Gal 5:1–6 — Faith Working Through Love

Review

The title of the sermon today is taken from that last phrase in verse six, faith working through love. We’re coming to a significant turning point in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. This is the third major section.

The first section was Galatians 1 and 2, which I titled the Apostle of Gospel Liberty, where the Apostle Paul describes his calling to be an apostle, and he shows that the gospel that he proclaims The gospel of salvation by faith alone is not man’s gospel. He didn’t make it up out of thin air. He didn’t sit down and calculate this gospel based on his own opinion or his own reason or philosophy. It was a gospel that he received from the risen Christ himself.

Then in the second major section of the letter, in chapters three and four, which we have spent quite a bit of time looking at over the past several months, in Galatians three and four, we have the doctrine of gospel liberty. Here in this section, Paul explains the gospel. He explains how we are justified by faith alone. We’re justified, that is, we are counted as righteous in the sight of God, not by keeping the law, but by trusting in Christ. And he gives a number of arguments for that.

One argument is the experience of the Galatian Christians themselves, which is that when they became Christians, when they were saved, it wasn’t because they were keeping the law, it was simply because they heard the gospel and believed in it. Another argument he uses is the argument from the Old Testament, which is Abraham. Abraham as the paradigm of someone who was justified by faith alone. Was Abraham declared righteous in the sight of God because he was circumcised or because he was obedient to the law? No, he simply believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

In this section, Paul also has to deal with the question of, well then why did God give the law? If we’re not justified by keeping the law, then why did God give the law at all? And he explains the reason that the law was given. It was given in order to show us our sinfulness and to drive us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith in Christ.

Galatians 5–6: The Life of Gospel Liberty

Now in Galatians chapter five and six, we come to the third major division or section of the letter, and that is the life of gospel liberty. We have been set free, Paul has argued throughout this letter in so many different ways, in so many different facets, that we have been delivered from the curse of the law. We are no longer under the yoke of the law.

But, he says, we are set free, not for license, that is not so that we can do as we please, but rather we have been set free that we might live a life of love. Love for God and for neighbor. Paul says that true gospel liberty produces love. True gospel liberty does not lead to license. It does not lead to indulging in our sin. It leads to living for the Lord and serving Him by the power of the Spirit. So here in this opening section, Paul is transitioning now to the life of gospel liberty. He begins by reiterating the main point of the letter in verse one. For freedom Christ has set us free.

Exposition

Galatians 5:2–4: Circumcision and the Whole Law

Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. He’s saying this because the Judaizers who have crept into the congregation after Paul had left are telling them that they need to be circumcised. And that they need to do this in order to be saved, in order to be right with God. And Paul says, don’t submit to this call from the Judaizers to be circumcised, because if you do that, you are not standing firm in the liberty that Christ has purchased for you. He says again in verse two, look, I, Paul, say that if you accept circumcision, That is, if you submit to what the Judaizers are saying, and you go ahead and get circumcised under their premise that you have to do this in order to be saved, if you accept circumcision on those terms, then Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law.

Now, originally when God gave circumcision to Abraham as the sign and seal of the covenant in the Old Testament, originally circumcision did not mean that. In fact, circumcision was given before the law was given. So it did not mean that you were obligated to keep the whole law. It was not a sign of being under a covenant of works in order to be saved by works. In Romans chapter four, Paul has another passage where he talks about the meaning of circumcision as it was originally given.

In Romans 4.11, he says that it was given as a sign and seal of the righteousness of faith. It was given to Abraham not as a sign and seal of works, but as a sign and seal of being justified by faith.

So why does Paul then say in verse three that everyone who accepts circumcision is obligated to keep the whole law? He’s referring here to how the Judaizers had distorted the meaning of circumcision. They had turned it into a sign of law-keeping, of salvation by works. And so he’s saying within the framework, within the context of this particular situation where the Judaizers are telling them that they have to do this in order to be right with God, if they were to submit to circumcision in that context, then they would be denying Christ and they would be obligated to keep the whole law.

