it makes them a Christian. They say that his is how they know they are saved.
Now, in Matthew, and also in Mark, by the way, but in Matthew 17-20, Jesus Himself says, because you have little faith, He’s talking directly as to why they can’t heal people…His disciples had asked Him that question, and he said, I tell you the truth, if you have the faith as small as a mustard seed, which is a very tiny seed that grows into this big plant, you can say to this mountain, move from here or there, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you to do. Again, the Apostle Paul, in Hebrews chapter 11, says, now faith is confidence in what we hope for, and an assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.
Another way of saying this in plain English and in a relatable form like from The Plain Truth version of the Bible , faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we can’t see, and the elders, or the ancients in the past, were approved because they showed this kind of faith.
Many people have talked to me over the many years that I have expounded on my beliefs and have always gone directly to the Apostle Paul in response, especially from Galatians. This is where he talks about the works are dead and that nothing following the Mosaic law will save anyone, which it will not, and it implies in many of the chapters that by faith alone you are saved. I’m not going to discredit that. Maybe there is a different answer, and maybe this is why the Apostle Peter writes that Paul is very hard to understand, and many people twist what Paul writes to their own destruction but I will tell you this right now, when you read the books of Paul, they go all over the place, and Paul’s mind goes all over the place. It’s almost like a stream-of-consciousness type of writing from Paul. I think you could take a little of Paul here and a little of Paul there, and you can come up with any kind of doctrine you want, but when you take the Bible as a whole, you have to ask yourself these questions: Number one, do you have the faith that it requires to be saved? Is it that easy…? If so, do you have the faith so little, if you have just the faith the size of a mustard seed, can you go out your door right now and tell a mountain to move and fall into the sea?
Well, I can’t, and I don’t know anybody who can.
If that little bit of faith that Jesus is talking about could do that, well then I don’t know if I want to depend on my faith! Maybe I want to depend on God’s faith in me.
Let’s get into this idea of works.
In James, and James by the way is the half-brother and a physical half-brother of Jesus Christ. He is the son of Mary and Joseph, and of course, Jesus is only the son of Mary and the Father God. But anyway, in James chapter 2, and you can find that towards the end of the New Testament, starting with verse 14, My friends, what good is it if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and lacking their food, and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warm and filled, yet you do nothing to help them or fill their body’s needs, what does it profit that person?
Faith by itself if it has no works, is dead.
It goes on to say, but a man may say you have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith, James goes on to say, without your works, and I will show you my faith with my works. You believe that there is one God, you believe in God.
Many people say, if you just confess Jesus is God, you are saved. Well, this is what the Apostle James says. You say there is one God, you do well. The demons also believe there is one God, they know it and they tremble. Before I finish what James has to say, I want to remind people that Paul, in one of his epistles, clearly uses the example of Abraham to show that Abraham was justified by his faith and not by anything that he did and yet, we’re going to see the Apostle James gives a different story. He goes on to say in James chapter 2, But do you want to be shown, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham, you notice he’s using the same example, our father justified by his works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? Do you see how faith worked with his works and the works faith was made perfect or by works faith was made perfect?
The scripture was fulfilled, which says that Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. You see then how by works a man is justified and not by faith alone. Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute justified by the work she did when she received the messenger, she sent them out a different way. He finishes by saying as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. And my friends, I want to tell you now, your faith without any works is dead.
This is Bob Barney saying thank you for listening, I appreciate you so much. Have a safe and wonderful day.