We know that circumcision in and of itself doesn’t necessarily mean that, because Paul himself actually circumcised Timothy in the book of Acts. Now, he did so not under this context of, Timothy, you better be circumcised in order to be saved, in order to be right with God, but he did so as a missional tool, because Timothy did have a Jewish upbringing, and so this is a way of showing his respect for the Jewish people, and as a way of being able to have an open ear to the gospel. So circumcision in itself doesn’t mean anything. Circumcision in itself has no significance now that Christ has come.

But in this particular situation in the churches of Galatia, the way that circumcision is being proclaimed and foisted upon the Galatians, it has become a sign of salvation by works. With this false understanding in the context then, to submit to circumcision under these circumstances would be to reject the gospel.

He says in verse 4, you are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law and If you’re trying to be justified, if you’re trying to be right with God by keeping the law, then you have forsaken Christ. You have fallen away from grace. That is, you’ve fallen away from the doctrine of grace. You have rejected the gospel.

Galatians 5:5: The Hope of Righteousness

Then in verses five and six, we come to this wonderful statement here of the alternative to this understanding. The Judaizers are proclaiming circumcision and law-keeping. Circumcision being a sign of law-keeping in their view. They’re proclaiming salvation by works, by keeping the law, and circumcision as a sign of that. They’re proclaiming this as the main thing you need to do.

This is what counts before God. This is the important thing for your identity, is to be a circumcised law keeper. That’s what makes you righteous before God. That’s what sets you apart from the world. That’s what makes you a true member of the people of God. That is what has the power to make you into a good person and to make you someone who is acceptable before God. By contrast, Paul says, we as believers in Christ, we have a completely different religion. We have a completely different understanding of what it is that’s important in the sight of God, of what it is that counts before God.

It’s not being circumcised and keeping the law, rather it is, and he describes the Christian life here in verses five and six, it is through faith, by the Spirit, eagerly waiting for the hope of righteousness, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love. Here, Paul is describing the Christian life, not only justification, but also sanctification, and also the hope of glorification.

He talks about the hope of righteousness. This is the hope we anticipate because we are righteous in God’s sight through the righteousness of Christ credited to our account. The hope that righteousness brings is the resurrection of the body at the last day. Romans provides a helpful cross-reference, using the same verb, “eagerly wait.”

In Romans 8.23, he says, we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly as we wait eagerly, there’s that same verb, for our adoption as sons, namely the redemption of our bodies, the glorification of the body. We’re looking forward to that day when we are raised from death and we are given immortal bodies to dwell with God forever in the new creation. Paul says, by the Spirit, through the Spirit, by faith, we’re eagerly waiting for that hope. The word hope there means what we’re hoping for. It’s not referring to the internal feeling of hope. The word hope in Paul’s theology isn’t focused mainly on the internal feeling of hope, like I’m looking forward to and hoping for something. The word hope is the thing that we’re hoping for.

Through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves are eagerly waiting for the concrete hope that is set before us, which is the redemption of our bodies, using Romans 8.23 as the cross reference.

The hope of righteousness, then, is not the hope that we will be righteous, because we’re already righteous in Christ, even now. Rather, it’s the hope that being righteous now gives us the confidence that our bodies will be raised at the last day, that we will have eternal life with God in the new creation in a physical way, not just simply that our souls are made alive and we have spiritual life, but physically we’re looking forward to that day when all sin and sorrow and the curse is done away with and we are raised into resurrection life to be with the Lord forever. Only the righteous have that hope. And we do have that righteousness because of the righteousness of Christ that has been given to us. Then he goes on to say in verse six, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Galatians 5:6: Faith Working Through Love

In Christ Jesus, there is a new reality. There is a new sphere in which we live. It is the new creation. In Christ Jesus, something glorious has been brought to birth that circumcision doesn’t have any significance for. Circumcision, or even being uncircumcised, counts for nothing in comparison with this wonderful reality of the new creation in Christ. Here in this new world, in this new creation that Christ has inaugurated through his death and resurrection, we have this religion, this Christian life that is totally different from the religion that the Judaizers are trying to get the Galatian Christians to adopt.

Their whole identity, their whole sphere in which they live is works. Their whole life is bound up with the law and keeping the law as their righteousness before God. But we have something greater. We have Christ and in Christ neither circumcision or uncircumcision means anything.

Rather, it is by faith working through love that we enjoy this religious reality. This way of life is not characterized by external badges of performance, law-keeping, or boasting in the flesh, but by rejoicing in Christ and experiencing the results of his work in the Christian life. Paul says that, in this new realm that transcends the old realm of law and circumcision, what counts is faith working through love.

We need to think about that phrase. This is a crucial phrase to understand. It’s the title of the sermon, and it has deep significance for us in understanding the proper relationship between justification and sanctification. Justification is the once for all declaration that our sins are forgiven and we are declared and counted as righteous before God.

Not because of our own righteousness, our own works, but because of the righteousness of Christ credited to us. But there is also this reality of sanctification in Christ. Faith is not only acknowledging and resting in Christ and his righteousness, faith also works through love. And as faith works through love, we’re seeing the reality of sanctification in our lives. This is the work of the Spirit within us, transforming us into the image of Christ, renewing the image of God within us, working within us a life that seeks to please the Lord and to love God and love our neighbor. Sanctification is progressive. Sanctification is a process. It’s not perfect.

In this life, we will never be perfectly righteous and perfectly holy. And therefore, our sanctification cannot be the basis of our standing before God. If God were to look at our sanctification, if he were to look at how well we’re doing in the Christian life, we would always fall short. God looks at the righteousness of Christ as the basis of our standing before God and our approval and acceptance before him. He does not look at our sanctification.

Nevertheless, our sanctification is the necessary outworking and result of God’s work of justification. God’s work of justification is what he does for us in Christ. It’s a legal declaration. God’s work of sanctification is what he does in us by the Spirit.

According to this passage here, the Apostle Paul says that in Christ Jesus, faith works through love. What does that mean, that faith works? Faith is working. Through love. That word works does not mean that faith becomes truly effective or truly justifying or saving through love. Rather, it means that faith expresses itself through love. That’s actually how the NIV translates that word working. The NIV correctly translates it as saying, in Christ Jesus, either circumcision or uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith expressing itself through love. That’s a helpful way of understanding that word, working.

Saving faith is the product of a supernatural work of God in our hearts. That is, it is the work of regeneration. The Holy Spirit regenerates us and gives us a new heart. And then because that new heart has been transformed by the Holy Spirit, we now are able to exercise saving faith. And since saving faith is a product of this supernatural work of the Holy Spirit within us, saving faith is not a dead thing. It’s not simply mental ascent to the truths of the gospel. It is more than that.

It is a living thing that expresses itself in love. What does that mean that faith works through or expresses itself through love? What is the meaning of the word love there? We might be wondering is this vertical or horizontal love. Vertical love would be our love for God. And horizontal love is our love for our neighbor.

Jesus himself said that both are important. He said the first commandment is to love God with all your heart, the vertical aspect of love. And then he says the second commandment is likened to it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself on the horizontal level.

Which one is Paul talking about here? Faith is the only thing that really counts and it expresses itself Does he mean it expresses itself through loving God? Or does he mean it expresses itself through loving our neighbor? If you look at the context, the whole context here, as he goes on, we’re going to look at this next time, but in verses seven through 15, it seems like the focus is upon the horizontal dimension of love, love for our neighbor.

Because he mentions there all of these horizontal relational issues. For example, he says that In verse 13, he says, you were called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but rather serve, through love, serve one another. And then in verse 14, he says, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

But, he says, if you bite and devour one another, apparently the congregation there was devolving into all kinds of arguments and conflict. And of course, that’s not surprising because once legalism starts to creep into the church, once the Judaizers start to get a foothold with their teaching that we’re accepted before God on the basis of our works, on the basis of our law keeping, then what does that do? It naturally leads to people being very concerned about their own righteousness and their own law-keeping. And it leads to dissension, it leads to bitterness, it leads to anger, it leads to fighting with one another because each person is trying to achieve their own righteousness before God.

So you might think that when Paul says back in verse six that in Christ Jesus what counts is faith working through love, you might think because of the context that he is thinking only of love for our neighbor because the context clearly focuses upon that.

And yet, we know the teaching of Jesus, do we not? The teaching of Jesus is that love for a neighbor is the second commandment. The first and greatest commandment is love for God. Love for neighbor is inseparable from love for God. And so I would argue that even though Paul is focusing upon love for neighbor when he says faith working through love, we cannot set aside the importance of love for God as well. Love here is a comprehensive term. It includes love for God and love for neighbor. How can you properly love your neighbor if you don’t love God?

What is love for neighbor? It is seeking their spiritual good. It’s not just simply loving them in the sense that the modern secular people think of. Just simply affirming whatever they want and supporting them in whatever they desire. No, it is loving them in the spiritual sense of seeking their spiritual good.

And so you cannot love your neighbor without loving God. And the reverse is also true. You cannot love God if you don’t love your neighbor. The Apostle John says that in 1 John 4. How can you say that you love God if you do not love your neighbor?

So both aspects are included here. There’s both a horizontal and a vertical aspect to love in this verse. In Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision makes any difference. What’s important is faith working through love, love for God and love for neighbor, and understanding how those two things work together. We love our neighbor only as we love God. And we love God only as we love our neighbor.

Love is a comprehensive term that refers to this new heart that we have. The reason why we’re able to have faith in Christ and to be reckoned as righteous in the sight of God because of the righteousness of Christ is because God has given us a new heart. And that new heart has new dispositions, new affections, new love for God and love for neighbor. And so therefore love is the demonstration that our faith is genuine living faith and not simply pure mental assent or simply an external profession of believing in the doctrines of the gospel.

All of this is in contrast with the Judaizers focus. Their focus is on law-keeping. Their focus is on the flesh, on the external forms of Judaism, and performing those things in order to be right with God. Notice how different that religion is from the religion that Paul is describing here. A religion that is based on rejoicing in Christ. In receiving the freedom of the gospel of Christ, standing fast in the liberty that Christ has given to us, free from the curse of the law, so that we might be free to love God and our neighbor.

There’s a helpful cross-reference to this. Notice that often as I’m preaching through Galatians, I will refer to Romans because you can’t really interpret Galatians without Romans. You need Romans to somewhat flesh out some of these passages here. Here’s a helpful one from Romans chapter two.

In Romans chapter two, near the beginning of Paul’s argument, he is speaking about how the Jews, they have an outward profession of godliness and law keeping and boasting in the law and boasting in their righteousness, but they don’t have the heart. They don’t have that genuine transformed heart that is the key.

So Romans chapter two, verse 28 to 29, he says, no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly. Nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew, a genuine Jew, and he’s somewhat using this word Jew now in quote marks, a true Jew, quote unquote, is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter. The Apostle Paul will later on go on to talk about how through the preaching of the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles in Romans 11, all Israel will be saved. And he’s using the word Jew or the word Israel here in a spiritual sense to include all those who are united to Christ by faith, whether they are literally Jews or Gentiles. Being a true Jew means that your heart has been changed.

Circumcision is not outward and physical, it’s a matter of the heart. That is what the Apostle Paul is saying here in Galatians 5, when he contrasts the circumcision, law-centered religion of the Judaizers with the Christ-centered, faith-working-through-love religion of Christianity. We are boasting in Christ and placing no confidence in the flesh.

Doctrine

And that boast in Christ, that joy in Christ works itself out through love. So what is the doctrine that we can derive from this crucial passage, especially focusing there on that last phrase in verse six, faith working through love. Faith expresses itself through love. This is a crucial doctrine to understand, the proper relationship between faith and love.

In our Belgic Confession, if you would like to turn there, that would be great. You pull out your hymnal, you look in the back, we have the Belgic Confession on page 863. There is an article here called The Sanctification of Sinners. Now this article, Article 24, comes right after the two articles on justification. Article 22 talks about the righteousness of faith. Article 23 talks about the justification of sinners, how we are reckoned as righteous in the sight of God only because the righteousness of Christ has been given to us. But then in Article 24, the Belgic Confession describes the doctrine of sanctification. But notice how the article segues naturally from faith and how we’re justified by faith into this topic of faith working by love. It even quotes our passage, Galatians 5 verse six.

We believe that this true faith that the Belgic Confession has just been describing in the previous two articles, we believe that this true faith produced in man by the hearing of God’s word and by the work of the Holy Spirit, regenerates him and makes him a new man. Causing him to live the new life and freeing him from the slavery of sin.

just a little note there, that word regenerates was being used in an older sense than we use it now in theology. In theology now, we use it regenerates to mean that moment when God takes a sinner from the state of sin to the state of life. It’s the new birth, when we are given spiritual life and regenerated into newness of life. According to Article 24, if you were to take that modern contemporary theological definition, it would be saying that faith is what regenerates us. But that’s not the case. We believe that regeneration is what gives us faith. So the word regenerates here is being used in an older sense to refer to the renewal of sanctification.

So we believe that this true faith, produced in man by the hearing of God’s Word and by the work of the Holy Spirit, renews him and makes him a new man, causing him to live the new life and freeing him from the slavery of sin. Therefore, far from making people cold toward living in a pious and holy way, this justifying faith Quite to the contrary, so works within them that apart from it, they will never do a thing out of love for God, but only out of love for themselves and fear of being condemned.

That’s an interesting point, isn’t it? Do you get the logic there? If we are justified by works, as the Judaizers say, if we’re counted as righteous in the sight of God based on being faithful to keep God’s law, if we’re saved by works, then we will never have love for God or for our neighbor. Instead, we’re going to be focused upon ourselves. We’ll never do anything out of love for God, but only out of love for ourselves and fear of being condemned.

So the argument here in the Belgic Confession is the same as what Paul is saying in our passage. So then it is impossible for this holy faith to be unfruitful in a human being, seeing that we do not speak of an empty faith, but of what scripture calls faith working through love.

There’s the quotation from our passage. You even see the footnote 60 there. If you turn the page over, it’ll give you the reference, Galatians 5, 6. It is impossible for this holy faith to be unfruitful in a human being, seeing that we do not speak of an empty faith, but of what scripture calls faith working through love, which leads a man to do of himself the works that God has commanded in his word.

These works, proceeding from the good root of faith, are good and acceptable to God, since they are all sanctified by his grace. Yet, here’s a key statement that we have to always add here, this next sentence. Yet, they do not count, that is, these good works that are the fruit of faith working through love, they do not count toward our justification. For by faith in Christ, we are justified even before we do good works. Do you get that? Do you see the point here? There’s two key doctrines that are being taught here, being taught in the Belgic Confession, that are being taught by the Apostle Paul. Two key points that are so important to understand.

Saving Faith Is Not a Dead Faith

First, saving faith, the faith by which we receive Christ and his righteousness and are saved and forgiven and counted as righteous before God and guaranteed that we will go to heaven.

That saving faith is not a dead faith. It is not simply an empty profession of saying, oh yes, I believe in all the articles of the Christian religion, I believe in the Trinity, I believe in Jesus being the son of God, I believe that he rose again from the dead, but it’s simply a profession. It’s simply an external ascent to doctrines. Saving faith is not a dead faith. A profession of faith that does not show evidence of being spiritually alive is empty faith. Faith that does not express itself through love is not true faith.

This is exactly what Jesus himself taught. If you remember in Matthew chapter seven, he said that you will know them by their fruits. Those that produce good fruit, we know that they are true believers in the Lord. Those that produce bad fruit show that they are not truly saved. The Apostle James also taught the same thing in James chapter 2.

Faith without works is dead. And the reason this is the case, the reason why saving faith is not a dead faith, a mere empty profession, is because saving faith is a supernatural gift of God. It isn’t an ordinary act of the natural mind or the natural will, simply saying, I believe in Christianity. It isn’t just simply a bare mental ascent. Faith is the result of a supernatural work of the Spirit of God within us, giving us a new heart. And that is why true saving faith is a living faith that expresses itself in love.

That’s the first point, the first aspect of the doctrine. But there’s another point as well that needs to balance that. It’s almost like a paradox. Where you got these two emphases that you need to keep in view. It is possible to so emphasize this first point, that saving faith is not dead, but it’s living, and it produces fruit. It’s so easy to emphasize that, that we can easily lose sight of the second point, which is that yet statement in the Belgic Confession. The one at the very bottom of the page that we read there.

We Are Not Justified by Love or Good Works

Yet. So here’s the second point. We are not justified. We are not counted as righteous. We are not accepted before God because of that fruit that flows from genuine saving faith. So the first point is very important. Saving faith is not a dead faith, it’s a living faith. And it expresses itself through love. But the second point is just as important.

That love and the good works that flow from it, and all of those affections of love for God and love for neighbor and repentance and turning from sin and seeking after new obedience, all of those things are not the basis upon which we are accepted before God.

We are not justified. We are not counted as righteous by our love. The Bible repeatedly says that we’re justified. We are counted as righteous only by faith, not by the fruits of faith. We’re justified by faith because we’re justified by Christ. Faith is simply the instrument by which we receive the righteousness of Christ.

It’s so important to understand this second pole, the second aspect of this doctrine. Because if we only focus on the first point, that saving faith is not dead faith, but living faith, and we don’t add this second point, then we can easily fall into the mistake of what? Preaching to people that you must have living faith, and you better express that faith in love, and if you don’t do that, then you should question whether you’re truly saved. And that is a true doctrine. If somebody does not have the expression of living faith, working itself out through love, then they are not truly justified. But it’s so easy to emphasize that to the point where it starts to sound like this is what you have to do in order to have assurance that you are right with God.

The Belgic Confession says, after saying all this wonderful truth about how true saving faith is not dead faith, but living, and how it produces good works, and it produces love, it adds, yet, all of these things, all of these fruits of faith, do not count toward our justification. For by faith in Christ, we are justified, even before we do good works.

You may have heard of a famous, well-known, reformed, or somewhat reformed, I’m not sure if he’s fully reformed, but somewhat reformed preacher. He’s reformed in the sense that he’s Calvinistic. He believes in the doctrine that faith is a gift of God, given only to those who are elect. His name is John Piper. You may have heard of this name. He’s a pretty well-known preacher. And John Piper is not a heretic, he’s not a Judaizer, he’s not denying the gospel, but his teaching ministry and the main focus and thrust of his preaching is to focus on point one, and not so much point two. Most of his preaching is on, you better have living faith.

Living an act of faith that works itself out through love, and he has many emphasis upon what he calls the affectional element of saving faith. The affectional element meaning that saving faith isn’t just simply bare mental assent to the truths of the gospel. There’s an affectional element. There’s this element of love for Christ.

He even defines, he recently wrote a book in 2022 called What is Saving Faith? And he defines saving faith as treasuring Christ above all other things. Treasuring Christ, viewing Christ as our treasure. He’s basing that upon the wonderful parable of Jesus in Matthew 13 about the treasure that was buried in the field. And the man went and sold everything he had in order to buy that field because there’s this treasure that’s buried there. And of course that treasure is Christ.

And everything that John Piper is saying about that point is absolutely true. Genuine saving faith does have an affectional element to it. Genuine saving faith treasures Christ above all else. And if you have a profession of faith that lacks that treasuring element of loving Christ before all other things, that is not true saving faith. Everything he says is true about that. And you can find plenty of passages in the Bible that teach that.

But, because he only emphasizes that first point, that genuine saving faith is living and not dead, and it has this affectional element. And he very rarely, if at all, ever clarifies the second point, which is that our standing before God, the way we know that we are forgiven and accepted as righteous before God and that we’re going to go to heaven when we die, the way we know that is not because of our love, it’s not because we treasure Christ, it’s because of Christ himself and what he has done for us. And faith is merely the instrument by which we receive the work of Christ. Faith is merely the empty hand of the beggar saying, Lord, I receive you because I know that in myself I am not righteous before you.

That second point is so critical to maintain because if we don’t, then we’re confusing law and gospel. Remember, Jesus said that the sum of the law is to love God and to love your neighbor. And so if you say that in verse six, when Paul says faith works through love, that that means that faith justifies us because of the resulting love, then you’re saying we’re justified by works. Because love is love for God and love for neighbor, which is a summary of the law. In the end, it comes back to saying that we’re justified, we are accepted as righteous before God by keeping the law, which Jesus said means love. Love for God and love for neighbor.

The affectional element of faith is definitely there, and if faith does not have that affectional element of treasuring Christ above all else, then it’s not saving faith. But that’s not the ground of our standing before God. That’s not the basis upon which we can say, I know that I’m accepted and forgiven. The only ground of our acceptance before God is what Christ has done, and nothing else. Saving faith, really, it’s not looking within to how much love we have and how much affection we have for God and for our neighbor.

Faith is outward looking. Faith is outward looking, looking to Christ. Faith does not look within at my heart and my affections and what I’m feeling. Faith looks outward to Christ and to what He has done for us through His perfect life and His death upon the cross to atone for our sins. Let me give you an analogy of this. Imagine that you’re dying of thirst. In the desert, and it’s 110 degrees, and you’re having heat stroke. And then you suddenly, by a miracle, come across a little spring of water.

What do you do at that moment? Do you focus upon how great your hands are in being able to scoop up the water and bring it to your mouth? No, you don’t even think about that. You just think about the water. The water is so satisfying. It’s what saves you. It is what delivers you from your imminent death. Your mind is on the water and just drinking it however you can. If you need to put your mouth down there and just scoop it up like a dog, you’ll do that. You don’t care about how you get it. All you care is that you get it because the water is what is saving.

That is what faith is like. Faith is only the instrument by which we embrace Christ, who is our righteousness. Faith is simply receiving Christ. It’s simply resting in Christ. It’s simply drinking of the water of life in Christ. We’re not saved by our faith or how strong our faith is or all of the additional things that go along with faith, including those legitimate things like treasuring Christ and loving God and loving neighbor. All of those things are absolutely necessary and vital. And if your faith doesn’t have those additional things, then it’s not true faith. But those additional things are not the instrument by which we receive Christ and his righteousness. The act of scooping up the water with your hands and bringing it to your mouth is not what saves you from heat stroke. It’s the water that saves you from heat stroke. Saving faith, then, does not really even think about itself. Saving faith only thinks about Christ and looking to Christ.

That’s why technically, Even though the Bible does use this language that we’re justified or saved by faith, technically that language is shorthand for saying that we’re justified and saved by Christ. And faith is looking away from itself to Christ and to His righteousness. It’s so important then that we recognize what John Piper is trying to say.

He’s concerned because he looks out at the world of Christianity and Christendom and he sees so many people that have a mere external profession, they go to church, but their lives are not changed. They don’t show genuine repentance and genuine love for God and love for neighbor. And so he’s concerned that their faith is an empty faith. And he’s right to be concerned about that. But in his zeal to only focus on that without mentioning this other key point, which is that our good works and the love that flows from faith do not count toward our justification, he misses an important thing about the gospel.

And he ends up confusing the minds of the people of God. People are confused and wondering, so then, Maybe my acceptance before God, maybe my assurance really does rest on making sure that I can work up these affections and emotions and feelings of love for God and love for neighbor. His ministry is even called Desiring God, Desiring God Ministries.

And the emphasis on you have to desire God above all else. You have to find your full satisfaction in Him. God is most glorified when we are most satisfied with Him. All of this language is very true. There’s definitely something biblical about what he’s saying.

But by missing this key point, that our standing before God is based upon the work of Christ and not upon our own faith or the fruits of our faith. He ends up sometimes confusing law and gospel and bringing God’s people back into a place where they don’t know for sure. There’s this feeling of doubt. Do I really love God? I know that I sometimes don’t. Do I really love my neighbor? Yes, there are times when I haven’t really loved my neighbor as I ought to, so does that mean that I don’t have true saving faith in Christ? The Belgic Confession mentions this issue of the doubt that is caused by lack of clarity on the next page. This is on page 864, the last paragraph of that same article that we read from.

If we, in any way, base our salvation and base our assurance upon our works and the fruit of faith, it says, we would always be in doubt, tossed back and forth without any certainty, and our poor consciences would be tormented constantly if they did not rest on the merit of the suffering and death of our Savior.